Training Tips from Denali Veterans Nick and Adrian

Hello Future Colleagues,

My pal Nick Bunch and I are looking forward to meeting you in Anchorage in less than two weeks time for our shared assault on Denali. We studied the Mountain Trip guidelines on training for Denali and have taken them most seriously. We thought we should share with you the strenuous programme that we have been undertaking here in Devon in the far South West of England.

In terms of altitude training we have managed to summit on no less than four occasions. Yes Tor the highest point on Dartmoor (our equivalent of the Denali National Park) – a height of just over 2,000 feet. On one occasion we even had to deal with 3 cms of snow (we applied crampons but they kept getting clogged up with mud). I attach a photograph of Nick and I overnighting in our tent half way to the summit and clearly showing the ravages of altitude at 1000 feet.

At first we struggled a little with the oxygen deprivation but decided to instigate a separate training programme to compensate for this. To improve our ability to cope with reduced oxygen intake and respiratory difficulties we committed to taking up smoking big time and have really come on in leaps and bounds. At first we found inhaling all that smoke really difficult and our lungs felt very raw and painful for the first few weeks in January. But we’ve persevered and built up our capacity and two weeks ago we’d got up to 27 cigarettes a day. Our aim is to peak at 30 early next week in time for our flight out to Alaska.

The other area we had initial trouble with was hydration. We’d find trying to gulp back more than a pint or so of water a real problem so took advice from a Sports specialist and tried various powder ‘energy’ additives. Despite trying a range of types (Gatorade, Lucozade etc) and flavours (lemon, orange, strawberry etc) we found that these didn’t agree with us and just made us gag or vomit. Thankfully, quite by accident, we stumbled on the ideal solution….beer. We could happily rehydrate with a few pints of this stuff but, once again, found that our tolerance levels were not good and balance and verbal communication skills certainly seemed to be impeded. We were worried by Mountain Trip’s guidance that on the mountain we would need to consume 8 or more pints a day as, back in January, this would have been impossible for us.

However we’re a determined lot here in the sunny South West so embarked upon the third strand of our training aimed at increasing our hydration capacity by a progressive upping of our daily beer intake. This has been really hard work and we have suffered long and hard to improve performance but last weekend we both cracked the nine pint in a session barrier. It was tough but we’re determined to push on further in these last two weeks to achieve our target of ten pints. A useful side effect of this training has been that we have both ‘bulked up’ enormously (especially around the waist) so don’t really feel the need to ‘carbo load’ in the lead up to the expedition.

We intend to have our final ten pint training session in Humpy’s bar in Anchorage (Alaskan Summer Ale) and, if we sit outside in the back yard, we may be able to do some final lung capacity work with a pack or two of high tar cigarettes. We hope that you will be able to join us and share in our final training session on Saturday 29th in Humpy’s.

In Anticipation,

Adrian and Nick

Thanks For Joining Us!

Expedition climbing unfortunately requires climbers to spend rather long times away from friends and family. Big mountains just take time... In an effort to help our climbers feel more connected to their counterparts at home, we are happy to publish expedition dispatches as well as satellite phone podcasts for our teams in the field.

On May 30, 2010 a team of climbers from around the world will join some Mountain Trip guides for an attempt on Denali, the highest peak in North America. Also known as Mount McKinley, Denali has a higher vertical relief than Mount Everest, and soaring 20,320 feet (6194m) above the level of the sea, dominates the impressive Alaska Range in central Alaska.

Denali is a mountain of superlatives, home to legendary storms, devastating winds, brutal arctic cold and its high northern latitude makes it "feel" like a mountain a thousand meters higher. Perhaps not as "sexy" or legendary are the beautiful blue skies and the absolutely stunning views granted to climbers quite regularly. Temperatures can soar to t-shirt hot during the day and plunge to sub-zero during the night. It is an amazing landscape to travel in and we are fortunate to be able to share this place with others.

Let's meet the team!

Guides:

Dave Staeheli of Wasilla, Alaska
Sebastian Grau of Santiago de Chile
Eric Gullickson of Washington State

Climbers:

Nick Bunch
Adrian Vinken
Christopher Weeks
Stuart John Leonard
Joseph Ceurvorst
Kevin Farebrother
Gavin Attwood
Mark Howard
Nick Lauters

We have a lot of fun with these dispatch blogs and hope you enjoy them as well. Please keep in mind that we will post as soon as possible after we hear from the team, but due to time zones, changes in daily on-mountain schedules, etc, we might not post until the following morning. Also, please heed the age-old axiom of "No News Is Good News!" For some reason we always hear when something unexpected happens on the mountain, but occasionally the team is just busy making dinner and dealing with the chores at hand, and does not make the evening call to our office. Also, there are some places on the route where high ridge lines prevent the team from good satellite phone connections, and making daily calls can be challenging.

Lastly, we will try to pass along comments, but this is generally not an easy task to orchestrate. We encourage you to post comments, as the climbers will really appreciate reading them when they get off the mountain. Their knowledge that you all are supporting them and wishing them well is very important, so please do post your thoughts.

If you ever need to contact a friend or loved one, don;t hesitate to call or email our Colorado office at: 970-369-1153 or info@mountaintrip.com We are in The Mountain Standard Time Zone, which is GMT-7 for all you folks in the UK and beyond.