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10/02/02)>Home >Vacations >Alaska Trip >Page 2
Alaska Trip - Page 2
We took a small plane trip at Talkeetna airport, about 2 hours north of Anchorage. This town is the staging area for the Mt. McKinley climbers. The little airplanes take climbers to the base camp. These expert climbs normally are done April through June, when the glacier is "stable". This is the only time also that tourists can be landed on the glacier (for 15 minutes). Climbers are normally left on the mountain for three weeks. This allows time to acclimate to the thin air, make the actual summit, and get back to base camp. Fifteen hundred climbers do this annually, so I think that means over 300 on the mountain at any one time. One to five perish trying. This year they lost three brothers. When this happens the whole town morns. First photo shows Roger riding with the pilot, Zach. He was young, humorous, and competent. He had just returned to Talkeetna after doing the same work above the Artic Circle. Bush pilots are everywhere in Alaska.
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The 20,000 foot Mt. McKinley (called Denali, by the natives) from the airplane. It is the highest point in North America. The Himalayas are higher, but this one rises out of nearly sea level, unlike the others. So they say that this one seems tallest. Magnificent, stunningly beautiful, and treacherous all at the same time.
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The mountain seen from under the wing.
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The glacier (the "flatter" area in the center) is where base camp is, and where glacier landings for tourists take place. There was deep and fresh snow and it was not possible to go down there.
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Here we are with Zach, back on solid ground with the airplane and the little log cabin office in the background. Capacity of the plane was 5 people and we shared the cost with a couple from Michigan. It flew at about 90 miles per hour and got as high as 15,000 feet. So the mountain was still above us.
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Our own cabin in the woods just outside and up the hillside from Talkeetna. Advertised as a bed and breakfast, we had our own little kitchen, and our hostess baked banana bread for us and also stocked the it with yogurt, juice, tea, coffee, etc. etc. She is a former climbing guide, now has a baby, and is married to a bush pilot.
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This is our cabin living room. Ladder/stairs went to a second bedroom which I did not want to negotiate every time I got up at night. So we used the lower one. But we did go up and look around.
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This is our view out the back side of the cabin . Fall color everywhere, but it was mostly yellow, no reds to speak of.
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More of the same. Light conditions constantly changed for more splendor.
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And more.
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And more.
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Here we see mountain range behind us, with the camera on our car. The location is a roadside rest stop between the cabin and town. Actually the mountains seemed lots closer than what this shows. (They were about 60 miles away.)
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