FORT COLLINS — When Alan Arnette first started climbing mountains, he was 38 years old, his knees strong and his mom busy making family scrapbooks. He climbed for himself, for the challenge of the trek, the thrill of the summit.
“I just fell in love with mountain climbing,” he said over coffee before leaving Jan. 15 for Cerro Aconcagua, at 22,841 feet the highest mountain in South America. “It exposed my own perception of what my limits were. So often we limit ourselves because we just don’t think we can.”
His first “big mountain” was Mont Blanc in the Alps. He squeezed in climbing trips around sustaining a marriage, raising a daughter and building a career with Hewlett-Packard.
“So, fast-forward, my dad was really at the end of his life. I’m sitting at a restaurant talking to my mom — we knew she had some memory problems. I said ‘Mom, Dad may not come out of the hospital,’ and she said, ‘Yeah, I know.’ And then she said, ‘Now, who are you again?’ “
He retired from HP and helped her move out of the house where she had lived for 55 years.
“My mom made these wonderful picture albums, all the way back from the kid in the bathtub, through the first date in high school to college graduation. She was the memory keeper in the family,” he said.
Ida Arnette died of Alzheimer’s disease Aug. 16, 2009, at 83. Her son was left wondering what he could do to bring more awareness to a disease that stole his mother’s memory and is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States.
Now, at 54, he has a larger goal (but weaker knees). His sights are on Everest, and higher. Arnette has pledged to climb the “Seven Summits,” the highest peak on each continent — plus a bonus climb of Mount Kosciuszko in Australia — in one year. If he succeeds, he will be the ninth person to do so.
Some — McKinley/Denali, Everest, Aconcagua — he has climbed before. Arnette has conducted 20 major expeditions, including Cho Oyu and the technically demanding Ama Dablam, both in Nepal.
He kicked off his current campaign with a 21-day trip to Antarctica, where he summited Mount Vinson Massif on Dec. 9, 2010, on a clear, windless day. “We meandered around jutting rock formations and large boulders marking the highest ridge in Antarctica,” he wrote on his blog. “As I looked out across the horizon, I had to keep reminding myself that the white I was seeing was not clouds but snow and ice. It was simply breathtaking.”
Back home in Fort Collins, Arnette recalled the emotion of the day: “I’m not climbing for myself now, if I never slept in my sleeping bag with the wind blowing at 50 degrees below zero I’d be happy, but this is for a different cause. This is for my mom and her two sisters who died of Alzheimer’s. It’s about those 5 million families, for the caregivers who need a lot more support out there.”
Alzheimer’s afflicts 5 million Americans and 25 million worldwide, and that number is expected to quadruple in the next 40 years.
Climbing in Argentina
Arnette, seven other climbers and three guides are on the snowy, rocky slopes of Argentina’s Cerro Aconcagua right now. He posts 70-second updates (because every 70 seconds someone is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s) via satellite phone, and those are fed to Twitter, Facebook and his blog. This post came from 18,000 feet on Tuesday: “We have been dodging lightning, thunder, high winds and snow squalls along the way. We are now entering very serious altitude.”
The team beat the snow to the Aconcagua summit on Saturday and is now on their way back down the 22,841-foot mountain.
Phil Ershler of International Mountain Guides, who led Arnette’s Mount Vinson summit, spoke with the Aconcagua group via satellite phone. He was impressed with Arnette’s preparedness.
“Alan was an active, involved, contributing member of the team. If there was a load to be carried, he was there. He came fully prepared, from an equipment, physical fitness, mental toughness standpoint.”
Ershler’s company will guide all of Arnette’s trips, including his next expedition to Mount Everest in April.
“When I’m tired or I’m hurting, I think about my mom. I think about those families that have their loved one at home. I think about talking to my mom and she doesn’t know who she is, can’t go to the bathroom by herself, can’t do any of the daily activities by herself. The pain I go through in climbing a mountain or in training is nothing compared to the pain of Alzheimer’s.”
Arnette echoes English mountaineer George Mallory, who said this before he died on Mount Everest in 1924: “If you cannot understand that there is something in man which responds to the challenge of this mountain and goes out to meet it, that the struggle is the struggle of life itself upward and forever upward, then you won’t see why we go. What we get from this adventure is just sheer joy.”
Kristen Browning-Blas: 303-954-1440 or kbrowning@denverpost.com
How he trains
Alan Arnette climbed 30 Fourteeners with a 40-pound pack in 2010. He puts in 90 minutes daily on an elliptical machine. He has summited Aconcagua twice, “primarily as means of staying in high-altitude shape or for Everest training,” he writes on .
Arnette suggests that a climber focus on strengthening the heart, lungs, abs, lower back muscles, thighs and calves. “I have found interval training the best overall approach to building heart and lungs. Simply put, this involves a relatively intense run at fast then slow rates after a sufficient warm-up followed by a cool-down period,” he writes on his blog.
Build strength: “Strength is just as important. Most Everest climbers are not body-building champs but rather slight and well balanced. Strength comes in the core (abs and lower back) and legs, important for carrying heavy packs and the legs for climbing and carrying the heavy loads especially when exhausted. There are many exercises that can build these muscles, but my favorites are lunges, sit-ups and step-ups on a 2-foot bench. This last one has the added benefit of working your lungs and heart at the same time.”
Give it a rest: “Remember to take adequate rest days throughout your training. Muscles need at least 24 hours to rebuild after a tough workout. Intersperse fun activities. Don’t do the same routine week in week out. Cycle instead of running, play basketball instead of intervals, get a workout buddy or a trainer to keep you honest and motivated.”
Keep your head in it: “Don’t forget the mental side. During interval training push yourself at the point you want to stop. Do one more lunge after you reach your goal, push when you think you have nothing left. Visualize being on the mountain. Think through each part of the climb and where you will be stressed. Walk it through in your mind. Finally, if you can get in some incredibly long days like 8 hours of constant, tough physical activity, it will be money in the bank for you later on to build your endurance and mental discipline.”
Donate, or follow along
Alan Arnette asks donors to pledge a penny per foot he climbs, so from the start of his Aconcagua climb at 8,464 feet, to the summit at 22,841, the pledge would be $144. He hopes to raise $1 million this year. Arnette partnered with Janssen Alzheimer Immunotherapy and Pfizer Inc. to pay for his climbs so that all the money he raises from donations will go directly to the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund for research and the National Family Caregivers Association to provide support for family caregivers. Learn more at . Ranked by National Geographic as one of the five best outfitters “on Earth,” International Mountain Guides, based in Ashford, Wash., is handling logistics and leading Arnette’s climbs. Read a Q&A with Arnette, and follow the team’s progress at .
