Tyrhee Back to Denali

Tyrhee Back to Denali

Randy Luskey, Mark Berry, Tyhree Moore and Mick Wang

[dropcap]Y[/dropcap]oung mountaineer Tyrhee Moore is heading back to Alaska for another attempt to summit the highest peak in North America, Denali! After an unsuccessful bid in 2013 he’s returning to climb with a small team of avid adventurers in hopes of encouraging youth across the nation to ascend the heights of their most ambitious aspirations.
“It’s just really important to me that I show kids like me that anything is possible,” Tyrhee said just before his departure. “It doesn’t matter where you come from or whatever your background is. If there’s something you want to do, you can do it.”
Tyrhee was the youngest member of Expedition Denali, the first all-African-American team to attempt the summit. Having failed to reach that goal, he and his teammates returned safely home with an inspiring story that was the basis of the award-winning documentary film An American Ascent and the book The Adventure Gap: Changing the Face of the Outdoors. The team came within just a few hundred feet of Denali’s peak, but they were forced down the mountain by a freak electrical storm. Their harrowing tale of courage and persistence, however, piqued the interests of young people from coast to coast and sparked their desire to seek exciting adventures of their own in the great outdoors. Tyrhee continued his pursuit of mountaineering and successfully reached the summit of Kilimanjaro in 2015. He now hopes to take another swing at Denali.

Now part of a team called “the Jackson Hole Four” Tyrhee is bound for the basecamp at 7,200 feet on the Kahiltna Glacier. They’ll follow the same route as the 2013 Expedition Denali. The team includes Randy Luskey, 49, of Denver, Colorado and the founder of CityKids, a wilderness education program that serves youth in Washington D.C., Mark Berry, 48, of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, vice president of the Grand Teton National Park Foundation, And Mick Wang, 25, of Los Angeles, California, an aspiring climber and self-described nomad.

‘If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.’ ~ African proverb

The four men will be on the mountain for 19 days and aim to reach the summit between May 22 and 24. With communication limited to reprogrammed updates delivered via Spot messenger, real-time reporting will be difficult. But the Joy Trip Project is dedicated to following the team’s progress throughout their journey. Stay tuned for periodic reports.
On a personal note I am very proud of Tyrhee. This young man has embraced the outdoor adventure lifestyle with passion and style that are to be commended. Though he certainly aspires to travel and climb high mountains for his own pleasure he also wants to serve as a role model for those who might one day follow his example. The traditional notion of wilderness exploration has long included a reverence for solitude, but it is important that we share our passion and excitement for the outdoors with others so that they might be inspired to protect these natural areas that we love. Tyrhee wants his experience to serve as an example of what is possible with hard work and dedication to the principle that the outdoors is for everyone to enjoy. I am very happy to once again tell his story of adventure.
Please post your messages of support and encouragement using the hashtag #JH4Denali2017