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Loyalsock grad Dylan Casale climbs highest mountain in continental United States

On Sunday, Aug. 6, Dylan Casale, a 2012 graduate of Loyalsock High School, woke up at 1 a.m. with the intention of completing a huge milestone, not just for himself but for the climbing community as a whole.

Climbing Mount Whitney is something over 30,000 people attempt to do per year, a feat which poses a success rate of approximately one-third. Standing at 14,505 feet at peak elevation, it's the tallest mountain in the continental U.S.

"That is considered the highest peak in the bottom 48 states," mentioned Casale. "If you want to go higher than that, you have to go to Alaska."

He drove 45 minutes from his hotel to where he'd begin the trek, pounding coffee the whole way there. At 2 a.m., the hike of his life up to this point began.

This was a long time coming for the former Williamsport resident, whether he knew it as he was growing up or not. From the time he was a kid to his eventual move to Las Vegas in September of 2022, he always had a passion for climbing.

"I've always loved climbing stuff since I was a little kid," said Casale, a graduate of Lycoming and Penn College. "I loved climbing trees at my family farmhouse back home in Williamsport. I got back into it when I moved out here to Las Vegas. There are plenty of mountains to climb over here."

When Casale first arrived in Las Vegas, he attempted one of its toughest hikes, the Bridge Mountain Trail. This trail offers little room for comfort, spanning 15.4 miles, featuring lots of uphill and eventually reaching a peak elevation of 4366 feet.

It's a hike that most describe as 'strenuous' and 'for advanced climber only', and unfortunately for Casale, he went into it with little preparation. He was ultimately saved when he miraculously ran into Alex Honnold, a well-known rock climber that many consider to be the best in the world.

"I went into it not prepared at all and got stranded in the middle of nowhere. I'm glad Alex Honnold was there to help me," said Casale. "After that, I realized I needed to start training. That's when I really started to things seriously and thinking about details like elevation, altitude and nutrition."

And train he did.

To get used to hiking long distances, Casale hiked every major peak of the Red Rock Canyon, with each hike being between 10 and 15 miles. To acclimate to higher altitudes and low oxygen levels, he hiked the high peaks of Mount Charleston Wilderness, which has a peak elevation of nearly 12,000 feet and hikes close to 20 miles long, each near the same level as Mount Whitney.

And just under a year after arriving in Vegas, he approached the foot of the Mount Whitney trail a few hours before sunrise. This trail would provide the 30-year-old with his biggest hiking accomplishment yet, assuming he could conquer it.

Of course, there were challenges throughout the hike.

Along with dealing with the altitude and getting up excruciatingly early, which he did to avoid reaching the summit at noon and risking lightning strikes or too much sun exposure, it was incredibly icy up in the mountains.

"The trail at the end was really icy, so we had to scramble up the rocks because of the snow on the trail," said "This winter was legendary here, the area had the most snow it had in 50 years."

Scrambling is a hiking technique used for steep terrain where you're essentially rock climbing up the side of a mountain. It requires a lot of use of the hands and can certainly be grueling and stressful without the proper preparations.

But at 3:30 p.m., after hiking 20 miles over 13 1/2 hours and dealing with the rough terrain and altitude of Mount Whitney, Casale completed his goal. He was really emotional as he approached the trail's conclusion, remembering all of the hard work he put into getting to this point.

"The feeling was indescribable, it honestly brought tears to my eyes," said Casale. "I thought of myself as a kid and never would have imagined I would be able to do something like this."

He also thought of his family, especially his brothers, Brennan and Frankie, to whom he dedicated the hike.

"The love of a brother is unmatched, and I'm so proud of them both. I was thinking of them the whole time," said Casale. "My brother Frankie explores all over Europe, he's been to every country. He has the travel bug too, and that pushes me to go out and see stuff."

His next goal is to hike the hike peaks of New England in the fall, with the Appalachian Trail also being a long-term goal for the future. But for now, the closest thing on his radar is moving back to Williamsport, which will take place in September.

"The world is your oyster, you just have to go out and take it," said Casale, quoting his grandparents. "I guess that means you can do whatever you set your mind to."

"You might as well get out there and explore. It's an awesome hobby to take up, and it's free," he added.