Looking down the SE fork of the Kahiltna from Base CampWell, our last expedition of the season is off and running! This morning they packed up their kit in Anchorage and drove the 2.5 hours north to the small, end of the road town of Talkeetna, AK. They checked in with the National Park Service, completing the requisite registration forms and watching an eye popping PowerPoint presentation depicting all the ways climbers could get into trouble on Denali (actually is is a very informative presentation and much less gruesome than the old video the NPS used to show).
Formalities completed, they regrouped at the Talkeetna Air Taxi (TAT) office where they weighed all their packs and supplies for the flight to the glacier. As the weather was pretty nice, with only scattered clouds, the team was able to fly in to Base Camp, located on the Southeast fork of the Kahiltna Glacier at an elevation of 7,200 feet.
Base Camp is a breathtaking spot surrounded by peaks soaring a mile or two above your head. Denali looms more than three miles higher, framed off the east ridge of Mt Francis, to the north. The team spent some time soaking everything in, and then got to work establishing their camp and rigging their sleds for tomorrow morning's early start up glacier.
