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Wednesday, Jul. 01, 2009

Breathitt County man reaches top of Mount Denali

Breathitt County mountain climber Martin Douthitt has safely reached the summit of Alaska's Mount Denali.

Douthitt, 63, and two other climbers in his party pushed their way to the mountain's 20,320-foot summit on Sunday, after being delayed by bad weather, according to a posting Tuesday on the mountaineering Web site mountaintrip.com.

A fourth climber in the group was unable to reach the top, but the reason wasn't immediately known. All four climbers in the group are over age 60. They started up the mountain on June 8.

Bitter cold had delayed them at Denali's High Camp, 17,200 feet, but the weather suddenly cleared Sunday, allowing them to rush for the top.

Denali, also known as Mount McKinley, is North America's highest peak. Douthitt tried to climb it in 2007 but had to give up because of illness.

His group planned to start back down the mountain late Tuesday, hoping to reach Camp 1 at 7,800 feet, according to the mountaineering site.

Word that Douthitt had reached the summit brought sighs of relief Tuesday afternoon from Douthitt's Kentucky friends, who had been waiting for word on his progress since the weekend.

Dale Torok of Lexington said they initially heard only that some climbers in Douthitt's group had reached the top, but they couldn't get confirmation that Douthitt was one of them. Torok finally was able to get word of Douthitt's success Tuesday by calling the mountaineering firm that had arranged the trip.

Douthitt is supposed to be home about Monday.

Two climbers in another party fell to their deaths on Denali a few days before Douthitt's group made its final push for the top.

Douthitt, a businessman from Jackson, now has climbed six of the so-called Seven Summits, the highest mountains on Earth's seven continents. He has not climbed Mount Everest.