As most of you know, I took a mountaineering course with Alpine Ascents June 7th-13th. I arrived in Anchorage on the 4th and kicked around there for a few days. I walked on the bike paths and admired the mountain ranges that seemed to surround the city.
Then I was off to Talkeenta, where I laid out on a rocky beach by the river and saw Denali for the first time. What a sight! Then I saw a bald eagle fly by. It was amazing! A highlight was seeing Team Dom, ruff and tumble gang, off to Anchorage in the morning. A day before I headed off to the glacier.
The morning of the 7th, I caught a ride up to where Alpine Ascents was meeting and the skies were the clearest I've seen them and the views of the Alaska range from the overlook on the highway in and out of Talkeenta was out of this world. Even more spectacular was the flight on the glacier. The pilot asked who wanted to sit in the co-pilot's seat and I think the gang was shocked we could sit there that they were silent. I took advantage of this and hopped right in and had views out the front window. A great experience.
We landed on the glacier in the evening after a day of knot typing, prussik practice and an extensive gear check. I was blown away by being surrounded by immense peaks. It was tough to judge how big they actually were, then you'd see a plane fly by Mt. Foraker and see how tiny the plane was compared to the mountain. We were looking at 10,000 feet of gain in front of us. The hike to where we set up camp was short. I was craving a little more exercise pulling the sleds and carrying the pack, but after about 30 minutes of travel we were there. One of the guys needed to stop and rest about 3 times and I wondered if he'd exercised at all before the trip and how he'd make it up the summit that week.
The next few days were great. The first time we roped up, one of the two guides, Jason, had me in the lead of the middle rope (after I taught everyone how to do a butterfly coil) and I stayed there the rest of the time. Noone asked or volunteered to do it so it was very enjoyable being first in line and able to set everyone's rhythmn. We learned cravasse rescue, went for a stroll on the glacier, practiced cramponing and self arrest, dug anchors, and travelled as a roped team. Alot of it was review for me, but cravasse rescue was brand new and I was glad to learn the basic technique with knots and pulleys. We were hoping to find a cravasse suited to lower people down into - I was excited for that - but the lip of the crack was to large and too risky to put someone in. So instead we threw our backpacks in and practiced rescuing them! My backpack was named Betsy and she got stuck under the lip of the cravasse, but luckily the guides rappelled down to retrieve her.
Summit day was on June 12th, early morning. We climbed up Control Tower, a nearby peak that was a little under 9,000 feet. We woke up at 4am and started climbing by 5am. It was weird that it was daylight all the time. The sun came from behind the mountain in the east at 8am (and if it was clear skies, the temperature rose instantly) and lowered behind the mountains at 11pm. The minute the sun went down or behind a cloud, it chilled immediately. During the middle of the day we roasted. My tent felt about 80 degrees. Even with the sun down, the twilight remained all night. Alot of the teams going up Denali were on night schedule lower on the glacier because of the heat. The snow was firm enough for our summit morning which was good.
Of course the weather was not-so-great on summit day. We were totally socked in and at times it was a whiteout. Jason poked ahead though and we plodded along the cravasse maze, around Control Tower to gain the ridge. We couldn't see the immense ice seracs on the way up, but speedily moved past them. Once we gained the ridge, it seemed like a quick traverse across and we were on the summit. The ridge must be really spectacular when there's views. Being there and being socked in was a bit dream-like. I saw the cliffs and steep slopes to either side imagined what it was like on a clear day. The climb was easy for me, and again I wished the guides had picked a bigger peak or at least a longer approach to another smaller peak. Two of the guys struggled and were really beat, but I hardly broke a sweat. (Except when we cruised by the ice seracs on the way down and it cleared up a bit to actually see them!) I was nervous staring up at these giant pillars of ice and wished my roped team moved their butts a little quicker. They must have been at least fifty feet tall high up near the summit.
We napped during the heat of the day, and for the rest of the time we went over some glaciology, map and compass, and reviewed some things we learned. In the evening after the summit and a nap, I was itching for more exercise and Jason asked who wanted to go for an evening stroll down to the airstrip. I couldn't believe I was the only one who wanted to go! Jason was great, and said, let's go, so we roped up. He taught me a quick mountaineer's coil to shorten the end of the rope since it was just the two of us and we headed out for a quick hike to get the heart pumping and warm up. It was a great week. I had wished there were less than 10 of us, because it made it difficult to practice things like cravasses rescue more than one time, since everyone had to do it. And maybe we could have climbed more (some people seemed clearly out of shape), but overall it was a great experience!
The Alaska range is the most beautiful landscape I have ever seen.
All my pictures are posted. I took alot of photos so I separated them into a few albums. Working on the captions now. http://hikingleaf.smugmug.com Don't forget to view them via slideshow for maximum effect!
Few quick notes I forgot to add. All day and night you'd hear and see avalanches coming off the slopes of every mountain around you. It was amazing. And on the 4th day, NBC was on the glacier near our camp filming an episode of "America's toughest jobs". Mountain guides do have it rough.
Anchorage, Alaska
Then I was off to Talkeenta, where I laid out on a rocky beach by the river and saw Denali for the first time. What a sight! Then I saw a bald eagle fly by. It was amazing! A highlight was seeing Team Dom, ruff and tumble gang, off to Anchorage in the morning. A day before I headed off to the glacier.
