Saturday, October 17th, 2005 was our first time out on skis since the previous April. There is powder north of Anchorage – but instead we opted for a traverse since we still have a little bit of light. So on Sunday we rounded up a group of friends and drove south to Girdwood where we hiked up the Crow Pass trail and dropped over onto the Milk Glacier via the pass between Barnes Mountain and Jewel Mountain. We then skied up the Milk Glacier and down the Raven Glacier – finally reaching the trail just as it got dark.

Photo by Thomas Ruszkowski.

This is a wonderful early season ski tour before the Barnes Mountain pass becomes too loaded and dangerous.  Hike up the Crow Pass trail, hop over the pass and descend to the glacier.  From there tour up the middle right part of the glacier to the headewall of the Milk and over to the Raven.  On the Raven start skiing down the center of the glacier and then traverse skiers left to avoid most of the holes.  Bring glacier gear and use it!