I am thrilled to be climbing once again with Tom H., an attorney from Denver Tom is a strong mountaineer who has become a friend and supporter of our mission. We met in Russia last year. When my gear bags got lost in Moscow and I only had the traveling clothes on my back, I thought my expedition was over before I even set foot on the mountain. Tom (along with many other teammates from the Mt. Elbrus expedition) was a great support by lending me clothes and gear until my own bags arrived. It was a true joy to stand on the summit of Russia’s Mt. Elbrus with him.

I am also looking forward to climbing with Tom C., also from Colorado. Tom and I met by chance this past May on Denali (Mt. McKinley) in Alaska. I got to spend some time with him as he generously provided lodging for us in Anchorage.

The professional guide company in charge of this expedition is Colorado-based Mountain Trip, under which I most recently climbed in Alaska this past May. The leader of our team in South America will be co-owner Todd Rutledge. Todd and Mountain Trip have been outstanding and very supportive of our mission. Along with Todd will be our expedition’s assistant guide, Ali. She has climbed and guided several big mountains around the world, including Denali.

The chance to climb with Mountain Trip again, and with both Toms, is very exciting. Each of us will be spending the next few weeks training and preparing for the expedition. Please continue to check back for further updates.

This will be my second visit to the mountain nicknamed The Stone Sentinel. In February this year, I reached an altitude of 18,200 feet but, after registering a considerably low blood saturation reading of only 61%, I unfortunately had to descend.

I am looking forward to continuing our mission and returning to Mt. Aconcagua! I have been training consistently and getting ready for this next expedition. In addition to my physical workouts, next week I’ll also begin a series of sessions with a Sports Psychologist to help me further prepare for the mental-side of the challenges that I will face in this endeavor. I think this will prove to be an important part of training and also directly reflects the message of Expedition Hope that help is out there and should be utilized.

Again, this would not be possible without the support of Eli Lilly & Company. Their continued support of Expedition Hope’s mission to raise awareness about depression is simply invaluable.

Please stay tuned for further updates!

This year’s event, called “Music for the Mind,” featured music by Indiana native and legendary songwriter Cole Porter. The evening included dinner set to Cole Porter’s music performed live, and a live auction that raised more than $40,000 for NAMI – Indianapolis’s educational and support programs! This evening also honored those in our community who have battled with depression and other mental illnesses, as well as those who have devoted much of their lives to helping others with mental illness in our community. Their stories are truly inspiring.

It was also great to see the Mayor of Indianapolis, Greg Ballard, and his wife serve as Honorary Chairs of the event, supporting the importance of mental health awareness and education in our community. As I sat at our table and looked around the room … looking at all the people there helped me realize how far mental illness awareness and education has come along!

I couldn’t help but to wish that events such as this, and where we are today, were as prevalent when my father was battling with his depression. It certainly might have given him an outlet and wonderful resource that may have helped him realize he was not alone … it possibly would have helped save his life.

I am very grateful to organizations such as NAMI Indianapolis that serve those who need help and give them a voice they need in their battles with depression and other mental illness. We might have a long way to go, but we are definitely making progress!

I had the great fortune of being invited to Colorado with a group of fellow climbers and friends from Indianapolis. In August, we traveled to Durango, where my friend Bob and his wife Gayle – both adventurous spirits and avid climbers — hosted us in their beautiful condominium.

The main purpose of the trip was to take part in — and celebrate – an amazing milestone and a true story of perseverance. Over the past 11 years, our friend Larry has been climbing the 14,000-foot peaks in Colorado … each and every one of them … and there are 54! In August, Larry and our group set out on his final of the 54 peaks! This was Mt. Eolus, which is located in the San Juan Mountain range of Colorado. What is really inspiring about this story is not only the accomplishment of summiting these 54 mountains, but also that Larry has recently been enduring serious health challenges as he battles with Parkinson’s Disease.

