Alaska resident and well-known Denali climber, Gerald McDonnell, has been memorialized and honored with the Best Explorer’s award for 2008.

McDonnell, a transplanted Irishman from Limerick, Ireland, was well known in the climbing community, as well as the music community.  He played in the Irish music group “Last Night’s Fun” in Anchorage. The group has performed several times in Talkeetna.

The award was given to McDonnell who died on K2 in the Himalayas in what is called the single worst accident in the history of K2. Eleven climbers died on K2 on August 1^st of last year.  The pieces of that day have been reconstructed and accounts now state that McDonnell stayed on the upper slopes to assist Korean climbers and a sherpa who had become injured and trapped high on the mountain.  All four died in an avalanche.

In 1999 Gerard, along with another climber, received the Denali Pro Pin for assisting five climbers down from Denali’s summit in deteriorating weather.

In 2007, he led an expedition to Antarctica in honor of fellow Irishman Ernest Shackleton.