The Team

    The climbing team evolved. We started out with a plan for six climbers and as you can see in the table below, we had a full team of 6 by March of 1994. After that we lost a total of 3 members. When we dropped to 5 we desperately looked for a replacement, but when we dropped to 4 members and than to 3 members, we decided not to replace them. We agreed that the potential group dynamics problems that you can get by adding a new member outweighed any advantages that we might get from a larger team. The final team of three was key. We were well matched in strength and stamina, and we got along well. We were more than just three climbers going for Denali. We were friends.