Baird Glacier

Last week my friend Lance was working some shifts at the hospital in Petersburg, AK, and had a few days off. He came up with the idea to fly in to the Devil's Thumb area for a few days, just to hike around and check it out. Though my finger is healing well, my whole hand is still very weak and so hiking sounded like a perfect trip. These first photos illustrate why it's always important to sit on the left side of any southbound flight out of Anchorage. Below is the Agassiz Glacier from 35,000 feet.

Next was an awesome view up the Malaspina Glacier, which abuts the Agasiz. Together they're about 40 miles across at the toe, at the bottom of this photo. Mount Logan is the sun lit peak in the distance, and Mount St. Elias is cut off on the left.
Next we flew with Wally from Temsco across Thomas Bay and about 10 miles up the Baird Glacier, shown below.
Wally flying, and a view up the North Baird...
Our best view of the Devil's Thumb was right when we were dropped off. The NW face...
Mount Oasis. Zac Hoyt from Petersburg was super nice and gave us lots of information, and helped lots with logistics. He's put up a route on this side of Oasis and reports excellent granite.
One day we hiked over the the Witches Cauldron, but didn't get a good view of the Thumb. In all we covered about 20 miles of terrain like this. The many hours of ice bouldering was good rehab for me...

Dieter Klose volunteered to pick us up at the ocean. He and his friend Ann arrived right on time at high tide. You can see the toe of the Baird Glacier in the distance. Dieter and Ann gave us a great tour of Scenery Cove, Thomas Bay and the Sukoi Islands on the way back across Frederic sound. Their boat, The Fang, seemed perfect for such an area.
Sea Lions on a buoy as we motored in to Petersburg.

Bagley Icefield

Tory Dugan, Jason Kwiatkowski and I departed Anchorage on April 13, for a month of skiing and kiting on the Bagley Icefield...a huge icecap in the Wrangell St. Elias National Park.
We had amazing weather, pretty much sunny the whole time!
We managed to travel many miles with kites, and got a hand full of great ski descents as well...

We had mostly light winds, although one very strong session ended up working me over pretty good. Below is my kite control bar after a 20 minute battle with my kite. Fortunately I won.
We found mostly very poor snow stability, though we managed to ski one of the couloirs below...
Tory thinking it looks a little rocky...
Below is Tory getting ready to drop in...

We also skied a great peak about 14 miles west of Mount Saint Elias...called peak 9365. It featured 55 degree angles, many large crevasses and very firm snow conditions. Amazingly, it was sunny and calm on the summit, providing awesome views in every direction. Below is Jason on the down...
Skiing over bridges on 9365...
Below is Peak 9365. We skied the line just left of the rocks below the summit, the one just barely catching the sun. A classic steep ski mountaineering objective...
Kites in the air...

Kiting in to the setting sun...
Tory booting up another couloir...



Below is Jason, slogging with a smile as usual...

And Tory being Tory, of course...

Unfortunately, 15 days in to the trip I accidentally cut my right index finger with a pocket knife while modifying a water bottle. The cut was only 1cm long, but managed to cut my radial digital nerve and artery, as well as my flexor pollicus longus tendon. At first it was so swollen, I couldn't assess it properly. 5 days later, after the swelling went down, it was obviously not working. I called Paul Claus for a pickup, which I got 2 days later. I ended up having surgery in Anchorage 48 hours later.

In 20 days, we had traveled 100 miles and made 3 likely first descents, and perhaps the first ascent of Peak 9365. We'll probably never know for sure, and hardly matters. Jason and Tory carried on, got some better wind, making it another 80 miles to the lower Miles Glacier. My right hand is useless for 3 months, so I'm studying for the GRE exam and doing lots of trail running. Thanks to the Mugs Stump Award committee for postponing me and Sam Johnson's award to climb Mt. Logan until next year. Photo below by Sam Johnson: my finger, post-op.

Arrigetch Peaks Slideshow

I should have put something up sooner, but I've volunteered to provide the 'entertainment' at this month's American Alpine Club Meeting. I'll be showing slides of the trip I did with Sam Johnson last August in to the Arrigetch Peaks of northern Alaska. 6:30 at the BP Energy Center.

