Denali Skiing

This June my friend Patrick Knoll from Missoula came for a visit, and we spent 17 days skiing on Denali. Although the conditions were not particularly conducive to skiing, we had a great trip and did find some good snow. Below is the Talkeetna Air Taxi otter at base camp.
A pilot's eye view of base camp on the Kahiltna.On an acclamation day, we got to the 17K' camp and Patrick was feeling the altitude. He stayed there and helped the NPS rangers do some work, while I couldn't resist climbing and skiing the North Summit via the Black Rock Couloir. Below is a photo Patrick took of me climbing up.My view from the top of the North Summit...pretty much a perfect day.

A self portrait just before skiing the Black Rock.  After that I skied the Rescue Gully down to camp.

Looking down the Black Rock with my tracks. Notice also Mt. Foraker in the distance and the 17K' camp below.

Our summit day dawned stormy at 14K' camp, but we decided to go out for a ski, and check out conditions on the Orient Express. There was a lot of blue ice everywhere, but less in the Orient. Thinking we'd 'just go up a little further', Patrick left his skis at around 16,000' at some blue ice. When we got to about 18K', we popped out of the clouds and in to the sun. We couldn't help but want to go tag the top. Unfortunately, by the time we got to the summit ridge, we were in full storm conditions. Unable to see even our feet, and clinging to the ridge in over 60mph winds, we went as far as we could, then turned around....probably 400 or 500 linear feet out the summit ridge.  We may have been on the summit, but could only see a few feet, so we'll never know.  It was kinda disappointing in a way, but clearly a good decision since any error there would have been very dire.  I was glad I way-pointed our topout spot on the Orient with the GPS, route finding back across the football field in the poor visibility would have been tough and things were beginning to feel serious...but it all worked out. Since I had brought my skis all the way up there, I decided to ski from the Football Field, at around 19,500'. The Orient was very firm neve snow with a little blue ice, but still skiable...barely.  Below is me on the way up.And Patrick at a rest stop on the way up the Orient.  Thanks to Patrick, Alaska Mountaineering School and the NPS for the great trip.