West Kiliak and Nantina Point lie 4 miles south of the Nature Center.  With Yukla they make up the 5000’+ cirque around Icicle Glacier and the walls facing northwest loom above as you trek up valley.  While both peaks have relatively moderate routes to the summit, neither are particularly accessible due to thick brush and […]  [ Read More ]

Labyrinth and Stillwater Canyons, the canyons of the lower Green River, evoke stories.  The ancestral Puebloan and Fremont people, who made their homes along the river, painted and carved their stories on walls just above the waters edge and on boulders overlooking valleys below.  Utes, Navajos and Paiutes followed and added to the stories, turning […]  [ Read More ]

Baleful Peak (7,990′) lies in the southeast corner of the Bold / Bashful / Baleful massif that sits tucked between the East Fork of the Eklutna and the headwaters and glacier of the West Fork of Hunter Creek.  The summit is a sharp buttress that juts sharply 1000’ above the surrounding ridgelines and Rod Wilson […]  [ Read More ]

Peril Peak (7,040’) is the peak that forms the boundary between the West and main branches of the Ekultna glacier.  It is a dramatic peak rising 2,500’ above the surrounding glacier with the East Face being one of the larger and steeper walls of the Western Chugach.  Draw a polygon around the peak and the […]  [ Read More ]

Magpie Peak (5,812’) lies hidden in a southern pocket of Chugach State Park just due west of the Crow Pass Trail and tucked between Raggedtop and Crow. It is generally is overlooked due to its proximity to other Crow Pass peaks, lack of easy access and especially rotten rock. There is no easy route to […]  [ Read More ]

We pooled permits with a number of families and came away empty.  The backup plan was the John Day River which, as of 2019, was not permitted (note – starting 2020 permits are required).  Coordination with my brother, raft rental from Service Creek Resort, permits from BLM, several hundred pounds of gear packed into duffle […]  [ Read More ]

In late April 2019, Todd Kelsey, Joe Chmielowski and I skied from the Eagle Glacier to the Nature Center (ERNC). It was a great ski trip through familiar terrain that felt foreign when covered in snow.  All together it was 50 miles of travel (38 miles on skis) with 11K of elevation gain/loss. We took […]  [ Read More ]

November 2019 Update In November 2019 DNR approved this permit. You can read the entire permit here and an ADN article about the approval here. It should come at no surprise that DNR permitted this.  DNR has a history of siding with motorized users and commercial operations in the Mat-Su area.  During the Knik River […]  [ Read More ]

EDIT 8/30/2020 As of late summer 2020 legal access to Ram Valley is once again closed.  An influx of visitors were causing parking issues and the land owners blocked off access at the road with a sign saying that 57 visitors had come at one day. This closure shouldn’t come as a surprise.  Due to […]  [ Read More ]

North Suicide lies at the head of Rabbit Valley and is one of my favorite after-work jaunts in the mid-summer when sunlight lingers until 11pm.  You can leave the trailhead late afternoon, bike to Rabbit, hike up both North and South Suicide and be back in time for dinner. Elsewhere I’ve written up route details […]  [ Read More ]