Alaska Photo of the Month - March 2011
You Are Not A Passenger - Alaska Photo of the Month: March 4, 2011
Here's the 4th (and for those of you counting, I did miss a month or two!) from our exploratory trip into Denali National Park this past summer.
First things first - what comes to mind when you look at this photo? If you're thinking words like ominous, dark, wet, slippery, steep, loose, or just plain scary, then you certainly have good wilderness instinct! In fact, in reality, this slope was even more difficult and dangerous than the picture conveys.
After hiking up the extraordinarily rocky Kanikula glacier in a driving rain storm, we had to find a suitable place to exit the glacier on its west flank in order to continue our route to Bear Creek. Our only option turned out to be this 500' talus field that teetered uncomfortably close to the angle of repose - the steepest slope a pile of rocks will take before it collapses. Not only were the rocks dangerously loose, they were also incredibly slick with rain saturated lichen.
After we got to the top of the field, Aaron and I decided that we would never attempt this particular route in the Denali National Park again. What we were calling Denali "unexplored" had, in brief period of a couple of hours, become Denali "unrepeated!" All future backpacking trips into Denali would avoid the miserable Kanikula Glacier valley.
