Moose Creek Skiing

In late March 2009, Jonathan Shefftz from Amherst, Massachusetts came up for a week of skiing around Anchorage. We explored the upper Moose Creek drainage in the Talkeetna Mountains. We also reviewed ski mountaineering skills including, but not limited to: knots and hitches, technical rope systems, anchors, skin track setting and downhill guiding.

Jonathan skinning above the Mint Glacier toward Grizzly Pass.

In winter, Moose Creek is ruled by snowmachiners.

Redoubt Volcano gave the Talkeetna Mountains its first dousing of ash on March 29.

Moose Creek is hard to access. We started at the Motherlode Lodge near Hatcher Pass and skied up the Little Susitna River to the Mint Glacier and over Grizzly Pass, a 12-mile, 4,000-foot route.