View of Denali from the Eielson Visitor Center north of the mountain. The visitor center is at about 3700 ft elevation and the river at about 3100 ft. The summit is 20320 ft so there is a lot of relief. Talkeetna, on the south side, also with a good view of the mountain, is at 350 ft.

Telephoto view of the north side of Denali from the Eielson Visitor Center.

Downtown Talkeetna and the office of Doug Geeting Aviation. The brown Colt wagon was ours. It passed 100,000 miles on this trip.

Camping before the climb. Eagle River Campground near Ancohorage, I think.

One of the streets in Talkeetna served as an airstrip. There was also a real airport.

Geeting's ski plane at the airport. He had a sticker on his yoke that read "If in doubt, don't"

Looking back on Talkeetna on our first attempt to fly in.

Heavy fog. We were not able to get to the Kahiltna glacier on this flight

Returning to Talkeetna - lining up on the street/runway.

Next day, next try - much better.

Some of the mountains on the flight to the Kahiltna.

The Kahiltna glacier from the flight in.

Lining up on the "landing strip" on the Southeast Fork of the Kahiltna.

Geeting's plane on the landing area with our pile of gear.

Photo of a map of Mount McKinley that we used on the mountain. See the next image for a more modern map with the route marked.

Looking toward the summit from the Kahiltna.

Getting ready to leave the airstrip, I think. Note the mixed skiis and snowshoes. That's ok going up, but complicated going down when the skiers want to slide and all are roped together. The sleds kept the pack weights down, but could be hard to handle at times. Note also that we are not alone. There were upwards of 50 people at some of the camps.

Dave loading up. The climbing hardware at his belt is to use in case of a crevasse fall. The wands are for marking the trail in case of white out. The aluminum stake is for protection on steep snow.

Bob (right) and I getting ready. This is a photo by Dave and was digitized from the slide copy made just after the trip.

A K2 Aviation plane arriving at the airstrip. Note the airstrip is really just a stretch of glacier without crevasses that is marked by dark objects in the snow. Without the markers, it is nearly impossible for the pilot to tell how high he/she is.

When the sun is out, there are amazing views in all directions.

Most of the trip up the glacier was on wide, smooth snow on ice. But occasionally there were holes! When those holes were covered with snow, that snow didn't sag, as it does in more temperate climates, so you really should remain roped. Many of the fatalities on Denali are experienced climbers who think they can tell where the crevasses are and don't rope. Some of those have been European mountain guides.

A camp on the glacier. Note the wands around the campsite. We have probed the area inside the wands and know there are no crevasses. At one camp, there was a notch in the perimeter because our probes found no bottom even though there was no sign on the surface of trouble. Note that, to take the picture, I went outside the wands - roped.

Occasionally we ran into white-out conditions. This was pre-GPS so, without the wands or a beaten path, navigation would have been difficult and, because of the crevasses, dangerous. With so many people on the mountain, there usually was a path.

More good views in nice weather.

The camp of one of the larger guided groups with another in the distance.

Our camp. We cooked just outside the tents, usually while sitting inside. Cooking inside the tents is dangerous as proven tragically while we were there. We encountered a group bringing down the bodies of two young Swiss climbers who had asphyxiated themselves that way.

The view toward the summit of Denali from near our first camp.

Looking back down the beaten path past one of the mid-glacier camps.

Digging in. Most people on the mountain used snow block walls to shelter their tents in case of servere winds. As it turned out, we did not have such weather.

Looking up from a glacier camp.

On the trail above Kahiltna Pass.

At the camp near 11000 ft. looking up.

Our camp at about 11,000 ft. We attempted to save fuel by melting snow on plastic tarps. It wasn't all that successful.

This is from the 11,000 ft camp seen in the previous picture. It is overlooking Kahiltna Pass and Kahiltna Dome. You can see the fog pouring over the pass to the glacier below.

Dave sleeping.

The same camp in a white-out after a snow fall.

Other parties in the vicinity. The bundle of skiis is probably a cache left by a party higher on the mountain.

Mount Crosson with Kahiltna Dome to the right seen from the 11,000 ft camp. Identified with Google Earth.

Dave.

A typical view of the trail with traffic. The wide spacing between people is because they are roped;

Mount Crosson seen from the 11000 ft camp. Kahiltna Pass is a bit to the right. Identified with Google Earth ground view.

Heading toward Windy Corner where we left a cache and returned to 11000.

