Denali Summit
Denali Summit, our dudley yellow lab, has been part of our family ever since we moved to Utah—just over eight years ago. He was a handful as a puppy, but over time he’s become the best dog and our beloved hairy family member.
He and Josh had a very special relationship. Without fail he would greet Josh at the door with giant hugs and excitement. I’ve often wondered what Denali thinks about Josh’s absence.
In 2020—Josh was on a mission to climb as many mountains as he could. Denali was right there beside him for many of those summits, his loyal trail companion.
These came from Josh’s notes…
March 27, 2020: Park City Mountain
April 9, 2020: Attempted Timpanogos Utah with Denali, avalanche almost hit me.
April 13, 2020: Mount Olympus Utah summit with Denali, left Denali 200 feet from summit with stranger because of cliffs
April 17, 2020: Climbed steep North Face 2 day old avalanche 10,000 plus feet high on Mount Timpanogos Utah and slid down on butt with Denali.
April 21, 2020: Box Elder Peak Utah Summit with Denali. I think Denali chased a mountain Lion which I heard roar.
April 27, 2020: Mahogany Mountain Utah summit with Denali, we went up 3 summits altogether and gained 5000 vertical feet.
May 1, 2020: Clayton Peak Summit, Jupiter Peak Summit, Scott’s Hill Park City Utah summit all in one day with Denali. We started from the Grand Lodge By Deer Valley and gained about 4500 vertical feet.
May 5, 2020: Mount Aire Summit with Denali and Mountain bike half way up and down. Road was closed so I had to go about 2 miles down road to trailhead. Did the whole thing in 2 hours.
May 7, 2020: Squaw Peak Summit Provo utah with Denali, made it up in 1.5 hours and down in 45 minutes. It was 7 miles round trip and 3000 ft elevation gain. The entire mountain could be mountain biked going down if carried up.
May 11, 2020: Y Mountain Summit Provo with Denali, made it up in 1.5 hours and down in 40 minutes. It was 6.6 miles round trip and 3200 elevation gain.
May 20, 2020: Cascade Mountain Summit Provo Utah with Denali. All together about 12 miles and 4800 elevation gain plus lots of technical rock climbing and steep snow patches with crampons.
May 23, 2020: Big Baldy Mountain Summit Near Provo Utah with Denali. Turned this into a workout, went the steeper way, went up 3300 elevation gain in about 1.33 hours to the summit and about 30 minutes down. The summit is about 8700 feet high.
May 26, 2020: Provo Peak Summit Provo Utah with Denali, over 11,000 feet high, we made our own path through thick Bushwack, up very steep snow inclines with crampons, then I slid on my butt most of the way down, got out of control and hit a rock on my right butt cheek and bruised it badly, the 4x4 trail was rough on my truck getting to the trailhead which is not marked.
May 29, 2020: Summit Park City Mountain Summit Park City Utah with Denali This was very easy and I’m lots of pine trees
June 8, 2020: Summit Park with Denali. About 25 degrees, snowing, with 6 inches of powder.
June 11, 2020: Mount Nebo Summit near Payson Utah with Denali. It’s the tallest summit in all of the wasatch Mountain range at about 12,000 feet high. Still a lot of snow with very steep crossing. Should have brought crampons but I made it without. It’s a very fun mountain. Slid on my butt down an old avalanche chute. The weather was perfect. 9 miles round trip and 4000 elevation gain.
June 15, 2020: Mount Timpanogos Summit near Alpine Utah Timpooneke with Kaiden and Denali. It’s a long at 13 miles and 5000 elevation gain and close to 12,000 feet high. We crossed steep snow banks and scrambled on rocks. Kaiden almost fell down a very sleet and long snow bank and caught himself at the last second.
Thank you for being the best dog in the world to our family, Denali.
These were so fun to read Brianne!!!! Thank you so much for posting and sharing this!!