Western Chugach Steeps

Todd Smith from Seattle and I crushed the Western Chugach over five epic days in late May. We skied seven steep north faces, some far out crevassed pass, never-ending corn runs and sun-roasted our noses. 

Alpine Air in Girdwood lifted us to the Swallow Glacier and we camped for two nights on the upper east fork of the Eagle Glacier. After reviewing avalanche rescue we skied four steep runs on north aspects of Peak 6540. Everything becomes possible with a honed partner, stable snow and splitter weather. Thanks Todd for the awesome company!

First priority on day two: lay tracks down these faces. Todd sizing up Ski Peak I (right) and II above the Swallow Glacier. 

Real deal slots. Although the regular crevasses were bridged with a fat layer of seasonal snow, the bergschrunds were often fresh with thin bridges. These schrunds, and a heat-reactived weak layer that formed 12 days earlier, were our major hazards of the trip.

Six runs and three steep north faces on day two. Todd hitting impeccable 50+ degree chalk on Ski Peak II. This was the last dry snow of the trip. Warm air temperatures crusted all aspects to 7,000 feet, which actually improved stability and opened options.

Negotiating crevasses on the Eagle Glacier on our way to Bunting Peak. While most buntings are small white and gray alpine birds, this Bunting had a ferocious beak and big talons.

Todd avoiding Bunting's 45+ degree hard-pecking beak. This face had been lightly crusted the day before but still had awesome steep skiing. We made two attempts on Bunting after a false alarm storm sent us bailing for shelter. 

Unfinished business. Todd heading toward Hans Hut from the Eagle Glacier after skiing Bunting. Our route from Bunting to Hans crossed several high rocky cols where the 1993 1:63,360-scale map proved useless since the glacier dropped over 300 feet--bonus skiing!

In balmy, clear-skies weather we slept outside Hans Hut above the Whiteout Glacier. Our objective for the following morning, Whiteout Peak (7,135'), sits above the hut. We skied near the right skyline.

"Common Todd, do the REI salute for me. Pleeeeeze?" Todd near the summit of Whiteout Peak with the Chugach and Kenai summits beyond.  The 7,135-foot summit of Whiteout Peak is one of the highest mountains in the Western Chugach (the Western Chugach are east of Twenty Mile and Lake George) and the first Western Chugach 7,000-footer I've skied.

Get some Todd! Belayed skiing on 45-50-degree thick crust above an icecliff. This run continued on beautiful corn for 3,500-feet down the Eagle Glacier.

Petra Hilleberg and Todd waiting for night four on the Eagle Glacier nunatak. We'd been up since 3AM to beat the heat and diurnal avalanche danger.

Day five. From our nunatak camp we crossed the 6,200-foot pass and skied a dramatic face (below sun) of 35-degree crust and avalanche chunder between berschrunds into the Raven Glacier. We traversed below an icefall to the Milk Glacier and down to the Crow Creek trailhead. Crow Creek local Ryan Davis gave us a lift to burgers and beer at Chair Five. 

Girdwood Glacier Skiing

In early May 2010 guided the Marshall family for a week of Girdwood Heli Drop skiing. The Marshall family comes from Laramie, Wyoming. Kent has been backcountry skiing forever, from Canada to France, and is all about visiting his daughter Cassady who is project manager for the cleanup at the former Chevron refinery in Kenai. Kent's son Brooks also joined us from Logan, Utah. Brooks is about to start a Ph.D program in chemistry at Bozeman. Good luck Brooks! No distractions in Bozeman. Ha!

Laramie people are a hardy bunch. Their local hill is Snowy Range Ski Area and chickens fall over when the wind stops blowing. To welcome the Marshalls to the Chugach I mustered a windstorm on the first night of our four-day trip. Then we had endless skiing in blistering sunshine.

Kent saying later to Alpine Air who lifted us from Girdwood to the Sparrow Glacier in 15 minutes. The weather clagged in soon after allowing us to focus on avalanche rescue, crevasse rescue, then building massive snow block walls for the windstorm.

Cassady cutting dry snow on our first run of the trip. To check snow stability before the run, Brooks gave me a counter balance belay over the ridge. I found a weak layer from seven days earlier that failed on CT24 Q2 at 25 cm. Since we saw no other red flags or positive results from slope tests, we skied this slope one at a time, traversing skiers left above the 'schrund.

 

Day two. We hit seven passes with piles of turns in between. Here we're skinning above the Pipet Glacier with pass four below us and pass three on the sun/shadow line on the ridge behind. 

Kent reeeeely likes to ski. If Kent's this stoked at 60, how stoked was he at 30?

Our basecamp high above the Girdwood Valley.

Kent, Cassady and Brooks above the Swallow Glacier minutes before skiing down to catch our flight back to Girdwood for lunch at Chair Five. Thanks for an incredible trip Kent, Cassady and Brooks! I can't wait for Little Switzerland with you in 2011!

Eklutna Traverse Day Tour

The Eklutna Traverse is best done as a five-day trip while staying in the dramatic MCA huts and skiing peaks along the way. Another option is blasting the traverse as a day-tour with almost no gear. While this may seem rash, if you look at the stats (38 miles and 7,000 vertical feet) you'll see the Eklutna is less tiring than  the Suisitna 100, Wilderness Classic or the Tour of Anchorage, AND more fun because no one is watching!

After guiding the Eklutna several times, I talked Andrew Wexler into day touring the route with me. Wex is vertically-inclined so he took some convincing. We started from the Eklutna Reservoir trailhead at 6am on May 2005 and emerged on the Crow Creek Road in Girdwood 14 hours and 17 minutes later. We'd lugged heavy AT gear and walked 15 miles to reach snow. What would it be like with more snow?

On April 17, 2007 Andrew McCarthy and I skated across the Eklutna reservoir with scaled, metal-edge skis. With perfect low elevation conditions we calculated 12 hours to Girdwood, max.

Drew skating across Eklutna Reservoir. A major shortcut, unless you fall in. Be careful around the inlet. 

On the Eklutna Glacier near Pitchler's Perch and Peril Peak. We took skinny skins to climb the steeper sections. Skinny skins are old-school skins sliced lengthwise to make skins 1-inch wide for flattish tours.

Bombing into the Eagle Glacier. We were breaking trail six inches deep across everything above 3,000 feet. Not so fast.

Breaking trail for eight hours when you don't expect it made Drew hungrier than normal.

We practiced LNT along the way and kicked over a few cairns.

Down climbing Goat Ridge. The final 2,000 feet to Crow Creek was lean-back-and-surf on isothermal slop. At the road my stopwatch read 14 hours and 17 minutes. Arghh! The same as two years earlier with Wex. Rob Whitney and Holly Brooks skated and ran it in 12 hours in late May 2010.