Not long now!! Final prep is underway and I’m headed to Alaska in just a few days. I’m excited, admittedly also a little nervous, but feel ready for the adventure and challenge to come. Follow the Expedition My updates I’m planning to post to social media as we go using the DeLorme inReach Explorer satellite communicator and GPS, Read More
Denali National Park & Preserve have now started their mountaineers blog for the season ahead, with daily dispatches covering current weather and conditions as well as some figures on the numbers of climbers on the mountain. Amazingly, a whopping 800+ climbers have registered for 2015, so while there’s just 5 climbers on the mountain, Read More
With a bit over a month to go until I depart for Anchorage and make my way to Talkeetna to meet the team and start the expedition, I feel like I’m rounding the final straight and making a last sprint to the line – the start line in this case. Gear Well I can, Read More
One thing I started to sort out as soon as I committed myself to Denali was the gear I’d need for the expedition. While I’ve accumulated quite a collection of mountaineering and general outdoor clothing and equipment over the years, the conditions on Denali (a combination of high altitude and polar temperatures) require a lot of specialty, Read More
Daniella and I took the opportunity presented by the President’s Day long weekend to head to Zion National Park in Utah. I hadn’t been to Zion since my first trip there a decade ago while I was at business school, and I was keen to go back and explore more of the park. We, Read More
Brief update about a change in my departure date for Denali that has some exciting implications. It’s just one day later than I originally planned (May 18th rather than May 17th), but I made the change to take advantage of the fact that explorer and guiding legend Vern Tejas will now be leading the May 18th departure! I wanted, Read More
I’ve been reading up more on the West Buttress route up Denali. I was looking for the full expedition experience and this route definitely seems to fit the bill – hauling gear to camps higher and higher up the mountain before attempting a summit push will be quite a challenge! Here’s a day-to-day sample itinerary from the Alpine, Read More
Last week I finally bit the bullet and committed to one of my big challenges for next year – climbing Denali! After weighing up all the options (and costs…) I eventually decided on this mountain over the other adventures I was considering. It checked a lot of the boxes – expedition-style mountaineering, moderate technical difficulty, low objective, Read More
The blog has suffered from even more neglect over the past year or two, but I’m determined to start being more diligent! For the time being I’ll capture the travels I’ve done from the last post until now, so at least I have it documented: Australia: Business trip to the Gold Coast and Melbourne, Read More
Yet more travels under my belt, but not a blog update in sight. Sigh… France: Bordeaux, Medoc, Cognac, Provence, Avignon, Arles, Corsica, Dordogne (Rocamadour, Domme, Monpazier), St Emilion, Chamonix, mountaineering week around Mont Blanc massif Spain: Barcelona for Andy & Laura’s wedding, Montserrat Germany: Munich Netherlands: Amsterdam x 2 Switzerland: Zurich, Baden, Lausanne, Berner Oberland,, Read More