Flight-Seeing Mt. McKinley with Talkeetna Air Taxi
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byBob
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Approaching McKinley.
Finally, my constant posts on the Alaska trip our almost over. Just this and one more posts and then I’ll do a summary and a post on how we converted Judy’s van for two people. In this and the next post I’ll have pictures of my flight around Mt McKinley. Before I get started let me clear up one thing, the name of the tallest mountain in North America is Mt McKinley and not Denali. You won’t find the name Denali as the name of the mountain on any map. The native peoples of Alaska called it Denali so that is commonly used. The main confusion came because the National Park service changed the name of the National Park in 1980. Until then the National Park was named Mt McKinley National Park, but that year it was changed to Denali NP. But that was the Park only, not the mountain.
Getting closer to the peak. That’s Ruth Glacier coming off the front.
Having grown up in Anchorage I have literally seen Mt McKinley thousands of times. Even though the mountain is 250 miles away it is so much higher than anything between it and Anchorage that on a clear day you can easily see it from several high points in town. I can’t even begin to guess how many times I’ve taken visiting friends and family up to Denali NP and taken the bus back in. The Parks Highway is the main route to Fairbanks and there are about 8 spots along the way with great views of Mt McKinley and I’ve driven that road hundreds of times. So what I’m saying is, Mt McKinley was boring to me when I lived there. Because of that I didn’t even consider driving up to it on this trip.
Nearly to the top. By now we are on oxygen.
It gets that way for everyone who has lived in Alaska for very long. For example, I asked my son if he wanted to take the flight-seeing trip with me around the mountain and he said, “Why would I; I can see it any time I want.” And I have to admit that has always been my attitude as well. But I’ve discovered the old adage is true that absence makes the heart grow fonder and since I moved away from Alaska in 2006 I have come to greatly regret not doing the two things I always wanted to do: 1) fly-in bear viewing and 2) take a flight around Mt McKinley. So I was absolutely determined to do them on this trip. I easily did the bear viewing but flying around Mt. McKinley has been difficult!
Nearly there!
The weather was just not good on this whole trip. We had many days of rain interspersed with a few days of good weather, then right back into the rain. The irony is that my son said that until I got there it had been a typical June and they’d had almost no rain. We brought the rain with us! The weather around Denali NP had been even worse with almost no clear days. So at the end of the trip I decided to just hang around the area and wait until I got a clear day no matter how long it took. Anchorage is only about a 3 hour drive away from Talkeetna (where I would fly from) so I just made a reservation with Talkeetna Air Taxi and called in every day to find out how the weather looked and if it wasn’t good I canceled. They are very good about that and there is no charge if you cancel because the weather isn’t satisfactory to you (their website is http://www.talkeetnaair.com/). July 4th was supposed to be clear so we drove up on the 1st and camped out, going into town every day to check the weather on the Mountain.
Over the top!
I took this map from a competing Air Taxi (K2 Aviation). It’s a better than Talkeetna Air Taxis map and gives names so it will give you some ideas of where we flew. The route in RED is exactly like the one I took with Talkeetna Air Taxi. At the bottom of the post I have a topo map of the area.
Finally, on July 3rd the weather looked good! There were still some clouds but Mt McKinley itself was standing tall and entirely visible. The clouds would just add some character to the photos! They offer a number of different trips (see them all here: http://www.talkeetnaair.com/flightseeing/ ). But I wanted to take the Summit Tour which was the longest tour at 2 hours and literally flew over the top of Mt McKinley looking down on at it (see info about it here: http://www.talkeetnaair.com/flightseeing/summit). It is also the last flight of the day at 6:00 pm which would give me the best light for photography. Nearly all the flights I’ve been on had at least one empty seat so as a single I’ve had no problems getting on at the last minute. As a couple or family that wouldn’t be possible.
Safety instructions before we take off. The pilot is the tall young man on the right. Aren’t our Gore-Tex boots pretty!
The turbine powered DeHavalland Otter. Notice it is on skis. They’re hydraulic so they raise for landing on the ground and lower for landing on snow and ice. More on our glacier landing in the next post.
