Group of Indigenous climbers from Alta. trying to summit North America's highest peak
CBC
A group of mountain climbers from Alberta, most of whom are Indigenous, are preparing to tackle the highest peak in North America — and break world records doing it.
Leo Namen, a 52-year-old heart attack survivor from Edmonton, will lead seven other mountaineers up Mount Denali, in Alaska, in May. The expedition is part of Namen's goal to summit the highest peaks across all seven continents.
"I always thought, 'Well, Denali has to be for the Indigenous people,'" said Namen, who is not Indigenous.
Denali is southwest of Fairbanks, Alaska, and falls under the Alaska Range. Rising 6,190 metres above sea level, it is the third-most isolated peak on Earth.
In 1913, Hudson Stick, Walter Harper, Harry Karstens and Robert Tatum became the first people to successfully climb the mountain's south summit.
The first fatality on the mountain happened almost two decades later, in 1932. The mountain's success rate is about 50 per cent.
Team Denali 2023 is made up of members of the Métis Nation of Alberta, Bigstone Cree Nation, Mikisew Cree First Nation, Blackfoot Confederacy, Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation and Woodland Cree Nation.
If successful, the group believes it would be the first Indigenous male-female team to summit the mountain. Additionally, Namen would become the first heart attack survivor to reach the top.
Shawna Goodstriker, a 41-year-old woman of the Blackfoot Confederacy, is excited to be part of the team, despite the associated risks.
She hopes to inspire younger people from her community to find opportunities, such as hiking and mountaineering, that are affordable.
"It doesn't cost a lot to be able to go out and to be one with nature," Goodstriker said while on CBC Edmonton's Radio Active.
"I'm 41 years old, I'm a grandmother. But is that stopping me? No. It's making me try harder."
Namen says he has never encountered any Indigenous people during his previous adventures.
Part of that is due to lack of funding, Goodstriker said.
