First Day of the Ice Season

Mad Dog hasn't come in this big in at least 10 years. We threw a rope down it and ran some laps.

 

Ridiculously Early Season Skiing

There was literally two inches of fresh snow on the road up to Hatcher Pass. Ryan is a ridiculously optimistic skier and wanted to carry his skis up to April Bowl, where he imagined much more snow. I decided to play along and count ski weight as better exercise.

Ryan with Independence Mine in the background

Walking the skis 

Yep we walked our skis all the way to the top of April Bowl, there was about a 2-6 inch "base" of wet snow that had frozen and was now very supportable...just not very deep.  We skied from the top dodging rocks poking through the thin crust, it definitely wasn't worthy of a second lap.  Then we took off our skis and walked back down.

At least the views didn't suck, I love looking over mountain ranges, Denali dominated the skyline.

Ryan and Me

 

A Night Away at the Snowbird Hut

I just wanted a night of solitude in a beautiful place, and the fact that the Snowbird hut has a heater makes it my favorite place! The Archangel valley road was still open and completely clear of snow. I carried my skis about 1,800 feet up to the snow line but since there is a 4,000 ft gain to the pass I got to skin up a solid 2000 ft and across the glacier to the hut.

Looking down toward the Bartolff Valley

The views did not suck.

 

Peaks in the Mint Glacier Area

Frozen runnel lines on the Snowbird glacier looked completely unappealing for skiing in the morning.

 The Snowbird Hut was awesome as usual. 

 

I used my entire container of kerosene the first night and it made leaving the next day much easier.  The skiing down was thin but supportable while it lasted.

Looking down toward Palmer

 

 I feel lucky to live in such and beautiful place and have the time off to enjoy it.

 

Packrafting the Chickaloon River

Its funny how I didn't really know what I was getting myself into when Kellie asked me if I wanted to go float the Chickaloon river. I was anticipating a 4 mile walk, and on the drive there learned it was more like 15. Leaving early made so much more sense with that clarified.

We parked on the road by the river and started hiking up a four wheeler trail, which disappeared at about mile 2.

Then we were in the trees with no trail in site. As far as off trail travel goes it wasn't terrible, but it wasn't fast either.

It became clear we weren't going to make it the whole way and so we bailed back to the river, and got ready to float.

 

I have never felt so off balance packrafting before. I flipped my boat twice on waves that would usually not make me pause. The water was high and a little pushy, but I was just having an off day I guess.

 

Fun day out in a beautiful area, and I'll definitely know more when I go next year.

McCarthy Trip

Our original plan was to hike up 8ish miles on Root glacier, cross an unnamed 5,000 ft pass, descend  to the headwaters of McCarthy creek and float back to town.  But its a long drive to McCarthy and  it seemed like every creek and river was turbulent, and muddy from all the snow melt.When we got to McCarthy we road our bikes to McCarthy Creek the river was high and brown, not good.

It took a lot of vacillating back and forth, and even packing our boats, before we could finally give up the dream of floating the creek.  To much snow and to high of water. We enjoyed an amazing dinner at a perfect campsite by the river, I love being on vacation.

Kellie cooking fresh salmon in butter..Yum

 

I have always wanted to hike up Donaho Peak, it sits between the Root and Kennicott glaciers, with high glaciated peaks all around.  There was still a lot of snow on the peak, but we decided to give it a look anyway.

Beautiful Downtown Kennicott

The hiking across the glacier is easy, no crampons needed.... if your willing to look around and go around obstacles.  But the views are just stunning, there are few other places this beautiful.

Kellie hiking across the Root glacier

I was very surprised when we got to the top of the morraine pile and there was actually  Park service signage, and bear bins.  We found a lovely flat place to camp with no bugs and amazing views.

Morraine!

Kellie on the edge

 

The next morning wasn't super inspiring peak hiking weather, the top was enveloped by clouds.  But we decided we like walking and went anyway.

Kellie with the base of Donaho peak in the distance.

 

There was a short but brutal section of bushwhacking up the gully and Kellie told me how she really feels about bushwhacking. She said she never wanted to bushwhack again even if it meant not going to some places, and she sounded like she really meant it!!!   (To bad we missed the awesome trail on the way up, but we were both thankful for it on the way down.)

