Denali Schmidt

Denali Schmidt was my son. He was born in Macksville, Australia on April 27, 1988 and died in the Karakoram mountains of Pakistan on K2 in July 2013. My daughter Sequoia Patti Schmidt and I put together this book from Denali's writings after his death and my mother Theresa Grasso Munisteri helped edit it. It was published by Sequoia's company, Di Angelo Publications (DAP).

My name is Joanne (Jo) Patti Munisteri and I created these pages. Our family was passionate about reading, books, true stories and inspiring literature. I write about Denali in all my books-both adventure memoirs and in poetry.

Who am I - the short bio below from my book pages will answer that briefly.

Jo Patti Munisteri is an author of non-fiction and poetry. Jo doesn't just read about adventure — she lives it, and writes it down.

Educator. Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner. Certified combat analyst. Mother. Jo works as a contractor in some of the world's most volatile conflict zones — Afghanistan, Ukraine, Iraq, Pakistan, Israel, Armenia — embedded with USAID, the Department of Defense, the State Department, IREX, and PCR. She's walked through war zones, Siberian snow, desert sand, and jungle trails.

But the Traveler Series isn't just about the outer journey — it's about the terrain within: discipline, loss, and the hard-won wisdom of a life spent in service.

Jo's story is also one of profound grief. Her late ex-husband, Marty Schmidt — a USAF Pararescueman turned international mountain guide — died with their son Denali Schmidt on K2 in July 2013, one of the deadliest peaks on the planet. That loss, and others she carried from team mates and colleagues who never made it home, runs through every page.

Traveler Between Worlds and Traveler Off the X takes you into conflict zones and clinics, martial arts training and quiet grief, across steppes and underwater landscapes — and into the realm of the spiritual.