Will Covey
Join NOLS onthis Alumni backpacking expedition in Alaska!
This trip explores the Northern Talkeetna Mountains that most Alaska visitors overlook for the more famous Denali National Park across the highway. The Talkeetnas are a spectacular range with views of Denali and its sprawling valley's and glaciers without the crowds. The area is an incredibly diverse ecosystem with forests, tundra, glaciers, and bare alpine rock. You willl get to explore some of this system in a week of backpacking where low elevations allow the presence of extensive biodiversity.
There are no facilities in this backcountry area so you will be reliant on bringing everything with you. Tents, sleeping systems, cook systems, and food will all be packed into your bag and carried for the duration of the trip. The advantage of this trip with a group is some of the burden is spread out amongst your peers helping to share the load and travel futher each day.
NOLS hikes extensively in this area and we consider it one of the gems of our Alaska program areas. We are excited to share it with a small group of our Alumni. There will invariably be wrinkles in the plan that everyone will have to adapt to, true expedition style. We believe that a certain level of uncertainty is one of the highlights of a NOLS expedition as everyone will learn and adapt together.
For 6 nights you will sleep out of doors under a bit of midnight sun. Nights are short at this lattitude during the summer but when darkness comes, the stars are incredible. Days will be spent on the trails through the park, enjoying conversations with fellow NOLSies and soaking in the spectacular wilderness around you.
If you want to get back to the basics of a traditional backpacking trip in an incredible locale, this is the trip for you.
Overall Difficulty*:
*Full backpacks make this trip hard, but we'll keep the elevation changes and mileage low.