 

We persisted through the vegetation and finally got into the gut of the peak and then it was just lots of up...mostly hard snow with a couple scary sections of loose steep rock.

I was kind of over the whole adventure by the time we got to the ridge, but the thigh deep post holing and shrouded summit clinched it for me.  After a sit down Kellie decided she needed another look and set off.  The thigh deep shit didn't last forever, and she made it through....how could I resist after that?

Kellie in the fog headed toward the summit

 

The clouds at the top relented for intermittent views of the area...it was beautiful.  We could see the route we had wanted to do to McCarthy creek, and were glad we were not over there..too much snow.

Summit Shot

Kellie hit an ice lense on the way down the steep, rocky gully and almost died.  Luckily she managed to control her slide and only lost a lot of skin. This picture was the next day after she cleaned them again in some glacier water.

 Hand Carnage

 

It was a super fun trip, I'd probably wait till there was less snow in the gut to do the peak again. I still would love to go back for the original trip, but might be better in the fall.

 Looking back to Donaho Peak

 

The End: Escape

We shoveled before we went to bed, and twice in the night, but when we woke up there was less wind and the snow was falling gently. It was still completely white out, but we were optimistic of it breaking.

A couple hands of cards later, we had more visibility then we had had in days.

Oh Yeah, We Did a Lot of Shoveling!

 

One Mostly Buried Wand, Others Gone till Spring

There was no hesitation on any of our parts about getting the (expletive) out of there when the weather finally broke.

 

Joy in the Sun

Above Whittier, Straight Shot to Town 

 

Maybe next year! Not going out there ever again if the weather is calling for rain and snow!

The Middle: Snow Shoveling Extravaganza

Day two began in pleasant white out conditions...ie no wind and just a soft sprinkle of snow. With zero visibility the obvious thing to do was hang out and wait...

Throughout the day the snow began to accumulate and we shoveled, listened to music, and played scrabble on my iphone.  Things were pretty good for being tent bound.  The visibility did not improve.

Day 3 began with more shoveling, and  increased wind and snow.  The berm around the tent became thigh high on Ryan.  It continued to be blindingly whiteout and we started to consider our options.

Ryan with Heather Peaking out the Tent

All I can say is that I am so thankful that I was with people I really like, because a tent is not a large space after a few days. 

Heather, Ryan, and I

 We shoveled all night and into the morning of day four, and then shoveled some more.  There is a strong snow shoveling theme to this trip.  The wind aided the snow deposition and soon we were having to terrace the berms around the tent because the walls got too high.

The batteries in my iphone had died back early on day 3, and I really wished I had brought any non digital form of entertainment.  Ryan and Heather had arts and crafts time with the maps and made a deck of cards out of the white borders.  Note to self: Don't do glacier trips without back up entertainment for tent time.

Playing Cribbage

 

  I think after 3 solid days in the tent we were all feeling a little stir crazy. This was the first trip I have done with a Delorme In Reach paired with a small Samsung tablet, it works on the Iridium satelite system and we were able to send and receive messages. My Dad is the real Tech geek in the family and thanks to him we were able to get weather updates, it was awesome (thanks Dad!).  There was supposed to be a break in the weather the next afternoon, and we all agreed on a retreat as soon as we could.

The Beginning: Getting Stuck on the Glacier

Rapheal drove Heather, Ryan, and I to Whittier (thanks little buddy). We intended to get up on the Whittier glacier and then traverse over a bunch of other glaciers and eventually pop out 50 or so miles away at Ptarmigan Lake.

 

We were all really psyched that it wasn't raining when we started skiing up out of Whittier. The clouds were hanging at about 1500 feet, and we were feeling optimistic.

 

We traveled a couple miles before the white out enveloped the glacier, its really nice up there with good visibility.

 

The weather eventually turned from white out, to snowy white out, and we decided to stop at about 3,100 feet, and 6 miles from Whittier on a nice bench.

 

It was pretty shocking how heavy a four season tent is after I have been running around with a mega mid and single wall 2 person no frill tent. I debated hard about bringing a 3 season tent, but seeing how the 4th season for tents is winter, I'm glad we ended up bringing the red beast.

Perfect April 20th Ski

It was a perfect sunny day as Heather and I toured to the top of peak 2.

 

We sat in the sun, then had a nice ski down. Short and sweet, I love skiing in the front range.