“Land of extremes. Land of contrasts. Land of surprises. Land of contradictions . . . that is Arizona.”

The line can be sourced to an unnamed American author of the mid-1950s, and for Carlton Director Football Operations Manager Andrew McKay never a truer word was spoken.

McKay has now reacquainted himself with the relative cosiness of Visy Park, having successfully negotiated Arizona - with its unique topographical characteristics buttressed by Mt Humphreys - and of course its desert climate juxtaposed by one of the seven natural wonders of the world.

The mountain and the Grand Canyon posed immense challenges for “Macka” and the 52-man troupe of coaches, players, ancillary staffers and corporates who successfully negotiated them all.

“They were two entirely different climbs,” McKay explained. “Whereas with Mt Humphreys you go up then down, with the Grand Canyon you go down then up, and the last bit of the hike back up from the canyon was probably a bit harder.”

“With Mt Humphreys you’re dealing with altitude of almost 4000 metres at the top, and you’re hiking through snow, albeit only an inch deep. We had fantastic weather hiking up there - it took us two and a half hours to get to the top and an hour and a half to get down - whereas the Grand Canyon was hot and dusty, 30 kilometres over six hours, so it was quite different.

“In saying that, the canyon is truly magnificent and it’s hard to explain the enormity of it unless you’ve been there. It’s an eye-opening place and a great experience for the boys.”

So did the mount and canyon hikes prove physically and mentally demanding? “Reasonably so,” said McKay. “(Andrew) McInnes, (Marc) Murphy, (Matthew) Kreuzer and a couple of others were a bit restricted with pre-season operations and stuff, but for the others it was reasonably physical.

“Certainly the players felt a little short of breath over the first four or five days when they were doing intense altitude work, but then they got used to it. I’d say it was more physically challenging than mentally.”

In reflecting on the Arizona experience, McKay was firmly of the view that the club’s two main objectives - to kick-start the 2012/13 pre-season campaign and to galvanize the playing group behind the new Carlton Coach Mick Malthouse and his trusted advisor Rob Wiley - had truly been realised.

Whereas Rob Wiley acquainted himself with Judd and Co. before they hit base camp at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Malthouse took the opportunity to get to know the players both one-on-one and collectively during their time in the camp proper, to brief his men of the Carlton gameplan of 2013 and beyond, and to set some parameters according to McKay.

Mick Malthouse leads his men up Mount Humphreys.

“For example, in one of our first meetings a couple of our players were 30 seconds late to the meeting, so they joined the group who walked each morning and that way they knew exactly where they stood,” McKay said.

“You could hear a pin drop in those meetings so you knew the players were taking on board everything Mick was saying, which is obviously a good thing . . . and I hazard a guess they won’t be getting to meetings late in the future.”

Unquestionably Northern Arizona Uni, with its state-of the-art facilities and close proximity to Mt Humphreys and the Grand Canyon, delivered for the players on many levels through the 14-day campaign.

“For the players, there was instant value to understand what the coach’s expectations are and his gameplan and structure,” McKay said.

“The long-term effects for them on the physical side of things are that their blood parameters would have changed which we want to keep topping up in the altitude room, and whether that has significant physical benefits is yet to be seen.

“But certainly there were some mental benefits. The players were really positive and energized when they were there, which was fantastic to see . . . and they dipped into their pockets also, contributing in varying degrees to fund the camp to get that experience and the associated benefits.”

• Click here to view more images of Carlton's Grand Canyon hike.
• Click here to view more images of Carlton's Mt. Humphreys climb.