On April 14th Wayne, Carrie, Yvonne and I left the parking lot at Portage Lake at 10:30 am and skied across Portage Lake. It was one of those rare days in Portage: perfectly calm, clear and not a cloud in the sky. We were laden with heavy pack - 6 days of food and fuel, climbing gear, glacier travel gear, skis and sleds. Our original intention was to ski out onto the Ithmus Icefield and attempt Carpathian and possibly Isthmus - the second tallest peak on the Kenai Peninsula.

It took us about an hour to get across the lake and then we worked our way up to the toe of the Bard Glacier. At the base of the glacier we toyed with the idea of roping up, but we had all been there before and were comfortable with the conditions. So up we went - taking turns breaking trail and slowly working our way up the glacier. It was relatively fast going, the snow having a firm crust on it - but as we got higher the snow began to get deeper and less consolidated.  [Read More... ]

On Saturday April 16th, 2005 Yvonne & I drove south to Whittier, a small down that is accessible only via a 3 mile tunnel. The town sits just above Prince William Sound and, although the town itself is ugly - the area is magnificent. We parked just parked just outside the town, ski toured up and over Portage Pass; around Portage Lake, then up the Burns Glacier - then down the Whittier glacier. It was a 12 mile traverse in a very remote wild area where few people seldom go. For the most part it was a mellow tour on a rare calm warm day (it's usually raining, snowing or blowing in that region). All was smooth although we had some excitement getting off the glacier.   [Read More... ]

Alaska has woken from its slumber. Last weekend I saw bear tracks meandering through the snow; yesterday I saw a coyote slink through the trees. Rock climbers are venturing out onto the cliffs next to the highway and the dogs are lounging around outside in the sun. However... there us still snow to be had for those of us who don't wish to put the skis away quite yet. At the same time the climbing bug has returned...what to do?

In an effort to stave off caching the skis in the shed for the season Yvonne and I opted to do some ski mountaineering on Saturday. We pouring over the maps and finally settled on Explorer Peak down in Portage. Explorer Peak is a small mountain at the far western edge of Portage Road, The summit is only 3,440' - but you start at sea level, have a little glacier travel and finally get to boot up a corniced ridge; it's the perfect shakedown trip to get ready for spring mountaineering routes.

We enlisted Dan Boccia to help break trail and on Saturday morning we headed down and by 9:30 am we were skiing through the trees towards the glacier. The initial part of the route is pretty moderate; you ski through a stand of dead spruce and then start heading up the valley towards Explorer Glacier. There is an obvious drainage that you work your way up which dumps you out on a plateau just right of the glacier's toe. We then skied up a broad snow slope to the right (west) of the glacier until reaching a bench where we stopped and roped up.   [Read More... ]

On Saturday, July 21st, Yvonne, Dan Boccia and I climbed the North Ridge of Bard Peak. We drove to Whittier, hiked up Whittier Creek where we forded it near the campground. We then chose a tiny stream that is about 300' downstream from the main fork of Whittier Creek. We picked our way up the stream, wading through it and jumping back and forth across the creek for about 10 minutes until we reached a clearing. We were then able to move left and ascend meadows for around 300' till we reached a series of rocks that border the creek. In total we only bush whacked for maybe 15 minutes!

We then picked up way up hill piecing together the rocks and within an hour we were at the toe of Whittier glacier. We stopped for a snack and then hiked up the glacier staying to the far right side to avoid crevasses. An hour later we reached the scree / snow slopes that head up to the col between Bard Peak and Shakespeare Shoulder.   [Read More... ]

3 suns; three whole days of sunshine! That's what the weather report said and after a solid month of rain we were psyched. Work was out of the question with such a forecast so I emailed Eric a tantalizing note and topo file showing a proposed route up Byron, down the east face and across to the Northwest face of Carpathian. He took the bait hook, line and sinker, stopped by to sort gear and on Friday morning at 5:45 I stumbled into his house with an absurdly heavy pack and we jumped in the truck and skipped town at 6 am. . Our packs were gigantic and unwieldy; we carried a full alpine rack (6 screw, 4 pickets, 3 cams, 3 nuts, 4 pins) glacier gear, two tools, stove, pot, dinner, bivy sacks and bivy clothes (puffy pants and puffy jacket). But we had grand plans and thus could not think of anything we could leave behind to lighten our load.

We reached the parking lot, sorted through gear once again and by 7:30 were hiking down the trail making light of the Forest Service signs that alerted us to impending doom on the glacier above. By 8am we had reached the ice and were staring up at the route. Initially we had planned to take the normal route - which is the west ridge. However the glacier looked good so we decided we'd head up the ice and gain the summit via the North glacier.

We strapped on the crampons, pulled out the ice tools and started up; meandering up the low angle ice and then steering up and right (south) aiming for a tongue of ice that was mostly crevasse free. At 9am we reached the base of the ice fall and promptly front pointed up 200' of 60 degree blue ice to a shelf where we encountered snow and opted to rope up. Almost immediately the route began to get exciting. I traversed a snow bench and encountered a tongue of snow that snaked its way up beside a network of gaping crevasses which I protected with a couple pickets. Eric followed, peering down into the deep blue chasms below.   [Read More... ]