Departure

                                                -Walter Bonatti

I woke up late - 8:30, but it didn’t matter. TAT was flying, but there were a lot of people to ferry out and we weren’t at the top of the list. Kyle, Dove, and Ryan caught a flight around 9:30, but the rest of us ended up waiting until almost noon. The Edinborough/Freeport connection folks waited with us. Then TAT sent their big plane, the Beaver, to fetch us. All five of us packed ourselves and all our gear in the plane and took off. It was a spectacular ride out through Little Switzerland, a region of vertical walls and sharp peaks. The pilot, Paul, gave us a great ride and thrilling show of the area. I was glad to be going home, but I could not deny my love for the mountains. It’s hard not to be awed and drawn to their majesty.

Planes scattered on the icy runway	Waiting for planes

Going home	Liftoff from Kahiltna International

Soon we saw green for the first time in two weeks. Then the river, the airport, and we were back in civilization. It was a warm, summery June day. We unloaded the plane, stashed the gear, got out of the fleece clothes, and headed for the $2 shower at the local laundromat. God, did that feel wonderful! A nice meal was had at a restaurant/pub amid the usual humorous bantering of the group. We stopped at the Ranger Station and checked out. The Ranger asked if there were any injuries. I showed him my fingers, which were bluer and blacker than yesterday. They just kept getting uglier. He made some notation I couldn’t see in his notebook, so I must be an official Denali casuality.

Flying down the Kahiltna	Little Switzerland

Walking around town, I was amazed at the green trees and flowers. To see the green and brown and yellow dandelions blowing in the afternoon breeze was sheer delight. The colors were brighter than I remembered them. The Earth was alive: buzzing, blowing, movement all around. It gave me a happy feeling to be back in the flow of life again. The contrast was stark, to see the treed, grassed, peopled world through the eyes of the cold majestic, alien, and so deeply solid, so highly pristine, so unmoved world of the Mountain Gods. My mind had not quite traveled all the way to town yet. This world below seemed unimportant somehow. Also unclean, defiled, fuzzy, and chaotic. I hope I can always keep a piece of high Denali in me, to return to it from time to time in my mind. It will help me keep my perspective on life in the lowlands.

The team at TAT, ready to go home

Dove, Kyle, David, and Ryan passed the time waiting for the airport shuttle by playing hackey sack. Punches was on the phone, listening to messages. Already getting down to business. I was inside looking at maps. Another Alaskan adventure awaits: motorcycling to the Arctic Circle. Finally the shuttle showed up. We got to the airport at 11 PM and waited for the 1:30 AM flight to Portland.

The sun never really went down that night. Although in Anchorage it had been dusky enough that you could see car taillights, as soon our plane gained altitude, the mountains of the Chugach range below us and the clouds above were pink, orange, and purple with sunrise. By the time we got to Portland, the sun was bright in the sky. It was a new day, and each of us on the team was a changed man. We carried Denali inside us now. In our hearts and minds, and I in my fingers. We would never see the world in quite the same way again.

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