SALCHA, Alaska — Before the first shovel entered the ground, Forrest Powell, deputy director of the Alaska Office of Veterans Affairs, asked attendees to reflect on one of the military’s most solemn traditions. He described the moment during a military funeral when the American flag is lifted from a veteran’s casket, held before family […]
I walked around outside our Two Rivers home early one morning, as I sometimes do. It was mid-May and we — that’s my wife, Julie, and me — were about ready to head to work. The birds had recently returned. While waiting to get in the car, I heard American robins, black-capped chickadees, a […]
DENALI NATIONAL PARK AND PRESERVE, Alaska –Mountaineering rangers on Mt. McKinley recovered the bodies of four deceased climbers from two different incidents. Inese Pučeka, Vija Olte, and Renārs Kunigs-Salaks of Latvia were among a seven-member climbing team involved in a fall near Denali Pass at approximately 18,200 feet on May 28. Rangers recovered their bodies […]
DENALI NATIONAL PARK AND PRESERVE — A National Park Service employee on a climbing patrol died around 2 p.m. Thursday after falling into a crevasse near 14,000 Foot Camp on Mount McKinley. The ranger was identified as Robin Pendery of Enumclaw, Wash.; a seasonal mountaineering ranger assigned to Denali National Park and Preserve. Pendery […]