Editor’s note: This piece is an update to our previous story on Bruce Stobie, which ran in May.
When Bruce Stobie arrived at Denali last month, he could feel the presence of the mountain, even if he couldn’t see it.
“I felt like a guest — not a welcome guest,” said the blind climber from Des Moines, Washington. “All there was: rock, ice and snow. And cold and warm temperatures. And that’s it. There’s nothing else.”
But 51-year-old Stobie was prepared for a difficult journey to the top. He’d been training hard for nine months in hopes of summiting North America’s tallest peak. He’d already summited Mount Rainier five years prior with the help of two guides. This time, he wanted to conquer the peak that towers more than 21,000 feet over Alaska.
And so he and two guides set out for what they expected to be a three-week climb to the top.
