Thats my little bro, my dad, and I.

We spent a week farting around in an RV in Alaska.

That night, we got drunk in a little A-frame bar in Talkeetna and toasted the memories of the brave souls that mountain had taken with some French mountain climbers.

I like driving in Alaska.

(poor bastid)

I spent many a beautiful day up on the base camp.

Talkeetna is my old stompin' grounds. If you ever head back up to your little "A-frame" bar, take a look up at the wall. You'll notice a set of prostetic legs hanging up there. Those belonged to a guy by the name of Ed Hommer.

Ed Hommer lost both of his legs to frostbite after a plane crash in 1981 on Denali. He was working for Talkeetna Air Service (the folks that took you to base camp I believe, since the plane in your photo doesn't look like one of K-2's planes).

He got his cert back and became the first double-amputee to get certified as a commercial pilot.

In 2002, he was training for his second Everest summit, and was killed by falling rocks on Rainier. He was 80 I think.

Talkeetna is a special place (what'd you think of the burgers in that bar? Or did you have the French dip?), full of special folks. We spent our summers there. I was a part of the High Altitude Rescue Team (HART). We kept a couple of CH-47's up there and would fly rescue missions and such. In 1993, we set the world's record (and yes, it's in the Guiness Book), for the higest aerial rescue using a winch and cable. We hoisted climbers via winch at 17,900 feet AGL.

Flying on Mckinley was dangerous, scary, and nerve-racking, but I loved it, and miss it. We took the first CH-47 "D" model over the top......20,345 feet on the altimeter. That my friend is HIGH in a helicopter! At that altitude, you lose the sound of your engines, and transmissions...... the only thing you can hear is your rotors and the sound of your heavy breathing into your mask.

Did you fish the Talkeetna River?

Man, now I want to go back......

I met some really crazy people there too. There this one dude named Trigger Twigg, some sort of an extreme guide. I drank a few beers with him.....he was living under someone's bed at the time.

I fished a little....caught a dolly varden.

We flew with Hudson ( I think). The dude the glacier was named for.

We spent a lot of time flying the Ruth Glacier, and up on the West Buttress at 17,000 feet.

I really had fun back then. Just being up there let you know how insignificant you really are as a human....

And if you look carefully that's not a hairy change purse between them either.