Digging out after a snow storm. This is still at the 11000 ft camp.

This looks to be the trail above 11000 ft near the place marked as Motorcycle Hill on the modern map (I have no memory of that name from the trip). We are now on our way to the major campsite at just over 14000 ft.

Arriving at the 14000 ft camp. There were on the order of 50 people here, although not all the tent sites are visibie in this photo. Usually at these camps you can use a pre-existing shelter rather than construct one from scratch. The camp also had a communal pit toilet.

Looking toward the summit in the evening.

Mount Crosson again in the evening.

Would you trust this man with your life! Dave looking a bit ragged.

Some of the ice fall activity in the vicinity.

Returning for our Windy Corner cache, I suspect. Note the empty sled.

Approaching Windy Corner, I think.

Heading back up with loads. Unless loaded with very low centers of gravity, the sleds tended to roll.

At the 14000 ft camp.

Cooking at the 14000 ft camp. There were rangers and a doctor at this camp. It is the main collecting point along the route and is normally well populated. After a poor night's sleep, I had my oxygen checked. It was ok.

Looking up the route ahead. The path is visible heading up the glacier and the steeper slopes to the West Buttress ridge. The route then goes along the ridge to the 17000 ft camp. There are fixed lines on the steeper snow slope.

The medical tent. They do some research on the response of climbers to altitude here where they can get a good sample.

Mount Foraker from the 14000 ft camp. Mt. Crosson is in the foreground. Foraker is the second highest in the range at about 17,400 ft. The tents are from some other party.

Heading to the saddle on the North Buttress above the 14000 ft camp. There was a traffic jam on the fixed ropes.

Looking down on the 14000 ft camp from the climb.

At the ridge.

A couple of other climbers coming down. I think these might have been the ones who did the landing strip to summit in one push. They had been living at the 14000 ft camp helping the operation there so they were well acclimatized. I think they were the ones who took the Swiss bodies to the airstrip.

The crowd collected at the saddle.

Looking to the north side of the range. Note the base elevations to the north are about 2500 ft and to the south are under 700 ft. With the summit at 20,320 ft, This gives Denali, some claim, the greatest above-sea-level base to top difference in the world. Mauna Kea is much more if you include the under-ocean base.

From the ridge looking toward Foraker.

Looking down toward the Kahiltna Glacier. If you look closely, you can see the climbing track. The two sharp peaks are Mt. Hunter and South Hunter.

Looking south from the ridge.

We left a cache at the ridge and headed back down.

The 14000 ft camp from above. Our tents are, I think, sort of in the middle of the main cluster. They are grey while most are orange or some such.

At the 14000 ft camp.

Evening at 14000 ft.

Heading up again in fine weather. A lot of other climbers are also going up to the West Buttress.

On the fixed ropes (yellow) heading for the ridge.

At the ridge. A lot of climbers stopping for lunch. Some camping.

Heading up along the West Buttress.

Another climber on the ridge.

Looking down along the ridge.

Getting near the top of the ridge.

Approaching the 17000 ft camp. The camp is before the big slope in the background. You can see the trail above the camp cutting diagonally up and left across that slope. That area has been the scene of a number of accidents with people falling on hard packed snow.

More along the ridge, looking back.

Starting to set our camp at 17000 ft.

The tent set up. We only use the one tent at this site. I was last in and squeezed badly in a corner. That was one of the reasons I did not sleep that night and had no energy the next day.

Looking back at Mount Foraker.

Dave and Bob ready to go the next morning. I went about half a mile before realizing that I just did not have the energy to make a summit push. So I returned to camp and they went on. It was a very nice day but I badly needed more acclimatization. Also I don't think I had completely shaken the bug from the drive up.

Heading toward the summit. The next several photos are from Dave and Bob. They were copied on slides in 1986 and digitized with the rest of the photos here in 2023.

There are three people here - count the feet. As I recall one had a problem and needed help. None were our party.

After the big slope, the back side approach tothe South (high) summit of Denali was on milder terrain. Person is Bob so photo by Dave.

Headed toward the summit. Person is Bob so photo by Dave.

Higher toward the summit. Again person is Bob so photo by Dave.

Approaching the summit. It looks like they dropped packs for the last bit. I think this is Bob so photo by Dave.

Looking south from near the summit, I think. They were high in the afternoon so the sun was in the west, shadows to the east.

