Soldiers To Summits Blog

Why travel halfway around the world with a dozen wounded soldiers to climb a 20,000-foot mountain? For me, there’s hardly a more natural way to honor these men and women who have served bravely as members of the U.S. military. First, I am a former Air Force A-10 and F-15E pilot, seeing combat in the [...]

I live in Waterloo, Iowa. Married with two grown children. I enjoy the outdoors from camping, waterskiing, downhill snow skiing. I’ve hiked trails in Minnesota and the UP of Michigan. Reached the Summit of Mt Rainier and also spent a week on Mt Rainier for a winter seminar. I also run, bike and have played [...]

I have known about the Soldiers to the Summit Himalayan Expedition for several months but I think that a lightbulb clicked on yesterday… I AM GOING TO NEPAL IN SIX WEEKS! Wow. When I think back to five years ago is awesome to be presented with this opportunity. September 16th will be the 5 year [...]

Everest climbers Erik Weihenmayer and Jeff Evans narrate this video clip of the team climbing 13,294 James Peak in Colorado.

What an emotional weekend. When I signed up for the Soldiers to the Summit Himalayan Expedition I did not know how much the people on this expedition would affect me. We just completed our training at St. Mary’s Glacier I was overwhelmed with emotion at the true heroes of this nation overcoming their individual disability [...]

Soldier Ashley Crandall narrates this 1 min 46 second clip of the snow and ice training from the teams’ August 6th meetup at the St. Mary’s glacier in Colorado.

The whole team finally met in Colorado on august 4th.  I had been looking forward to this moment for some time now. We set off for Saint Mary’s glacier for training with our newly acquired gear. I was looking forward to tackling a steep ice slope, never have I used crampons and an ice axe, so i [...]

Hi everybody, Today’s adventure was hiking up James Peak,  a 7 mile round trip from our campsite up to 13,294 feet.    It was both figuratively and literally a high point so far and an altitude record for many of us.   We beat the afternoon thundershowers home and had a fantastic day with tremendous [...]

August 7 COLORADO – CBS News in Denver sent reporter Dominic Garcia to visit the team as they we were gearing up for a training climb on St. Mary’s glacier. Read the story: http://cbs4denver.com/news/disabled.veterans.summit.2.1848567.html

August 7 COLORADO – “There are some guys and gals here who have never done anything like this. It will be tough. It’s stressful: you, up on a rock face, hanging on a rope on a piece of ice with a 1,000-foot drop on both sides? It’s some serious stuff, a whole different ballgame.” — [...]