DAY 1 – Arrive at AMS HQ
After a few days hanging out in Talkeetna, it was time to meet up at the AMS Headquarters to begin our Denali Prep Course. Participants arrived at 8am sharp with the anticipation of a big day, starting with a short tour, introductions and overall course orientation. I had already stopped in and got to met our instructors yesterday to ease my concerns about being truly “ready” for this next-level adventure.
A few of us were then split off to start organizing our food. While AMS pre-packed all our main meals the day before, our responsibility was to organize what we wanted for lunches and snacks. Let me tell you, there is no shortage of choices from the AMS Food Pantry! From soups to cereals, couscous, quinoa, rice, beans, lentils, biscuits, cookies, snack bars, freeze dried meals, stuffing, ramen, granola, grits, pasta, potatoes… you name it!
Another wall had all kinds of candy, snack mix, trail mix, pub mix, nut mix, nut bars, dehydrated fruits, pork jerky, beef jerkey, salami, peanut butter, pretzels, animal crackers. I think you get the idea.
And finally a wide variety of coffee, tea, hot cocoa, sauces, spices. It is impressive. This is another aspect of AMS when I say they have this Denali stuff dialed in.
Next came a thorough check of our gear. What we were missing could be rented from the AMS Equipment Room or purchased from their store, which was equally impressive as their pantry.
AMS stocks a wide range of options and sizes for most of your mountaineering needs.
If you need something more specific, there is no other place to get gear in Talkeetna. You would have to swing into REI or AMH in Anchorage for any last minute purchases.
Unexpected Weather Change
At this point, we noticed the weather starting to change and a few clouds were slowly rolling in.
There was still plenty to do, so we moved in to their Climbing Gym for fixed line ascension and crevasse rescue practice. There was a bit of a learning curve for most, which definitely caught me by surprise.
When it was time to load gear and head to the airport, we received word that all flights were grounded due to bad weather. That meant no one coming in from or going out to the glacier until further notice.
DAY 2 – Grounded at AMS HQ
We made the best of Day 2 at AMS HQ after rearranging the course schedule a bit. Our instructors decided to cover stove use and fuel handling, which made sense to do off-glacier. When I saw people struggling with how these backpack-style stoves worked, I really started to worry about skill level here.
They also made us set up our tents to make sure we knew how (ah, ok)…
…and then moved right into rope work for glacier travel, that was not all too familiar with this group either (oh, sh*t!). This is a DENALI PREP course, right? What’s going on?!
We then walked over to the airfield to see if TAT had any good news about the weather.
Unfortunately, conditions did not improve and we remained grounded.
However, excitement was in the air with a better looking forecast to likely fly out tomorrow morning.
