Ptarmigan Tracks

Camp’s very own Staff Law of Immutability holds that anything that persists for three seasons officially becomes Camp Denali Tradition. Looking back on our junior year as a fly-in lodge, novelties like weighing cargo, parsing weather forecasts, maintaining the airstrip and the Denali Park Road, and reveling in virtual solitude west of the Pretty Rocks closure, have truly come to feel like the new normal.

In early July, a wildfire ignited at the park entrance, coming precariously near to park and roadside infrastructure, and briefly shutting down park visitor services including bus tours. Although Camp Denali was not directly impacted, the wildfire ignited nearly 100 years to the day since the last major wildfire in the park entrance area, a compelling reminder to tend to our own surroundings. The operations crew thinned numerous spruce trees around Camp Denali, enhancing views, improving firewise perimeters, and laying in an ample firewood supply for next season’s guests.

Operationally, solar energy continues to play a key role in overall sustainability, and very tangibly, in meeting the challenge of Camp’s roadless logistics. Our backup diesel generator remained offline for 98 percent of the summer, sparing significant carbon emissions, and eliminating the need to fly in thousands of gallons of fuel annually.

Recent seasons, including this one, would not be possible without the steadfast support of Denali Air. From their many satisfied passengers, to replacement washing machines, they excel at moving things safely and reliably through the Alaska Range. Pilots J.D. and Hawk typified Denali Air’s willingness to go the extra mile when they selflessly volunteered as judges for our staff pie contest in August. Mind that useful load, fellas!

Thanks to great partners, a third year of cumulative fly-in experience, and a fantastic team at the heart of it all, we can look back on a rewarding 2024 season with few if any unmet challenges.

5/11 - Violet-green Swallows have arrived, meaning it’s warm enough for flying insects, too! All ice has melted on Nugget Pond

5/18 - American Golden Plover pair atop Camp Ridge

5/24 - Fresh wolf tracks on Camp driveway

5/29 - Ice out on Denaalee Bene’/Wonder Lake

6/3 - Wolf seen and heard on the tundra bench across Moose Creek

6/6 - First Northern Pintail ducklings of the spring on tundra pond

6/9 - A day for babies– baby beaver, baby porcupine, and twin spring moose calves

6/28 - Pair of Surfbirds with one chick on Green Dome

6/29 - A banner wildlife day in Highway Pass– snoozing sow and cub near the road, three wolves loping downstream on Big Stony Creek, bear up the valley

6/30 - Two adult White-tailed Ptarmigan near Pika Hut on Camp Ridge

7/4 - Wolf at the north end of Denaalee Bene'/Wonder Lake

7/12 - American marten with two, freshly-killed short-tailed weasels in a spruce tree among staff cabins. Multiple marten sightings this summer between Kantishna and Denaalee Bene'/Wonder Lake

7/23 - First ripe blueberries of the season!

8/3 - Two white wolves near the south end of the lake

8/14 - First Sandhill Cranes seen and heard above Deenaalee Chene / McKinley River

8/23 - Caribou swimming across the lake; first moose and caribou shedding antler velvet

David Sibley

Ornithologist, Author, & Illustrator

June 6-8, 9 -12

Patrick Druckenmiller

Author, Director, University of Alaska Museum of the North Professor of Geology, Department of Geosciences

June 13-15, 16-19

Molly & Mike Wood

Commercial Salmon Fishers & Conservationalists

June 20-23

Read More

The Ongoing Construction of the Pretty Rocks Bridge

This summer saw intensive site preparation at the Pretty Rocks bridge construction project at Polychrome Pass, the site of a rapidly thawing rock glacier that severed the Park Road in the fall of 2021. An impressive, five-month construction season began at the end of April and the contractor was able to work through the first few days of October, finishing slightly ahead of this summer’s target with the on-site assembly of the first four trusses of the eventual bridge.

To mitigate thawing permafrost in the bedrock around the east bridge abutment, 23 thermosyphons were installed to a depth of 110 feet. Once filled with carbon dioxide, these passive refrigeration devices will continually transfer heat away from the frozen rock to slow its thawing.

