Mt. McKinley in Denali Park viewed from northeast. The Muldrow Glacier is coming out from between the north and south peaks towards the viewer.

We have 45 kilometers plus 5,500 meters (18,200 feet) of elevation to gain.

Everybody lost their packs and washed up on gravel bars in various places downstream.

This is crossing McGonagall Pass. It's leaving the world of life, of green, and entering the world of rock and ice. The Traleika and Muldrow Glaciers are merging at this point here.

Looking at the Muldrow Glacier, one can see the lower ice fall and the upper ice fall where large crevasses are visible.

It was a total of 900 pounds (410 Kg) of food and 30 gallons of fuel. We're laying all the food out to decide when to eat what type of food and who's going to carry what.

A dog musher (not the same one who mushed the food in but one like him). It took him 18 days round-trip to mush the supplies in.

This particular type of cloud is called a lenticular cloud and indicates very high wind. So, even though it was calm where we were, one could expect very high winds on the summit.

You go down there, do your business, and simply take out a chunk of snow from the side of the wall there, use that as toilet paper, and chunk it all down into the crevasse when you are finished. It's very convenient.

The crevasse was completely covered by snow and there was no evidence at all that there was a crevasse there. He took one step and fell in. It was quite a big crevasse. He was uninjured. We were able to pull him out.

Looking down the Muldrow Glacier. Fairbanks is in the far distance, about 240 kilometers away. These very, very large blocks of ice in the middle foreground are seracs. Seracs are commonly found in steep ice falls on a glacier.

In our camps, we always delineated with wands, posting them all around the campsite, showing where it's safe to walk. We have this 10 meter long metal probe that we poke down into the snow looking for crevasse. Once we do that we feel it's OK to walk around the camp but you're not allowed to walk outside of the wands.

On Karsten's Ridge moving up, there is quite a steep drop-off in both directions.

This is our camp on Karsten's Ridge. We dug a trench and built large walls around the camp to protect us from high wind.

Visible behind the cornice is a little spot on the ridge. That spot is the camp shown in the previous slide.

Back at the camp looking up at Karsten's Ridge. There's a rope team visible about half-way up the ridge.

Moving up below Browne Tower. Now we're leaving Karsten's Ridge and paralleling the Harper Glacier.

Your teams must also move perpendicular to the direction of the crevasses. If you walk parallel to the crevasses, even with all three of you roped together, it's possible all three of you could fall into the same crevasse at the same time. If you're moving perpendicular to the crevasses, that won't happen.

We're all sharing some sort of hot drink and our faces are quite close to each other.

So, where McKinley now sits used to be a completely flat, low-level swamp. Plate tectonics has resulted in McKinley being uplifted 6,000 meters.

Expedition at about 5,150 meters reaching our high camp. People walk and breathe differently at this high elevation.They walk very, very slowly and breathe very, very rapidly.

This shows the platform we built out of the snow, and below that, the kitchen area. You can also see the wands that mark the boundary of the camp.

The kitchen area you carve out of the snow. You make a platform for your stove and pots. You can dig little shelves for each of your pots and basically customize your kitchen any way you want. You'll notice there are little blocks of snow that serve as a wind wall around the stove and pots.

The issue is, that if you take a day of rest, you will certainly be stronger when you make the summit attempt. However, you never know what the weather will be. If the weather is good, you really should go for it.

Us at about 5,760 meters looking back at the north summit with all the shale on the top. It's difficult to tell from the photograph, but the wind is very high, probably a constant 40-50 kilometers per hour. I was completely flattened once by the wind.

Mt. Foraker Viewed from Summit Ridge: On the summit ridge at 6,060 meters looking at Mt. Foraker in the background.

Hauling Out Garbage: Dr. Chip back at about 1,000 meters elevation heading out. We were very careful to have minimal impact on the environment so we hauled out all our garbage. I'm pulling a sled full of garbage.

The terminus of the Muldrow is moving so slowly that the gravel and rubble on the surface of the glacier are supporting soil development and the growth of vegetation. This is actually a glacier in the middle of the photograph but you can't tell because it's covered by vegetation.

The Juneau Ice Field with the moon rising.