Three of the four local mountaineers who traveled to Alaska to climb Mt. McKinley last month, successfully summitted last Wednesday.

Cherry Valley's Tim Horvath, the leader of the group, Pittsfield's James Austin and Chris Weisbeck of Fredonia all reached the peak of Mt. McKinley, also known as Denali, using the standard route, called the West Buttress.

Denali has a peak of 20,320 feet and is North America's highest peak. According to a website on Denali, 32 percent of all climbers on Denali this year reached the summit, and 1,296 climbers are registered. The fourth climber, Mark Vanderwerker of Cherry Valley, became ill on the climb and was not able to summit.

Horvath had attempted to climb Denali in 1995, but a freak storm which brought seven feet of snow in a day and a half, and was accompanied by 80 mile-an-hour winds forced him to hole up in a tent for seven days.

Both Horvath and Austin have now summitted the highest peaks in North and South America. In March of 1999, the two climbed to the peak of Mt. Aconcagua in Argentina, the highest peak in South America at 22,835 feet. The quartet, sponsored in part by Brewery Ommegang, will remain in Alaska until later this month.