Friday, June 12 - 8:20PM PST

Welcome to your Denali Wrapped!

Hello all, and welcome to your end of climb playlist, fam. Congratulations to us on making it to the top, on forging lifelong friendships along the way, learning new mountaineering skills and pushing ourselves harder than we thought possible to achieve incredible things in one of the most beautiful places in the world. Here are some songs that we curated to help us remember the grand adventure.

They say the summit is only a small fraction of the joy of climbing , so why don’t we start with the beginning? The journey from the airstrip to our first camp at the base of ski hill was a heavy and hot one; with full sleds that tripped us up so who can’t help thinking of Tubthumping by Chumbawamba? We get knocked down, but we get up again, at least until the heat of the day began to make our sun shirts stick to our backs and warmed us all the way to our toes, and then maybe our thoughts turned to Blister in the Sun by the Violent Femmes. Thank goodness for Leuko tape and Compeed pads. But eventually we got to drop our sleds off at 11k camp, with Can I Kick It? By A Tribe Called Quest summing up our relationship with our bright orange friends.

Ski Hill and 11k were wonderful camps, notable for the amazing weather we had and easy time we had slowly caching gear higher on the mountain. Notes of Hot in Herre by Nelly, Vanilla Ice’s Ice Ice Baby, and Ice Cream and Sunscreen by Martha were punctuated by real bonds being formed over games of backgammon, trivia, conversations about our families, and working together towards our goals.

We didn’t hear much of the music from the guide tent, but what we imagined them playing on repeat were: That Don’t Impress me Much by Shania Twain, I’ll Make a Man Out of You from Disney’s Mulan, and, on hard mornings when we were tired and our guides pushed us to our limits, You Always Hurt the Ones You Love by the Mills Brothers was heard floating softly through some headphones. So thank you for pushing us to our limits, even when we complained or threw up, for creating the space and opportunities for us to realize we were stronger than we ever thought. For doing the hard thing, even when we complained about the lack of time for our pourover coffees or how cold and uncomfortable we were. Thank you for Betting on Us (Francis and the Lights) For you, Jackson, Ray, and Lacie, we listen to Whitney Houston’s Higher Love on repeat. The higher you get, the higher you are. 

When things got rough from Windy Corner onwards, we certainly sang The Kids Aren’t Alright by the Offspring to ourselves, In Too Deep by Sum 41, and perhaps there were one or two members of the team still dreaming of a miracle man to carry their load singing Holding out for A Hero by Bonnie Tyler. Some of those days had the Proclaimers Over and Done With as our camp anthem, and who couldn’t help humming Jame’s Arthur’s Say You Won’t Let Go while we went up the fixed lines or Bon Jovi’s Living on a Prayer while shivering on the Autobahn? 

We tried to add an bassoon song for Lacie, but we don’t know any. For Ray and his rays of sunshine, we will always be listening to the spiciest latin beats. And for Jackson, our favorite JBL, his song isn’t a song, but rather every single inspirational locker room speech in film history. 

Overall, we collectively spent more than 408 hours on the mountain living out the song “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” on repeat! That makes us Marvin Gaye’s top .0001% fully embodied fan! Our second favorite song was Miley Cyrus’s The Climb, and today in Talkeetna, some great recovery tunes have included Hips Don’t Lie by Shakira, My Neck My Back by Khia, and I’m So Tired by Lauv. Enjoy the sun, my fellow climbers, you’ve earned it. 

For the one crazy member of our team spotted running in his very short shorts the day we returned, Lenny Kravitz’ Always on the Run is just for you. For our favorite Brolonzo, obviously our staple is Danger Zone by Kenny Loggins. For the girl who is 5’2 but somehow thinks she’s 6’5, there’s Bad Mutha by Lord Finesse. For the guy who does a cracking impression of Lacie; I’m a Goofy Goober from SpongeBob made the cut. For the climber who looks like Gaston from Beauty and the Beast, we obviously gotta give you the song Gaston. And finally, for the man with a million degrees, I Love College by Asher Roth. 

Not all of us made it to the top, but all of us are gonna make it home, and we are all leaving with lifelong bonds and real love in our hearts for one another.  That seems pretty lucky to me. While the mountain summit may have been the goal, the real gift was the friends we made along the way. As The Wind and the Wave sing, Happiness is Not A Place, it’s the people who make your heart feel fullest. 

So, thanks for the one last dispatch, and until next time. Xoxo

-RMI Climbers