Mt. Denison - Camp 1

Camp 1. After just three hours of bushwacking, we found a perfect elevated sandbar next to the river to pitch tents and build our last fire for several days. This evening we each hid our food stores in bear-resistant bags built from bulletproof material outside out tents. Astonishingly, we saw no bears and our food was still intact in the morning.

Taylor attending to his feet in the voluminous vestibule of our tent.


Time to pack up and head up. Literally. Blue sky on the horizon, a good way to start Day 2.

Mt. Denison - Day 1


Taylor Nissi looking happy in one of the easier bush-walking areas.


Stream crossing. A very common method of travel.

Mt. Denison - Bush Flight

Day 1: Bush Flight. After reaching Kodiak Island, our next step was to compile gear and make the final arrangements for our flight to Katmai National Park. Because we choose an inland lake to land (i.e. not the ocean), our schedule was not dictated by the tides. However, weather continued to be a huge factor. Upon leaving Kodiak, it was no warmer than 50 degrees and raining.

(photo left to right: Taylor Nissi '08, Richard Soaper '78, Dr. Emmett Buell Faculty)

A shot from the cramped conditions inside the belly of the plane. Emmett Buell, long-time Denison Political Science Professor, joined us for the ride. He would remain on Kodiak Island as a bastion of support, to relay weather reports, organize a swift rescue and write daily email updates to placate our friends and family.

Chris Dickey: Co-pilot. Leaving Kodiak Island on a very rainy, cold day.

Our pilot: Roland. Notice the GPS device in the corner... not exactly inspiring confidence.

Airborne whale-watching.

Flying into Hallo Bay. The 1977 & '78 teams approached through this terrible mess of ponds, swamp, debris and broken glacier. To avoid this, we took chances with a new approach to the south of the Bay.

Roland was kind enough to fly us over the Hallo Glacier so we could get an aerial perspective of our route.

Mt. Denison is the pointed peak to the far left. In this case, obscured by the closer peak, Mt. Stellar.

The heavily crevassed Hallo Glacier. Our team would enter the upper reaches of the glacier from the middle-left aspect of the photo (just below the last visible peak).

Mt. Denison looms in the background. We would traverse the south side of the minor peaks in the lower aspect of the photo to gain the Hallo Glacier.

As far as Roland takes us. We land on the lake below and launch into the bush just to the right of the river.

Mt. Denison - The Route

Mt. Denison is located in Katmai National Park. The park is located squarely on the Aleutian Peninsula, in the southwest corner of Alaska. Our group first flew to Anchorage then onward to Kodiak Island. We then rendezvoused and hired a bush pilot to fly the team back across the Shelikof Straight to the eastern shores of Katmai.
The below map is a custom printed topographic map that we used for navigation while in Katmai. The red and green lines are superimposed to illustrate our originally intended route verses the actual. Although this map was immensely important to our planning, it has not been updated by the USGS since 1957. Being coastal mountain range with active glaciation, we were wary that it may not be completely accurate. Indeed, while the valley to the south of Hallo Bay proved to be to a superior approach, our pre-planned route indicated in red was not passable; the green line indicates the route we used in reality.

(click on image to get a better view)

As a backup, we acquired recent satellite images of the area to get a better representation of the current conditions on the Hallo Glacier. The red line represents the original 1977 and 1978 approach from Hallo Bay. The yellow was the proposed new route and the blue was the actual route we used to attain high camp on Hallo Glacier.
(click on image to get a better view)

The above aerial perspective, observed while flying over the Hallo Glacier in route to our destination, validated our decision not to follow the 1970's approach. The red line indicates the 1970's route. The large bay is Hallo Bay and the glacier is the foot of the Hallo Glacier. The arrows indicate where the original team made camp. The line indicates that the approach went directly over the lake... this is because in 1978, the lake was much smaller and had not yet expanded to that location.

This photo also indicates the 1970's route up the Hallo Glacier. The original team went to the right of the massive ice fall shown in this photo. Due to warming, the ice fall is currently in much worse condition than 1978. Richard Soaper, original expedition member and 2007 expedition member confirmed this observation.

The above and below photos delineate our 2007 approach to Mt. Denison. Major considerations were to avoid the messy swamp-like scrub common in Hallo Bay, the enlarged lake at the foot of the glacier, the broken and heavily crevassed lower section of the glacier and the 1000ft. ice fall. Using this passage, we hoped to travel on safe snowfields until we reached a relatively safe location on the upper portion of the Hallo Glacier.

(click on image to get a better view)

Mt. Rainier - 2006

(photo from left to right: Chris Dickey '03, Taylor Nissi '08, Matt Thompson '03, Greg Holden '03, Richard McClenahan '76)

In May 2006, a team of six set out to summit Mt. Rainier (14,400 ft) as part of a training exercise for a subsequent 2007 attempt on Mt. Denison. We encountered intense fog, whiteout, heavy snow, worrisome avalanche danger and hypothermic conditions; a perfect prelude to Aleutian weather! After three days on the mountain, we decided a summit attempt was out of question. The above photo was taken close to our high point at 11,300 ft.


Introduction.


Welcome to the home of the 2007 Mt. Denison Expedition. Our story is the product of 2 years of planning, thousands of miles collectively traveled, 7,600 vertical feet climbed, and over 85 years of history between a mountain in Alaska and Denison University in Granville, OH.

The conquest of Mt. Denison is meaningful only in the context of the Denison Community; friends, family, alumni, faculty and staff. It represents a physical link between generations of Denisonians, many of whom will never meet, but nonetheless share a common yearning for discovery, exploration and connection beyond our hill. And as we celebrate the past and present achievements, Mt. Denison is ultimately a living history, each generation contributing a chapter to a magnificent novel yet to be completed.

On behalf of the 2007 Mt. Denison Expedition, we hope you enjoy...