Larry reached the summit of Eolus and completed his long-time goal of climbing all of Colorado’s 14,000-foot peaks. A few weeks later, we attended a wonderful celebration party for Larry given by his family. Larry’s positive attitude towards life and his enthusiasm in the face of a challenging disease is moving and inspirational. It was an honor for me to be there with this great group of men and women.

(On a side note, our friend Bob is currently climbing his first 8,000-meter peak in the Himalayas, Cho Oyu. The latest word is that he and his team are all doing well. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Bob, to his wife and family, and to his teammates for a safe expedition!)

I returned home from the Colorado trip late on a Saturday evening. Early the next morning, my wife, our friend Bill and I competed as a relay in an Olympic distance triathlon in downtown Indianapolis. With my wife swimming, me biking and Bill doing a smoking 10k run, we came in 2nd place in our division. It was a great joy to be able to participate in an event with my wife and our friend, and it again was inspirational to see so many people of all shapes, sizes and abilities out and enjoying this activity.

Another inspirational story that has moved me began in late summer involves my good friend Bryan. He has made a firm decision to return to a healthy and active lifestyle. He had reached over 300lbs, and, with a new regime of diet, exercise and a very positive attitude, is now well under that. And he has set his sights on climbing his first mountain in 2009! This is Long’s Peak (14,255 feet) in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado. Like I am honoring my father with Expedition Hope, Bryan is also doing this to honor his father, who passed away just a few short years ago. I am looking forward to climbing Long’s Peak with Bryan in 2009 as he sets out to achieve his dream.

The last inspirational event I’d like to mention is one that occurred just a couple of weeks ago. This was a party to celebrate my mother’s 70th birthday. My sisters MaryJo and Cathy did a wonderful job in organizing this event. Mom had more than 120 friends, family and relatives present to share this milestone with her. In attendance were also some of her Italian relations all the way from Seattle whom she had not seen in close to 40 years!

I know I have spoken about my mother before; however, I would be remiss if, as she marks her 70th birthday, I did not again mention what an inspiration and source of strength she has always been to me — and to all of her children. Throughout the difficult challenges that she has faced in her life, she has always remained with a smile on her face, steadfast faith in her maker and fierce loyalty to and support for her family.

As we now look to a new season, I am finally back to feeling healthy and have resumed harder training. The past year certainly presented challenges on the mountains, but I remain committed to our mission. Climbers can never guarantee a summit of a big mountain, but we can continue to face the many challenges they present. As we have reiterated since day one, the same setbacks and challenges I have faced on an expedition are a great metaphor to challenges faced on a daily basis for those who battle with depression and other mental illnesses. I simply cannot give up, and I have no intentions of doing so.

As we enter this new season and look ahead to 2009, I wanted to again share one of my favorite mountain climbing quotes. I believe it speaks directly to many others who face battles and challenges and who are trying to find a way to renew or refresh their spirit:

“A man climbs the mountains because he needs to climb, because that is the way he is made. Rock and ice and snow and wind and the great blue canopy of the sky are not all he finds upon the mountain-tops. He discovers things about his own body and mind that he had almost forgotten in the day-to-day, year-to-year routine of living. He learns what his legs are for, what his lungs are for, what the wise men of old meant by “refreshment of the spirit.”
– James Ramsey Ullman

Again, my sincerest gratitude to Eli Lilly and Company for their continued support of Expedition Hope and its mission to raise awareness about depression and the importance of seeking help. Thank you!

To my wife, family, friends, co-workers and management at Shiel Sexton Company, and everyone at Indy Crossfit … I could not do this without all of you!

And as always, my heartfelt thanks to all of you who battle with depression or who have also lost a loved one to suicide and who offer continued support, encouraging me to stay the course with our mission, continuing to raise awareness about the illness and to educate others that depression is treatable. You are an inspiration to me. I will continue with our mission with you in my heart and mind. I know we are helping to make a difference.

