Neacola: Choosing the Spot

The Neacola Mountains have been an obsession since I moved to Alaska 3 years ago. They are highly visible on the drive into Anchorage from the South. Cold and clear sunsets throughout the dead of winter make for spectacular visuals. Often seen, always overlooked. Most folks in Anchorage couldn't find these hills on a map even though they can see them from their porch.

Neacola trip reports are few and far between, but they all have similarities. The mountains are not small. The range is skiable. The snow is plentiful. The scenery is surreal.

When choosing a location I had 3 criteria:

1. Close to Alaska West Air's home base in Nikiski to minimize flight cost. Time is money especially when your talking $650/hour.



2. Big vertical: no yoyo-ing 1200' shots all day.



3. Unexplored: a blank spot on the map.

I found my spot on a tee shaped glacier at about 3,500' surrounded by peaks climbing to 7,500'. There were no trip reports, no aerials, and the satellite photos were too grainy to make out features. Perfect.

Despite having found the spot, it was still just an educated guess. The pilot had never been to this glacier before so he insisted we fly a Super-Cub to the proposed landing zone. Just me and Doug. Stefan, Emilie, and Tom would be a few minutes behind in a Beaver. Insert juvenile (yet hilarious) joke here. The plan was to maintain radio contact between the planes so I could relay what I saw back to the Beaver, thus having some discussion with the final go or no-go. The back-up plan was a nearby glacier that Fred Beckey was quite fond of.


As luck would have it, the alternator was out on the Super-Cub, so there would be no contact with the rest of the team. Actually no contact with the pilot either because of the noise of the engine. Forty-five minutes of introverted thinking. Normally I enjoy being left alone, but I was making the decision for 5 other people that all had put their trust in me.

No Alternator Means Your Starting It by Hand

It took about 20 minutes to get to the mountains. Then the eye candy can into view. Google-earth, USGS images, aerials photos all became real. The peaks towered above the Cub as we slipped between narrow passes with sheer wall. It got real.

Blockade Glacier and Blockade Lake

"Nunatak" Couloir


The SW Ridge of Chakachamna (Backside of Peak A to Peak C)

Over a year of planning had led up to this moment. I picked out Mt. Chakachamna on the horizon. We were close. Over the pass, and there it was: the "T" glacier.

Damn, it looks steep. Damn, my proposed LZ is an icefall. Damn, this is intimidating terrain. Doug turns around yells back to me: "You guys are going to have a lot of fun back here." Maybe he's right. Lots of snow: check. Big relief, skiable terrain, safe landing zone: check, check, check. "This'll work."

Looking Up the SW Lobe of the "T" to "Superior in the Sky"

NE Lobe of the "T"

We circled the drainage a couple of times and he put it down into some deep powder. "I claim this glacier in the name of Skier Boyz!" Doug went to work setting up some flagging for the landing strip for the Beaver. Did I make the right decision? What will they think? The drone of the 2nd plane began to echo around the vertical walls. The mountains dwarfed the plane. After a few circles, they were down. "Beattie like." "This is sick."

Big Peak, Little Plane (Superior in the Sky)

Everyone was psyched on the terrain. What a relief. Over the course of our stay, it became apparent, that there should be additional considerations when choosing a location. Add these to the selection criteria:

• Variety of aspects and slope angles: we had a golf course butted up to slopes that started at 40°. Slopes in the high 20s/low 30s would have been nice after multiple feet of snow. Fortunately we had 360° of aspects to work with.



• Escape route: never count on the weather in Alaska. Be prepared to walk out or at least move camp. Weather forced us to move our camp in order to facilitate a pick up; it would have been much easier had we planned for this contingency

Neacola Preview

We have returned from this "small" range in the Northern Aleutians. The trip, like the ridges, high dizzying highs followed by gut wrenching lows. Up and down. Snow and sun. Wind and rain. Wet and burnt. Avalanches, rockfalls, and seracs, oh my! It was touch and go for a while but an inspired escape brought us back to civilization.

Here are a few photos to wet your appetite. Much, much more to come.

The Henry Mountains; Strange Range

With the coming of spring the call to leave our home range of the Wasatch and head south traditionally comes loud and clear for Salt Lake City Skier Boyz. We desire to leave the comfort of something that is both amazing and common to us and we seek out that which is strange.

