The Great One

So the largest mountain in North America is here in Alaska standing about 20,320 ft. It is known as Denali or "The Great One" by it's native name or Mt. Mckinley after a reporter from New York boasting the campaign of President McKinley over support for the gold standard for this country. The name battle is still continuing to this day as they ask for the mountain to be returned to it's original name, but no matter what you call it - it is without a doubt "The Great One!"

Well today I used one of my excursions to go up to Talkeetna and take a flightseeing tour of the Alaskan Mountain Range and in particular Denali. What's even better is that me, and my two other co-workers with me got right on the next flight that even had a glacier landing, it was perfect. We've had some forrest fires in the area so it's been a bit hazy down in the valleys but after we passed the clouds at about 6-7,000ft the moutain peaks were out and were absolutely breathtaking.

We got to circle the mountains and see about 3 different glaciers and we even got to land at base camp for climbing the west side of the mountain (about 95% of the attempts are made from the west) and they just closed the climbing season - about a week early with these high temperatures lately - so our landing will be one of the last because the chances of crevases with dramatically increase. Needless to say the view was gorgeous and such a great experience, I'm so glad I went and I'll probably head back again this summer for just a flight seeing tour again because it was really that good! If you make it here to Alaska - K2 Aviation out of Talkeetna has to be on you list!

My first snowball here in Alaska at base camp on Khalitna Glacier!

A shot of base camp as we were taking off!

Also while we were in Talkeetna I purchased a moose nugget - that's right a painted piece of moose poop. The Moose Dropping Festival is this Saturday and they sell 3,000 tickets max and a white painted moose nugget is put in a bucket with a number on it - you buy the ticket for $5.00 and are given another painted nugget with a pin to wear on your jacket/shirt/etc. and then on Saturday the bucket is hung over a large bullseye and they release the bottom letting the nuggets fall. The closest nugget to the center gets $1,500, second place $600, third through eleventh $150, and the farthest away gets $300. So send out your good vibes for #1066 Saturday at 6pm Alaskan time as the nuggets drop, and if I win I'll never look at moose poop the same again!