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CU Engineering is known for attracting and producing high achievers, but few take the label this literally.

A group of CU Boulder affiliates is among the latest to climb 20,310-foot Denali, the highest peak in North America.

The team, which called itself the Colorado Buffaloes, included ChBE instructor Charlie Nuttelman, alumnus Bill Wright (ElecEngr, CompSci ’84) of Superior, and his son, freshman Derek Wright, and CU fan Tom Karpeichik. They flew a CU flag at each of their camps along the way.

Risking falls, avalanches, exposure and altitude-related illness, the group summited the Alaskan peak formerly called Mount McKinley on June 16.

“It was awesome to summit, but also, every day was a challenge in itself,” says Nuttelman, a devoted outdoor enthusiast. “To be honest, the summit day was kind of anticlimactic, because it seemed easier than a lot of the other days.”

Those “other days” began June 7 with a flight to the glacier basecamp at 7,200 feet, when the group began adjusting to the trials of mountaineering in an arctic environment. This new reality included temperatures below zero. Decreased oxygen levels. Dehydrated meals and lengthy waits to boil water. Eating sticks of butter just to absorb more calories for the intense effort. Falling asleep beneath constantly lit skies.

The group spent the next week ascending to higher camps along the West Buttress route, sometimes returning to lower elevations after depositing supplies, then climbing again the next day.

Though not a particularly technical climb, Denali has a way of deterring those who attempt to reach its lofty perch. This season, only 60 percent of those who attempted Denali reached the summit, . In fact, the Buffaloes learned after they returned from the peak that a Japanese climber had died from high-altitude pulmonary edema days earlier.

Despite the dangers, the team members relied on one another and their methodical planning to ensure a pleasant excursion. On summit day, preparation combined with excellent weather conditions allowed them to meet their final goal.

“That was one of the key things of this whole trip: the training and preparation and gear for this trip really worked out perfectly,” Bill Wright says.

Derek Wright, 18, who chose the Denali trip as a high school graduation gift, finished fifth in the state in tennis and was named Athlete of the Year at Monarch High School in Superior. But he said training for a climb like this – among teammates who were older, stronger and more serious – was a challenge that made the summit that much sweeter.

“It felt super good,” Derek says. “It was an emotional moment at the top – we had gone through this whole journey.”

None of the team members is a stranger to extreme outdoor fitness excursions. Last year, Nuttelman and Bill Wright completed the “Longs Peak Project,” a challenge to climb Longs Peak in every calendar month via a different route. Bill established and completed the challenge in 2008, and Nuttelman believes he was the second to master it.

Nuttelman also wrote “The Colorado Adventure Guide” in 2012, a guidebook to the state’s best biking, hiking, snowshoeing and skiing. He’s a fan of mountaineering in the Canadian Rockies, of packrafting and of long-distance hiking, biking and skiing.

The Wright family is also outdoors-obsessed, frequently cycling, skiing, climbing and running in competitive events. Bill and Derek recently completed 10 “fourteeners” in one day, and Bill and his wife, Sheri, have run the 10K Bolder Boulder 23 times – 13 times with their sons.

Recharged and reinvigorated by the Denali adventure, Nuttelman returned to campus this fall to teach Computing for Engineers and Senior Design. Derek Wright begins his journey as a CU freshman. Empty-nester Bill Wright returned to work as a software engineer for Oracle. And Karpeichik will continue his pilgrimages to CU for athletic events.

So what’s next for the Colorado Buffaloes? They’ll climb that mountain when they come to it.