Originally from Washington, D.C., Colby Coombs is an accomplished mountaineer and gifted teacher who worked his way through the National Outdoor Leadership School (where he also taught for ten years), and mentored under legendary Alaskan guide, Brian Okonek, on trips in the Alaska Range. Colby has climbed some of the most technically challenging routes in Alaska, including sumitting Denali in 1985 at age eighteen, and enduring a devastating epic on Mount Hunter in 1992 when two of his... Read More

Originally from Colorado, Art Davidson became interested in climbing and was eventually drawn to the adventure and beauty of Alaska. In 1967, he participated in the first winter ascent of Denali. The book "Minus 148 Degrees: The First Winter Ascent of Mount McKinley" is his stirring account of this expedition and has garnered critical and popular praise as a classic in mountaineering literature. In addition to climbing, Art has been a journalist and essayist, focusing on the environment and... Read More

Born in Lakehurst, New Jersey, Will Forsberg came to Alaska in 1974 and settled in Healy, Alaska where he became interested in sled dogs. In 1980, he got involved with Denali Dog Tours, a business operated by Dennis Kogl that took visitors out on dogteam trips and freighted supplies to mountain climbing groups on Denali. Because of a Park Service ban on motorized access, dog transportation is the primary way climbers using northern routes acquire their supplies. Eventually, Will took over... Read More

Taras Genet was born in 1978 near Talkeetna, Alaska. He is the son of well-known Swiss mountaineer, Ray Genet, and Kathy Sullivan, who was one of Ray Genet's assistant guides on Mount McKinley (Denali). Following in the footsteps of this climbing heritage, Taras climbed Denali in June 1991 at the age of 12. At that time, he was the youngest mountaineer to attempt this climb and the youngest to make the summit. Ray Genet died before he could lead his son to the summit of Denali, so Chip... Read More

Peter Hackett,M.D. is a physician based in Colorado who has dedicated much of his career to high altitude physiology and medicine. He is a leading authority on altitude illness, high altitude climbing, wilderness medicine, and the effects of altitude on people living and working in the mountains. Dr. Hackett is also a board certified Emergency Physician. His pioneering work at High Camp on Denali and Mount Everest dramatically increased understanding of high altitude physiology and methods... Read More

Cliff Hudson was a pioneering Alaska bush pilot whose air-taxi services based out of Talkeetna, Alaska made Alaskan climbing accessible to many more people. Born in Mallot, Washington in 1925, Cliff joined the U.S. Army in 1944 and came to Alaska in 1948 to join his brother, Glen, who was operating Hudson Air Service in Talkeetna. Cliff took over the business after his brother was killed in an airplane accident. Cliff had a great love of Alaska and flying, and was known for his flying skills... Read More

Originally from New Jersey, Dave Johnston came to Alaska in the 1960s and is an experienced mountaineer with decades of experience in the Alaska Range, including being a member of the climbing team that made the first winter ascent of Denali in 1967. That climb cost the life of one climber and became a survival epic for the rest of the party. In Art Davidson's classic book on the climb "Minus 148 Degrees: The First Winter Ascent of Mount McKinley," Dave emerges as the person most directly... Read More

Ken Kehrer had a long career with the National Park Service, working as a ranger and an administrator. He came to Denali National Park in May 1989 as West District ranger and became Chief Ranger in July 1990. He went on to hold upper level administrative positions with Denali, and in other park units, including Capital Reef National Park in Utah.

Originally from Utah, George H. Lowe III is part of a family of famous alpine-style climbers: his cousin, Jeff Lowe, has made over one thousand first ascents, and Greg Lowe, another climbing cousin, founded the outdoor equipment manufacturer Lowe Alpine. George started climbing in 1962 during his first year of college in Southern California, but really became enamored with it when climbing in the Grand Tetons of Wyoming. He eventually moved on to climbing in the Canadian Rockies, Alaska and... Read More

Originally from California, Ian McRae is a former big wall climber turned alpinist, with an impressive array of first ascents in the Alaska and Delta Ranges. Ian did his first climbing in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and after graduating from college came to Alaska to climb Mount Foraker. He settled in Fairbanks, Alaska where he would be close to the mountains and could continue to pursue his love of climbing and other outdoor activities. He later became a high school teacher, and most... Read More

