Saturday, January 14, 2012

Phase One of Climb Denali Complete!

Well I've got a week left of High School and I'm so excited! On Friday night I made the rest of my payment  to Rainier Mountaineering for an 8 day long winter expedition skills seminar. Check out the website: http://www.rmiguides.com/program/index.php?id=11

Through this course I will learn all the skills I'll need for Denali, and what could be a better place to practice than on Mt. Rainier's glaciers with exposure to altitude, weather, and temperatures similar to those found in Alaska. I'm very excited because the guides for the trip were just posted: Brent Okita, Jason Thompson, and Elias de Andres-Martos, all guides I've had before!

On the sponsorship front, I've made contact with Smartwool and La Sportiva and I may be getting either equipment or some money from them, but I don't want to be too optimistic because there are many qualified sponsorship candidates and competition for companies is tough!

I'll keep you posted!
Kristen Kelliher

Monday, January 2, 2012

Thank goodness for the internet!

Now I realize that I probably should be posting more regularly, especially in light of more recent media coverage. My excuse is that my college apps were all due yesterday and I was frantically trying to write a million supplements...ahhh nothing like procrastinating, it really gets the adrenaline going!

There was a recent media surge probably due to Jordan Romero's recent success of becoming the youngest to summit the tallest mountain on each continent! Congrats Jordan! Whatever the case, I was recently contacted by ESPN and did a phone interview with them. My interview will be published in the spring issue of their magazine (comes out in Feb) in an 18 under 18 highlight of athletes!

I was also contacted by Vermont Public Radio and this morning I did a live interview (around 12:40). Even though it already aired, luckily for the Internet I have the link, enjoy!

http://www.vpr.net/episode/52725/17-year-old-from-norwich-sets-mountain-climbing-re/

Happy New Year!
Kristen Kelliher