To fly at over 20,000 feet they needed a special oxygen-equipped airplane and we flew in a Turbine powered DeHavilland Turbine Otter. The cabin itself isn’t pressurized, instead we wore oxygen masks. Most of the flights have an option of landing on a glacier so I chose to do that. Because we were going to be walking around in snow they give us Gore-Tex overboots to wear over our shoes while we are I the glacier. On all my flight-seeing trips I ask if I can be in the co-pilots seat and I’ve never been turned down. On all these flights they weigh every passenger so they can work out the weight and balance of the aircraft. It’s possible that some day that wouldn’t allow me to fly in the co-pilots seat but it’s unlikely.
It’s a world of ice!
The flight was everything I had hoped it could be! This is a very high performance aircraft and we were just a few minutes flying to the Mountain. First the pilot gave us the standard safety instructions for all trips but then he gave us specific instructions for the headphones and oxygen mask. Like most small planes it’s very loud inside and you need the headphones to deaden the roar but also the pilot gave a running tour of everything we were seeing as we flew along. I found it very, very interesting! For example, geologists have measured one of the glaciers coming off Mt. McKinley as 3800 feet thick of ice. The whole canyon is deeper than the Grand Canyon but it’s full of ice so it seems small! Imagine the Grand Canyon full of ice and that’s what I was flying over!
I took this selfie of me in the mask on the way back when I was in the very back of the plane.
The unique instruction was on how to use the oxygen mask. As we climbed the face of Mt. McKinley and reached 12,000 we would need oxygen because we were going up to 21,000 feet. So he would tell us over the headphones that it was time to put them on. Before we took off he showed us how to put them on and how we would know they were working. Then he would turn and look at every passenger and we were supposed to give him the thumbs up that we had oxygen. It sounds complicated but it was easy and not an issue at all.
Looking over McKinley at the other major peaks near it.
Once we were at the mountain, we flew all around and over it. There are two other large mountains very near Mt. McKinley, Mt Foraker at 17,000 feet and Mt Hunter at 14,000 feet. These three mountains are taller than any mountains in the Lower 48, byt chances are you’ve never heard of the smaller ones. We flew around and buzzed them as well. Because there were people on both sides of the airplane we did everything twice, once so the people on the right could see it and then back so the people on the left could see it. Doing that meant that we flew around a lot and because I was in the co-pilot’s seat I saw much more than anyone else.
McKinley has twin peaks. On the right is the lower South Peak and on the left is the higher North Peak. That’s Mt. Foraker behind them
It’s very hard for me to put into words exactly how much I enjoyed the trip. I’ve been looking at Mt. McKinley all my life but always from a great distance, but on this flight I would be within 600 feet of the peak. The one thing you always hear from mountain climbers is how astonishing the view is from the top of these huge peaks. I didn’t earn it like they did so it can’t mean as much to me as it did to them, but I can say it is stunning to just look around from the top of the world. Again, I just can’t put it into words; it takes your breath away!
Here is a shot of the two climbers who were on their way down from the Summit. The arrow is pointing at them. If you follow them back to the peak, you can see their tracks all the way to the top. Normally about 50% of attempts to climb it make it to the top. This year because of the bad weather only a bout 33% have summited.
In this close-up you can see both the climbers are waving to us! Everybody wants to be a star; but these two guys (gals?) really are!
I’ve got more to show and tell you but I’ll save it for my next post. I hope you enjoy the photos!
This photo I took from Wikipedia shows the various routes climbers take. In the photo below we flew over Base Camp.
We flew directly over the Base Camp for climbers of McKinley. Lot’s of people living in tents there!
Holy Cow!!! Your experiences and the great documentation is FANTASTIC!!! I’m using your info to plan my trip and want you to know how thankful I am to have such an in depth resource. I’ve said it before and will say it again.. THANK you for the time it takes to post.
Susan
Susan, you really are very welcome. Honestly, it is my pleasure.
Bob
wow man!!! Makes me wanna take up mountain climbing!!!!
Thanks a ton for the awesome text & photos!
white trash, I know what you mean! Seeing those guys having just summitted made me feel the same way.
Unfortunately, I don’t have the self-discipline to make it happen so I’ll have to settle for flying around the mountain!
