8A
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
FRIDAY, APRIL 8, 2005
PROFILE
KU graduate to ascend Mount McKinley
BY NELI MULKA
nmulka@hansan.com
KANSAN STAFF WRITER
Three times week, Jessica Drees straps on a backpack full of textbooks and then climbs onto a Stairmaster.
The 2004 graduate stays on the machine for an hour while wearing hiking boots.
Sometimes other people at the gym stare at her like she has the plague, Drees said.
But that doesn't matter when you're preparing to scale Mount McKinley, also known as Mount Denali, in a few weeks.
You have to get into shape to go the summit of a 20,320-foot mountain.
"I turn my iPod up really high so I don't feel like a dork," Drees said. "No one has asked me about it so far."
In addition to the Stairmaster, Drees cycles, lifts weights and swims to get ready for the monthlong trip in May.
She's hard-core, said Lance Roth, group leader of the fourperson trip and Moscow, Idaho, resident.
Roth met Drees at the Juneau Icefield Research Program, a research project that studies the environment and resource potentials of arctic regions.
Roth, who has been climbing mountains since he was 16, is impressed with Drees' attitude.
"She doesn't mind suffering to get ahead," Roth, now 28, said. "We're in an environment where body doesn't want to be. It's negative 40 degrees, you can't breathe. You have to step up a notch to just get to by."
While on the mountain, Drees
will collect snow samples to study how elevation affects temperature and to scope out potential drill sights to collect ice core samples.
Drees said she looked through the Denali National Park register, which has a record of every person to
So far, she has climbed five mountains that were more than 14,000 feet tall. Drees also wants to scale Mount Kilimanjaro.
"I like the mountains because they are away from the civilized world," Drees said. "You can be in a valley and be the only person to you can see all around."
climb Mount McKinley since 1995. From her research, Drees said she thought she would be the first woman from Kansas to climb the mountain since 1995.
Drees has been climbing mountains since 2002 when she ascended Mount Shasta in California.
Ride the lightning
There, she had an electrifying experience on the mountain.
While camped out at Lake Helen, a lightening storm came right above them.
She was camped out in a snowfield and the highest point was her tent, Drees said.
"You can usually count the seconds between the flash and the bolt to see how far away the storm is." Drees said. "But there was no time in between."
For this trip, Drees and her climbing team has to prepare for radical weather changes.
In the direct sunlight, the temperature can reach 80 degrees, but there is also a possibility of getting stuck in a snowstorm and 40-below-zero temperatures, Drees said.
The trip costs about $2,000, all of which is coming from the team's pocket, Drees said.
Drees had to buy gear that will keep her warm in the extreme winter conditions.
While Drees can hit the gym and buy all of the equipment and food she needs, there is one thing a woman from the Kansas prairie can't prepare for. Higher altitude.
"The hardest thing is going to be the altitude." Drees said. "The altitude adjustment is something I can't train to. I need to drink lots of water, and as as fit as possible, read a lot about the mountain and know what the dangers are."
One danger is acute mountain sickness, which causes headaches, fluid in the lungs and coughing up blood.
According to the MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia, the illness is caused by reduced atmospheric pressure and decreased oxygen at high altitudes.
Drees plans on combating problems by drinking four gallons of water a day, which she will boil snow to get.
For four weeks, Dress and the rest of the team will not shower.
Mountaineers smell
Tallest point in North America at 20,320 feet.
MOUNT MCKINLEY
FACTS
- First successful ascent was in 1913 by Hudson Stuck.
- Barbara Washburn was the first woman to reach the top in 1947.
Located in the Alaska Range.
Named after President William McKinley.
- It is also known as Mount Denali, which means "the great one" in Athabascan, a Native American language.
Source: wikipedia.org
Each taineer bringing gallon of f u e l w i t h them to m e l t
snow, and that fuel won't be used to make shower water, Drees said.
Drees said she doesn't notice the smell.
"It's strange how your body chemistry changes after a while," she said. "You don't notice the smell as bad. I just hope the person I'm sharing a tent with doesn't smell."
Edited by Kendall Dix
Jessica Drees, 2004 Overland Park graduate, will be leaving to climb Mount McKinley in Alaska this May. Drees has been mountain climbing for the last four years.
Frin Droste/KANSAN
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