September 9-12: Adak

"You wanna go to Adak?"

"Sure, where the hell is that?"

Adak is an island in the Aleutians about 1200 miles SW of Anchorage out in the Bering Sea. The Aleutian Islands  are small and dramatic; some are heavily glaciated.  Adak was the site of a Navy base that closed in the 1990's.  At its peak there were 6,000 seamen there.  As you all know the Navy is nothing  if not generous.  They are like Santa.  Karl, for you we have an incessant dry cough. Adak, you've been very good this year.  You get this massive military infrastructure, six 3,000,000 gallon tanks, 1,500 abandoned 4-plexes and a rec center.  Have a few cold war spy buildings for good measure.  You're welcome.

  

Now about 100 folk occupy the rapidly decaying town.  

Back in January, the local fuel man overfilled one of those 3,000,000 gallon tanks.  Fuel filled a creek and worked its way to the ocean.  This attracted the type of attention Adakianistas like to avoid.  This is where Detection Milton (myself in the 3rd person) comes in.  My boss wanted to know what happened and put me and JH on the case.  To prepare, I used all of the resources at my disposal: google earth and wikipedia.  Damn, there are 2 volcanoes over town. Shit, that berg has a maritime climate.  They get their water from Lake Bonnie Rose.  Armed with all the knowledge necessary, the Rad International Investigation Unit boarded a 10% full 737, slammed a complementary Canada Dry Ginger Ale, read the airline's magazine, napped a bit, and touched down in glamorous Adak.  It was time to crack the case. What I found was shocking.  

This island would be a multi-sport mecca if not for its extremely remote location and the Notorious B.A.D. weather.  I was fortunate enough to catch 2 out of 3 days of nice weather.  The one day of  rough weather stepped it up a few notches: the hurricane force Bering Sea gales didn't even have the courtesy to simmer during the 5.4 earthquake.  But, man, nothing beats a beautiful day in the Aleutians: completely mind blowing.  This island has epic mountain biking, skiing, kayaking, hiking, halibut/salmon fishing, and there was even a decent crag in the center of town.  Moffet rises 3,800' above town and was still sporting skiable couloirs.  The dirt roads that snake all over the island are perfect for some high speed mountain biking.  There has to be  at least 17 main kayak trails.  All of this on an island the size of Nantucket.  The next closest island is Great Sitkin which sits about 2 miles from the North Shore.  G.S. is half the size of Nantucket and has a 5,710' glaciated volcano.  Take that!

But reality can be a son-of-a-bitch: 311 days of rain, $1200 flight from Anchorage, $37 18-packs of MGD. Despite these obstacles,  I can't help but think what could be accomplished if you nailed this rock with about 7 days of blue-bird.  

-Milton Arbogast

1,200' Hill on a Bering Sea Beach

Even Lakes

Mount "Barb" Moffet

The Great Sitkin Looms

Sweeper Cover

August 8: Ptarmigan Couloir

We have had a crap summer.  So much rain and grey, arrgh!  But Sunday brought sun.  I was blinded.  After letting my eyes adjust to the seering intensity of partly cloudy, I made my way to Glen Alps above Anchorage with the same plan as last year: bike it, hike it, boot it, suffer down it. 

DB Noodler had given rave reviews for this ski run just 2 weeks earlier so there was reason to be optimistic, but there is always doubt.  The run is hidden from the trailhead so I summoned up my all my faith and let Jesus take the wheel.  The approach parallels power lines along a gravel road that is closed to motor vehicles.  Soon the shot was in view and I knew something was gonna happen.  

After stashing the bike, I had to scramble up 500 vert of loose scree.  At the snow line it was time to boot up.  Hey look!  The Garmont is missing the critical ankle bolt.  This semi-functional boot will compliment my other semi-functional boot with the torn shell.  Despite this, I made good time.  The slope was in the low 40s and I felt comfortable with my toes in about 1" and when I needed rest (often), the snow was perfect for kicking in a foot sized ledge. 

