Denali

North American adventures

Alaska was a revelation for me! It was a place where there was vast areas of pure wilderness. What you were allowed to do was only limited by how strong your legs or back was. I loved the freedom to go and kill yourself doing something dangerous without having to ask any ones permission to do so! The first place we traveled to was Denali.

1/13 : One takes a fantastic train ride through the wilderness in order to get to Denali.

An image of a train winding its way through wilderness forest scenery with the spectacular snow covered Alaska Range in the background. Viewpoint is of a passenger leaning out a window as the traing curvs around a bend.

2/13 : At Denali HQ we were at the beginning of our backpacking adventure.

An image of Clarissa Augustinus standing at the side of a road with a huge backpack on her back.

3/13 : Denali is the largest mountain in North America.

An image of a spectacular snow and glacier covered mountain rising out of the tundra.

4/13 : Two days after leaving Ancorage we found ourselves hiking through spectacular wilderness scenery.

An image of a backpacker traversing a vast flat ropped ridge on the Alaska Range.

5/13 : We set up camp on a remote ridge and glassed our surroundings for wildlife

An image of Clarissa Augustinus at the door of a small backpacking tent, looking through binoculars at the hill slopes below.

6/13 : We unwittingly had several close encounters with blonde grizzly bears.

An image of Paul Augustinus sitting quietly on a rocky outcrop looking at a grizzly bear and her cubs foraging a few metres away.

7/13 : We were also very lucky to find wolves on a kill they had made the previous day.

An image of two wolves near a partially eaten kill partially hidden in some undergrowth near a stream.

8/13 : Meals were complicated because of bears. The round containers are bear proof and you have to eat 100 yards from where you store that.

An image of a wrapped up Clarissa Augustinus preparing a very basic meal out of the wind in the lee of some boulders. She is surrounded by 2 tube like bear proof food storage containers, foil packets and eating utensils.

9/13 : We could see a storm was building on one side of the ridge, and then we bumped into some young Dall Sheep.

An image of a group of yound immature Dall Sheep on a ridge with a dark sky and rainbow in the background.

10/13 : The storm quickly blew over the ridge and then engulfed us.

An image of a magnificent mature Dall ram with fantastic horns posed on a rocky outcrop with storm clouds in the background about to obscure the tundra far below.

11/13 : That night it snowed! The next morning we crawled out to find ourselves in a very different environment.

An image of a wrapped-up Clarissa Augustinus crawling out of a tiny snow covered tent into a white featureless snowscape.

12/13 : Suddenly it wasn't fun any more. Cooking in the open was a bitterly cold and uncomfortable experience.

An image of Paul Augustinus trying to get a meal made in a bleak snowscape. In the foreground a small gas cooker is boiling water for tea.

13/13 : After 3 weeks camped on a remote ridge we decided we needed to get back to somewhere warm and with a shower.

An image of a cold-looking backpacker hiking through a rocky, snow-covered landscape.

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