As previously mentioned, after arriving home in May from my second attempt of Mt. McKinley (Denali), I received an official diagnosis of bronchitis from my physician. I began a round of antibiotics, returned back to work full time and began to get back to training. However, after two weeks I continued to feel utterly depleted, so I went back to the doctor. Further exploration offered a different diagnosis – Mononucleosis (or Mono, for short). My doctor believes I could have had the virus in my system as early as February, when I was on Mt. Aconcagua in Argentina.

Those who have had Mono know full well some of the manifestations: extreme fatigue, fever, headaches and swollen lymph glands. The treatment is basic: plenty of rest and no strenuous training for a few weeks. Although I have done some training, I have still not resumed the frequency or intensity that is necessary for an expedition. It is fortunate that we did not have any further climbs planned for this year.

However, the Expedition Hope mission will continue, and we will soon start finalizing plans for 2009. We are currently working with local organizations to further our message of depression awareness and education, as well as plans for future climbs, and will relay those accordingly. Please continue to check back for further updates.

I’d like to once again state my sincerest gratitude to Eli Lilly and Company for their continued support of Expedition Hope and its mission to raise awareness about depression and the importance of seeking help.

As always, many thanks to my wife, family, friends, co-workers and management at Shiel Sexton Company for their continued support, as well as to everyone at Indy Crossfit. I could not do this with out all of you!

Finally, my heartfelt thanks to all of you who battle with depression or who have also lost a loved one to suicide, and to those who offer continued support, encouraging me to stay the course with our mission. We will continue to raise awareness about this illness and to educate others that depression is treatable. Thank you!

For those of you who are not local, Indiana has been having some severe weather lately. Our last three weekends have featured amazing displays of lightening and more rain than we’ve had in something like 100 years, with severe flooding to many areas of our state. The morning of the NAMI Walk was no exception. We woke on a Saturday morning to loud thunder and sheets of rain pounding our windows. We knew the event would probably be cancelled – especially with the tremendous lightening bolts flashing through the sky. But we thought we would venture out in the storm and drive to the event just in case Mother Nature decided to “give us a break.”

We arrived at the starting location to discover that the event had been cancelled. But rather than being greeted with an empty parking lot, we found a large crowed gathered under a tent, where volunteers accepted donations, handed out goody bags and T-shirts, and would-be walkers cheerily welcomed each other and took some time to stop and chat. We stayed for about a half an hour, watching a stream of people who continued to arrive – even in dangerous weather conditions – to participate in a 5k walk and support mental health. It was really great to see!

We look forward to working with our local NAMI organization to help further depression awareness and education, and we encourage you to check out and support your local mental health organizations as well. For more information, please click on the “Links” page at the right.

As I go through this day, I will be thinking of my father and wishing he would have gotten the help he needed to battle his depression. I believe he would very likely still be with us today, and we would be spending this day with him and I wouldn’t be writing this. However, I am here writing, and it is again why I have taken on this mission to encourage those who battle with the illness of depression to please seek the help and treatment that is available today. Be around to enjoy life, to enjoy your children and families.

I’d like to extend a very Happy Father’s Day to my father-in-law, my two brothers and to all my close friends who are fathers, as well as to all dads out there. Enjoy the day!

Before I write more, I want to first extend congratulations to my Denali teammates who ended up making the summit! I have been very fortunate to have met and climbed with outstanding people on every single expedition I have experienced. Also, I wanted to give “kudos” to the great guides we had — Dave, Jacob and Greg from Mountain Trip. They are consummate professionals.

I usually post my climb reflections after each expedition in a more timely manner; however, 2008 was very simply a tough and difficult year for me from a climbing standpoint. I really felt very prepared for both of the 2008 climbs. Getting to more than 18,000 feet on Argentina’s Mt. Aconcagua in February, and having to turn around due to a very low blood oxygen saturation (61%) was extremely disappointing. Then, preparing for my return to the very mountain that began the Expedition Hope mission in 2005, Denali, only to again become extremely ill and have to turn around has been very difficult for me. (Especially as Greg told my wife via sat phone, “He’s as strong as an ox; he was rockin’ this mountain.”)

