Greeting from Talkeetna!
Today is the 4th day in a row with superb weather in town and from what we've heard, the mountains as well. On Tuesday Nick D. and myself escorted the (hopefully soon-to-be) youngest Indian woman to climb all 7 summits. It was a georgeous day to ski up the upper Kahiltna too Camp 1 at the base of Ski Hill. Once there she settled into her tent and Nick and I turned around and made quick work of the 6 mile journey back to Base Camp to catch the last flight out that night.


On our way to Camp 1. The low point in the distance is Kahiltna Pass. Camp 1 is at the bottom of the hill infront of the pass.


Taking a break on the five and a half journey from Base Camp to Camp 1. Notice the lack of clouds!

Tomorrow (5/9) Todd, Dusty and myself are schudled to depart with Ken and Carlos to have another shot at the West Buttress on Denali. We've had a leisurly couple of days of food and gear packing and weather permitting, fly tomorrow afternoon for the 21 day climb.

Cheers,
Alex

Brian and myself at 2:00 AM working on student evaluations.


The group on the East summit of Control Tower.


Everyone inside our snow cave at Base Camp.



Our ride in on the first day of the course.


Dan Corn, Brian Skean and myself recently returned to Talkeetna after a successful 12 day mountaineering course on the Southeast Fork of the Kahiltna Glacier. The three of us had 7 students fron Alaska and one from Denmark. We had weather ranging from -35 to 50 and sunny. We were unable to get to some of our pre-planned objectives due to 2+ meters of fresh snow that produced unstable and unsafe conditions for climbing. On the second to last day we were able to successfully climb a smaller peak in the middle of the Southeast Fork called Control Tower.

Now back safe and sound in Talkeetna for a little over a week for some R&R then back-to-back West Buttress climbs through the end of June.

Cheers.