Day 6-8 – Alaska training

Onwards and upwards to Alaska! Our rest day in Hawaii gave us time to repack our gear before heading on to our next adventure. Unfortunately the over night flight meant I didn’t get a wink of sleep, which only helped to increase my nervous feelings towards the trek up Mt. McKinley and sleeping in an Ice shelter that I had yet to build for myself – as I’m sure you can tell from the video!

But this was quickly pushed from my mind. We were greeted by Phil Freeman who took me straight to the bike shop, to see what he had in store for me.  It was so exciting to finally be on a GS 1200 again, after only being able to ride the GS 800. We had a 2 1/2 hour drive ahead of us towards Talkeenta. This beautiful rural town was one of the few places from which you can fly up to Mt. McKinley (known as Denali to the locals). Few people get to see the top of the mountain, as it’s usually covered by clouds, but we arrived at an incredibly lucky time and saw the mountain towering over us.

I immediately began my induction in to the Alaskan Mountaineering School and, as soon as we had been through the route and the kit, we were off to bed in preparation for the next morning’s early rise. Check out the photos!