Hi Dennis,
I hope all is going well up in the beautiful north country. I’m a Tech Alum (2010 MEEM) and I am contacting you in regards to interesting alumni experiences. The school seems to be in search of alumni doing interesting things so my family suggested I give you a shout. That said I recently attempted bring the tech flag to the top of America’s highest mountain and one of the elite seven summits. Mt. McKinley (aka Denali) in Alaska.

It was a 23 day expedition at temperatures that made tech look warm (-40F to -50F blowing 50-80mph) and snowfall compressed from what tech gets in a day to just a few hours. Unfortunately we endured some of Denali’s worst and never made the summit because of it. We did reach higher than any single point in the US (just under 17,000 ft) and I have some fantastic photos (some sporting the tech flag!). When it all turned south and the storm that came in pined us down for 8 days and 14,000 ft camp. That storm plus several others all added up to the one of the lowest May summit rates on Denali in 30 years.

Like Everest and other world class mountains Denali claimed it’s own victims while we watched and listened to the radios. Several groups (Including a group of training Marines) that attempted to summit regardless of the poor conditions didn’t come back with all their fingers or toes. It also claimed another life this year in an unfortunate fall in severe weather. The body was remove while we were at 14K camp and eerily resembled the videos published on the Everest disaster this past April. All said and done and with big mountain climbing being quite popular in the news this year, I figured Tech might want to know they weren’t excluded in the excitement. Everything from freezing blisters to ice filled tents to waking up in a panic as you hear an avalanche break and hope it’s not headed our way was truly amazing. I found an experience I can truly call awesome and the above comments are just a piece of the story.

Kevin Moran ’10