Khan Tengri
Kazakhstan, 2011
In 2011, I pulled off the first of my many “piggybacks.” As they say, on each end of the economic spectrum there is a leisure class. Leveraging my NSF-funded research (and free airfare) to Mongolia, I stayed in Asia to attempt the biggest mountain I could...Khan Tengri, the highest peak in Kazakhstan. It was a major stepping stone in my climbing progression, in which I learned the Soviet acclimatization system, expedition-style load carrying and snow camping, and dealt with truly brutal weather conditions in the upper camps. Summit day was perhaps the coldest of my entire life and one which frostnipped my fingers and toes. Though I summitted, I definitely felt like I got away with something as a storm trapped the rest of my team high on the mountain and a guide died in an accident from the resulting low visibility.
