American Katie Bono Gets a Denali Speed Record

American climber and skier Katie Bono recently spent 26 days on a glacier in Alaska, her longest time to date in the Denali area.

In a fast round-trip climb of 21 hours and six minutes, she set the women’s speed record for North America’s highest mountain.

On Wednesday morning, I set two personal bests: my longest ever time-on-glacier at 26 days, and my shortest ever ascent of Denali at 21:06, round-trip. While the former could use some work (more vacation ftw), the latter is a new women's speed record for the mountain. Pretty psyched about this (!!!), it's been a project in the making since my first trip to the AK range in 2013. Huge thanks for the support @arcteryx, @camp_usa, @lasportivana, @suuntonorthamerica, @alpinestartfoods, the Iguana aka @sav.cummins (photo), @tjoneski, and @jakeberen –  y'all are the best. #timeforrockclimbing

A post shared by Katie Bono (@katie__bono) on Jun 16, 2017 at 1:33pm PDT

Bono grew up in Minneapolis and started ski racing at a young age. She learned early how to suffer for extended periods of time in cold weather.

She went on to race for Dartmouth College in New Hampshire and found climbing. She left racing in 2011 and started guiding, eventually guiding clients up Denali.

Bono has become a leading mixed climber with sends up to M13. In 2015, she climbed Nophobia M10 in the Ghost River Valley in Alberta. Watch their send here.