These past few weeks have really been difficult for me, and have once again forced me to do a great deal of reevaluating and soul searching. My overriding thought is, “Can I do this any longer?” Each time I leave for a climb, my mother and my siblings get very nervous for my safety, and there are always tears at the airport. Our mother has already buried two husbands and two children, and I know the danger of these mountains frightens her. I know in the back of her mind, she’s thinking that she doesn’t want to bury a third child. Yet she always supports me and the reason why I embarked on this mission, but, as you can imagine, all of it weighs very heavily on my mind.

Then there’s my wife, who spares me tears at the airport in order to give me strength. She repeatedly tells me how independent she is, and that the time and distance apart is no problem because she knows how much I love her, and that our sacrifices and efforts will be worth it when she hears my call from the summit. I feel like I let her – and everyone else who supports us – down, even though she reiterates to me that it is the message and the process of perseverance and hope that make these expeditions worthwhile, summit or not. Still, this weighs on my mind too.

One of my Denali guides, Greg, who climbed back down to base camp with me, said something to me that really struck a chord. He obviously knew about the Expedition Hope mission, and he understood my utter disappointment about getting sick when I wanted more than anything to continue. Greg told me, “But if climbing a mountain was easy, everyone would be doing it.”

And it also seems that when I am at my lowest after climb without a summit, I always receive an uplifting email message from a friend or fellow climber. The following came last week from a teammate with whom I climbed — and summited — Russia’s Mt. Elbrus in 2007. Tom is an attorney from Denver, Colorado, and his kind words came at a particularly low point for me:

Joe,
Sorry to hear about you getting bronchitis on the mountain. I was going to email you sooner but I figured you needed to deal with a bunch of stuff and decompress. There certainly aren’t any guarantees on these peaks. I just heard from Roy (another teammate from our Elbrus trip) and he got to 20,000 feet on Aconcagua before his head hurt so bad that he had to retreat. Only 4 of the 14 made the summit. You’re young and driven … plus you have a message which is much bigger than you or any mountain. Push ahead as you always will.
Best wishes, Tom

Although the entire email message was uplifting to me, Tom’s last sentence, and Greg’s comment, were what I needed to hear the most. So, I am going to push ahead and continue to realize that our ultimate message is about overcoming challenges and persevering in the face of what seems like insurmountable odds. (On a side note, at this very moment, Tom is currently in Alaska trying his first attempt at Denali. I wish him a safe and successful climb!)

My father battled with the living hell called depression, and he ultimately lost his battle with the illness. We have stated since Day One that our mission is to help and encourage others who live with the daily battles and struggles of depression, or those who also lost a loved one to suicide, to know there is help and treatment available, and that there is no shame in talking about it and seeking treatment! The illness of depression can certainly be more difficult then climbing a mountain. But it’s facing the daily “climb” and taking step after step that will eventually help overcome this illness.

So, where do we go from here? I need listen to my very own message and continue with our mission, that’s where we go from here. Due to the “climb season” of the mountains, we knew over a year ago that 2008 would not hold any expeditions in the second half of the year. That plan has not changed. We currently have not set any 2009 plans in stone, but please continue to check back for updates.

Again, my sincerest gratitude to Eli Lilly and Company for their continued support of Expedition Hope and its mission to raise awareness about depression and the importance of seeking help. Thank you!

As always, many thanks to my wife, family, friends, co-workers and management at Shiel Sexton Company for all your continued support, as well as to everyone at Indy Crossfit. I could not do this with out all of you!

And as always, my heartfelt thanks to all of you who battle with depression or who have also lost a loved one to suicide and who offer continued support, encouraging me to stay the course with our mission, continuing to raise awareness about the illness and to educate others that depression is treatable. I will continue with our mission with you in my heart and mind. I know we are helping to make a difference.

Thank you!
Joe