Being a Search and Rescue, SAR, volunteer on Mt. McKinley is an exciting and esteemed position to have. They are lead by National Park Service Rangers, NPS, and are stationed at 14,000 feet above sea level along the most popular route up Denali.

As wonderful as this all sounds, they still have to get up there. Being the tallest point in North America, Denali creates its own weather, which includes clouds, snow, and high winds. There are many parties of climbers that have not summoned Denali strictly because the weather would not permit it.

On one such night Mike Erikson, a SAR volunteer was sitting in his tent at 11,000 feet. His companions and him were eating their dinner and talking about their hopes for getting up the last 3,000 feet. They all went to bed that night wishing for clear weather the next day.

In the morning they were granted just that. Crystal clear blue skies invited them out of their tents. As they packed up their belongings and prepared for their long trek up to their base of operations for the next month. Each of the SAR teams spends a month on the mountain overlapping the prior team. Thus, giving them time to acclimatize before being responsible for rescuing climbing parties.

To move up the 3,000 feet in elevation to their base, they have to haul up all of the gear they would need for the next month. To do this they would pull a sled behind them that carried half of everything for their operations. Which means they would have to do this twice every time they moved up the mountain.

They were trekking up the slope on a moderate incline toward a sharp incline that was the major barrier from their destination. Roger, the head ranger from the NPS was in the lead.

As Roger climbed over the ridge, he began to struggle very hard. Then as he struggled his sled was lifted into the air, and was tossed about like a windsock. The Park Ranger crouched down and dug his ice axe into the snow to keep from flying away like a kite. He calmly turns his head over his shoulder and shouts down to Mike, "I think we should turn back now."