On our ever present quest for that which is new, that which is strange, Dave Coyne and I found ourselves driving into the heart of South Central Utah, to the small hamlet of Hanksville with hopes to find the strange.

After driving 19 miles on a dirt road from Hanksville, we found the road snow packed and muddy. We opted for skins- a mode of travel we are comfortable with rather than combining the rubber of our tires with the sloppy passages of Mt. Ellen's foothills. We skinned and walked for three miles through the desert to gain the foot of Mt. Ellen at Dandelion Flats and the Lonesome Beaver Campground. From there, it was an easy bushwhack to gain the snowy south facing slopes of Mt. Ellen.

We summited Mt. Ellen and then spent about two hours exploring the ridgeline while we waited for the sun to soften the snow on the south facing slopes. I have skied in many desert ranges in the past, but the Henry's were the most striking. The landscape transitioned almost immediately from redrock desert, unlike the Lasals or San Francisco Peaks, which at least have small transition zone between redrock and alpine. Looking into the expanse of desert in all directions could have entertained me for several hours longer but the snow started to soften. We opted to ski the a direct and classic south facing line and the conditions were perfect.

The skiing was as amazing as the setting in which it took place. It's not every day that a strange range provides this well- AML

Sky Ramps broke my heart

The Heart of Darkness is not a line recommended by skier boyz, but on the other side are the Sky Ramps, highly recommended.

This season has expanded the mind of local skiers, from Base jumping to Ski rappel lines. The Skier Boyz have been focused on skiing  worthy descents in the Wasatch. This pic shows the upper and lower ramps we skied today. Both ramps required careful skining on the edge of a huge cliff.  This tour was partly inspired by seeing these ramps from Monte Cristo and www.fritzrips.com who put a blog about the lower ramp last year.  

  

This is Ramp number one from the top of the Heart, we called it "Skywalker".  When the Ramp turns onto the face it gets steep and exposed.  A nice complete ramp line with exposure and a hero apron.

Shred i descending the vulnerable Ramp in the sky.

Real SB Stefan hacked away at this cornice and climbed to the summit cone. I could only watch with aspirations to complete this line myself one day because the exposure in the Ramp made me queezy.
Boy did he get it! The snow was cascading over the cliff making it a nail biter to watch.

The snow was perfect back there. The sun was out, but still it remained cool up high.

This is the second ramp that Jake and I skied viewed from the Heart.

Top of Ramp Two. Track in the background coming out of the Heart and Ramp One.

This is a sequence of Jake on skiing the second ramp in primo powder

It just feels right when you have your skis on and the climbing is over. Powder ramps!

The photo gives this line no justice to the danger feel going up and coming down. The snow was so nice and deep in there that we were making turns on the edge.

Skier Boyz were the only ones making turns in the upper Mill B arena today, getting Amped for some Ramps!

Shreddy skiing out of Mill B with the Sundial in the background a stunning basin to ski out.  Still snow all the way down to the S turn parking area

Anything Stefan can do, Liam and I try also

Stefan may have actually gone and accomplished something by soloing the East ridge of Timpanogos instead of objectifying women, drinking heavily and showing off the new touring appareal of this great organization but Liam and I actually have pics to prove we skied it.

East Ridge

Here's a couple of pictures of what I skied on St. Paddy's day besides some beer laps at Alta.   A couple of boyz have blogged this so its pretty much a trade route, it was a great corn run.

Santaquin Peak

Santaquin Peak viewed from the fine community of Woodland hills.

The long approach up sunburn ridge to Santaquin's summit.

Some nice eye candy behind Santaquin peak.

Emilie and I on the summit looking north towards Provo, not realizing how sunburned we were getting.

Emilie dropping in from the summit, the conditions blew us away for a major wind event a couple of days early the recrystallized powered felt like it didn't get a lick of wind.

Myself enjoying some nice powder turns on a really warm day, Santaquin was a long slog but the conditions were stellar.  All in all the peak tops out around 10,500 and we started around 6,000 and skied fine northern facing powder shots all the way down to the car.  Just another day of skiing powder in the Wasatch with no one else around.  Here is video Em took of me hugging the shade line on one of the many pitch's we milked.