Rock fall seem to be fairly common here so I stole a page out of MJ's playbook by removing the rocks from the snow throughout the climb. The walls were towering above me on both sides and I was thoroughly enjoying the afternoon.  Then it got weird.  THUD, and and about a dozen small rocks, a bit of a shake, and huh....  What in the Sam Hell was that?  4.1!

Shaken not deterred, I continued up.  It got narrow and then opened into a wider section with decent snow.  Above the wide section there was a tight choke heading to the ridge. I decided that the wide section would be more appropriate given my busted boots, shot nerves, no turns for a month, and rolling solo.  It would be a good warm up for the "crux" below.

The sun cups were 2-3" deep, with only about the top 1" coming off on each turn.  Not ideal but fun.  I got into a rhythm and kept it through the choke.  The snow got dirtier and firmer.  It was tough to hold an edge and I was in no mood to fight it at this point.  I skidded lazily through my turns getting a free foot massage from the wash board "snow."

That was .... interesting.  I took my time on the hike down and eventually made it to the tundra. It looked like rain was on the way and I was glad to have gotten the window.  And what to my wondering eyes should appear?  That's right! A bottle of Kokanee Gold laying in the tundra; label bleached silver.  Dare I hope?  Could it be?  Madre de Dios, the legends are true!  Actually it tasted awful, but a free beer is a free beer.  

- Andreas Baader

(click for a better view of the squiggles)

Cooper Spur

With all due respect to Uncle Keith, the Skier Boyz hereby open the Cooper Spur. Todd Glew and I have skied many steep lines together on mountains all over the world. We have seen good lines and bad lines, great conditions, and less great conditions. One June 22nd, we found perfect conditions on a perfect line. After both having two prior nights of alpine starts on other adventures we used the chairlift at Timberline ski area to gain the first 2,700 vertical with a Wasatch style start at 9:00 am. We made fast time, climbing the remaining 3,000 vertical feet of Mt. Hood in less than 1.5 hours. We had both wanted to ski the Cooper Spur for several years. Being a route that remains at over 50 degrees for 1,500 feet, it was a route that required the right conditions and the right day. We both agreed that this was our day.

The climbing route known as the Cooper Spur is a consistent 50 degree climb several thousand feet of cliff exposure on both sides. In order to ski this line properly, we had to take a variation of the climbing route that put us out onto several 55+ degree pitches of skiing.

This was truly exciting no fall zone skiing. After each series of jump turns, we would regroup on the ridge and smile in disbelief of the amazing conditions we were skiing. The Cooper Spur was genuinely amazing. It opened up our eyes to a new understanding of what volcano skiing has to offer. This was a great way to start summer on the day after the solstice.

A Cascade Classic, done right! - AML

The Cooper Spur is located on the right side of the ridgeline shown in the picutre above. It skirts along this ridgline and the North Face of Mt. Hood.

Neacola

The View from the Cockpit of the Beaver (click on photos to enlarge)

Beaver on Approach

Avalanche Caused by Ice-Fall



Another 1st Ascent and Descent



This was Skied for the 1st Time as Well
Youtube video of the descent (last 2 minutes)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMoNx0pmeZA

July 4th: Jewell Glacier

Yonder Mountain and IPA had bit me hard on Thursday night. Complete junk on Friday. I hit up the Forest Fair on July 3rd and met up with a good friend from the early days of Alfie's. The music was good; the food was good; the company was good, but at 9:00 PM the Fair goes from family friendy to liver intensive.

Melissa Mitchell always puts on a great show but I needed air more than another night at the bar. I started hiking from the Crow Pass trailhead at 9:50 PM with skis and tent in tote. Mist and fog kept me cool and made for pleasent hiking as I tried to sweat out the demons. The trail split and I stayed on the high road and took a right into the Jewell Glacier drainage, named for the state's favorite folk singer/poet.

Camp was set up just before midnight and there was half decent vis. There was a strong posibillty that it would be worse in the morning so it was time to boot up. I was expecting more snow up here; but there were still plenty of options. I booted up a face the got progressively steeper maxing out at 47. Rockfall had littered the slope with cookies which worsened as the wall approach.

