I’m still dealing with weird health issues. They aren’t as bad as they were during the winter, but I still don’t feel right. Work has also been much busier than usual. And finally, my wife gave birth to our second child, a daughter, this spring. Obviously a joyous event, and we are thrilled, but the little one’s had some unexpected rough spots in her first few months, which is super stressful and time-consuming for us as parents.

The net result of all this is that I have done nothing adventurous this summer. I bike to and from work and that’s about it. I did some orienteering events early in the summer, until my back gave out (see: weird health issues, above). My longest hike was up Flattop. Damn, that’s embarrassing. As someone who deals with stress through exercise, its been a tough time for me.

I was finally so desperate to get outside that last week I cashed in some vacation time, simply so I could go for a hike. I wanted to hike all day, but since I haven’t been out at all, I figured I should stick close to home and have a few bail out options. So I left Glen Alps with a loose goal to climb Mt. Williwaw, but my route was undetermined. I ended up going up Little O’Malley and O’Malley peak first, then dropping down to Williwaw Lakes before picking my way up the Williwaw gully. Due to the rain and cold temperatures, the snow in the gully was almost ice. My running shoes couldn’t dig in at all. Luckily I had my ice axe, otherwise I would not have made it up. From the top of Williwaw, I skirted the ridge over towards Koktoya and briefly thought about bagging that one too, but decided not to push it on my first day out. I dropped down to Long Lake, then went up and over the ridge behind Wolverine and back to Glen Alps.

The sun wasn’t out, and it was very windy, but it was a glorious day as far as I was concerned. I was able to sweat out a lot of frustration during those 18 miles and 7500 feet of vertical. I didn’t go fast, but I was encouraged that I felt pretty good even after seven and a half hours. Thank god it’s hard to lose base endurance.

O’Malley Peak is a great day hike from Glen Alps, and I’ve hiked and skied on both sides of many times, but never got around to hike it. So when I woke up Sunday morning to unexpected clear(ish) skies, and I had a few hours to spare, I figured it was a good time to give O’Malley a go.

I hiked from Glen Alps up through the Ballfield, took a short detour to look down over Black Lake, then started up the scree gully to get to the ridge. The ridge had some fog on it, so when I got to the top, it took me a few minutes to figure out that I couldn’t go any higher.

Looking east on the ridge from O\’Malley Peak

Yes, that is fresh snow (and some hail) in the photo above. Is it still called ‘Termination Dust’ if its been falling all summer? Is there really a summer to terminate? I digress. My goal was to continue back along the ridge to Hidden Peak. I stayed just below the ridgeline on the south side, since the north side drops vertically for a couple thousand feet. It was good traveling (at least by Chugach ridgeline standards), until I reached the point where I started ascending to Hidden Peak. There was some fog, and I couldn’t see a safe route to the top. I traversed around at about the 4500 contour line, hoping to find a gully to take me up. But I kept getting pushed downward by small cliffs, and eventually I had gone by the peak without seeing a good route up. By then I was running out of time, so I decided to head straight down the scree and snow to Hidden Lake, then run the trail back to Glen Alps. The trip took three and a half hours of hiking and jogging.

Hidden Lake and the scree field I descended below Hidden Peak.

O’Malley ridgeline, viewed from the south. Click for panorama

Chugach State Park is so close to home that I often take it for granted and forget what a spectacular playground it can be. This was a great hike. Many people travel thousands of miles to hike through rugged Alaskan scenery like this. And I was home in time for lunch.