Denali Part 5: Friends and Faces

One of the most memorable aspects of my Denali trip will be the people I spent several days with along the trail and at camp.  I feel fortunate to have been able to spend some 'bro time with my partner and brother, Aaron.  And I enjoyed hanging out with fellow climbers and skiers along the way.  Thanks for making the trip fun and memorable.  Here are a few photos of people I crossed paths with on Denali (and I wished I would have taken more):

Eli Potter of the St. Elias range just having throttled it to the base of the fixed lines

Ranger and Brendan from Jackson checking on the camp to make sure no one blew away during the night

Euro guy we encountered several times.  He was solo and on skis.  And had a sweet hat and mittens.

Masked man from ???

Macedonian climber checking out Sportiva gear.  She wanted to be the first Macedonian woman to summit Denali.  She hiked to 14 camp in shoes that were 3 sizes too big. 

Our friend Shun, the Soloist from Japan.  We spend several hours hanging out in our cook tent, drinking mugi-cha (wheat tea) and dreaming about eating gyoza (Japanese dumplings).  Our first encounter with Shun was at the airstrip; he left and traveled across the lower glacier with two long poles under his arms--crevasse safety gear.

Hiroki from Durango on telemark gear.

Nick on an acclimatization mission at about 16,500 feet.

Colin, pretending he is pinned and climbing Everest when he really is not.  One of the Tahoe boys in the background.

Mark Smiley smiling after soloing up the fixed lines.

Janelle Smiley at 16,000.  The Smileys made it to 18,000 on this day and then skied across the Autobahn.

Brian from Jackson on patrol at 13,000 ft.

Our guide friends from New Zealand and Portland at 11,200

A Colorado duo at Windy Corner

Aaron displaying his peeling face

Self portrait on the summit

Aaron on the summit

Hanging out at basecamp