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Me, on the bus going to Talkeetna to check in at the ranger station. Every climber has to do this!

While driving to Talkeetna we could see the mountain due to great weather! It was awesome to always have a view of the mountain!

We have been briefed! They showed us our route. We heard stories about the West Buttress side of the mountain from a very funny ranger. We ate lunch here and ran into some climbers going the West Buttress route. (Their leader was a previous NOLS instructor, Ben, Erica and Pat knew him.)

Back on the Bus! Lots of driving involved in going from Palmer to the park entrance in Talkeetna where we camped. The next morning was another 4 hours bus ride in the park to our drop off point, just before the Eileson visitor center.

One of 3 instructors, Pat, has been the only one on the team to reach the summit on a previous trip. Erica is on her 3rd trip up, and Ben is on his 2nd. Pat rocks at dancing as we all found out one break on glacier.

The mountain (off in the distance) with the tundra muck in the foreground. You go through pretty drastic scenery changes in this National park!

Camp #1: We had super silty water. We could not even sift it out with a bandana strainer. The silt was so fine it wouldn't even settle overnight! So, Ting-ting (Szu-ting) made her Ting Ting special. The instructors were jealous and we took notes on the secret rciepe! (I miss TING-TING!)

Hey, this is me at camp#1. Our tents could not be visable from the road so we hiked in about 5 miles to be out of sight.

The 3 instructors just trying to compete (cooking) with the Ting-ting special. (No one could beat the Ting-ting special!) Note the nice sunny weather. We went right to bed after dinnr though because, believe it or not, it was late at night here!

Checking out the mountain from afar on the tundra/ shale moraines.

Awesome views of the mountain. (Still camp #1)

Look where we have come! See our tracks in the snow! We are not on the glacier just yet, so we knew there were rocks under the snow. Not cracked up Glacier beneath, there is a big difference! This is Erica and Pat. ( I think that's Pat!)

This is the vast expanse of the dirt covered (toe) of the Muldrow glacier. We scouted from the top of this windy, windy hill to check out the view, but we didn't stay long. (It looks calm only because there are no trees to show the gusting winds!)

Still windy, but we have had a long travel day and the 2nd group has caught up. (We hiked in spread out small groups during these travel days.) We camped in this lovely wind tunnel!

It's a windy, cold wait for the green light camping go. Setting up the tent took about 6 people on one tent just to hold it down. (Hard to sleep with strong winds gusting!)

Dan carried a sled on his pack for the entire approach to the mountain. He is an awesome person, and the youngest on the course! Since he had the sled he could not sit on his pack at breaks, so this is how he took a break. One tough cookie right there!

Camp #3: no wind HOORAY! We had our first all group meeting here. The sun was out so drying your sweaty socks was easy! In the foreground is a shear wall of ice that had water falls and falling rock at a constant trickle.

Note: perspective... tent - person - ice wall! It was a huge thing to look at and listen to. We got our water from the pond at the base. (Again no wind... hooray!)

Ting-ting in the stuff (shale) we would travel and camp on until the cache. Shale is great for making a nice flat kitchen for your stove!

Sorry , that's me again! (Maybe showing that I did brush my teeth while in the backcountry!)

Camp # 3: icewall, pond, and mountains above.

Taking a break, this was a l-o-n-g travel day. (Around 11 hours total.) At points, after this photo, we had to rope-up on snow covered glacier, and walk on dry glacier un-roped.

We are still traveling. These small (looking) folks are just gettnig water during the travel day. On dry glacier little pools of water are easy to find at each break. Some folks only carried 1 liter of water at a time because it was very easy to get water.

The rest of the group breaked on the moraine while a couple of people took lots of bottles down to that pond to fill up. (Note: people sit on their packs, if you sit on the rocks you get cold pretty quickly! So, sit on your pack, saves energy.)

Me at this break. I wore a pretty lightweight nylon hat, but sun protection is critical. So, it looks like a bonnet, but it works!

Camp # 4: View from inside the tent. We did not get to the cache, instead we camped on this odd moraine surrounded by ice and a running stream. We knew the next day we would only have a short push to the cache.

View from the back screen door

At the cache site. My first tent group was Geno, Robby, Ting-ting, and I. Naomie, Lanie, Dan and Jon were another group. John, Geoff, Mark and Seth were the other student groups. (I miss Ting-ting!)

The day after we got to the cache (it would be the day I would start to hike out) and a rest day for everyone else staying (at the cache). Seth is on the left, Jon in the white hat, Naomie in red, and John in the black with yellow boots. (Your for sure get to know people by clothes out in the back counrty. We are usualy bundled in the same outfit.)

Szu-ting. Look at the great weather we had for the rest day (and the start of my hike out.) It is still cold here, and energy loss can happen quick hense people still wear their rain coats and bundle up.

The lower icefall can be seen in this photo from the cache sight. While I was hiking out, the people stayed and took a break. The next day I hiked out all the way to Wonder lake, this is when the remaining group hiked to the lower icefall left a cache. Seth was injured on the way back to the spot of this photo.

That light brown wall was HUGE! On the other side of that wall was the valley that is seen from the park service webcam!

The mystery person is Geno!

2 days after Geoff's Birthday. Ting-ting's hand, Geoff and Mark taking advantage of the rest day. It was a perfect sunny rest day.

Dan in the back, Naomie in red, and John posing for me. (He is very good at that!)

See... what did I say!

Seth and the lower icefall. Day before he got injured.

Seth, the lower icefall. It looks closer than it is! (The Polish guys showed up after this photo. They were interesting and later Seth told me they didn't even have snow shoes. They were out to climb the same route as we were. Just 2 Polish guys from nowhere!)

Naomie and Myself with McGonagall pass in the back ground. That is where I exited. (Naomie rocks!)

Us in front of the lower icefall and the rising mountain. We look good with the red and orange! Hot tamales!

So,I exited over that pass. The course will be doing just this in July when they exit. Denali came out to say goodbye and let me know it will always be there and these things happen. Look at the terrain difference! What you can't see are the MOSQUITOES! (Pat's biggest nemisis.)

My camera did something odd, but that is Jon and a bear can. We carried 4 out with us (16 were at the cache). In order to camp in this area bear cans are essentail, while hiking one yells YEAH BEAR every now and then. (No bells please!)

Much better picture of Jon, the mountains, the tundra and bear cans. This is where we saw the fox den.

I can't rememebr if that was Foraker or Denali, but that is our tent! (In a mosquito swamped hill. ) Imagine bear camping,.. you can't eat in your tent so with every bite a mosquito or 2 jumps into your bowl!

Here you can see some of them and my head net a must!

Yeah, there are some of them and our tent!

Look one landed on my net so it looks like it is in my teeth! Not the protein anyone wants to have!

The mountain, look at that weather! Foraker is off right and the big D is smack in the middle. This is Pat hiding from the mosquitos in the foreground, and you can see the trail we were following. Awesome views! (Too bad my leg was killing me!)

Pat again cursing the mosquitos with Denali in the background. Breaks were short, we needed wind or something. But it was hot and sunny on this vacation with Geno, Jon and Pat. Geno is awesome he called my Evac a "VAY CAY in A-K." He was great!

Clouds role in, still sunny and HOT! Tundra can be muddy, and the river crossing that day was freezing cold so we were glad to have the sun!

The mountain is up there! It blends in with the clouds because it is so tall. Look we are in the trees. We did bush wack small sections and it was crazy for my leg and I.