The Newsletter of Camp Denali
The 2025 season at Camp Denali got off to an earlier-than-usual start this year- in February, to be exact! With several new faces in supervisory and year-round roles, it seemed like a good winter to head out to Camp for a combined orientation, adventure, inspiration-taking, and team-building retreat.
At the end of February, ten of us loaded into ski planes and flew to Kantishna for an unforgettable week. Simon and Ryan flew themselves directly from the park entrance to get a start on opening and warming buildings, hauling water, and to provide weather updates. Meanwhile everyone else wrangled food and gear down to Talkeetna and the waiting turbine Otters at Talkeetna Air Taxi. These impressive planes are more accustomed to flying climbers on and off of glaciers, but they are equally well suited to our Kantishna airstrip in snowcover.
Days found a rhythm once we were settled in. Mornings were dedicated to topics such as summer planning and leadership discussions. Afternoons were reserved for playing (after giving the sun a chance to warm things up a bit!). It’s hard to know for sure when the weather and circumstances will all align to make another trip like this possible, but we left the hockey nets and the fire pit behind just in case!
