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 ]

Spring- it means something different for everyone. For my mother in Virginia it means peas and corn sprouting after a short winter; for grumpy Anchorites unwilling to venture higher than 1500′ it means mud and muck and 22 trips to the car wash to keep that shine. For me it means the annual Chugach migration […]  [ Read More ]

Prologue The pain comes a few days later. Three, four days after you think you’re home free, it descends crashing into your immune system. The first thing you notice when you wake up is your skin beginning to flake and peel. A couple days later it turns black and you try not to look at […]  [ Read More ]

The Tetons; will I ever tire of them? There are so many places to go so many mountain ranges scattered across the continent yet I am always drawn back to the magnificent view of the Cathedral Group towering above the valley floor. The tops of the peaks dusted with snow, lines traced with fingers of […]  [ Read More ]

Cragging. To a climber that’s all one has to say. The word implies good times, good fun – a vacation. To a non-climber how can I explain it? Cragging is when you go to a climbing area where all the climbs are an easy 5-10 minute walk from the car and the climbs are maximum […]  [ Read More ]

The signs did not bode well. First of all the forecast was for clearing skies by mid morning – however the entire drive up into the South Fork of Eagle River was in a thick fog bank where we could see 200′ at the most. And then 45 minutes into the hike we were faced […]  [ Read More ]

Spring climbing came once again… and once again I started trolling for partners. Many options and many ideas were voiced but Yvonne and I finally announced we were going to the Alaska Range; to the Ruth Gorge. Everyone wants to go to the Ruth – and suddenly Yvonne and I had 2 other partners (Bryce […]  [ Read More ]

Update 2/5/2021 This post is getting a ton of traffic so I’ll post what I posted elsewhere here since people have said it’s poignant… Update 2/3/2021 On Feb. 2nd 2021 three climbers were caught in an avalanche on this route and died. 54-year-old Tom Devine of Chugiak, Alaska, 43-year-old Matthew Nyman of Colorado Springs, Colorado, […]  [ Read More ]

Note – Spring 2013 Lots of people are searching for this page so they can get more information about the traverse. Please be aware that since implementation of the new Hatcher Pass Management Plan there has been an unprecedented level of illegal snowmachine access occurring at the Snowbird Glacier and throughout the Glacier High Peaks […]  [ Read More ]

We had the worst avalanche report of the season – multiple weak layers, 6 plus feet of new snow, warming temperatures – and to top it off, the threat of a rumbling Mt. Redoubt 130 miles to the west. But we couldn’t stay home; the forecast was calling for a blizzard warning that evening. We […]  [ Read More ]

It was one of those cold summers. Snow patches lingered in the yard till June and we were still climbing snow couloirs in June like it was May. The July rains came early, rock climbing consisted of long drives to Hatcher Pass only to turn around and drive home. Mountain climbing became something you did […]  [ Read More ]

Winter lasted well into June in Anchorage. Snow patches lingered in the yard till June and we were still climbing snow couloirs like it was May in mid June. Then the July rains came early… rock climbing consisted of long drives to Hatcher only to turn around and drive home, mountain climbing was out of […]  [ Read More ]

The forecast called for clouds and isolated showers; not ideal conditions given that isolated showers usually have a way of finding me, but I wanted to get out so I studied the maps and my photos. I finally decided to give the North Face of Eagle Peak a try. My reasoning was that 2 weeks […]  [ Read More ]

JT passed along info that Korohusk was in good shape, so on Saturday Yvonne, Bryce, Charlie and I headed up Eagle River to give it a try. The initial four miles went by in no time and soon we had reached the turn off point and were headed uphill. As usual the start required a […]  [ Read More ]

The earth buzzes by below us; rolling hills turn to spires, caribou tracks up ridge lines, blue ice overflowing tight river drainages. The creeks flow past – Caribou, Divide, Boulder. The mighty Chickaloon calm, frozen in time the meandering blue ice locked until Spring (who hovers just around the corner) descends. And suddenly we are […]  [ Read More ]

High pressure pushed over Southcentral Alaska so I rounded up a group and on Saturday we headed down to Turnagain Pass for yet another day of powder skiing. We started out with a large group – 6 in total – and headed up and over Taylor Pass. However at the pass Eric the Viking’s hip […]  [ Read More ]

Charlie Sassara left an email last Thursday: “Want to try a route this Saturday? Call me.” I read it slowly and then called, trying to figure out what the best excuse would be to not go. “I can’t,” I told him. “We just bought a house. I’m out of shape. My exercise has consisted of […]  [ 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 […]  [ Read More ]

Saturday. I float the Upper Kenai in my tiny Dory and thoroughly enjoy the say. It feels like summer; the sun is shining brightly and the salmon are rolling underneath my boat – I even manage to catch a couple. The Upper Kenai is pretty calm for such a nice day. Everyone sits around in […]  [ Read More ]

On Sunday Eric Parsons, Dan Boccia, Yvonne & I climbed the Southwest Ridge Granite Peak (6729′). We left town at 7:30 am and by 8:30 were driving in circles in the maze of 4WD trails that are at the base of Granite. Dan’s excellent driving technique through mud, over rocks and across ditches had Eric […]  [ Read More ]