Park City climber Jenn Drummond nears record with Denali attempt

Jenn Drummond is about to make the hardest push of her record chase, with Denali standing between the Park City climber and another place in mountaineering history. She is set to leave town on June 6 with her 16-year-old son Jacob for the attempt on North America’s tallest peak, a final summit that could finish a long-running Guinness World Record effort.

The mountain she is aiming for, Denali, rises to 20,310 feet in Alaska and is federally designated as Mount McKinley. It sits inside Denali National Park and Preserve, a six-million-acre expanse of wild land where weather, elevation and logistics combine to make even a well-planned expedition precarious. The National Park Service says the typical climbing season runs from late April through mid-July, with colder, windier conditions in May and, as temperatures warm in June, more clouds and precipitation higher on the mountain.

Drummond’s climb is part of Project Climb Higher, a 60-day Guinness World Record attempt that spans Mont Blanc, Mount Elbrus and Denali. Project materials identify Denali as the final mountain in the sequence, and Drummond has already turned back on an earlier Denali attempt, a reminder that the peak can erase months of planning with one bad weather system or a problem on the route.

Her record pursuit has already taken years. Guinness World Records says Drummond became the first woman to climb the Second Seven Summits when she topped Mount Logan in Canada on June 1, 2023, after beginning that quest on Ojos del Salado on December 16, 2020. Her broader campaign has also stretched to nine mountains because of differing continent definitions and record rules, making the project as much an exercise in strategy and endurance as in strength.

That background matters in Summit County, where Drummond’s effort reflects the kind of outdoor ambition that Park City has long embraced. Her family has climbed with her before, including on Mont Blanc, and the current attempt brings Jacob into the center of the story. Earlier Project Climb Higher materials described those family climbs as both a rite of passage and a legacy climb, an approach that turns elite mountaineering into something that reaches beyond one athlete.

The challenge ahead is specific and unforgiving. Denali expeditions are usually planned a year or more in advance, average groups run five to six climbers, and teams may not exceed 12 members. Drummond will be trying to finish on a mountain where even strong climbers can lose weeks to storms, illness or a failed acclimatization cycle. If she makes the summit, Park City will have watched one of its own close out a world-class climb on one of the most demanding peaks in North America.