CONNECT: Summiting Denali, Living the Dream

American Alpine Club Podcast - A podcast by American Alpine Club Podcast

In this episode, we had Live Your Dream grant recipient John Thomson on the pod to tell us all about his trip to Denali! Our Live Your Dream grant is our most popular grant, and it’s powered by The North Face. John’s LYD story is about feeling a sense of urgency–how now is the time to explore and pursue big adventures, a strong sense of carpe diem really. After nearly a decade away from Denali, John returned, only to get caught up in helping with a rescue, and not getting to pursue his goal route because of weather conditions. We sat down with John to hear about his grant experience, the rescue he helped with, his journey falling away from climbing and coming back to it, how guiding shaped his climbing, and why it meant so much to be standing on the top of Denali once again.