Backpacker – September 2019

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2019

16 BACKPACKER.COM

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LIFE LIST

GRANT ORDELHEIDE

“YOU WON’T FINDany social

trails out there,” the driver says,

motioning to the tundra over his

shoulder a s I unload my gea r from the

back of the bus.

That’s why I’m here, I think.

I just spent six hours riding into

Denali National Park and I’m ready

to head into the kind of cha lleng ing

terrain that comes with a warning.

My objective is Peters Glacier, which

winds around the base of Denali’s

Wickersham Wall. Rising 14,000

feet, the wall is the second-tallest

unbroken mountain face in the world,

and my 22-mile route to it passes

through areas of Denali that the

guidebooks never mention.

Mist clings to the McKinley River

in the morning, and though Denali

is nowhere in sight, I can still feel its

pull. I inf late my packraft and push

off into the water, heading swiftly

downstream for 7 miles to the conf lu-

ence with the Muddy River, where I

paddle ashore. That’s when the rain

starts. I huddle in my tent until night

falls and all those dreary thoughts

seep in: What if I’ve come all the way

out here and never even see the wall?

Dawn arrives with a new sense of

hope. Clouds still stick to the Alaska

Range, but the sun is quickly burn-

ing them off and revealing dazzlingly

bright new snow on the foothills in

the distance.

With my gea r dr y ing in the sun, I

pace around the gravel bar studying

wolf, moose, and caribou tracks as

the fog draws back to reveal a snow-

capped behemoth—17,400-foot Mt.

Foraker. A few minutes pass and

Denali’s North Peak rises above the

clouds, dwarfing Foraker.

I stow my raft and start hiking

along the roiling Muddy River. After

10 miles, a bull moose escorting two

females appears on the opposite side

of the river with Denali towering over

them like a scene from a postcard.

This is wild, unspoiled Alaska, and

I’m getting closer to its heart. That

night, from my ca mp on a spong y bed

of moss and lichen, I see an avalanche

2

THE GREATEST

OF ALL

Deepest Denali is big, bold, and

sublime—for those willing to pay the

price of admission. By Steven Miley

The Wickersham

Wall (far right) is

the second-

tallest unbroken

mountain face in

the world.