Lonnie Dupre - Guest
Mark Cheeley - Host
Minnesota native and explorer, Lonnie Dupre, entertained us with stories from his adventures in his personal quest to climb Mount Denali, by himself, and in the winter time. "Denali, once called Mount McKinley, is the tallest mountain in North America. Located in south-central Alaska, the mountain's peak is 20,310 feet (6,190 meters) above sea level, also making it the third highest of the Seven Summits — the highest mountains on each of the seven continents — following Mount Everest in Nepal and Aconcagua in Argentina."*It took Lonnie 4 tries before reaching the summit and his goal on his fifth try. Lonnie shared with us spectacular photos and videos from his adventures and shared how he trains in high altitudes and packs for his adventures. One of the interesting details is that Lonnie prepares food packs to specific amount of calories and nutrition. He uses many different nut butters and dried fruit, and packs bottles of olive oil to fortify his food. His tools are well thought out and one of which was a crevasse bar he created to catch him should his fall down into one. One of the videos he shared was from the inside of a tent he used on his last climb during a storm. A point of interest, snow caves are much warmer and quieter than tents!
Lonnie has written several books and his latest is Alone at the Top: Climbing Denali in the Dead of Winter.
* Reference: Denali: Facts About North America's Tallest Mountain
By Kim Ann Zimmermann, Live Science Contributor