Physical and Mental Preparation: What It Really Takes to Summit Denali

The wind was howl­ing so hard at 17,000 feet that I was­n’t sure our tents would hold. It was day three at high camp, and we’d just got­ten the weath­er report: still too windy to sum­mit. Day four brought the same news. Then day five. Day six.

Every oth­er team that ven­tured up to check con­di­tions turned around and descend­ed to 14 camp. Some went all the way down to base camp. But my team stayed. And on day sev­en, when the weath­er final­ly broke, we were in posi­tion to sum­mit.

That deci­sion — to stay when oth­ers left — was­n’t just about phys­i­cal fit­ness. It was about men­tal prepa­ra­tion, inte­grat­ed sys­tems, and under­stand­ing that on Denali, suc­cess comes down to what you can control.

The Denali Real­i­ty: Why 50% Don’t Sum­mit

Denal­i’s aver­age sum­mit suc­cess rate hov­ers around 50%. For Alpine Ath­let­ics climbers, it’s 80%. That 30-per­cent­age-point dif­fer­ence isn’t luck — it’s the result of PRE­CISE PREPA­RA­TION in the two areas that are com­plete­ly with­in your con­trol: phys­i­cal readi­ness and men­tal resilience.

Let me be clear about what Denali demands:

18,000 feet of ver­ti­cal relief more than Ever­est’s 12,000 feet from the south side. When climbers talk about Denali being ​“tech­ni­cal­ly taller” than Ever­est, this is what they mean. You’re gain­ing more ele­va­tion from base to sum­mit than on any oth­er moun­tain in the world.

100+ pounds of gear per climber in those first days, split between your pack and your sled. And that sled does­n’t want to go where you’re going, espe­cial­ly when you’re side-hilling and grav­i­ty is pulling it down­ward while you’re try­ing to move for­ward.

6,000−10,000 calo­ries burned dai­ly that you sim­ply can­not replace, no mat­ter how much you eat.

20+ con­sec­u­tive days of win­ter camp­ing with no warm rest days. You’re locked in con­tin­u­ous win­ter con­di­tions — storms, wind, snow — with mul­ti-day storms that can dump sev­er­al feet of snow and pin you in your tent for days

And here’s what peo­ple often under­es­ti­mate: when you arrive at camp each day, your work isn’t done. You’re not arriv­ing at a pre­pared camp­site. You’re car­ry­ing those tents on your back, and you need to cre­ate a flat, safe, crevasse-free space. You’ll dig plat­forms. You’ll set up tents. You might saw blocks of snow for wind­breaks. Every­one con­tributes.

This is why most climbers arrive in Tal­keet­na ask­ing them­selves, ​“Have I done enough?” That uncer­tain­ty is what con­tributes to that 50% suc­cess rate.

The Phys­i­cal Prepa­ra­tion Sys­tem: 6 – 9 Months of Pre­ci­sion Train­ing

Here’s what I tell every ath­lete I coach: you will be the fittest and strongest you’ve ever been before you go to Denali. And impor­tant­ly, Denali requires MORE strength than Ever­est — more strength than most peo­ple expect.


Phase 1: Denali-Spe­cif­ic Strength (Months 1 – 3)

The first three months focus on build­ing strength that’s spe­cif­ic to what you’ll actu­al­ly do on the moun­tain. Your pri­ma­ry focus is low­er body and core — that’s where you’ll gen­er­ate pow­er to haul sleds, pro­pel your­self upward with a heavy pack, and main­tain sta­bil­i­ty on steep, exposed ter­rain.

I favor sin­gle-leg exer­cis­es: RDLs, split squats, step-ups with weight. Why? Because moun­taineer­ing is inher­ent­ly asym­met­ri­cal. You’re con­stant­ly adjust­ing, sta­bi­liz­ing, work­ing one leg more than the oth­er.

Core work is non-nego­tiable. You’re car­ry­ing a heavy pack for weeks. Your core sta­bi­lizes that load, pro­tects your back, and keeps you bal­anced on ridges and in cram­pons.

Don’t ignore upper body, either. The fixed lines above 14 camp require it. Crevasse res­cue requires it. You need func­tion­al upper body strength.


Phase 2: Mus­cu­lar Endurance (Months 4 – 6)

After build­ing that strength foun­da­tion, we tran­si­tion to mus­cu­lar endurance — tak­ing that strength and mak­ing it sus­tain­able over hours and hours.