At about 1 AM, it was time to descend. The snow was decent and I skied right to the tent and hunkered down for the night. Driving rain punctuated by rock falls made for restless sleep. Morning came and the rain kept coming and I recoiled deeper into the sleeping bag pretending it wasn't really time to get up. The tactic worked; the rain relented. It was still fog city, but at least I would remain fairly dry on the hike out.

By the time the pack was ready, it was obvious that I would be hiking for another run. I used the same booter but went a bit higher and to the right. The snow was smoother and I made what I expect were the last big arcs of the season.

- Hank Quinlan

The Steep One

Im really excited to get the pics and videos from this one. Im also looking forward to the arrival of big buff for some more skiing on this here mountain in the next couple weeks.

There is a ski trail on the northish side that was skied by two Boyz.

Here is a link to Lou Dawson's rating system of route skiing difficulty. Another subjective rating system and or tool used in the mountains.

http://www.wildsnow.com/articles/ratings/ski-board-d-rating-system.html

~Richard Pumpington

Palmer Creek: June 19

Soon I will have to accept that it is winter is over, but not quite yet. Palmer Creek Road above Hope had just opened for the summer and snow still dominated the upper drainage. Saturday dawned cold and rainy, but the forecast was for clearing skies. In Utah, if there is even a chance for rain I would welcome the rare excuse to rest and blame it on the weather. That strategy does not cut it in Alaska. Waiting for the sun will lead to a very boring / drunk existence.

Hope would only be about a 20 mile drive from downtown Anchorage if there was a magic bridge over the Turnagain Arm. Reality puts the drive at about 90 miles. I left Saturday morning fully expecting the weather to break. I drove slow taking in the scenery giving the sun the time it needed. Palmer Creek Road starts about a mile outside of Hope off of the Resurrection Creek Road. The route is a very well maintained, narrow, gravel road. The Coeur D’Alene campground is at mile 7. There is a bridge at about mile 9. Below the bridge, you are “right –side” of the creek for access to the best skiing. Above the bridge, one would have to cross the creek to get the goods. The road was still snowed in at mile 11. It looks as though the road continued a few more miles to the head of the drainage where there are big North facing couloirs; perhaps next week.

It was still raining after camp was set. Nap time. More rain. Chow time. More rain. It became obvious that this would be a test of will. I reluctantly geared up. I drove down to mile 6 (~1,200’) looking for the best route up to the snow. It was relatively shwack-free, and I hit snow after a quick 200 vert. The plan was to gain the ridge at about 4,000’ and drop into the top of Bear Creek drainage. From Indian, Bear Creek looks like Wolverine Cirque in the sky.

I gained the ridge right where I had hoped to. The rain had change to snow and the wind was whipping. I choose a couloir and made my way into it. The snow was about 4” of mank on top of not-so-consolidated. At the roll over I gave the slope a big cut and it let loose. The mank moved as a “slush slab” and accelerated fast. It overwhelmed the couloir and was grabbing boulders from the right hand wall. Big boulders. It sounded like a rushing river and ran the entire length of the cirque. Perhaps rain loading had created the slush slab or maybe North facing just hasn’t consolidated yet. Maybe near constant daylight is driving the snow-pack insane, like Robin Williams in “Insomnia.” Either way, I wasn’t having it. I skied the 2,400’ shot back down the ascent. South facing was in a much better mood: 1” of summer corn on supportable. I was able to open it up and arc some big turns, but eventually the snow narrowed and it was metronome-city. Tick-tick-tick-tick. The Big Daddies disapproved especially when I docked them into the tundra at about 10 mph.

Camp rewarded me with more steady rain, a family-sized Dinty Moore, and a couple of 22 ounce bombers. Hopefully it would clear tomorrow.

- Brian of Nazareth

P.S. Sunday brought low clouds that looked angry, so I headed back to Anchorage for booze and food, but the sun was out at Turnagain Pass and there was still snow to road at Tincan. The snow was great above tree-line, but very slow lower. The bottom third is going quick and it will be a shwack very soon.