Marcus Baker

Chris Flowers and I both had last Sunday free, and decided to go skiing. It was clear that morning, so we took off in his Super Cub. Looking around the Chugach, we noticed Marcus Baker was clear so we had a look. It's hard to pass up the highest peak in the Chugach on a nice day, so we ended up landing around 9000' on a side glacier.
Above is pictured our route. We cramponed up hard old blue ice on the summit pyramid following the sun/shade line in the above photo...left of the prominent rib facing the camera.
Very firm neve transitioned to old, cold, hard blue ice. We were wishing we had brought some ice axes.
Below is Chris on top...we were in the Chugach Mountains, but could see peaks in the Wrangells, Alaska Range, and Aleutians
We've recently had some significant wind events, so not surprisingly the top few hundred feet was like concrete, but low enough angle to ski. Below that came the steep blue ice so we belayed each other skiing for 2 pitches, then did 2 rappels on our skis.
We got back to the plane after dark, but Chris didn't hesitate to launch. It was my first time flying off a glacier through the mountains in the dark, but everything worked out great as Chris had a good plan to turn off all the outside lights and fly above all the mountains straight back to Anchorage. Here we are, encroaching on Merril Field's airspace...back in the ANC.

Autumn

I've been pretty lazy about posting photos this fall...but it's been a good one. It's been clear but cold here lately...I don't think it's been above zero for the past week. Below are a collection of photos from the past month...starting with Jason Kwiatkowski skiing in -20 conditions outside Girdwood. Going up 'Supercouloir'...decent skiing but whoever named it that has clearly never heard of Fitzroy.
Tanya Leinicke and Jon Cobb getting ready for the first pitch in Eklutna, with Bold Peak in the backround.
Bill Billmeier testing the strength of his new yurt at Bench Lake.
Me and Sally on the shortest day of the year...Turnagain PassSolars enjoys another day of ski touring.
Sally and Brita celebrate solstice
Jon Cobb clearing trail in the Talkeetnas
Jon and I making the best of 20 below...putting in trail.
More logging...
Target practice

Flight photos

I have been working since August for Guardian Flight, a Medevac service here in Alaska. We've had some awesome days in the air, flying over various random parts of the state. Here are some photos I've taken out the window. Below is the Prince William Sound with the Sargent Icefield above and left of the fuel tank.This is on a flight going from Fairbanks to Skagway. I think one of those peaks is Mt. Logan and the other is either Fairweather or St. Elias.

Looking down at Inner Lake George , on the climb out from Anchorage heading east...
More Chugach mountains...
Below is a photo of Anchorage with the Chugach Mtns in the distance, taken from somewhere over the Susitna Flats...
Chickaloon logging operations with Jon Cobb...

Arrigetch!

Sam Johnson and I spent the second half of August in the Arrigetch Peaks. After some rain the first couple days, it was perfectly sunny and warm for the remaining 10 days. We flew in from Bettles via a vintage Beaver on floats, landing on Circle Lake pictured below. It's actualy more J-shaped. Our pilot Scotty from Brooks Range Aviation nailed the landing. Below is Sam on one of our reconnisance hikes. We climbed the striking sun/shade ridge in the backround, to the left of Sam. The formation is known as West Maiden, and the ridge is the North Ridge (5.9, ca.3000', grade V) first climbed by Bob Dugan and John Markel in 1982.

Camp 1, on the hike in...

Below the North side of the Maidens...the route being the prominent sun/shade ridge...After warming up on the N. Maiden, we turned our sights to Caliban, picured below. We were intrigued by the East ridge, which makes up the right skyline in the photo below. Our route was previously unclimbed, and involved 16 pitches and 4 rappels.

Below is Sam, starting up the 4th pitch of our route. We were forced to engineer our way around 2 of the towers in the backround, and climbed up and over the other two. It was a great route, and has excellent position as Caliban is the highest peak in the Arrigetch. Amazing granite, too!
We ended up calling our route Pillar Arete 5.10, grade V, 16 pitches and 4 rappels on route.

Anaktuvuk Pass to the Detrich River

Sally and I did a trip in early August, hiking from Anaktuvuk Pass to the Dalton Highway, in the Brooks Range. It was awesome...we covered about 60 miles in 6 relatively casual days, then hitch hiked down down the Dalton to Fairbanks. Below are some photos:

Below is the village of Anaktuvuk Pass, where we started. It's a subsistence community of about 300 people, mostly Alaska Natives. It's located on the continental divide, about 110 miles north of the arctic circle and is fortunate to have daily air service from Fairbanks.
Peregrine Pass and Grizzly Creek

Whiskey Gulch Fishing

Sally and I went down to Whiskey Gulch, near Homer, to go fishing with her Dad for a couple days this past weekend. We went out 2 days, and got 11 halibut and 3 king salmon...which amounted to 80lbs of king salmon and 90lbs of halibut between the 3 of us. We'll be eating lots of wild Alaska fish this winter. Below is Barry's boat, with our kings in it.

