Alaska 30

This is a picture of a cute dog lazing about the stage area at the Fairview Inn bar, a historic (for Alaska) locale and a traditional hang-out for those returning from a grueling trip up Denali - or a grueling drive back from the parking lot at the Matanuska Glacier, as it was in our case.

One other note on the Alaska Mountaineering School - we were disappointed with the trip but the weather obviously wasn't their fault. We didn't really get what we paid for, but it wasn't for lack of effort by the instructors, one of which instructors set out shortly after our trip to compete in a crazy Alaskan race where teams of two get dropped off in the wilderness somewhere, and have to make their way to another point in the wilderness, 150 miles away, with only what they can carry on their backs. Their plan involved basically running up some mountains, then coming down the glaciers on the other side, then inflating a raft they were carrying on their backs the whole way, and floating downto the vague area of the finish line. Turns out, they won. 60 hours of wilderness travel with about one hour of sleep. Bad ass crazy dudes.