Heavy pack train­ing becomes your life: uphill efforts, stairs, inclined tread­mill ses­sions build­ing up to 6 – 8 hours. Your body needs to adapt to the spe­cif­ic stress of car­ry­ing weight uphill for extend­ed peri­ods.

And here’s where it gets Denali-spe­cif­ic: sled sim­u­la­tion.

At 115 pounds, I was ter­ri­fied I would­n’t be able to keep up with my team while drag­ging a sled. So I got cre­ative. I found a mud­dy hill, put my cram­pons on, bought rope from Home Depot, set up run­ning pro­tec­tion with stakes, got my ascen­der out, and walked up and down that hill for hours.

Peo­ple gave me fun­ny looks. I’m sure they thought I was crazy. But I nev­er saw those peo­ple again. And on the moun­tain, when it count­ed, I was com­fort­able and effi­cient. That unsexy train­ing paid off.

If you have access to snow, use a kid’s sled. If you don’t, tire pulls work. The point is to train the mus­cle groups and get that sen­sa­tion of some­thing pulling against your for­ward momen­tum.

You also need to sim­u­late back-to-back effort days. On Denali, you’ll cache gear one day, then move camp the next. Your body must adapt to per­form­ing when not ful­ly recov­ered.


Phase 3: Men­tal + Phys­i­cal Inte­gra­tion (Months 7 – 9)

In the final months, phys­i­cal and men­tal prepa­ra­tion merge. And here’s my num­ber one piece of advice: train in bad weath­er.

When it’s 35 degrees and rain­ing in Seat­tle, it’s tempt­ing to hit the tread­mill. Don’t. Go out­side. That’s not just phys­i­cal prepa­ra­tion — it’s men­tal prepa­ra­tion. You’re teach­ing your­self to per­form when you don’t want to, to func­tion in less-than-ide­al con­di­tions. That’s exact­ly what you’ll face on Denali.

Plus, you get to test your gear and work on your lay­er­ing before it mat­ters.


The Taper: Trust Your Process

When you board that plane to Alas­ka, your train­ing is done. You are as fit as you’re going to get. Do not land in Tal­keet­na and try to go for a run. Do not do extra pushups at base camp.

Let it go. Trust that you’ve fol­lowed the right process. Your train­ing is com­plete — now you’re con­serv­ing that fit­ness.


Self-Care: The Unsexy Per­for­mance Strat­e­gy That Deter­mines Suc­cess

I’ve seen the dif­fer­ence between sum­mit­ing and turn­ing around come down to self-care — small things that com­pound over three weeks.

Take care of your feet. Blis­ters have ruined more Denali dreams than I can count. Your boot, sock, insole, foot warmer com­bi­na­tion must be sort­ed out in train­ing. I use a two-sock rota­tion sys­tem and save a brand new pair of wool socks for sum­mit day. If you get a hot spot, address it imme­di­ate­ly.

Don’t com­pete. It’s just you and the moun­tain. Save your ener­gy for when it counts — 14 camp and above. Don’t be dig­ging extra holes in the glac­i­er for fun.

Eat when you don’t want to. Your appetite dis­ap­pears at alti­tude, but you’re burn­ing 6,000−10,000 calo­ries dai­ly. I use calo­rie-dense foods (700−800 calo­rie bars instead of 400), put peanut but­ter in every­thing, and brought pow­dered coconut milk for extra calo­ries. I only lost six pounds on Denali ver­sus the typ­i­cal 15 – 20. The dif­fer­ence? A sys­tem I stuck to.

Stay hydrat­ed. The air is cold and dry. You’re los­ing water just by breath­ing. Many times when ath­letes report feel­ing lethar­gic with bad headaches, it’s not just alti­tude — it’s dehy­dra­tion. And that’s fix­able.

Get orga­nized. I keep a list on my phone of where I’ve cached gear. It gives me peace of mind. I know my trekking poles are at the bot­tom of the head­wall. I know my hel­met is at Windy Cor­ner.

When you’re effi­cient, you expend less ener­gy. When you expend less ener­gy, you recov­er bet­ter overnight. When you recov­er bet­ter, you’re stronger the next day. Over three weeks, this com­pounds into the dif­fer­ence between sum­mit­ing and turn­ing around.