Sally and her 55lb king salmon
Whiskey gulch beach scene...

Sally and Barry with Barry's king...

Denali 2008

This June my friend Patrick Knoll from Missoula came for a visit, and we spent 17 days skiing on Denali. Although the conditions were not particularly conducive to skiing, we had a great trip and did find some good snow. Below is the Talkeetna Air Taxi otter at base camp.
A pilot's eye view of base camp on the Kahiltna.On an acclamation day, we got to the 17K' camp and Patrick was feeling the altitude. He stayed there and helped the NPS rangers do some work, while I couldn't resist climbing and skiing the North Summit via the Black Rock Couloir. Below is a photo Patrick took of me climbing up.My view from the top of the North Summit...pretty much a perfect day.

A self portrait just before skiing the Black Rock.

Looking down the Black Rock with my tracks. Notice also Mt. Foraker in the distance and the 17K' camp below.

Our summit day dawned stormy at 14K' camp, but we decided to go out for a ski, and check out conditions on the Orient Express. There was a lot of blue ice everywhere, but less in the Orient. Thinking we'd 'just go up a little further', Patrick left his skis at around 16,000' at some blue ice. When we got to about 18K', we popped out of the clouds and in to the sun. We couldn't help but want to go tag the top. Unfortunately, by the time we got to the summit ridge, we were in full storm conditions. Unable to see even our feet, and clinging to the ridge in over 60mph winds, we decided to turn back around 100' from the top. Since I had brought my skis all the way up there, I decided to ski from the Football Field, at around 19,500'. The Orient was very firm neve snow with a little blue ice, but still skiable. Below is me on the way up.And Patrick at a rest stop on the way up the Orient...

Eklutna Traverse

My girlfriend Sally and I did the Eklutna traverse the other day, in a single push. The weather was tolerable, but certainly not clear. We had a great time, and moved fast. Here she is late at night, on the Whiteout Glacier.

Chamonix

A couple weeks ago I returned from skiing in Chamonix. It was great, though quite stormy with about 2 meters of new snow during the 18 days I was there. I only spent a couple nights down in town, opting instead to camp out up in the Valle Blanche, Alaska style. I met up with Greg Collins, who had been there awhile already.

Below is Greg skiing the Jeager couloir on the E. Face of Mt. Tacul after about a meter of new snow. 100kph wind and continuous spindrift preveted us from going to the tippie top. Great skiing though, about 55 degrees in one section but mostly less.Below is Greg rappelling in to the Cosmiques Couloir on our second good day. This is a very popular run, and sees hundreds of people per day since it's easily accessed from the Aiguille du Midi. Again, it had snowed another couple feet the night before, and we were the first ones in it that day. Unfortunately, Greg took a hard fall and a tumble while skiing, pulling a calf muscle...so he was done skiing for the trip. Greg skiing out the Glacier after the Cosmiques.The East face of Mt. Tacul. I focused my energy on some of these couloirs. The Jeager is the furthest right couloir , and looks like it doesn't top out on the ridge (but it does). I ended up skiing the Diablo Couloir, just below the sun .Greg had left so I took to taking photos of my stuff in various places. Finally it got nice and I skied the Giravasutti Couloir on Tour Ronde on a perfect sunny and windless day. The next day was overcast and very windy, but I managed to ski the Macho Couloir from Col du Diablo. It was very steep and rocky, and the snow was pretty crusty and bad. A lot of work for crappy skiing. The next day was sunny, but again windy. I climbed the Diablo Couloir on Tacul, which required climbing a couple water ice steps down low, then rappelling them on the way down. This photo is taken from the top, looking down about 1000m of 55 degree pencil hard snow.

Finally my last day and it's again tolerable weather. I'm tired, but I force myself out of the tent late and take off to ski Mt. Blanc. I end up doing the Mt. Blanc Traverse, which involves climbing Tacul, then Maudit, then Blanc. This photo is taken from the top of Mt. Tacul, with Madit in the foreground and the big Blanc behind. The line up Maudit is right up the sun/shade line, and ended up being really good skiing on the way back. It was a long day which made for an awesome end to my trip!