Mckinley Climber Is Only 12, But He Just Has It In Him

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - He wears sunglasses with hot-pink frames and races dirt bikes, but 12-year-old Taras Genet is not your everyday youngster and no couch potato. He climbs mountains. Very tall mountains.

Earlier this week Genet became the youngest person to reach the summit of 20,320-foot Mount McKinley - North America's tallest peak.

The soft-spoken, slightly built eighth-grader has gone from being just another kid to something of a folk hero. Since coming off the mountain last weekend with his six fellow team members, he's received calls from Time magazine, National Public Radio, TV network morning news shows and newspapers around the nation.

And he doesn't know what all the fuss is about.

"Why's everybody saying that my head's getting bigger?" Taras asked Wednesday in an interview in Anchorage as he gulped hot cocoa and gobbled French toast.

A waitress, overhearing talk of the successful climb, approached the table and helped make it bigger. "Hey, dude! All right!" she says. "I read about you.

"I said, `stud!' "

For Taras, the growing fame is destiny. He has mountain climbing in his blood. His father, famed Alaska mountaineering guide Ray Genet, died while climbing Mount Everest in October 1979.

Taras was a toddler and was at an Everest base camp with his mother, Kathy Sullivan, when Ray Genet died. Climbing McKinley has been a long-held goal.

"All my life I've been thinking about it," Taras said. Speaking

about the father he's never really known, he said, "He'd be happy."

On the mountain, climbers have lots of time to think. Five feet of snow fell during the expedition's first week, and the climbers were snowbound in tents for five days at the 16,000-foot elevation.

During the wait, Taras read a book about climbing the Matterhorn. And he played some.

"We had food fights in the tent and used baby powder for food," said Jose Bouza, the assistant leader of the team and one of Taras's tentmates.

The team reached the summit June 21 by way of the mountain's West Buttress after hiking and skiing for 17 days, then returned to base camp at 14,000 feet in one day.

"I felt really like I was accomplishing something. I felt really good. Every day we went higher and higher and got closer to the summit," he said.

McKinley - known in Alaska by its Indian name Denali - is one of the world's most popular peaks and attracts about 1,000 climbers each season. Only about half make it to the top.

The mountain is a big part of Taras' life, and the life of the tiny village of Talkeetna where he, his mother and younger brother Adrian call home.

The perennially snow-covered McKinley is in plain view out the family's front door. Talkeetna itself is a jump-off point for McKinley, and in summertime becomes virtually a global village as the world's top mountain climbers meet on the way up or off it.

Taras was invited to join members of a team organized by a Colorado-based guiding company run by a lifelong family friend. He jumped at the chance.

At first, he thought the grownups who had booked the climb would say no to his going along. Some almost did.

"When I first heard there was a 12-year-old going, I wasn't so sure," said Steve Kemp of St. Louis. "Then it became clear, he's not your average 12-year-old.

"He was part of the team and it became obvious he was going to make it if anybody was," said Kemp, who works at St. Louis Children's Hospital and was climbing to raise money for its child-transplant program.

Taras didn't need any organs, but he did have a tooth problem on the mountain. A filling fell out, but a dentist with another climbing party cemented it back in.

Other members of the team said Taras carried his weight, though that's only 75 pounds. Adult packs weighed more.

Besides making it to the top, they said, Taras had one overriding thought during the historic ascent: chimichangas, spicy meat-filled tortillas.

And that was the first thing he ate after the climb.