Saturday, September 9th |
Mike and Bruce on the train to Whittier |
|
Boarding a ferry at Whittier for a tour of Prince William Sound |
|
A bird skims along the surface of Prince William Sound. |
|
|
Bruce boards the train for the return trip from Whittier to Anchorage. |
|
|
|
Sunday, September 10th |
On the Alaska Railroad, traveling from Anchorage to Talkeetna |
|
Bruce and Mike hanging out in the observation car |
|
The Blue Tarp Dental Society at Alaska Mountaineering School: Mike, Dan, Bruce, Pete and Paul |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Monday, September 11th |
AMS Instructor, Colby Coombs, runs us through an equipment check before we start out. |
|
|
Shedding excess layers. AMS Instructor, Caitlin Palmer, looks on. |
|
Hiking up into Peters Hills |
|
|
Our campsite in the Peters Hills |
|
To keep the bears out of our tents at night, we set up a separate cooking area down the hill. The pole that held up the shelter busted in the wind our first night. |
|
|
Tuesday, September 12th |
By Tuesday morning, the weather, and visibility, had deteriorated. |
|
Another Tuesday morning shot |
|
Pete crawls out of the tent. |
|
Mike putting on frozen boots and gaiters. |
|
|
Hiking up a snow-covered local peak |
|
|
|
Bruce pushes the boundaries. |
|
|
Pete, Dan, Bruce, and Paul |
|
|
Wednesday, September 13th |
Bruce, Paul, Caitlin, Colby, Pete, and Mike |
|
|
The tundra was covered in berries. |
|
In a display of bad acting, Bruce pretends he is eating the berries. |
|
The snow-covered local peak the group climbed is in the background. |
|
 |
 |
Pete and Paul at Wednesday night's dinner |
|
|
Colby checks the pole, which we repaired with duct tape. |
|
Playing cribbage in the tent. |
|
Later Wednesday night, the weather cleared. |
|
 |
Even though the weather was clearing, Dan and Paul were too comfortable to leave their tent. Dan snapped photos of Mt. McKinley from the doorway. |
|
Bruce settles in for the night. |
|
|
Thursday, September 14th |
Panorama of the Alaska Range with Bruce and Dan |
|
Group shot with Mt. McKinley in the background |
|
Stopping to eat lunch on a day hike |
|
Returning from the day hike |
|
Hiking out of Peters Hills |
|
We stopped for a beer at the Forks Roadhouse on our way back to Talkeetna. |
|
|
|
Friday, September 15th |
Playing basketball at AMS |
|
In the Talkeetna cemetary there is a memorial to all the people who have lost their lives climbing Mt. McKinley and other peaks in the Alaska Range. |
|
The Moose's Tooth?
Mt. Huntington? |
|
|
Our Peters Hills campsite seen from a "flightseeing" tour. |
|
|
|
|