Alien Playground

I was flying above a glacier not far from the summit of Denali when a powerful updraft caught my aircraft and swept us up at a thousand feet per minute. It was like a free ride to the top of chutes and ladders. Before me loomed a perfect, beautiful peak that I would have never discovered without nature’s boost. The setting sun illuminated its smooth curves beneath a craggy summit. In this austere place, it looked as inviting as a snow park at a ski resort. And yet, I realized the deception. The billowy skirt belied a hostile reality of low oxygen, savage storms and unrelenting danger. Nothing lived there, and no one ever came to play.