Tim, Benji and I explored the South Fork of Eagle River.  It was a little patchy before getting to Eagle and Symphony Lakes, but really good beyond that.  We explored the valley behind Symphony Lake quite a bit and climbed up into a cirque before turning around.  Then we crossed over to Eagle Lake, but we didn’t make it too far up that valley before coming across a brown bear sow and two cubs.  The crust was already starting to soften, so we decided that was a good place to turn around and head back.

For some reason, I thought I had left my camera at home.  But then I found it in my backpack halfway through the ski.  Duh.

Tim was smart enough to know that he had his camera with him the whole time.  So he got a lot more pictures.

Today, Tim and I explored the Duck Flats area at the head of Knik Arm. I’d heard that the skating there last year was phenomenal. Since it hasn’t been very cold this fall, we were concerned that we might be a little too early. But since nordic skating has such a short window of time, we decided to give it a go anyway.

The ice was not good. To get to Duck Flats you have to skate down Rabbit Slough for a few miles. On the slough, there were multiple layers of ice. The base layer was thick, but the top layer was not. Most of the time the top layer held our weight, despite lots of creaking. But occasionally we’d break through and have a split second to wonder if it was going to be wet or dry underneath. Luckily, our feet only got wet a few times. The ice was also gritty from lots of wind, which made it very slow in many spots.

Out on the Duck Flats, the ice was solid as long as we avoided vegetation, but it had been windy when the ice froze out there, so it was bumpy and dirty. A few smooth spot were found, but as Tim said, we should have brought our full-suspension skates!

But in spite of the conditions, we still managed to skate for about 20 miles and explore a really cool area, so the day was a success. When the ice is smooth and hard, this area would be amazing.

Of course, Tim’s the star of my pictures. If you want to see pictures of me, go to Tim’s 2010 Skiing (and skating!) page.

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.

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.

Yesterday there was up to an inch of snow on the lakes, and about 4-6 inches in the woods. This wasn’t ideal for skating, but it did open up the possibility of skating the lakes and skiing the woods – all without changing boots!

Tim, Ian and I took advantage of the conditions to do a 26 mile ski & skate loop that hit 22 lakes (both numbers are approximate). Two years ago, Tim and I did the normal Nancy Lakes canoe trail in under two hours. This time we were looking to do a bigger loop. We took ski blades, classic skis, and wore combi or skate boots. We basically encircled the entire Nancy Lakes area, except for Nancy Lake itself. The loop took five hours. The skating was good (even with the snow) and the skiing wasn’t too bad. We skated very quickly across the lakes, but sometimes got bogged down breaking trail on skis. Some parts of the route hadn’t seen any human traffic yet this season.

Its not often that these conditions occur, and we had a great time taking advantage of them. Check out my photos by clicking the photo below. Also check out Tim’s photos and video here.

I am talking, of course, about the World Championships of the World Summer Slalom, Extreme and Big Air XC Skiing Championships, the first ever on-snow xc skiing competition in Anchorage in August! You were thinking of some other event? Nope, this is bigger.

You know how extreme skiers have Powder 8 competitions? Well, this is the summer equivalent. The chance to ski some eights on 8/8/08 comes around once every millennium, so we had to take advantage. The event was Tim Kelley’s brainchild. He rounded up Benji, Tim M, Ian and I and we hiked up the Rabbit Creek trail to a nice snowpatch just before the lake. After the opening ceremony pyrotechnics, consisting of thunder, lightning, hail, and rain, the skies cleared a bit and the games began! Check out the photos below. I only had my cell phone camera, so my pictures aren’t very good.

Check Tim’s website for better photos and results from the big event.

P.S. I just realized that 3 of the 5 photo sets in my Summer ’08 album are ski trips. Its been that kind of summer.

P.P.S. Tim also posted a video of the event, which you can view by clicking on the link to his website. It’s quite funny, in an embarrassing kind of way. We look like a bunch of old geezers feebly trying to ‘go big’ like the kids do. Which, my wife reminded me, is a pretty accurate description. Oh well, at least the music rocks.

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!

[Click the photo above to view this photo album.]
You can check out all Tim’s photos here.

Now, here we are a month later, and I haven’t been crust skiing since (other than at Glen Alps) . What happened?? Our 2008 crust season was largely swallowed up by a freak two-foot snowstorm in late April, and subsequent cloudy weather. You just never can tell what the crust gods have in store.

As early May turned into mid-May I was finally coming to terms with the fact that the crust was not coming back and it was time to move on to summer. Of course, the crust gods threw another curveball last night: a clear, cold night followed by a sunny day. So, back on the horse.

This morning, Tim, Tim, Benji and I attempted to ski a place we hadn’t been before, but were thwarted by poor snow conditions at the trailhead. To be expected in May, I guess. So instead, we hit Turnagain Pass, which was as good as I’ve ever seen it. You know the day can’t be too bad when when your backup plan looks like this…

[Click the photo above to view this photo album. I didn't take many photos, so I borrowed some of Tim's. You can check out all his photos here.]

March 28: Three years ago, Linda and I skied and camped on the Curry Ridge Rider trails near Trapper Creek. Ever since then, I have wondered if it would be possible to ski a big loop up and around the Tokositna River using those trails. When I recently read that the CRR had just finished creating such a loop, I couldn’t wait to ski it. Tim Kelley also has some good pictures of this trip (and many, many others).

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!