Views of Palmer Creek

Out of the Fog and into the Rain

Upper Palmer Creek


Upper Palmer Creek

Cutting Baby Teeth

Our trip to the Neacolas started with a few days of weather delays, a theme that would continue to play out throughout the trip. We had four days (ish) of good weather in our nine days on the glacier. Our first day was a divide and conquer mission to check different aspects for stability. The results were pockets of instability caused by a persisting gropple layer of inconsistent thickness. That evening the weather rolled in and our little camp became the center of our universe. It was like being on house arrest.

Three days later a little bit of improvement in the visibility inspired a short tour to ski a short shot low on the slope to the west of camp. Then things opened up. The clouds lifted and we found ourselves staring across the glacier at one of our objectives, the Teeth. The smaller of the two teeth looked better than ever and we decided to push up towards it at least enough to get a feel for the conditions over there even with our late afternoon start it proved to be a good idea. The sky went completely blue and it was a beautiful tour that would lay the groundwork for our ascent of the peak the next day. A descent in deep heavy snow in a lower angle couloir brought us back to the glacier and back on our track it was an easy glide back to camp. The next morning we got and early start and headed up our track breaking trail past where we had turned around the day before and pushing up onto a massive bench on the shoulder of this mountain. The windless, nearly cloudless day made for perfect conditions and so up we went choosing to head up the South East rib. Steep skinning turned into even steeper bootpacking until we reached the shoulder before the last ramp to the summit. The curving aspect that we came up was like the front of a sharks fin and from the shoulder we could look over the back of the fin, a vertical, precipitous drop of almost 1000 feet.

The climb to the summit was easy and straightforward. From the top we took a few pictures and a few moments to reflect on our accomplishment. Looking north and east we saw the looming monument that is the larger of the two teeth. Access to the larger objective was definitely not easiest from our vantage. We concluded that it would be better to go further up the glacier before even beginning to climb. All that was just a brief thought in the reflective celebration of our first Alaskan first ascent and looking to the first descent that was to follow. From the summit we skied down the face visible from the bench from which we had begun our climb on the rib. Descent snow and the rush of isolation and the spirit of pioneering a route both up and down that had never been done before was incredible.

With our first successful Alaskan objective completed we were ready for the day that followed, the solid summit attempt and first descent of “Superior In The Sky".

Headed up our path from the day before.

Uncle Keith's switchback clinic.

Serac fall triggered slides across the glacier the day before the summit.

Approaching the bench.

Keith and Emily at the bench.

On belay! Things get steep.

Looking back on the path to victory.

Exposure exposed.

The final ramp to the summit.

The big tooth in the backgroud. Tom and Steph on the summit of the Baby Tooth.

Getting ready to drop in.

Turns from the top as seen from the bench.

Adventures of Bass

On a typical day, Bass gets after it. Saturday was no different as told Joe Stock:

http://www.stockalpine.com/posts/hanging-valley-chutes.html

Last week I randomly met DB at Peak 3 and he told me an amazing story about a bear encounter he had last year. Alaska Public Radio provides the interview.

http://aprn.org/2009/09/15/summertime-tale-the-tumbling-bear/

Pastoral: June 4

I had big plans for the weekend, big plans. Part I would be a night assault on Patoral (4,764') in the Turnagain area. I was on the road by 5 PM and skinning at 6:30. Not the best start, but the skies went from grey to blue. There was about 30 minutes of bush-whacking on the approach from the Sunburst trailhead. I took careful note of alternative routes for the way back. I felt strong and was moving quickly. Taylor Pass at 8 o'clock and Pastoral was looking good. There was a bit of a downclimb, and then right back to skinning. Shadows had enveloped me, but the goal was well lit. The summit approach looked straight-forward and with a route chosen, off I went.

Pastoral (9 PM)

Looking Down on the Grand Daddy Chute

View off the Back at Spencer Glacier (10 PM)

The snow was nice creamed corn for most of the approach, but the higher elevations gave way to death crust and eventually frozen bullet-pack. The wind was whipping on top, so it was time to descend. Rolling solo in a remote location with crap snow tends to lead to conservative decisions. No skiing like the Boyz tonight.

