This is it, the big one. Mt.McKinley (official Federal name), otherwise known as Denali (as climbers prefer, which is the native name of the mountain, meaning "The High One"), is the highest point in North America. As such, it is one of the sought-after "Seven Summits."
This trip had been several years in the making, and we finally decided to climb Denali in December 2004. The climbing team would simply consist of me and Chuck Booten, my climbing partner of the past five years. Although a bigger team usually would mean more safety and a greater chance of success, we figured we had the best chances for success by sticking with just the two of us. We were hoping to come up with an expedition name that would capture our shared roots: MIT, Stanford, and Los Alamos National Lab. After several iterations, we finally settled on "Green Chile."
After researching the past several years of climbing history on the mountain, we decided to schedule the climb such that we would be ready to summit around June 1. This is historically about the most optimal time to summit. We would arrive in Alaska on May 14, and fly into the mountain on May 15. We would aim to summit between May 30 and June 3, and fly off the mountain June 8. Our return flights back to New Mexico and California were scheduled for June 11.
We ended up flying into the mountain on May 16, summiting on June 1, and flying back home on June 4.
