All In

Aerial view of the terrain between the town of Talkeetna and the location of Kahiltna Basecamp in the Alaska Range, where hundreds of would-be Denali climbers begin their trek, each season, toward the 20,310-foot summit. [Photo] Paul Andrew Lawrence

May 2000: The roar of the airplane's engine fades into the background, its noise drowned out by a stream of thoughts absorbing my conscious mind. I press my face against the cold airplane window, as though I could merge with the passing landscapes. A sea of serrated black mountains, draped with ice and snow, floats by.