flying low | The glacier is at 7200 ft. and for most of the flight we were under 8600 ft. Considering that many of the peaks are over 10,000 ft. the views were often very, very dramatic.

blue ice | Flying into the Kahiltna you can see into the crevasses and slots in the glacier. Below the snow is ice that appears a brilliant blue from the sky.

wild rapids | The ice on the Kahiltna glaciers moves 660 ft (200 meters) a year. Just like water, it will create a rapid when it passes over changes in terrain. The result are dramatic serac fields like this one where ice rips and folds on top of itself.

almost home | On our final descent onto the glacier we passed over the base camp for Denali. When we landed there was a buzz of activity with as many as four planes shuttling people back to Talkeetna. The planes land going up-glacier to help them slow.

otters in snow | The planes get unloaded with Mt. Foraker in the background.

sledding | Carmen is geared up with her snow shoes and strapped onto her expedition sled ready to leave Denali base camp.

into the abyss | The weather quickly deteriorated as we got our rope teams and sleds in order and headed up-glacier to establish our own base camp.