Men­tal Prepa­ra­tion: Per­form­ing in VUCA Envi­ron­ments

Phys­i­cal capa­bil­i­ty with­out men­tal resilience means you turn around. I’ve seen this repeat­ed­ly: ath­letes who are phys­i­cal­ly capa­ble with the right fit­ness and skills turn around because they get it in their head that they’re not good enough, too slow, won’t make it. That men­tal nar­ra­tive becomes self-ful­fill­ing.

Under­stand­ing VUCA

Denali is what the mil­i­tary calls a VUCA envi­ron­ment: Volatile, Uncer­tain, Com­plex, and Ambigu­ous.

Volatile: Weath­er changes in hours. Tem­per­a­tures swing 40 degrees. Snow con­di­tions trans­form dai­ly.

Uncer­tain: You don’t know if your sum­mit win­dow will come, how team­mates will per­form at alti­tude, if gear will hold up, or how long storms will last.

Com­plex: Mul­ti­ple vari­ables con­stant­ly inter­act — your fit­ness, team­mates’ fit­ness, weath­er pat­terns, snow con­di­tions, alti­tude effects, gear per­for­mance, team dynam­ics, time pres­sure.

Ambigu­ous: Infor­ma­tion is incom­plete. The fore­cast says 20 mph winds — but at what ele­va­tion? For how long? Sus­tained or gusts? Even with data, what does it mean for your spe­cif­ic sit­u­a­tion?


Deci­sion-Mak­ing Under Hypox­ia

In VUCA envi­ron­ments, deci­sion-mak­ing becomes your most crit­i­cal skill. And you’re mak­ing these deci­sions under hypox­ia — your brain oper­at­ing on less oxy­gen than nor­mal.

At 17,000 feet, you’re func­tion­ing on rough­ly 50% of the oxy­gen your brain nor­mal­ly gets. You’ll expe­ri­ence slow­er pro­cess­ing, reduced work­ing mem­o­ry, impaired judg­ment, and emo­tion­al volatil­i­ty. I remem­ber putting on my boots one morn­ing at high camp — nor­mal­ly auto­mat­ic — and it felt like the most com­pli­cat­ed task I’d ever attempt­ed.

This is why pre-load­ing deci­sions is cru­cial. Before you go, decide:

• What are your turn­around cri­te­ria? Time-based, con­di­tion-based, team-based?
• What will you do if cer­tain sce­nar­ios occur?
• What are your non-negotiables?

When your brain is func­tion­ing at 50%, you don’t want to be mak­ing these deci­sions for the first time. You want to be exe­cut­ing plans you made when think­ing clear­ly.


The Deci­sion-Mak­ing Frame­work

Here’s what I’ve learned about mak­ing deci­sions in VUCA envi­ron­ments:

First: Gath­er avail­able infor­ma­tion. You can’t make good deci­sions with no infor­ma­tion, but you can’t wait for per­fect infor­ma­tion because it does­n’t exist.

Sec­ond: Iden­ti­fy what you can con­trol ver­sus what you can’t. Focus­ing on con­trol­lable ele­ments reduces anx­i­ety and clar­i­fies action.

Third: Assess risk ver­sus con­se­quence. Risk is the like­li­hood some­thing will hap­pen. Con­se­quence is what hap­pens if it does. You’re con­stant­ly doing this math, and at alti­tude your brain does­n’t work as well, so prac­tice this think­ing before­hand.

Fourth: Make the deci­sion, com­mit to it, and adjust if need­ed. We decid­ed to stay at high camp when every oth­er team descend­ed. We com­mit­ted. But we had a turn­around plan and adjust­ed con­stant­ly based on con­di­tions.

Man­ag­ing Fear on Exposed Ter­rain

Fear is nor­mal and healthy. Fear keeps you alive. But unman­aged fear par­a­lyzes you.

When I was on the ridge between the head­wall and 17 camp, it was windi­er and more exposed than expect­ed. I had a heavy pack. I was tired. I was at alti­tude. I felt fear.

What helped:

Breath­ing. When afraid, your breath­ing becomes shal­low and rapid, acti­vat­ing fight-or-flight and mak­ing deci­sion-mak­ing worse. Con­scious breath­ing — slow, deep, con­trolled — acti­vates your parasym­pa­thet­ic ner­vous sys­tem. Four counts in, six counts out. My heart rate came down. My think­ing cleared.