Alaska Range from the Beach (Denali to the right) and Team Dom heading out of Talkeenta
The morning of the 7th, I caught a ride up to where Alpine Ascents was meeting and the skies were the clearest I've seen them and the views of the Alaska range from the overlook on the highway in and out of Talkeenta was out of this world. Even more spectacular was the flight on the glacier. The pilot asked who wanted to sit in the co-pilot's seat and I think the gang was shocked we could sit there that they were silent. I took advantage of this and hopped right in and had views out the front window. A great experience.
View from the outlook (left to right: Mt. Foraker, Mt. Hunter and Denali) and views from the flight on the glacier.
We landed on the glacier in the evening after a day of knot typing, prussik practice and an extensive gear check. I was blown away by being surrounded by immense peaks. It was tough to judge how big they actually were, then you'd see a plane fly by Mt. Foraker and see how tiny the plane was compared to the mountain. We were looking at 10,000 feet of gain in front of us. The hike to where we set up camp was short. I was craving a little more exercise pulling the sleds and carrying the pack, but after about 30 minutes of travel we were there. One of the guys needed to stop and rest about 3 times and I wondered if he'd exercised at all before the trip and how he'd make it up the summit that week.
Getting the sleds ready for travel to camp (Control Tower on the left).
The next few days were great. The first time we roped up, one of the two guides, Jason, had me in the lead of the middle rope (after I taught everyone how to do a butterfly coil) and I stayed there the rest of the time. Noone asked or volunteered to do it so it was very enjoyable being first in line and able to set everyone's rhythmn. We learned cravasse rescue, went for a stroll on the glacier, practiced cramponing and self arrest, dug anchors, and travelled as a roped team. Alot of it was review for me, but cravasse rescue was brand new and I was glad to learn the basic technique with knots and pulleys. We were hoping to find a cravasse suited to lower people down into - I was excited for that - but the lip of the crack was to large and too risky to put someone in. So instead we threw our backpacks in and practiced rescuing them! My backpack was named Betsy and she got stuck under the lip of the cravasse, but luckily the guides rappelled down to retrieve her.
Jason flinging my backpack into the cravasse! We'll save ya, Betsy.
Summit day was on June 12th, early morning. We climbed up Control Tower, a nearby peak that was a little under 9,000 feet. We woke up at 4am and started climbing by 5am. It was weird that it was daylight all the time. The sun came from behind the mountain in the east at 8am (and if it was clear skies, the temperature rose instantly) and lowered behind the mountains at 11pm. The minute the sun went down or behind a cloud, it chilled immediately. During the middle of the day we roasted. My tent felt about 80 degrees. Even with the sun down, the twilight remained all night. Alot of the teams going up Denali were on night schedule lower on the glacier because of the heat. The snow was firm enough for our summit morning which was good.
Mt. Foraker in twilight, around 11 p.m.
Of course the weather was not-so-great on summit day. We were totally socked in and at times it was a whiteout. Jason poked ahead though and we plodded along the cravasse maze, around Control Tower to gain the ridge. We couldn't see the immense ice seracs on the way up, but speedily moved past them. Once we gained the ridge, it seemed like a quick traverse across and we were on the summit. The ridge must be really spectacular when there's views. Being there and being socked in was a bit dream-like. I saw the cliffs and steep slopes to either side imagined what it was like on a clear day. The climb was easy for me, and again I wished the guides had picked a bigger peak or at least a longer approach to another smaller peak. Two of the guys struggled and were really beat, but I hardly broke a sweat. (Except when we cruised by the ice seracs on the way down and it cleared up a bit to actually see them!) I was nervous staring up at these giant pillars of ice and wished my roped team moved their butts a little quicker. They must have been at least fifty feet tall high up near the summit.
The giant ice cornices and seracs along the ridge of Control Tower and On the ridge during summit day heading up the steep section.
We napped during the heat of the day, and for the rest of the time we went over some glaciology, map and compass, and reviewed some things we learned. In the evening after the summit and a nap, I was itching for more exercise and Jason asked who wanted to go for an evening stroll down to the airstrip. I couldn't believe I was the only one who wanted to go! Jason was great, and said, let's go, so we roped up. He taught me a quick mountaineer's coil to shorten the end of the rope since it was just the two of us and we headed out for a quick hike to get the heart pumping and warm up. It was a great week. I had wished there were less than 10 of us, because it made it difficult to practice things like cravasses rescue more than one time, since everyone had to do it. And maybe we could have climbed more (some people seemed clearly out of shape), but overall it was a great experience!
The Alaska range is the most beautiful landscape I have ever seen.
Denali from the plane
All my pictures are posted. I took alot of photos so I separated them into a few albums. Working on the captions now. http://hikingleaf.smugmug.com Don't forget to view them via slideshow for maximum effect!
Few quick notes I forgot to add. All day and night you'd hear and see avalanches coming off the slopes of every mountain around you. It was amazing. And on the 4th day, NBC was on the glacier near our camp filming an episode of "America's toughest jobs". Mountain guides do have it rough.
Last edited:
