Baggage delays, but they're on the glacier!

One of our international climbers experienced some separation anxiety when his bags didn't arrive on the same flight as he did. The team rallied around him and agreed to hold off on driving to Talkeetna for a day to allow his bags to catch up with him. Sure enough, his bags showed up and the team drove up to Talkeetna yesterday for the requisite briefing with the National Park Service. They then changed into their glacier clothes and hopped aboard Talkeetna Air Taxi's ski planes for the 45 minute flight to basecamp on the Southeast Fork of the Kahiltna Glacier.

The flight to Basecamp is breathtaking, and not just because you take off at 700feet and land at 7,200 feet. The low lying area to the south of Denali is currently covered in snow, punctuated by frozen lakes and criss-crossed with the tracks of the ubiquitous snow machines the Alaskans rely upon during the long winter. You fly over the relatively low elevation Peter's Hills and then the terrain begins to rise, as you enter the Alaska Range. If the weather is good, you have great views of the 9,000' South Face of your objective, Denali.

The landing at Basecamp is equally exciting, as you descend toward an improbable looking stretch of snow, surrounded by jagged peaks and dominated by the mile high North Buttress of Mount Hunter. The team was busy putting camp in at BC and rigging their sleds for today's departure to Camp 1.

We'll keep you posted!