Tomorrow is a big day for me. I plan on starting my drive to Talkeetna in the early morning (its about an 8 hour drive north from Homer). My partner Jeremy will drive down from Fairbanks and meet me there. We got a cheap hotel and plan on going over our gear one last time in a warm place, eating a pizza in town, and talking strategy and safety. I made sure the hotel room was ground level and we can drive our trucks right up to the door.
I also plan on stopping by Talkeetna Aero in the afternoon and chatting up our pilot, who has been extremely helpful and accomodating with information. If they can fly a plane then they get THE BLUE RIBBON from me as everything else they've done has been awesome. Sure hope he can keep it in the air.
We have been put through the ringer lately emotionally: while I was on the North Slope reports started trickling in about a warming trend hitting the interior. Well, it was true. Denali Park got as warm as +48 degrees one day and was actually above freezing for almost 2 weeks. Warm Chinook winds from the south were devastating our snowpack. We were crushed. After 8 months of planning, organizing, researching, and training we were hearing that our dream was literally melting away. We were speechless, and had given up all hope of the trip in 2010.
Well, it appears that our snowpack survived! I flew over the entire state yesterday and saw snow from Prudhoe Bay to the Gulf of Alaska. The interior's warm spell has passed and it is now locked into a deep freeze with snow predicted for the park every day for the next week. Temperatures are now about negative 15 (a little colder than we'd like, naturally, but better than the alternative), and should remain well below freeezing for weeks to come.
So, why are we doing this Jim? Thats actually a tough one to answer, but I'll try. I love to camp, its great to be outdoors...especially up here in Alaska where the opportunity for adventure exists and the feeling that you're the first person to ever walk the land is right outside your door. Winter camping is especially wonderful: there are virtually no people out there, water is accessible, there are no bugs, and you can literally go anywhere on frozen terrain. I will be able to navigate up and down frozen rivers, across muskeg swamps, and over inhospitable tussocks with ease. There is also a serious challenge here. Physically, we have to be in good shape: I have been running and doing aerobic exercises for 8 months now. I did some weight training recently to improve my strength. My job is quite physical, so that helps too. Winter camping is also something that must be taken seriously in a safety aspect. Hypothermia and frostbite can cause serious problems and even kill. Avoidance in this matter is first and foremost on our minds--we will not take any unnecessary chances out there: we will dress to avoid these issues, hydrate and eat nonstop, and hole up when we have to. This is not a trip for someone with poor winter skills and little winter camping experience.
As for the specific location of this trip, a better spot could not be had anywhere in my opinion. Denali National Park and Wilderness Preserve is a gem year-round, but especially so in the winter. The route we chose is through a non-mechanized wilderness boundary--no snowmobiles, no planes landing, just pristine wilderness through which we will observe the unparallelled beauty of the Alaska Range massif and its residents. This is the heartland of the wild: moose, caribou, wolverine, pika,wolves, beaver, fox,marmot, marten, lynx, hare, sheep, ptarmigan....the list goes on and on. To have the opportunity to pass through their natural environment during winter and observe them firsthand is nothing short of a religious experience for me. This is a personal pilgrimage.
By day two on our trek , we will pass out of forested areas and enter open stretches of taiga. We will then enter compartmented mountainous regions that will force us to ascend numerous passes in excess of 4000 feet. That may not sound like much for Colorado, but at these latitudes it is completely exposed. Wind at elevation in exposed mounatin passes is a serious hazard in regards to the chill factor, and thats why I carry an anenometer: its simply no joking matter; if the windchill is in the danger zone we will find shelter immediately.
In the summer, these areas are simply gorgeous and offer varied wildlife. I have had intimate encounters with both grizzly bears and wolves above treeline between Toklat and Eielson. Once you start to go west of Eielson, a gradual descent ensues and the foothills of the Alaska range fall away, exposing a massive piedmont plateau and glacial system falling from Denali itself. It is unbelieveable, and the view will literally be all ours. I don't anticipate seeing another person out there in 11 days; the kennel rangers have informed me they haven't been west of Toklat once this winter. Price of admission for two people for 10 nights? $10. Can't beat that!
