 Single Otter Plane
 Lots of food bags
 How much gear???
Weigh In
 The route
 This was a overlong walk in from base camp and rather unexpected. Our first day of being awake for full on 24 hours
 Sitting beside the pilot. Oh the self control not to press any buttons lol
 Top left above the clouds is Miss Denali. She looks like part of the clouds but thats the top peaking up above them.
 Landing on the glacier and unloading all the bags.  Here’s Miss Jo (Everest) Bradshaw 
 Base camp
 This is possibly one of the oddest airports ever. Unloading our gear. Orange bags are all foodbags
 Dan having a rest in between training, packing sleds and moving off
 This is my sled and my back packÂ
Weighed 137.5 lbs on walk in.
Day One – 4th June
Finally we were on our way. I had been in Anchorage for two days now and got the last bits that I needed for my climb. I’d forgotten my Go Pro camera so a new one was on the list.
I was up at 5.30 am. Breakfast at 6am, kit all down in the hotel lobby 6.45 and we were off at 7am. We are a team of 8 climbers. 6 guys from various countries including American, Australia, Denmark and some random others. There is only one other girl and she’s a fellow Brit. She has summited two of the 8000m peaks, Everest and Manaslu,also Aconcagua, Elbrus and multiple other ascents including Kilimanjaro 28 times. She works as an expedition leader so this is her life. I think I’m in good hands. We have 3 guides from American Alpine Institute.
The drive to Talkeetna which is known as ‘The Last Frontier ‘ takes about 3 hours. It’s certainly a very strange little town. Imagine the Wild West with tumble weed blowing through. Add in some climbing shops and a few places selling expeditions and a rather popular silver tin wagon selling spinach bread. This is Talkeetna. The saloon bar in town is also very popular and I think most of the locals appear to have a drink problem. We have a safety briefing from the Denali Ranger, who is also very strange (probably the product of a brother and sister) and we get ready to fly on to the Tahiltna glacier. The tiny little plane is a single Otter. I am lucky enough to ride ‘shot Gun’ and sit with the pilot in the cock pit. It was amazing. I could see Denali standing proud above the clouds, much taller than anything else around it.
When we landed on the skis on the snow it was rather bumpy but quite exciting.
We put in the afternoon doing some training and getting our sleds and personal gear ready for the hike up to camp one.
We left base camp about 9pm and soon it was a total white out. I could only see the person in front of me. We were roped together in two teams of 4 and one team of 3. I am in the team of three with leader guide Andy and fellow client Bo. He’s a little intense, always asking questions about stuff further up the trip and he does that thing that really annoys me, talking to you with his eyes closed. Why do people even do that? Anyway apart from that he’s a really nice guy. Everyone here is really nice. Tim knows everything, has done everything and seen it all. He looks like grizzly Adams but he is a lovely fun guy and good company. Dan is a cool snowboarder dude from New York, Zoltan is strange but an older guy and strong as an ox. He’s a total gentleman and always leaves himself to the last, Charlie is quiet but really lovely and funny. He’s a dead ringer for Harry Potter minus the scar. I feel like we should draw one on him for fun. Bill is also quiet and pretty nondescript. I imagine him to be an undercover spy for Russia as he is so elusive. And Jo is just the best girl I could be shacked up with. She is stronger than any of the guys here. When she puts her headband on, she’s like a female ninja warrior.
Our guides are fantastic. Andy is the main guide and is pretty cool, he has great personality and is really funny. Eric is also great fun and a little cute and Mike is a super cool laid back guy. He’s a total clone of Sir Bradley Wiggans both in looks, personality and facial hair. All three of them are great fun and really lovely company. They all know their stuff so I feel safe.
So en route we would walk an hour and rest 10 mins. The last bit was getting really quite taxing as my back really hurt from the heavy sled and back pack. This (day one) would be one of the toughest on the mountain due to these loads. We had to carry enough fuel and food as well for all us for about 4 weeks. I joked I think someone had packed a microwave in the group bags that I was carrying.
Just before we reached our camp spot there was a group of people all standing around a huge crack In the ground doing a crevasse rescue. Someone had been out solo not roped up and walked over what looked like good snow only to find it give way and fall down into a crevasse. I have no idea how long they were there before this group found them. There were enough people assisting already so we didn’t need to get involved.
We eventually arrived at camp one about 2 am and I was absolutely freezing. We were all really tired and had to start putting the tents up and had a cold sandwich for dinner before collapsing into our sleeping bags at 5.30 am. We had just done a full on 24 hour day. Now for some sleep.
Elevation of base camp – 7200 feet /2400m
Elevation of camp one – 7800 feet
Distance between – 4 miles