What it took to fly across the Atlantic 14 June 1919.

Speaking of the SAS, I climbed Denali in Alaska with 9 members of the British 22 SAS. I was the only American. All 10 of us made the summit on 23 June 1990 (20,310 ft). I know many of you refer to it as Mt. McKinley. But in my day, it was Denali, so don't take offense. Allow me to compare Everest to Denali. While Mt. Everest sits at 29,032 feet, it rests on the Tibetan Plateau with base elevations around 14,000 to 17,000 feet, so the mountain itself only rises about 12,000 to 15,000 feet from its immediate base. Contrast that to Denali, which rises from a much lower base of roughly 2,000 feet above sea level to a peak of 20,310 feet. This creates a vertical rise of around 18,000 feet, which makes it the tallest mountain entirely above land on Earth. The British 22 SAS were excellent climbers. The climb took us a total of 15 days up and 3 days down. The photo was taken when we were between Camp III and IV around 12,200 feet on 17 June 1990.

The World Cup starts tomorrow. I have only one wish: For God's sake dont call it soccer. The name of the world's most popular sport is football.