Always Onward Adventures

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Climbing Denali
climbing

Climbing Denali

This is my second trip down memory lane, and this one goes way back. In the summer of 2012, my brother and I attemped to climb Denali (formerly Mt Mckinnley) in Alaska. While we ultimately didn’t make it, it was an epic trip that changed the way I thought about the world. To be dwarfed by a mountain that big is truely awe inspiring. We started our trip in Talkeetna - a fun little mountain town where most of the climbing/hiking expeditions that go into Denali NP start from. We spent most of our time at the Alaska Mountaineering School (AMS) HQ (the mountain guide group we used for the trip) - but our climbing hotel/hostel was also worth note. It’s called the “House of Seven Trees Hostel” and it was run by this lady who lives on the premises. She had bunk room for probably 24 people - with a combination of bunks in a separate building out back and rooms in the building proper. There were communial breakfasts most mornings (cooked by whichever climber got up first) and lots of stories flying around about climbing challenges by this group or that. A few seemed like they were almost permenant residents - using it as their base for adventure for the summer. We met one guy who founded a “low pressure tent” that artificiality simulated high altitude while you slept. Kinda a weird guy and I don’t know how much of his story was true…

  • Tom Woodard
Jebel Toubkal
climbing

Jebel Toubkal

Back in 2012, I was given the opportunity to study abroad to finish up my MBA education - at the WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management. It was a great way to finish up my education and it offered the opportunity to travel around before heading back into the real world. 2012-04 At the end of the study abroad program, we made our way down through France and Spain to Gibraltar. I don’t actually remember how we got there, either the train or a flight, but we ended up walking across the border from Spain into the tiniest bit of England, where the rock sits. The place was not what I expected - there was some of the historical batteries and the like that protected the entrance to the Mediterranean, but mostly it was just a very touristy place where they sold everything under the sun that said Gibraltar on it. The most notable thing about the rock was the monkeys, there were probably a hundred of them on the rock and they were melicious - stealing things and harassing people. I watched one steal a little toy out of a babies crib and another distract someone while a different monkey stole an apple from his backpack.

  • Tom Woodard
Mt Rainier Climb
climbing

Mt Rainier Climb

In 2011, I was given the opportunity to intern at Amazon - a opportunity that ended up shaping the next 12 years of my life. For now though, it was just a fun opporutnity to try something new and spend a summer in Seattle - a placed I have enjoyed since first visiting Derek back in undergrad. This story is about a slightly different topic though, my successful attempt to summit Mt Rainier for the first time - and experience that also shaped the next years of my life.

  • Tom Woodard