A small but significant tidbit may be in danger of being lost in all the news about Minnesota-based explorer and mountaineer Lonnie Dupre deciding to abandon his second attempt to become the first person to successfully complete a solo climb of Mount McKinley in the month of January.
In reporting on Dupre's return to Talkeetna, and to hot showers and a "real bed," the Duluth News Tribune mentions in passing that while Dupre waited at base camp for an air taxi, he chatted with a Japanese climber, Masatoshi Kuriaki, who was making final preparations for his own attempt at a first ascent.
Kuriaki was just beginning his sixth attempt to become the first person to climb Alaska's 14,573-foot Mount Hunter solo in winter.
Mount Hunter is Alaska's third-highest peak, and despite being shorter than the two tallest, Mount McKinley and Mount Foraker, it is considered the most challenging climb of the three.
According to the News Tribune's paraphrase of a December report from Talkeetna's KTNA-Radio, Kuriaki's most recent attempt to climb Mt. Hunter solo in the winter, in 2010, resulted in him spending 83 days on the mountain, and 53 of those hunkered down in shelters waiting for weather to clear.
This time, he's reportedly carrying enough supplies to last 100 days on the mountain.
Read more, here, and read a great deal more about Kuriaki and his record of mountaineering and exploring at his website. Here's a fun one: In 1998, he earned the nickname "Japanese Caribou" by walking solo from Anchorage to Prudhoe Bay.