Climber overcomes illness, McKinley

By Lisa Arsenault

Staff writer

MANCHESTER -- Wendy Booker's celebration was short lived after she reached the summit of Mount McKinley on June 27. She pumped her fists in the air like Rocky. She cried a little. Then she began the long climb back down the mountain.

Now she begins the second part of her journey -- sharing her story.

"My message to everyone is to climb their own mountain," said Booker, who will be at the Manchester Athletic Club at 10 a.m. Wednesday to talk about her trek to McKinley and the training it took. "When your mind is engaged, you gain back a piece of your soul."

The 50-year-old mother of three was an unlikely candidate to make it to the top of one of the world's highest peaks, even before she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis six years ago.

Booker had passed off numbness in her leg for four months before she went to a doctor in 1998. Dozens of tests later, she was told she had the debilitating disease of the central nervous system, which can start with loss of balance and muscle coordination before it puts people in wheelchairs.

After her diagnosis, lifelong hobbies like running seemed like they might be impossible. Booker decided to fight back.

She gave up her job as a interior designer and ran a marathon instead. Once she conquered that, she set a bigger goal -- climbing Alaska's Mount McKinley.

Climbing the 20,000-foot mountain is not an easy task, even for someone without MS. Booker worked with a trainer at Manchester Athletic Club nearly every day for nine months to prepare. Her training included filling a hiking pack with 50 pounds of birdseed and walking on a treadmill in winter hiking boots.

"Climbing is a dangerous sport," she said. "You have to have complete confidence in yourself, your equipment and whoever you're climbing with."

Booker and her trainer, Cathy Sullivan, had to re-teach some of her muscles how to move. Sullivan said it was important to make sure Booker would be ready for whatever obstacles the mountain would pose.

"It was pretty amazing to watch," said Sullivan, who has never worked with an MS patient before.

Booker first attempted to reach the McKinley summit of in May 2002. Her team made it to 17,000 feet and had to turn back because of bad weather. She returned for another try this summer, after two more years of training.

"I felt like it was unfinished business," she said.

Booker doesn't take much of the credit herself. She attributes her success to Sullivan and the support of her husband.

Good weather on the climb was a blessing, she said. Her team only faced one blizzard during the second climb, which blasted them with 70 mph winds at 11,000 feet for three days.

"I didn't come back the same person," she said. "I don't care what color someone else's sofa is anymore."

Now Booker, who has been touring the country since 2000 to give motivational speeches for people with MS, hopes to climb even bigger mountains. She plans to scale the seven summits, a renowned list of the highest mountains in the world.

"Climbing symbolizes what life with MS is like," she said. "You have to try and try again."