EPHS graduate Alex Shockley is one step closer to climbing each continent’s highest peak

By Leah Shaffer

Climbing the highest mountain in North America is a long haul, especially when you’re marooned at advanced base camp for 13 nights.

But, for Alex Shockley, the option of going up wasn’t so great – storms with 60 to 100 mph winds raged above at high camp.

Going down was not a great option either.

Shockley, an Eden Prairie High School graduate, had set out to climb Denali (also known as Mount McKinley) as part of his overall goal of climbing each continent’s highest mountain, the seven summits.

In this situation, he and his climbing partner, Rick Havlak, had to play the waiting game.To wait, when you’re a climber, doesn’t mean you sit on your butt.

“We never really were technically sitting, waiting on the days that we were unable to move camp,” noted Shockley.

Instead, he and other marooned climbers would “build up wind walls, build an igloo, go sledding, go on day hikes” to stay fit and “to keep from going stir crazy.

”If the weather window appeared, he didn’t want to be caught with deteriorating muscles.

 “When the weather window comes, you have to be on your toes,” he said.

After 13 nights, they got the pay-off. For the Summit Day, they were blessed with clear weather and no wind whatsoever. And at the top?

“It was beautiful.”

Four more

Having climbed Denali, Shockley is one step closer in a journey that has taken him all over the world.

Upon graduating from EPHS in 2006, Shockley climbed Africa and Europe’s highest peaks – Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Elbrus. His ultimate goal is to finish the seven summits by July 2008, before he turns 21.

He is vying to break the record for being the youngest person in the world to complete the climbs (including Carstensz Pyramid).

The journey has not been without its challenges.

During his attempt to climb Aconcagua in January, Shockley fell ill in what he described as early stages of pulmonary edema, which can kill a mountaineer. For his own health’s sake, he turned back before reaching that mountain’s top.

Though he faced health issues on Aconcagua, Shockley said Denali was the most challenging mountain he’s faced thus far.

This time, there were very different conditions to deal with. Though Denali is 20,320 feet, it’s proximity to the Arctic Circle makes it feel like the equivalent of 23,000 to 24,000 feet, he said. He did not face his climb alone. Along for the trip was Havlak, his climbing partner during a Mount Rainer climb last year.

“He and I learned to climb in Alaska two years ago,” Shockley said.

Not only is it extremely beneficial to have someone with you, to watch out, he noted, “but when traveling on a glacier, you need to be on a rope team the whole time.”

He and Havlak flew in on May 21 and returned June 16. Though it was summer, the climb on Denali is a frozen endeavor. The temperature for that climb was somewhere between zero to 10 degrees, not counting wind chill, he said.

“When the sun is out and when the sun is beaming down reflecting off the snow, it feels much warmer than zero degrees,” he noted.

Denali, he said, had “a lot of new challenges I hadn’t really experienced before.”

The main challenge is that climbing takes so long, it’s kind of mentally draining, he noted.

 “I hadn’t done any climbs that had been that cold or been that long.”

Additionally, there was the danger of crevasses (for which they needed to be on a rope team). There was the challenge of hiking along knife-edge ridges, where if you happen to trip, there “are very serious consequences.”

For Denali, he and Havlak had to lug much more technical gear along with them for the journey. Between the two of them, Shockley estimated they had 350 pounds of gear.

One of the benefits to being stuck at the advanced base camp was that “we were very, very acclimatized to being at 14,200 feet.” For this trip, he did not face altitude-related health problems.

Shockley noted that one of the lessons he learned in his climbing endeavors is “when to push yourself” and “when not to push yourself.”

In the case of Aconcagua, when he was hiking alone and feeling the symptoms from a dangerous health problem, that was a time not to push. On the descent down Denali, the conditions were safe and right for him to push it. They were worried there would be a back-up; 50 to 60 climbers were on the same schedule they had, said Shockley. They were all planning to fly out the next day as well.

“We decided we wanted to get ahead of all of them,” he said.

Thirty-six hours after walking the summit, the two made it to base camp, well ahead of the crowd.

They hiked down at such a pace that left his feet in an extremely swollen state. Nonetheless, they made it off the mountain on schedule.

Back to Aconcagua

The next challenge for Shockley will be not involve a mountain.

To pay for his climbs in the next two years, he’ll need corporate support. During his time home, he’s been to work on getting as many speaking arrangements as can get, drum up some attention and corporate sponsorship.

Next December, he’ll return to Aconcagua with his little brother, Michael, who also recently graduated from EPHS. Following that climb, he’ll attempt Mt. Vinson in Antarctica.

For spring of ’08, he hopes to join up with the Everest expedition organized through the Discovery Channel. If he stays on schedule, Shockley then aims to climb Carstensz Pyramid in the summer of ’08, just before he turns 21.