Ohioan climbs his way out of midlife crisis
Training for the feat took three years, the executive director said.
CINCINNATI (AP) -- When Bill Hopple turned 50, he decided to deal with the sometimes unsettling experience of reaching the midcentury mark by climbing North America's highest peak -- Alaska's 20,320-foot Mount McKinley.
"I had done some climbing on and off, and I just decided that it would be a good way to deal with my midlife crisis," the Cincinnati man said Friday, adding that he dreamed of climbing McKinley for years.
Hopple said he had done some climbing occasionally and had worked as a mountaineering instructor in Wyoming for a few years in the 1970s, but had never made it to McKinley.
The now 53-year-old executive director of the Cincinnati Nature Center spent three years training for the climb, which he finally achieved July 4.
He said there was no immediate feeling of joy when he stood on McKinley's summit.
"It took us nine hours to get to the summit from camp, the temperature was near zero, there were 25 mph winds and it was so cloudy there wasn't much of a view," he said. "I think the basic feeling was, 'Let's take the pictures and go.' We were on our way down before what we had accomplished finally hit me."
Training
Hopple said the training wasn't easy. He lifted weights, ate high-protein foods, hiked long distances and climbed 14,400-foot Mount Rainier in Washington last year.
The normally slender, 6-foot-4 Hopple had bulked up to 188 pounds by the time he arrived in Alaska, but he said the climb was more difficult than he expected.
"It was the hardest physical endeavor I've ever undertaken," he said.
He said he had never been above 14,000 feet and the high altitude had him struggling with shortness of breath.
Two of the seven climbers who started the climb with three guides dropped out after the first two days, but Hopple was determined to stick it out.
He and the other remaining climbers hauled 130 pounds of food and gear on backpacks and sleds and spent two or three days getting to each of the four camps on the climb. They only carried half of their food and gear beyond the camps, burying the rest in the snow to retrieve later.
At one point, Hopple and the others had to wait five days in a camp just below the summit for the weather to clear enough to let them reach the top.
The climbers finally reached their goal on Independence Day, but stayed only about 15 minutes -- just long enough to capture their experience in photos.
Hopple said the climb will last him a lifetime and he has no plans to tackle the world's highest peak, 29,035-foot Mount Everest in the Himalayas.
"That was a single-destination goal," he said of the McKinley adventure. "I'll always be involved with the outdoors, but that was it for me."