As soon as we reached the town of Talkeetna, we had the feeling that the entire town was following our steps with whispers.. The arrival of some foreigners by car from southern Alaska would not have anything particular during the summer months, but in the middle of winter, That was certainly a novelty..
We made a reserve in an endearing motel, where beers served to the rhythm of a fireplace and fire usually invites the talk without emergencies. We count on the owner our intention to fly over Mount McKinley and spend there a few days to portray the atmosphere of a place that inspired the series "Doctor in Alaska". But we soon go out to eat something. We entered a place where turkey sandwich served and we had barely given the first bite when the waiter approached with a phone. Surprised us with a: "It's for you"
If you want to fly over the McKinley, leave what you are doing and run to the airport-
I heard a voice that spoke without concessions: “If you want to fly over the McKinley, leave what you are doing and run to the airport. Within a couple of hours the sky will be covered and the sun does not rise in a week ”.
The waiter removed the snacks as he added accomplice "it will be better than in a hurry". We had the cameras prepared and ran to the airport without time to ask us how they had located us and how they knew of our intentions and who demons was the one that… in the end, that we arrived just in time to a kind of landing floor where I expected a plane. The pilot smiled, He appeared and urged us to go up. Almost by inertia we ask how much the trip would cost us, But all three were already inside and the plane started. The 300$ of the flight they were forgotten even before taking off. The emotion of flying over one of the largest natural park in the world was imposed.
Denali means in the ancestral language of the Athabascan "El Alto", And the highest of the profiles that those indigenous people could contemplate in Alaska was Mount McKinley. Thus the highest peak in North America gives name to one of the biggest natural parks of the continent.
His picture is bleak and beautiful, as a fatal woman who is afraid to approach, But from which you can't look away.
From the air I felt that the beauty of that place was in its temperament, Your hostile character for humans. They say the coldest point on Earth is at the top of McKinley, that reaches -100ºC in winter. But the image of the mountain range that surrounded it was no less aggrieve.
Vertical walls alternate with glaciers and beyond the white needles of other mountains, Other ice cream infers for human being. Ice, blue cracks or icy rocks. His picture is bleak and beautiful, as a fatal woman who is afraid to approach, But from which you can't look away. In Denali there are no campers, At least in December. No excursions or trails. This is a maze that does not lead to any habitable place, Nature in the most visceral state possible.
The flight lasted 40 minutes, And how the pilot announced by phone, The McKinley summit was covered by the clouds and we didn't see it again in the following days.
Then we fly over the tundra, friendly and even saw an alce in the distance. We finally landed with the smile sculpted in ice. We comment on the Air Paseo, We finish the turkey sandwich and have a beer in the heat of a fireplace.
