Blast From The Past … first trip to Denali

A watercolor that Selden painted from a 5x7 photo, circa late 1970s. Getting ready to head into "the valley of death" to check out the Cassin Ridge and the West Rib. Our last minute addition - Don - was pretty much a complete dud., so we went with the west rib. We had a stove blow up at 15,000' and had to down climb with minimal gear.

Two years later Mark and I climbed Denali in fast and light style. Mark was round trip from San Francisco in just under nine days. I stayed up on the glacier, waiting for Michael Franklin to arrive and do more climbing.