Video of 2009 Denali Expeditions

I've finally finished the slideshow/video from the 2009 Mountain Trip Denali Expeditions. I tried to include pictures of all of the climbers and guides who were a part of our year in Alaska, but I know I am missing lot's of you. If you were on one of our trips in 2009 in Alaska and have a great photo you'd like to share, send it to us at info@mountaintrip.com and I'll try to add it to the show.

Check out the video, or find it on You Tube

Mountain Trip guide to receive governor's award

Mountain Trip guide Greg Nappi, whose efforts led to a successful rescue of another Mountain Trip Guide injured in the Alaskan back-country, is among the recipients of Alaska's Governor's Annual Awards for Emergency Medical Services.

The accident took place on the morning of April 9 when Greg and Joe Butler were ice-climbing above the Eklutna Glacier in Chugach State Park. Joe fell some 1,000 feet and came to a stop with a broken femur and various other injuries.

Greg, aka super friend, rappelled to find Joe and then hiked a silly amount of miles to a wilderness hut where a sled, tent and other survival gear were located. Greg returned with the gear and bundled up Joe, as night descended and a storm moved into the valley. Greg skied through the night to find a cabin locked and unoccupied where he kicked in the door to phone rescuers. Picture James Bond kicking in a door. Joe was evacuated within hours as the blizzard ensued.

We are all happy to know we have such skilled and determined friends in the Mountain Trip Family. Congratulations Greg, and Joe, we wish you a speedy recovery.

Check out the video below to see Joe's big break, pun intended, in the commercial industry.




Here is a link to an article in the Anchorage Daily News

http://www.adn.com/outdoors/story/1012356.html

Travel Guard Trip Insurance Available Online!

We are happy to announce that we can offer all of our US and Canadian climbers the comprehensive Travel Guard Adventure Protection Plan.

It is easy to set up, and can all be done from home via a link on our website that you can reach HERE.

The unfortunate reality for active outdoors people is that we often expose ourselves to the potential for injury while we train for our upcoming trips. A somewhat parallel reality is that most trips in the mountains are subject to a level of subjective hazard that is even higher. Injuries and illness are occasionally unavoidable in the big mountains. The Adventure Protection Plan is one of the better ways we've found to help our climbers protect their investments in their expeditions.

There are some valuable additional benefits that are included in the plan if you sign up within 15 days of making a deposit, so please consider that into your decision making. When purchasing a policy, also consider the cost of your flights and any additional travel expenses you might need when deciding on the appropriate level of coverage.

We have had several of our climbers use this plan over the past couple of years and they have expressed a high level of satisfaction with their experiences. Unfortunately, we have also had a couple of climbers injure themselves right before a climb who did not have any trip insurance as well. They all wish they had protected their trip expenses...

TRAVEL GUARD ADVENTURE PROTECTION PLAN

Our 2010 Denali season is filling up!

It has been a very interesting experience to see how our pre-season bookings have changed over the past five years. "Back in the day," it was fairly typical to have a fair amount of space left on trips as late as a month before the season started. We began filling trips by February a few years ago, and our 2009 season was completely full by December 1st, 2008.

It looks like we are on a similar track for our 2010 season. We have space available on most dates, but are rapidly filling up. I'd encourage anyone even considering joining us on Denali to at least give us a call to talk about whether it would be a good choice for you or not. Any perspective small groups of even two or more friends should contact us very soon as trips with even two spots left open are becoming few and far between.

We will probably open our May 23rd Denali Traverse expedition up to climbers who want to climb up and down the West Buttress. This trip has some confirmed traverse climbers, but still has many spaces open, so we will most likely run a combined trip on that date. We have done this before and it works well.

Thanks for checking in, and we hope you are all enjoying the warm, "Indian Summer" that we are having here in SW Colorado.

Keep climbing,
Todd