As my plane began its descent near Anchorage, I saw it… the silhouette of what looked like a giant pyramid piercing through the clouds. It was Denali, standing over 20,310′ tall. So tall that it cleared the clouds that covered the rest of the Alaska Range that day. At that moment, I knew I was in for a very special trip.
Before I headed out to Denali, I had a few days to explore Alaska on my own. I managed to get out by train to Spencer Glacier and, with the help of a guide, really get into… and under it! My guide was pretty fearless so we dropped rope into a very large moulin (ice hole) and then found our way into a nearby ice cavern that led us underneath the glacier. It was unreal. I’m really not that ballsy when it comes to outdoor adventures, but for some reason I felt compelled to just go for it here.
The next day, it was time for Denali. My heart raced as I boarded the bush plane in Talkeetna which would take our group into the wild and make a water landing at the mouth of the Backside glacier, a few miles south of Denali’s base. While this trip was going to be limited to trekking and wouldn’t require any kind of dangerous climbing, it was still way beyond anything I’ve done outdoors.
The backside of Denali, in contrast to the north part of Denali National Park which you can access by road, is only accessible by bush plane. And those bush planes can only fly in certain conditions, so if the weather is bad you can be stuck out there for days. It turns out, the party before ours was stuck out there for three extra days waiting for the weather to clear. They were not happy and gave our guides a pretty bad time. There are no Ubers here.
We made a smooth landing on the small lake at the mouth of Backside Glacier. The Alaskan bush pilots are amazing… landing out in the middle of these rugged mountains and glaciers is like parking at the grocery store for them. We unpacked the plane and then hauled all of our stuff about a mile to our basecamp where we would be staying for the next four days.
We set up camp and then did a short hike to check out our surroundings. Backside Glacier is a small glacier that runs from the ice falls of Denali into the much larger Ruth Glacier. Ruth is incredible and sits atop the Great Gorge, with ice as thick as 5000 feet. It completely took my breath away as we made our approach in the plane.
The next few days, we trekked all over, in and around Backside Glacier, over to Ruth Glacier, and up a few unnamed peaks. Many of the peaks in the Alaska Range are un-named so, if you feel inclined, you can head up there and name a mountain after yourself.
We all chanted “Hey bear!” as we tramped through low-lying brush, hoping to scare away any wandering grizzlies. Fortunately, while we saw evidence of bears (their poop!), we didn’t have any encounters. Our guide had a revolver just in case. Apparently, a few hikers have been found mauled with their bear canister in hand… so you need something a little more compelling out here.
After a few days of great weather, our bush pilot returned to take us back to Talkeetna. From there, we took the Alaskan Railroad for a relaxing three hour ride back to Anchorage.
I’ve been all over the world and few places exhibit the raw, wild drama of the Alaska Range. It’s a thrill just to be there. I can only imagine what it must be like to actually get up on Denali. I’d love to go back someday and find out.
