The eagle has landed!

With the cumulous clouds and marginal flying conditions Paul Roderick the owner of Talkeetna Air Taxi, thought flying us in to the Ruth Gorge was more of an attractive proposition rather than staying at home to groom and shovel up after his appaloosa horse.

So there he was on the airfield organising pass the parcel to load up the mid size Beaver plane. Each pilot loads his plane differently. ÒOnly 10 gallons in the middle tankÓ and Òlight kit in firstÓ. I seriously doubted we would squeeze all our gear along with four of us and Paul into the tiny cabin; but we did. Tossing a 40lb transporter duffle into my chest a Matt asked about the weather for flying: Ò I love a bit of cloud in the morning!Ó Paul replied wickedly.

The flight into the range is very exciting, racing over the tundra and the transition to the glaciated edge of the range. Before long we disappeared into a bank of cloud and dodged under it to get a better view of the glacier and some of the potential climbing on offer. Huge towers of granite plastered in powder snow appeared out of the mist and slipped back into the ming behind us. Then we saw the snowy landing strip adjacent to several tents buried alongside. The plane landed gently on its skis and ploughed through the fresh snow that had fallen the night before.

Unloading we were greeted by the occupants of the tents including Mark Westman the Denali National Park Ranger. Mark gave a quick up date on conditions and then Paul was back in air leaving us to haul our kit a little way down the glacier and dig in our camp.

The cloud has lifted and the temperature has dropped. WeÕve eaten a good meal of fresh veg and rice and are now in our pits. Our plan tomorrow is to ski the area and assess the conditions and lines of climbing on offer.

First impressions; this place is massive! We're camped about 800m from the base of Mount Dickey, the Ruth Gorge's largest mountain, towering over us for a mere 1 vertical mile!!