(note: scale on snowfields is often difficult to relate. In this case, the dark dots interrupting the snowfield below is our high camp)Summit Day. On the fourth day of the trip, still maintaining our weather window, the team took bare essentials and headed for the summit of Mt. Denison. It was the most difficult day of route-finding, with massive crevasses, ice walls, crumbling rock cliffs and variable snow conditions blocking our path. Twice during this episode Taylor Nissi plunged a leg completely through a snow bridge.
Taylor Nissi with morning sun shimmering off the Pacific in the background.
(photo left to right: Taylor Nissi '08, Chris Dickey '03, Richard Soaper '78, Dick McClenahan '76)On the summit of Mt. Denison, Alaska. Mt. Denison is the highest peak in the Aleutian Mountain Range (7,600 ft). It was first surveyed by Denison graduate Kirtly Mather in 1923 for the USGS and aptly named after his alma mater. It wasn't until 1978 that any human stood on its remote snowy summit. Our ascent of the peak in June 2007 represented the second ascent in the history of the mountain.
Taylor Nissi, Class 2008.
Dick McClenahan, Class 1976.
Chris Dickey, Class 2003.
Richard Soaper, Class 1978.(His third trip to the area. Richard has been on every expedition to attempt the mountain.)
A memorial for those who came before, who supported us getting there and for those who will come later. 
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