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NOVA Denali Expedition Underway
June 6, 2000 -- Producers of the highly
acclaimed PBS television program NOVA are
climbing and filming on 20,320-foot Denali
in Alaska. NOLS is supplying equipment and
expertise, including instruction, to the
team of climbers.
The NOLS/NOVA team flew onto the Kahiltna Glacier
on May 31 to begin the expedition which will
run through June 27. Follow
the expedition on-line with daily dispatches
and other information live from North America's
highest peak.
The medical adventure follows a team of
doctors who will study the body's ability
to cope in subzero temperatures. NOLS instructor, Colby
Coombs, and his wife, Caitlin Palmer,
will teach classes on crevasse rescue, glacier
travel and other topics. Colby and Caitlin
are both Denali veterans, who have made multiple
ascents of the mountain.
NASA shuttle astronaut John
Grunsfeld a two-time NOLS alumnus,
will make his first attempt on the mountain
during the expedition. The team will meet
up with famed mountaineer Pete
Athans who will be on patrol from the
Denali base camp at 14,000 feet. Athans
graduated from a NOLS mountaineering course
in 1974.
Set in the subarctic climate of Alaska,
Denali, or Mount McKinley, is among the coldest
mountains on the planet and has the highest
base-to-summit elevation of any mountain
on Earth. Denali has been the site of more
cases of frostbite and altitude-related sicknesses
than any other North American peak. The expedition
will study the causes.
Two doctors, Peter Hackett and Howard Donner,
will operate a medical center at 14,000 feet
on the mountain while the others will attempt
the summit.
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