Day 1: The Denali Team 9—Brett, young Garrett, Dean are the climbers. The guides are Don Nguyen, Matt Weich, and Jack Love. Denali 9 finished our gear check in Talkeetna. Brett and Dean have done this dance before in prior years, but for young Garrett it’s his first time seeing Alaska and preparing for one the hardest and most adventurous expeditions of all expeditions. The guides half jokingly call Denali a big boy mountain. The mountain today was still partially shrouded by clouds across its flanks. Planes were coming and going bringing off the long backlog of climbers stuck at base camp trying to get out. We stood outside the ranger station for our group photo, faces showed excitement, apprehension.
The team has a great in-town meal in quaint Talkeetna where modern buildings, souvenir shops, and restaurants are tucked between or inside mining cabins from the early 1900s. Tomorrow we will stand too and hopefully fly onto the glacier.