Shrink­ing the chal­lenge. Don’t think about the entire ridge. Just get to that rock 20 feet ahead. Break enor­mous chal­lenges into tiny, man­age­able pieces.

Trust­ing your prepa­ra­tion. You’ve walked in cram­pons hun­dreds of times in train­ing. Your body knows what to do. Let it.

Build­ing Men­tal Resilience

Train­ing in bad weath­er isn’t just phys­i­cal prepa­ra­tion — it’s stress inoc­u­la­tion. You’re teach­ing your ner­vous sys­tem: I can han­dle dis­com­fort. I can per­form when I don’t want to. I can do hard things.

When you do a long train­ing hike and you’re exhaust­ed with two more hours to go, you’re teach­ing your­self: I can keep going when tired.

These expe­ri­ences cre­ate what psy­chol­o­gists call self-effi­ca­cy — the belief that you’re capa­ble of han­dling chal­lenges. At 17,000 feet, when you’re scared and tired and the wind is howl­ing, that belief is what keeps you mov­ing for­ward.

Know Your Why

Ear­ly in train­ing, I give ath­letes home­work: Why is Denali impor­tant to you?

Not sur­face-lev­el answers. Deep­er. What will you feel if you sum­mit? What will it mean about who you are? What will you prove to your­self?

Because when you’re at high camp and every oth­er team has descend­ed and you’re won­der­ing if you should quit — you need that anchor. That’s your North Star when every­thing else is uncer­tain.

The Men­tal Trap to Avoid

The trap I see repeat­ed­ly: capa­ble climber gets to the moun­tain, starts com­par­ing them­selves to team­mates, decides they’re too slow or not strong enough, and cre­ates a nar­ra­tive that becomes self-ful­fill­ing. They turn around not because their body can’t do it, but because their mind con­vinced them they can’t.

This is the dif­fer­ence between a fixed mind­set (“I’m not good enough”) and a growth mind­set (“This is hard, but I can adapt and learn”). The climbers who sum­mit aren’t always the strongest or fastest. They’re the ones who believe they can han­dle what­ev­er comes.


Why Inte­grat­ed Prepa­ra­tion Changes Every­thing

Here’s the typ­i­cal sce­nario most Denali climbers face: they patch togeth­er train­ing plans from the inter­net, hire a coach who may or may not have been to Denali, sep­a­rate­ly find a nutri­tion­ist, try to coor­di­nate between them, man­age mul­ti­ple sched­ules, and spend months sec­ond-guess­ing every­thing.

Then they land in Tal­keet­na think­ing, ​“Have I done enough?“

That uncer­tain­ty con­tributes to that 50% suc­cess rate.

The Peak Prepa­ra­tion Advan­tage

Peak Prepa­ra­tion is the only Denali prepa­ra­tion sys­tem where your expe­di­tion team and coach­ing team are uni­fied under one roof — Moun­tain Mad­ness and Alpine Ath­let­ics. The peo­ple coach­ing you are the peo­ple who will be with you on the moun­tain.

No hop­ing your coach under­stands Denal­i’s spe­cif­ic demands — we guide it. No coor­di­na­tion gaps between train­ing and expe­di­tion logis­tics. No man­ag­ing mul­ti­ple ven­dors — we’ve hand-select­ed and inte­grat­ed every expert.

Sev­en inte­grat­ed com­po­nents work together:

1. Phys­i­cal Train­ing & Coach­ing — Per­son­al­ized Train­ing­Peaks pro­gram with dai­ly feed­back, week­ly adjust­ments, and month­ly 1:1 calls
2. Peak Per­for­mance Mind­set — Two live 1:1 ses­sions address­ing deci­sion-mak­ing under hypox­ia, man­ag­ing fear, and main­tain­ing men­tal clar­i­ty dur­ing delays
3. Breath­work & Ner­vous Sys­tem Train­ing — Antho­ny Lorub­bio’s proven pro­to­cols that have helped ath­letes increase oxy­gen sat­u­ra­tion by 10%+ at altitude
4. Nutri­tion Opti­miza­tion — Alyssa Leib, RD, devel­ops fuel­ing strate­gies coor­di­nat­ed with your train­ing plan timing
5. Med­ical Con­sul­ta­tion & Mon­i­tor­ing — Dr. Tracee Met­calfe (first U.S. woman to sum­mit all 14 8,000-meter peaks) pro­vides three physi­cian con­sul­ta­tions for screen­ing, alti­tude prepa­ra­tion, and immune readiness
6. Seam­less Coor­di­na­tion — We han­dle all sched­ul­ing, reminders, and coor­di­na­tion so you focus on training
7. Pri­vate Cohort Com­mu­ni­ty — Fel­low Denali ath­letes for resource shar­ing and real-time motivation

