Portage Glacier, April 10, 2011. Thanks to Bruce Talbot for the photo
Archive for the ‘Prince William Sound’ Category
Crust seekers: The next generation
Monday, April 11th, 2011Bard Peak paddle-climb
Tuesday, August 11th, 2009Aaaahhhhh.
That noise you hear is me letting out a loud, contented sigh. Finally, after five long months, I made it back into the mountains of Alaska. My main goal as I was rehabbing my Achilles tendon was to heal well enough and quickly enough to do some peak-bagging before summer was over. If I could just bag a peak or two, summer would not be a total loss. By early August, I was feeling ready and the weather was looking good. So Tim Kelley and I got together for a hike.
Tim suggested Bard Peak, which he had done before. If you’ve ever gone to the Portage Glacier Visitors Center and looked across Portage Lake, you’ve seen Bard Peak. Here’s a picture of it in winter time. Bard Peak is the pointy one on the left.
Bard Peak is fairly close to home and seen by hundreds of people every day, but rarely climbed. It would provide enough vertical gain, bushwhacking, and rock scrambling to give my legs a good test without too many unknown-territory variables.
We accessed the peak by paddling across Portage Lake. The paddling made for great bookends to a spectacular hike. Check my photos below, and of course also check Tim’s trip photos.
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It feels good to be back at home with sore muscles and a few scrapes on my arms and legs, enjoying the afterglow of a long-awaited peak-bagging outing.
Sunny Weather Goes Up In Smoke
Wednesday, July 8th, 2009As I was biking home from work today, my lungs were burning, my eyes were squinting, and my nostrils were flaring. Was I hammering? Nope, I was inhaling the acrid smoke that has descended over Anchorage in the past few days. Our long stretch of amazingly dryweather has triggered an outbreak of forest fires around the state. It figures, the sunny skies were too good to last.
I was curious. Of all the fires around the state, which fires are actually contributing to the fact that I can’t even see the Chugach from a few miles away? Is there any hope that the winds might shift? o Or a rain shower will knock down the haze?
Before Mt. Redoubt erupted, NOAA and the Alaska Volcano Observatory had models predicting which way the ash cloud would go. And after it erupted, there were maps showing where it actually went. I thought those were really cool and useful. I thought I could find something similar for forest fire smoke.
So far, this is the best map I have found for smoke (there are plenty of maps out there if you want data on the fires themselves). You can play with the real-time interactive map here.
A Quick Hit At Portage Lake
Wednesday, May 6th, 2009I should have known that one ski trip to Skookum Glacier wasn’t going to satiate my lust for crust this spring. Like any true addict, “just one” fix quickly leads to an overwhelming urge for another. My body may be injured, but my mind still craves copious amounts of sun and snow. No amount of bike riding was going to make the urge go away.
So yesterday I succumbed and headed to Portage Lake. With weekend temepratures hitting 70 degrees in Anchorage, I wasn’t sure the lake would still be skiable, so I had Turnagain Pass in mind as a back-up plan. When I arrived at the lake, it looked perfect. The crust was firm and smooth. There was a bustle of construction activity (lots of people and trucks) at the rock slide site, which led me to believe that there wouldn’t be any blasting anytime soon. So I geared up and headed across the lake.
Its about three miles to get back to the glacier. The first mile was great skiing. Fast and flat – perfect for my leg, which is still in the walking cast. After the first mile, though, the snow started getting punchy. At this point in the spring, the “snow” on the lake is really just a foot-thick layer of slush on top of ice. So each time I punched through, my foot dove into a soggy mess. For the next mile, I did my best to stay on top of the snow. But soon the crust was completely gone and I was trudging through slush. Bummer. At this point, making it to Portage Pass was out of the question, so I decided to trudge ahead until I could see the glacier, then turn around.
Proof that I made it. All 2.5 miles of it.
When returning to the car, I played around on the firmer crust on the north end of the lake a bit, watching the rock slide work. I finished skiing about 9:00 AM. When I got back to Anchorage, I found out that the blasting began a few hours after I left. I wish I’d been able to stay and watch! I found it amusing and slightly aggravating that the last time I was there, there were a bunch of warning signs even though the blasting wouldn’t take place for almost two weeks. Then yesterday, with the blasting only a few hours away, no signs at all!
Apres Ski
Even though the skiing wasn’t very good, it was great to be on skis again. And the trip was worth it for the drive alone – I saw a coyote, a fox, a moose and a bison along the way! (Okay, okay, the bison was at Big Game Alaska. But the others were legit.)
Ski Touring On Culross Island
Friday, May 30th, 2008On Friday, Tim K, Tim M, Benji and I went to Culross Island in Prince William Sound in search of crust skiing. The weather forecast was for clear skies and calm winds, both of which are required in order to create crust in PWS this late in the season. Even though there were high overcast clouds on Thursday evening as we motored out to Goose Bay, we remained hopeful that it would clear off.
The next morning the conditions hadn’t changed and the snow was still soft. So we grabbed our waxless skis instead. Touring around on waxless skis was fun, but a lot different than crust cruising. As Benji said, it only takes a few Fahrenheit degrees to change pretty-boy crust cruising into wanker tourist shuffling.
We reached the ridge and headed south. The terrain was just starting to get interesting when low clouds moved in quickly and enshrouded us in fog. We had no interest in blindly skiing off a cornice and plummeting to the valley below, so we were forced to turn around and follow our tracks back through the fog. After we dropped off the ridge, we were below the clouds. So we explored a little bit in the valleys down below before heading back to the boat.
No crust, no sun. But we were skiing in Prince William Sound (on a work day no less) so I can’t complain!
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[Click the photo above to view this photo album.]
You can check out all Tim’s photos here.
PWS Peakbagging In Jackpot Bay
Monday, August 13th, 2007|
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Supposedly the three peaks we bagged had never been climbed before. But even so, whoever named this bay must have known how spectacular it is up on the peaks, because the views definitely hit the Jackpot!
Peakbagging Above Tebenkof Glacier
Wednesday, September 13th, 2006|
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On Sept 13, Rob Whitney and I joined Tim Kelley for a peakbagging attempt in Prince William Sound.
Alaska Scenery & Wildlife
Monday, July 25th, 2005|
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From June 2 to July 25, we had a constant stream of visitors. In fact, there were only three days in that entire 2 month period that we did not have family or friends visiting Alaska. It was a lot of fun. Here are some of my favorite scenery and wildlife photos I took while playing ‘tour guide.’
Peak Bagging In Wells Bay
Saturday, July 9th, 2005|
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On Saturday July 9, Tim Kelley, Scott and I went to Wells Bay in Prince William Sound to hike a couple of peaks.
Whittier Ridge Run
Sunday, August 22nd, 2004|
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On August 22, Scott, Brian and I finally tackled the Whittier Ridge Run that I have had my eye on for over a year.