Bob
Very cool.
Thanks Al
Bob
With that mask, you kinda look like Bane, ready to fight Batman LOL
But I like Batman!
Bob
Nice pics. How many companies do this and how many flights per day? Seems like a huge waste of resources.
There are at least three Air Taxis that fly around McKinley. I don’t know how many flights a day but at least a dozen or two per company.
No doubt it could be seen as a huge waste of resources. I didn’t NEED to do it, my life could have gone on just fine without it, so in that sense it was a waste of resources. It’s a complex subject.
First, we all waste resources!! There is no exception to that!! The only question is how much do you waste. As a vandweller who is off-grid I waste so much less than any homeowner or 90% of Americans that I feel I’m already doing my part on wasting less so I can do some fun things just for the fun of it.
I find it funny when we look down on each other for how many resources we use:
RVers look down on homeowner for wasting so much
Vandwellers look down on RVes for wasting so much
Motorcycle riders look down on vandweller for wasting so much
Bike riders look down on motorcycle riders for wasting so much
Walkers look down on bike riders for wasting so much
And the grand prize goes to a guy near Moab Utah who lives in a cave and doesn’t use any money. He can look down on all of us!
I do my best and I’m sorry if I’ve disappointed you. If it helps I’m going to spend my winter in the AZ desert and waste very little. I generate my own solar power, use a few gallons of water per week, use a total of 1 gallon of propane a month. And mainly ride my Honda Rebel motorcyle which gets 70 MPG. I do keep peeing and pooping, but i just can’t seem to stop!
Bob
I’m not disappointed about anything. The guy living in the cave is an interesting read but as said in the story, the system he rejects is still keeping him alive. He will most likely end up living off the rest of us and never have contributed to our system. It’s interesting how far apart he and I are yet how much we probably have in common. Judging his character from the story would lead me to believe that neither of us think that part of the solution is hoping for billions of “other” people to die.
Ron, I don,’t hope for it, because I and the ones I love will almost certainly be among them. I very much like my life and want it to last for as long as possible. I do believe that since our civilization has declared war with the earth and have inflicted so much damage to it there will be a response and a mass die off is inevitable and ultimately for the best.
I also have a spiritual system that relieves me of the terror of death. It holds no fear for me (within reason) I don’t see the death of billions as a horrible tragedy. Simply as a transition to something else. I don’t know really know what else but I am 100% certain it will be a billion times better than what this earth has become. The billions who die will be glad it happened.
Bob
hey bob
while the pictures are great I miss your info on van dwelling. can you tell us more about how you’re spending the evenings? In your van? where are you parking over night? are you eating out a lot or still cooking in the van? things like that.
looks like you are having a good time.
thanks for sharing
cedric
Hi Cedric, I’ve given a report on all our camping spots so I have kept up with that. One or two more Alaska posts and then we will be back to more technical information about vandwelling.
Bob
Great post Bob, thanks for sharing! It is incredible in photos but it must be so unbelievable being right there!
It’s impossible to describe John!
Bob
WOW!! This was better than National Geographic…! What a great adventure. Thank you!
Thanks Sameer!
Bob
Those are great pictures. If I go to the mountain, I’ll go by ground because of motion sickness and also because I have never been there before.
Calvin, there are lots of places to see it from the ground.
Bob
wow, lovely! Thanks for taking us along on your trip. I’m not tired of it at all, you have so many amazing adventures to share!
Thanks Ming, but all good things must come to an end.
Bob
Bob,
Thanks! I’ve really enjoyed all your Alaska post.
Omar Storm
Thank you Omar.
Bob
Truly AMAZING what you and your wife have been doing. I am enjoying purusing your posts. Thank you !
Thanks Dean. But, we aren’t married.
Bob
Sorry for the assumption
Thanks Dean.
Bob
What a great adventure. I looked so forward to your post and the pictures are great. I hope to use these post as a guide someday if I get a turn. I just don’t know about the bears yet ha ha Thanks
Thanks Linda. I kindof wrote it with the idea of it being a guide. I’ve toyed with the idea of turning it into a Kindle book but it just does so poorly with pictures I’m not sure it would work without them.
Bob