Your prepa­ra­tion and your climb aren’t sep­a­rate. They’re one sys­tem, built by the peo­ple who will be with you on the moun­tain. Every­thing is syn­chro­nized: train­ing pro­gres­sion, med­ical readi­ness, men­tal prep, nutri­tion tim­ing, breath­work inte­gra­tion.

That’s why our suc­cess rate is 80% ver­sus the moun­tain’s 50% aver­age.


The Chal­lenge Nobody Pre­pares You For: Com­ing Home

One thing I did­n’t expect: com­ing home was hard­er than I thought.

After spend­ing three weeks most­ly think­ing about eat­ing, drink­ing, breath­ing, and poop­ing, every­thing else seemed insignif­i­cant. Friends talk­ing about restau­rants and TV shows — it all felt so small. I felt total­ly dis­con­nect­ed.

At the time, I did­n’t real­ize this is com­plete­ly nor­mal. It’s called the let­down effect — a defined response after peak expe­ri­ences.

Have a plan for who you can talk to. Non-climb­ing friends won’t under­stand (that’s okay). Find climbers who get it. Jour­nal­ing helps. Move­ment helps. Even­tu­al­ly set­ting anoth­er goal helps.

And pro­tect your sto­ry. You don’t owe every­one an expla­na­tion of how your climb went.

I closed my Denali jour­nal with one of my favorite quotes from Win­nie the Pooh: ​“Always remem­ber that you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.“

This Is Denali Done Right

When that gruff Alaskan guy told me, ​“You know what we call peo­ple like you? News,” he did­n’t think I’d make it. Lat­er that sum­mer, I sum­mit­ed. Not to prove him wrong — to prove to myself that I could.

Denali is incred­i­bly demand­ing and there­fore incred­i­bly reward­ing. Phys­i­cal and men­tal prepa­ra­tion are 100% with­in your con­trol. They’re the dif­fer­ence between that 50% aver­age suc­cess rate and our 80% rate.

Frag­ment­ed prepa­ra­tion — patch­ing togeth­er coach­es and plans and hop­ing it all comes togeth­er — leads to uncer­tain­ty and sec­ond-guess­ing.

Pre­ci­sion, inte­grat­ed prepa­ra­tion — one coor­di­nat­ed sys­tem with every expert aligned and every­thing timed right — leads to con­fi­dent readi­ness. To show­ing up in Alas­ka know­ing you’ve done every­thing pos­si­ble. To that 80% suc­cess rate.

You focus on one thing: the climb. We orches­trate every­thing else — train­ing pro­gres­sion, med­ical readi­ness, men­tal prepa­ra­tion, nutri­tion tim­ing, breath­work inte­gra­tion. No coor­di­na­tion chaos. No sec­ond-guess­ing your prep. Just show up in Alas­ka con­fi­dent, capa­ble, and ready to sum­mit.

This is Denali done right.

Peak Prepa­ra­tion for Denali 2026 begins in mid-Novem­ber 2025. Enroll­ment is lim­it­ed to 10 climbers per cohort to ensure per­son­al­ized atten­tion and group cohe­sion. The pro­gram invest­ment is $14,900, with the Denali expe­di­tion priced at $12,900 (total: $27,800). Pay­ment plans available.

Sched­ule a dis­cov­ery call to dis­cuss your climb­ing goals and Denali time­line, or learn more about Peak Prepa­ra­tion.

About the Author: Lisa Thomp­son is the founder of Alpine Ath­let­ics and own­er of Moun­tain Mad­ness. She has sum­mit­ed Ever­est, K2, and the Sev­en Sum­mits through years of dis­ci­plined prepa­ra­tion. Alpine Ath­let­ics climbers have achieved an 80% suc­cess rate on Denali, sig­nif­i­cant­ly above the moun­tain’s 50% average.