Mat-Su Career and Technical High School student climbs Denali

A big part of the first days back to school are all of the “what did you do during your summer break” stories. Ian Naylor’s is pretty hard to top.

Naylor climbed Denali.

The Mat-Su Career and Technical High School senior reached the summit June 17 at 7:10 p.m., part of a group of six climbers and two guides with the Alaska Mountaineering School. Naylor said he tends to not get too emotional, but after about a year of preparation and more than two weeks conquering North America’s highest mountain peak, an exception was made that evening.

“I do remember shedding a few tears. It was a beautiful day and just an amazing feeling to be up that high and see the view,” Naylor said after sharing his story with the Mat-Su Borough School District School Board during a meeting Aug. 19. “I thought back to all of the months of preparation and thinking about the trip, and just hoping I would even get a window to summit. All of that just sort of hit me in the final few steps up to the summit.”

Naylor is now part of a special club, climbers who can say they successfully tackled Denali. And to make the story even better, Naylor is only 17.

Months later, Naylor said his accomplishment is still sinking in.

“I find myself looking back at photos a lot,” he said.

Naylor said the final days on the mountain were intense. Not only was the group on the verge of reaching the summit, one of the climbers suffered frostbite on their hands late in the trip. Naylor was asked to help the injured climber get down the mountain safely after they reached the summit.

“We had a very long, like 36-hour push down the mountain to get the injured climber on our team to medical attention,” Naylor said. “There was not a lot of time to really process what had happened. I was really tired. Flying to Talkeetna and then driving home, it sort of just hit me that I really achieved my goal.”

Naylor has grown up in the outdoors. His family has loved outdoor activities throughout his life, he said. He competes in Mount Marathon every summer, and spends a lot of time on local trails and mountains.

Naylor has a close friend from Anchorage who was also part of the group that reached Denali’s summit that day. The pair have been involved in alpine skiing for a long time, and often go hiking and climbing together. Last year, Naylor and his friend completed a 12-day mountaineering course in the Alaska Range to further their skills and help better understand the more technical aspects of climbing the taller mountains.

“It was really on that course talking to the instructors who knew so much about mountaineering and other mountains that we (got) the idea that we wanted to climb Denali before we turned 18. And then we just took it from there,” Naylor said.

That mountaineering course was in June of 2025, which gave Naylor about a year to prepare. Naylor attends Mat-Su Career Tech, but he’s also an athlete at his boundary school, Palmer High. He’s a member of the boys basketball, cross-country running and track and field teams. That helps with his stamina, he said. He also works out five or six times a week to help with his strength for climbing. During the winter, Naylor said he included more Denali-specific activities such as ice climbing and working with climbing ropes. He would hike Lazy Mountain with 70 pounds in his backpack.

“Any time I would go do one of those activities, I had Denali in the back of my mind,” he said.

Naylor said he had about 120 pounds of gear on the first day of the trip and packed that to the first camp. On any given day after that, Naylor would have between 50 and 70 pounds to carry. There was a long checklist of gear. Personal gear included boots, base and warmer layers of clothing, and all of his technical gear such as an ice axe, crampons, harness and carabiners. There was also the team gear, such as tents and cooking supplies, which was split up among the group to spread the weight around.

Setting up camp took time. Climbers dig out platforms for the tents so they are level. The tents used on the mountain are not anchored by stakes like the average campground tent. Naylor said there are little parachutes climbers fill with snow and then bury to help hold the tent in place during harsh weather.

There were two climbers per tent until the crew reached the 17,000-foot camp, where they had three climbers in a tent.

Naylor said he would average six or seven hours of sleep each night.

“The sleep schedule was interesting because I am normally someone who stays up very late. I’m a night owl. Getting up at 4 or 5 in the morning on the lower glacier, I would normally try to be in bed at 8. Sleeping was difficult because as any Alaskan would know it’s light the entire summer. Sleeping in a tent with the sun can be challenging. But normally I was so tired from the day I would lay down and fall asleep,” Naylor said.

Meals were mainly rice-based or pasta.
“We didn’t eat a lot of freeze-dried meals, which I am very thankful for,” he said.

Between meals, he would snack on meat and cheese or Snickers bars. Naylor said he was consuming 4,000 to 5,000 per day, as much as he could eat. He also lost 10 pounds during the trip.

All of their water came from boiling snow. The climbers had a large bag they would fill with snow, and would boil it on their camp stoves. He tried to make sure he was drinking about six liters of water a day.

Naylor said his group averaged three or four miles per day in distance with about 3,000 feet of elevation gain each day.

“Climbing, carrying all of that weight in an environment like that was very new to me,” he said. “I had never been at that much elevation before. Dealing with having to move that slow and be calculated and taking rest breaks was very new to me. All of the local climbs and hikes I do, I always went very light and fast with gear.”

The group spent about 18 days on the mountain. After coming down from the summit, the group spent a night at high camp. From there, the group made their way down the mountain in about 36 hours.

The climb is not just physically taxing, but also mentally challenging, he said.
“Sometimes when the visibility was bad, I would just have to put trust in my team members and trust in my guides,” Naylor said.

On the lower mountain, Naylor said it could be as warm as 40 to 45 degrees during the height of the day and -10 at night. On the upper side, it  would get to about 10 or 15 degrees and as cold as -25.

“It takes a toll on your body that you really don’t notice at the start,” Naylor said of the temperature swings. “It’s really hot during the day, and you are moving and sweating and losing a lot of electrolytes. Then when it’s cold at night, your body is working extra to keep you warm. You need to really prioritize eating plenty and drinking plenty of water to combat that.”

The weather, overall, was decent during his trip, he said.

“As far as I’ve heard from what other climbers have told me, I think we got pretty lucky with the weather,” Naylor said.

The group had two bad weather days at 11,000 feet, and stayed in their tents at the camp. There were two other bad days of weather at their camp at 14,000 feet.

“I remember waking up and the tent walls were really getting blown in by the harsh winds,” Naylor said. “Everything was covered in snow when I walked out of the tent.”

Naylor is already thinking about his next expedition. He would like to climb Mount Marcus Baker, the tallest mountain in the Chugach Range. He’s also looking at mountains in the Lower 48 for trips he can do with friends and without a guide, including Mount Rainier in Washington. There are also bucket list trips like Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa.

Naylor is enrolled in the business pathway at Mat-Su Career Tech. He has also taken courses in the fitness and building pathways. Naylor is planning on attending college next year. Montana State University and the University of Utah are his top choices. He’s not sure what he will study. But he does know, wherever he goes, there must be mountains nearby.

Jeremiah Bartz is the Community Relations Coordinator for the Mat-Su Borough School District.