ANCHORAGE ALASKA (dpa) – “We are now approaching the Kahiltna Glacier,”
the pilot’s words crackle through the headphones.
When the Cessna suddenly drops like a stone as it hits a pocket of low
pressure and veers dangerously close to the imposing granite face of the
Alaskan mountain range, the passengers are offered a spectacular view of
6,100-metre-high Mount McKinley, the highest mountain in the United States.
The massif stretches out like a high wall to either side, here and there,
visitors can see how the steep slopes are marked with clear, straight lines
– avalanches. Bush pilot Tom Klein explains that recently a 600-metre avalanche
caught a plane unawares as it was dropping off a group of mountaineers.
The passengers are met with frosty air and colourful igloo tents when they
finally set down on the glacier. A group of tanned – and often sunburnt
– and talkative men are completing the final preparations for an ascent
of Mount McKinley.
Their plan is to spend the next three weeks on the mountain – this is a
long time, given that Australian Gary Scott managed to climb it in 18.5
hours in 1986.
On the return flight to Talkeetna, visibility is clear enough to show just
how sparsely settled Alaska really is. Apart from the two- lane road and
the railway track connecting Anchorage with Fairbanks 576 kilometres to
the north, there is little to see but forests, lakes and rivers.
A total of no more than 621,400 people live in this state – it has a surface
area of almost 1.5 million square kilometres.
Talkeetna is the starting point for those who want to climb Mount McKinley
as well as those who plan boat rides along both the Susitna and Talkeetna
rivers. Bears, elk and deer can very often be seen along here in the shadow
of the massive peak. The town also has a limited number of simple bed and
breakfast places to choose from.
The journey continues from here on the Alaska railway – completed in 1923
– into the Denali National Park, one of the most popular resorts in Alaska.
Visitors have the opportunity to watch grizzly bears and caribou from a
distance here.
The trip onwards to the Denali Wilderness Lodge is undertaken by single-engine
plane. The machines are often referred to as “puddle jumpers” since they
can land on rural tracks, lakes or even rivers and can be seen parked in
front of many of the houses in Alaska.
The antlers decorating the common room show that the lodge was used until
recently by game hunters who flew in to hunt both bears and elk. Since
the lodge changed hands early this year, however, there has been a changeover
to eco-tourism.
The lodge accommodates its visitors in traditional wooden houses – constructed
from wood and canvas and very similar to those used by the area’s first
settlers.
The Cheechako Hotel is somewhat larger and warmer. Its six rooms, comfortable
saloon bar and honky-tonk piano all remind visitors of the days of the
gold rush.
Breakfast is followed with a trip along the river. Alaska’s rivers are
mostly fed by the glaciers and deposit mud and debris across the valleys.
Most of them stretch over large areas as they seek out new routes after
almost every new snowfall.
Suddenly, a grizzly bear appears less than 400 metres in front. The cowboys
– despite their guns – decide that it would be best to draw back a little.
Grizzlys are dangerous animals and it is best to steer well clear of them.
After one hour of the flight towards Fairbanks, the landscape starts to
flatten out until Alaska’s second largest city comes into view among a
seemingly endless plain of lakes and rivers.
Fairbanks is the starting point for trips with the Northern Alaska Tour
Company to the Arctic Circle and the Nunamiut Eskimos who live in the Brooks
Range Mountains.
The minibus travels along the rough surface of the Dalton Highway to Prospect
Creek above the Arctic Circle. The track runs alongside the Alaska Pipeline
which carries oil from Prudhoe Bay on the Beaufort Sea to the south to
Valdez in Prince William Sound.
This black gold is a real boon to Alaska’s state coffers – which supplied
each and every citizen with a cheque last year for exactly 1,769.84 dollars.
The treeless Arctic expanse which German-speaking guide Robert Weeden takes
us through is the United States’ last wilderness – despite the fact that
archeological finds along the Yukon River indicate that this area was inhabited
around 20,000 years ago.
Today, this part of the world belongs to the caribou – one herd, for example,
comprises more than 15,000 animals.
From Prospect Creek, a bush pilot deftly steers his light plane through
the Brooks Range. Somehow, the pilot manages to find the Eskimo village
of Anaktuvuk Pass where the windswept wooden houses nestle as best they
can into this vast, almost lunar landscape devoid of trees or grass. A
group of schoolchildren show visitors around the village and join other
residents in demonstrating traditional dance.
Anyone expecting to see Eskimos living in igloos is in for a disappointment
though – those born in Anaktuvuk Pass and their children are more likely
to be sitting in front of a television set or a computer.
