The Other Bear Valley

[Click the photo above to view this photo album]

In Anchorage, if you tell someone you went skiing in Bear Valley, they assume that you were up above Anchorage in the Bear Valley that leads towards McHugh Peak. But there is another, less known Bear Valley. If you’ve ever waited for the tunnel to Whittier, you’ve seen it off to the North. It doesn’t look like much – especially in summer when it is a tangled mess of brush and swamps. But in the winter, with plenty of snow, it makes for a fun place to crust ski. Nobody goes there, probably because it is across the street from Portage Lake, which is the mecca for southcentral crust skiing because of its spectacular scenery and easy access.

On Friday, fresh off our ski to Grandview, Tim, Benji and I were discussing other places that would be good crust skiing right now. The consensus was that the Portage area was the place to be for the weekend. Tim suggested Bear Valley as a good bet if I wanted to go some place new.

So on Sunday, Ian and I skied up Bear Valley. The route finding on the first part was tricky – the river was washed out so we had to navigate lots of brush. But eventually it opened up into some really sweet skiing and great views.

The entire ski took less than two hours, so after we were done, we decided to drive down the road to Placer and ski up to check out the ice cave at Skookum Glacier. I could not believe the crowd of people out in Placer on Sunday! We saw about 50 people – and we didn’t even go up towards Spencer Glacier! We had a hard time finding a parking spot. What were all these “lycra-clad NSAA skate skiers” doing out there? Didn’t they know that Hillside was groomed last night? (Full disclosure admission: I think I was the only NSAA skate skier who was actually wearing lycra out there. Guilty as charged.)

Is crust skiing joining the mainstream? It’s hard to see why it wouldn’t when we get perfect days like Sunday.

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