July saw the situating of the abutments– 15 reinforced concrete blocks, pre-cast in Oregon and weighing 44,000 pounds each, “sewn” together with tensioned cables. Abutments were affixed to the ground with 22 ground anchors sunk about 40 feet into the rock below, altogether designed to accommodate 2.6 million pounds of force!

Next summer, construction of the permanent bridge and its launching mechanism will continue, for anticipated launch and completion by the end of next summer. Much of the work for 2026 will be catching up on five years of deferred road maintenance and roadside brushing on the western half of the Park Road.

The scale and coordination behind this project continue to be humbling. Totaling $230 million in federal investment so far, funding has been secured– through no small amount of advocacy from Park leadership and Alaska’s legislators– from multiple sources, including the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, the Federal Lands Transportation Program and the 2023 Disaster Supplemental Appropriations Act. Follow along next summer’s bridge launch through the Pretty Rocks Construction Blog on the Park’s website.

Indigenous-Owned Wilderness Lodge Lake Clark National Park

We are pleased to share the announcement of an Indigenous-owned wilderness lodge and retreat center in Lake Clark National Park that will focus on cultural learning and traditional stewardship. Former Camp Denali guest speaker, Danielle Stickman, and others were instrumental in the establishment of Qizhjeh Vena, the Indigenous and women-owned 501(c)3 non-profit that now owns the lodge.

Qizhjeh Vena aims to preserve the health and integrity of the ełnena/land by uplifting Dena’ina values and offering an opportunity for transformational learning through hosting workshops, retreats and visitors, starting in 2026. Qizhjeh Vena made the initial purchase thanks to individual and organizational donations, grants, and a loan this fall from the NDN Collective Collective, an Indigenous-led organization dedicated to building Indigenous power and capacity for positive change. Chin’an gheli/thank you so much for taking time to read about their work and considering a donation. To donate, visit https://aplacewherepeoplegather.org

This summer marked the 70th anniversary of Camp Denali founder Morton “Woody” Wood’s 1954 climb on Denali, known as the Thayer Expedition. Helping us commemorate this anniversary, we hosted former National Park Service climbing ranger, Roger Robinson and his wife and fellow ranger, Pam. Roger chronicled this incredible climb, an expedition that inspired his first Denali climb in 1975. Despite tragedy, the Thayer party of four Alaskans accomplished the first ascent of the mountain via its South Buttress and was the first climbing team to traverse the mountain, up from the south and down to the north over the course of one month with only two air-dropped resupplies.

One month into the expedition and upon descent from Denali’s summit along Karstens Ridge, expedition leader Elton Thayer slipped and fell. Roped up as they were, the three other team members were plucked one by one off their stances. The team cartwheeled 800 feet before one member, Les, was wedged into a crevasse, stopping the free-fall 400 feet above a cliff edge. Elton was killed and George Argus was badly injured. Remarkably, Les Viereck and Woody were relatively uninjured, and they proceeded to mount one of Denali’s greatest rescues, covering approximately 35 miles in 48 hours to reach help, including navigating in 15 hours the heavily crevassed Muldrow Glacier, a route that later took a team of rescuers five days.

In 2004, Camp Denali hosted the three surviving climbers and their families, including Elton Thayer’s wife Bea and family, to celebrate the expedition’s 50th anniversary. The convening was the first time since the climb that Woody, Les, and George had been reunited, yet the fortitude and kinship among the three climbers was palpable.

As Simon recalled in writing Ptarmigan Tracks newsletter that year, “the very nature of Denali exposes climbers to great risk; the measure of a team is in how they respond in the face of adversity. Visiting with George, Les and Woody fifty years later it was easy to see how their mutual respect and camaraderie served them throughout the harrowing climb and the trying circumstances that followed.”

Indeed, as Woody wrote about the climb in the 1954 American Alpine Journal, “not often can four people live together so intimately under such trying conditions as this trip imposed without ever experiencing the slightest frictions of personality conflict. I have never seen or climbed with a more compatible and congenial group than ours.” With 70 years passed since their climb and all three men now gone, we relish the occasion to remember and celebrate these remarkable individuals.