‘A magical moment’: Gay couple engaged at 6190m Denali summit share epic proposal story and pictures
"To rejoice at another victory, to see his tears and exclamations of happiness - but also to approach with a proposal"
Talk about taking your love to new heights!
Congratulations are in order for Germany-based gay couple Christian Vettermann and Dastan Kasmamytov, who recently got engaged atop Denali, North America’s tallest mountain.
Denali, also known as Mount McKinley, is located in Alaska, and is 6,190m tall. That’s roughly equivalent to 19 Empire State Buildings!
“A magical moment” – Dastan Kasmamytov on getting engaged atop Denali
Dastan got down on one knee and proposed to Christian on May 26 2024.
On Instagram, the programmer and mountaineer said: “The most important thing I wanted to do on top of Denali, the highest mountain in North America, was to make a marriage proposal to @christian_vettermann, my boyfriend.
“The moment has finally come to propose marriage to this wonderful man, who gave me so many joyful moments and supported me in difficult times. This is the only one with whom I can be who I am, truly myself with all my complex dark character. I won’t find anyone like Chris.
“It was a magical moment, not only to climb this damn difficult peak together, to rejoice at another victory, to see his tears and exclamations of happiness, but also to approach with a proposal of marriage and to realise that we are now doubly happy.
“We descended down healthy and unharmed, although we were very tired from the expedition, since due to bad weather we had to be on the mountain for more than two weeks. We will publish the entire story of the ascent in the coming days.”
The couple’s pictures were shared with Attitude via Pink Summits, a campaign group of climbers scaling rocks and mountains for LGBT+ visibility of which Dastan is a founder.
In a statement, a Pink Summits spokesperson explained: “Because of his LGBTIQ+ activism, Dastan, a founder of the Pink Summits campaign, has experienced physical abuse, threats and harassment because of his queer activism.
“Through his campaign, he wants to show that the hatred and violence make queer communities only stronger. Dastan and his team want to inspire other LGBTIQ+ people to fight for their rights, freedom, love and life in spite of injustice and cruelty.”