Wrangell Ski Tour

The Wrangell Mountains are not the Saint Elias Mountains. The Wrangells bulge 100 miles north from the Saint Elias Mountains. They are characterized by sprawling glacier neves and several of North America’s highest peaks including Mount Sanford (16,237’) and Mount Blackburn (16,390’). We'd never visited the Wrangells, nor did we know anything about these stout peaks.  

Trip Reports

• Osprey Blog
• Osprey Fall Catalog
• Genuine Guide Gear House Blend
• Alaska Public Radio Network audio story - Part I
• Alaska Public Radio Network audio story - Part II 
• Danny Uhlmann's Blog

Huge Thanks 

To Osprey Packs and the Shipton-Tilman Grant for making this trip possible

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 Gear Support

We used Aether 60's. Osprey comfort we have trusted for almost 10 years.

Feathered Friends 20-degree, 1 pound 15 ounce Swallow sleeping bags kept us warm and cozy and our packs light.  

Genuine Guide Gear for skiers. This is our fifth season to work with G3. I used Saint skis carpeted with Alpinist Skins and rigged with Onyx bindings.

We used our all-time favorite tent the Nammajt 3 made byHilleberg. 

 Scarpa F1 AT boots. Mega light, mega stable, mega warm.

Dermatone SPF 33 Sun Protection Creme and the Z-Cote Lips 'n Face has kept our skin burn free and looking like babies.  

Smith I/O goggles keep out raging groundstorms and Pivlock sunglasses kept us steezy on the drive.  

Warm, fuzzy Wigwam socks. Like a party on your feet. Our favorites are the Snow Whisper Pro and the Mountain Air.

For the trip I recruited Dylan Taylor, an IFMGA guide who lives the international life in France, Alaska, Antarctica and Colorado, and Danny Uhlmann, an aspirant guide who also lives in the steep and cold regions of the world. This was my fifth Alaska expedition with Dylan, but my first with Danny. I'd met Danny only once, but I knew his type. Guides have a safety mentality. That's our job. I also knew Danny toted a bulbous resume, both guiding and personal. When Dylan and Andrew Wexler both stamped Danny's Brother Passport I knew Danny and I were destined for some lengthy excursions.

Over eight days in the Wrangells Danny, Dylan and I battled high hazards through dramatic terrain. Despite the harsh conditions, we nailed the trip in typical fashion: moving as an inseparable group, laughing at every break. We had zero arguments and thrived on the tough decisions.

First decision: is the pilot our man? Here, Gary Green, owner of McCarthy Air, is beta-loading Danny and Dylan. His flight suit included earplugs. Gary is the man.

Our plans often make drastic changes after talking with the pilot in the moments before flying to the start of long ski expeditions,  In 2009, the pilot informed Matt Hage and I we'd be landing on the opposite side of Mount Chamberlin than planned. That's Alaska. Carry lots of maps. 

 Gary gassing the world's last piston Pilatus Porter. All other Porters, like Mount Cook Ski Planes, have been modified to turbo. Gary is hand fueling since his fuel truck blew it's gas line moments earlier. 

 Hoofing it from Solo Creek where Gary dropped us, through a heard of caribou to the Middle Fork Glacier. We had 10 days of food and the unknown.

High winds in the Middle Fork Glacier formed hair trigger avalanche slabs around our camp. Trapped, we spent all day deciphering a route through the surrounding walls. That evening we moved one mile and 1,500 feet and camped, still stumped about a safe route out of the Middle Fork Glacier

Day four, tiptoeing over crevasses and watching the avalanche runnout angles of the loaded slopes. Danny triggered this face from 300 feet away. The weak layer was the interface between two feet of new snow and the glacier ice. It was a bony season in the eastern Wrangells.

Dylan probing for crevasses at 9,000 feet between the Middle Fork Glacier and the Chisana Glacier. The shallow snowpack hid crevasses with skims of snow making travel slow and scary. 

Small slots, but enough to keep us tied together like dogs and nervous about every step.

        Honing our slogasaurus maximus skills on the Chisana glacier. No slots, no crevasses but it was flat! We wondered if we'd ever ski unroped on a steep slope. 

Finally! Powder skiing! Too bad it's only 15 degrees for 300 vertical feet.

    "Whoa! Let's get that rope back out!" Every time we unroped we'd punch a ski pole into the void of a bridged crevasse. We carried two 30 meter ropes. If an unroped rope-carrier slotted himself, then another rope was still available for fishing him out. 

Back to endless groping through crevasses. Roped together and expecting every step to send us into a black abyss.

         The bedtime ritual--where to next? On our sixth night we opted for the Nizina River valley back to McCarthy. The Wrangells were showing us great adventure, but we craved real skiing with speed and summits and no nefarious crevasses or insipient avalanche weak layers. 

From Chisana Pass we skied 25 miles down Whiskey Hill, the Rohn Glacier and the Niza Glacier to this Nizina proglacial lake.

The Alaskan lowlands in spring mean hungry bears. We saw four bears on day six so we hung our food around camp with pots and ice axes perched on top. If alerted by the clattering pots, then we'd launch the heavy artillery.  

Every real Alaska trip must have bushwacking. Here Dylan is tossing his skis through cottonwood, devil's club, rose bushes and alder near the Nizina road to McCarthy.

Ninety-five miles and 9,000 vertical feet through the Wrangells with two great friends. Let's have another adventure soon!