Bob on the summit. Photo by Dave.

Looking back where they had come from in the summit area.

Looking down at the Kahiltna Glacier, I think, from the summit.

Dave on the summit so photo by Bob.

Looking north. The first ascent route came from that side.

Headed down. Person is Bob so photo by Dave.

Another on the way down by Dave.

Sunset view from camp showing the trail crossing the big slope. Note the sun barely dips below the horizon at this time of year at the latitude of Denali. Back to my photos.

The same slope later.

Sunset lighting.

The next day, there were high winds near the summit so nobody tried to go up, including me. I think I was strong enough the following day to go, but the weather did not cooperate that day either. Also Dave and Bob had flights they needed to catch and I did not feel comfortable leaving them to their own devices on the glaciers by heading up with another party (I had offers). I was the only one of the team with glacier experience. So I did not get to go to the top.

Headed down the Buttress.

Another along the Buttress.

Bob, I think, working down along the ridge. It got rather steep in places and we did some belaying. This photo might be a bit tipped too.

Continuing down the ridge. The path drops off to the south in the stretch you cannot see.

Back in the 14000 ft camp and starting down from there.

Looking south from below the 14000 ft camp.

Some crevasses along the way.

Looking south again toward Mt. Hunter, I think.

This is probably the 11000 ft camp. We had left our skiis there.

At the 11000 ft camp and recovering our cache. We left nothing on the mountain.

From somewhere near the 11000 ft camp. We headed down to about 9800 ft the day we left 14000 ft.

Light fog as we descend. Eventually we put the skiis/snow shoes back on.

The end of the West Buttress as seen from arount the 9800 ft camp. The climbing route does not go out to that end of the buttress.

On the descent, I didn't bother sleeping in the tent. I just used my sleeping bag in the open. This one is of me.

The Moon and Mt. Foraker behind Mt. Crosson.

Camp at 9800 ft.

Looking down glacier. The landing area is not on the big side glacier (East Fork) but around the corner below that.

Some scenery. I duplicated the view with Google Earth ground view and the mountain is Mt. Hunter as seen from our 7500 ft layover site.

This is the layover site at 7500ft. We were coming up on the crevasse fields near the start of the Southeast Fork of the Kahiltna, where the landing strip is located, and the snow was very soft in the afternoon. We waited here until midnight to let it firm up.

Some gorp. We had lots of it.

Bob in his bag at the layover.

My finger cracks. They are rather painful. Keeping hands dry helps. Superglue can also help as can liquid bandage - all things I've learned since. I have also gotten these on canoe expeditions.

We had good light at the layover so I took quite a few photos. The identifications are based on attempts to duplicate the view with Google Earth ground view. This is looking up the East Fork of the Kahiltna.

This is looking back toward the Denali Summit with the Kahiltna Peaks closer to us.

This appears to be Mt. Frances with Mt. Hunter in the background.

Again looking back toward the summit of Denali.

Mt Frances with our route around to the right and behind to the airstrip.

Mt. Hunter in the evening.

Back at the landing strip. We dragged in at about 3 am.

The ranger camp at the landing strip.

Dave waiting for the plane with our gear packed and ready to go.

Our flight arrives.

Doug Geeting on the East Fork of the Kahiltna Galacier, here to pick us up.

A scene from the flight out. Someone has climbed the glacier in the middle of the picture judging by the tracks.

The lowlands and a river between Denali and Talkeetna. I haven't matched this to Google Earth yet.

This photo was taken during the bus tour of Denali National Park along the Denali Park Road to the north of the mountain. Only a few cars were allowed on the road, mainly those with camping reservations for the campgrounds. All the day-trippers ride the bus - generally these school buses. One advantage of the bus is that you have many eyes watching for animals and when one is seen, the bus stops for viewing. I'm not sure if the system has changed in the many years since we were there.

A highlight of the bus ride was when we stopped on a bridge and saw this mother moose trying to protect her calves from a bear. I got this dramatic photo of the encounter. One the biggest photographic disappointments I've had is when I found out it was out of focus. But it's still interesting.

After dropping Bob and Dave at the airport and picking up Joan, we went back to the Denali Park road and got camping permits for 3 nights, including one at Wonder Lake at the end of the road. That allowed us to drive ourselves all the way out. In the middle of the night, there was a commotion in camp which was annoying until we saw the reason. This is one of the large number of photos taken that night.