Mike Holst

The Last Trip Down the Mountain Mike Holst

FOR BART MOUNTAIN CLIMBING WAS A WAY OF LIFE. His money and his living on the edge attitude had taken him all over the mountain climbing world. Bart and his friend Thurwood had been a climbing team for more years then they could remember and they seemed inseparable. Then Cassie came into Bart's life and they fell in love, and Bart got this ultimatum from his soon to be bride. Pick Thurwood and climbing or me.

However, there was one more mountain to climb before he could willingly put his axe and crampons away and marry Cassie. There would be one last climb for Bart and Thurwood and the mountain was Alaska's Denali. It's the beast on the edges of the Arctic Circle and one of the most formidable peaks Bart or any climber has ever encountered. You only get to the top, if the mountain lets you.

The mountain seemed to be giving them permission to climb and then took it back. A spring storm came up and battered them almost into submission and all the while Cassie was waiting at the bottom.