Originally from northern California and Oregon, Daryl Miller was a climbing and patrol ranger for the National Park Service in Denali National Park starting in 1989 and has been of crucial importance to the climbing program at Denali, both on the mountain as search and rescue coordinator and in Talkeetna as a seasoned ambassador to Denali mountaineering. Daryl has an exceptionally varied background, ranging from combat soldier in Vietnam, to rodeo clown, to consummate climber and ranger. He... Read More

Earl Norris came to Alaska in 1942 with the Civil Aeronautics Administration which was constructing airfields and navigation facilities around Alaska. He homesteaded just outside Anchorage and built up a small kennel of Alaskan Malamutes. By 1950, Earl was Director of Logistics for the Port of Anchorage. Eventually, as Anchorage expanded, Earl moved out to a homestead in Willow, Alaska where he could expand his kennel and breeding operation. He was a respected dog musher who used his dog... Read More

Brian Okonek grew up in Alaska and is the son of the famed K-2 Aviation pilot, Jim Okonek, a fact that gave Brian special opportunities to explore the rugged Alaska Range. He made his first expedition to Denali as a junior in high school, continued to do a lot of climbing in the Denali area in the 1970s, and went on to become one of the area's most expert climbers and guides. In 1983, Brian and his wife, Diane, co-founded Alaska-Denali Guiding, a mountaineering guide business in Talkeetna,... Read More

Jim Okonek came to Alaska with the U.S. Air Force in 1964 as a helicopter pilot working at the Rescue Coordination Center based at Elmendorf Field near Anchorage. In this capacity, he was involved in rescue operations, which sparked his initial interest in Mount McKinley (Denali). His interest in the mountain got an added boost when his son, Brian, started climbing in the 1970s and Jim began flying him to the mountain. As retirement approached in the 1970's, Jim and his family spent more... Read More

Originally from Connecticut, Paul Roderick is a climber, skier, and pilot based out of Talkeetna, Alaska. He is the lead pilot, Director of Operations, and owner of Talkeetna Air Taxi (TAT) and spends much of his summer in the air supporting climbers and flightseers headed to and from Denali. As a climber himself, Paul seems to have a special affinity for, and tolerance of, climbers, as many of his clients stage out of TAT headquarters. Paul is a seasoned pilot who has been flying at Denali... Read More

Originally from New England, Leon "Pete" Sinclair was a rock climber and mountaineer with a lifelong love for adventure. After attending Dartmouth College and serving in the Navy, Peter headed west to Wyoming. In 1959, Pete and fellow climbers Jake Breitenbach, Barry Corbet, and Bill Buckingham completed the first ascent of the West Rib of Mount McKinley (now Denali) in 1959. This climb became one of the most famous, in part because the team shared their story in an article published in ... Read More

In 1992, J.D. Swed became the South District Ranger for Denali National Park and Preserve stationed in Talkeetna, Alaska. Prior to coming to Alaska, J.D. had 16 years of experience as a National Park Service ranger in Yosemite, Grand Teton, Grand Canyon, and other Southwestern parks. He worked on a variety of assignments including ski patrol, mountaineering ranger, search and rescue, and emergency medical work. Later, J.D. went on to serve as chief ranger at Sequoia and Kings Canyon National... Read More

The son of a park ranger, Mark Twight grew up in a variety of western parks where he developed a love of the outdoors and had a number of opportunities to learn the intricacies of technical climbing. As an experienced climber and mountaineer, Mark helped develop a new philosophy in climbing, what he describes as "extreme alpinism." This is a combination of expedition style preparation and a lightning fast, completely committed alpine ascent. In the 1980s and 1990's, he used this technique on... Read More

Born in Roxbury, Massachusetts and growing up in the Boston area, Barbara Polk Washburn was the first woman to climb Mount McKinley (now Denali ) in 1947 when she accompanied her husband, Bradford, and his climbing partners on their expedition. Barbara graduated from Smith College and held various secretarial positions around Boston, including at Harvard University where she met explorer and adventurer, Brad Washburn. She then went to work for Brad at Boston's Museum of Science. They married... Read More

Growing up in Washington, at an early age Jim Wickwire developed a love of the outdoors and an interest in climbing. Over decades of climbing all over the world, including being the first American to summit K2 in the Himalayas in 1978, he became a world-famous climber who has accomplished much and endured even more. Jim started climbing in Alaska in the 1970s, and in 1981 his climbing partner, Chris Kerrebrock, was killed in a fall into a crevasse while they were on Mount McKinley (now... Read More