Conquering fear

More than 50 students from the Mat-Su School district are participating in a special program called the Denali Project, to learn leadership skills and prepare for the upcoming school year, as well as to have some fun.

The Denali Project is a small group of students performing a simulated summit of Denali. It takes place at Burchell High School.

The project lasts two weeks.

The first week, students started out with a team-building activity called the trust fall.

We did the activity to reassure that your climbing team will be there and trusted by you if you get into a situation where it is up to your team to save you.

The trust fall was performed by having one member of the team stand with their back toward the rest of the team on a platform about 4-feet high. After asking their team for verbal support, they fell as stiff as a board backward off the platform into the arms of their team.

"When I fell into them it felt like skydiving, then the feeling lasted for like one second," Jaron Murphy wrote in his journal.

At Burchell, the students got a taste of climbing on the high ropes course.

The students did four events -- the dangling duo to build teamwork; the two-rope bridge to overcome fear of heights; the cat walk to test balance; and a multi-vine course to gain confidence and test and know limits.

"The ropes course was fun but real challenging," said Chibon Jiminez.

The overnight trip to Talkeetna and Denali State Park was the last thing we did during the week. The bus ride was long but scenic. In Talkeetna, the students went through two stations. One was the Talkeetna Climbing Museum, where we learned about the climbing history, the different climbing routes and what climbers do with their waste.

The second station was the Talkeetna Ranger Station.

There we were able to see the gear climbers actually use while climbing Denali. At 1 p.m., we left for Denali State Park.

In Denali State Park, we hiked up Kesugi Ridge.

"When you get to the top it feels so good, like the sweating and hard work pays off," said Lenard Savage.

After the hike we set up camp back at the park and prepared for a long and cold night. We finished the next day with a quick hike around Byers Lake and writing about the trip in our journals.

Overall, the Denali Project lets young minds experience new things and have some fun while doing it.