As I descended the snow improved and I was having a blast. But it was decision time: retrace my route or ski a patch lower.  Retracing my route would have taken me over the creek via a snow bridge and back through the heinous bushwhack.  I decided to take my chances and ski lower.  Reflecting back on it, I choose poorly. Granted I skied quite a bit lower and much closer to the vehicle, but I regretted this decision.

I fought my way through dense alders along the creek and was getting close to the highway.  I expected the creek to cross under the highway and I'd just have a bit of a pavement walk.  I was close and could see the occasional vehicle speed past. But then the creek turned sharply to the left and began to parallel the road.  Shit!

It was clear that I had to cross the creek . There was a spot with the willows were thick and the branches extended over the rushing water. I figured that if I clicked in to the Big Daddies I should be able to walk over the willows and make across nice and dry. Failure. I was up to my waist in cold-ass water and tangled in willow branches. Good call. At least this is over. I'll just release my skis and walk to shore. This was also a bad idea; the skis caught the current and whoosh. Awesome. It took a while but I recovered the skis and made to the road just before midnight. Time for rest and fuel.

-Zhou Yu

Neacola Video

I am giving a presentation to the Mountaineering Club of Alaska so I put together a short video.

Check it!!

Tincan: May 31

Does Tincan really deserve a post? Really? It's the most skied line at Turnagain. Come off it!

Typically I would agree with that, but this was my 72nd day of backcountry of the season besting my previous high of 71. We've all put big numbers riding chairs, but never have I hiked so much in one season. Well, I'm sure you care more about the skiing than numbers.

Good Afternoon Skiers and Riders
This is your early June snow report for Turnagain Pass. Come on up and send it. It's full on! There is still snow down to the road at the Pass. Our recent strech strech of awesome weather has allowed the snow to cook down and is just about neve. Turnagain is still buried and the snow is fast and very white. And where the hell is everyone? The skiing right now crushes the thin, sketchy snowpack we had up until Turkey day. It's a ghost town up here, but why did all the miner 49er's leave all the goods behind? The lines are all filled in and the skiing and riding is excellent.

Snow Down to Road Level

Tincan Common

Despite the great conditions, I expect to be talking to imaginery birds and singing to myself again this weekend.

- Frank Machin

Portage to Placer: May 29

Ever since returning from my sussing mission to the Mid-Atlantic region, the weather has been top notch. Rest beckons but the call of the bluebird is too enticing: Tweet! Boot this! Skin that!Tweet, tweet! Get up, sucker, tweet!

"Damn that bird to hell!"

Alright, alright, I'm getting out of bed. I hit the road early for quick schuss in Portage prior to Benderfest '010 down in the Homers. I skied "Portage 1" about 5 years ago and it involved a deep slow water creek. I was pleasently surprised that there is now a bridge over the water. The gully is mostly avi debris, so booting was a breeze. On top of the chute, you are at a triple point: Portage, Placer, and Turnagain. Nice.

Looking up "Portage 1" from that Confounded Bridge

Still Plenty of Snow on Skookum / Carpathian


From the Top of the Chute Looking SE

On previous trips to this spot conditions denied me from ascending the SE. Today was no different. Large glide cracks were overdue for their trip South. Down towards the Placer looks good. Ain't too proud for some low angle love. The snow wsa sublime: 2" of corn on supportable. The snow was fast and white, quite the contrast from Falls Creek the previous day. Nice rollers, some good tree skiing, and then back up to do it again.

Take another lap. Tweet, tweet! Again, again!

But then I heard another friend call out: the greybird

Tweet! Tweet! St. Elias Brew Pub!

"Well, hello, friend, that's a great idea."

Looking Back Towards the Placer Terrain from the Seward Highway

- George Freeth

Directions:
- Drive South on the Seward from Anchorage
- Turn left on the road towards Whittier
- Look for the 1st Chute on the right
- Turn right down the gravel road just past the chute
- I parked at the gate to the RV camp
- The RV owner likes you to check in before you cross their land
- Stay along the right hand perimeter of the RV area and look for the road leading to the gully
- The road crosses the creek and puts you at the snow