My first time Milking it

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

My first time Milking it

     So the novelty of early-season skiing is wearing off.  With no new snow, Jewel getting old and being tracked-out, Snowbird too far for a day-trip and my motivation to try and ski dwindling, the idea of Milk glacier was proposed.  Milk is another well-known but less frequented early-season ski destination.  I had never been but had been eyeing it from the top of Jewel glacier as well as researching it from others' blogs such as Mr. Finleys' and AK Jacks' for the route/access.  The weather looked promising and my goal for this season is to do more new stuff.  With Hardcore Harvey on-board it was a go.
     I feel so productive this time of year, leaving before sunrise and all (0920).  The views driving up the arm are unique to AK and a sweet sunrise bodes well for a good day to ski.  The Crow Pass trailhead was lonely; a potentially good sign.  Skinning is far superior to hiking and with thin but sufficient snow cover, we skinned all the way to the Barnes-Jewel pass where the rockiness was too intense and we booted it down to the toe of the glacier.
     The Milk glacier scenery is far more dramatic than Jewel glacier, with many large crevasses, decent vertical relief of nearby mountains, excellent sun-exposure/lighting, and views overlooking the Raven glacier and surrounding peaks.  It still amazes me how close such world-class terrain/skiing is so close to home that this is a day-trip.  I was quite impressed and savored the perfect fall ski-day.  As mentioned, there hadn't been snow in some time but there was still very good powder to be had up there.
     We ate lunch, took in the views, lapped the goods a few times and headed out without seeing another soul all day.  The descent was less than pleasant given the thin covering of snow: it's tempting to ski because it covers most rocks, but death to the ski bases from the talus beneath and hiking on that stuff in ski boots is awkward.  We did sustain some damage on the way out, opting for ease and speed over ski base preservation.

Yup.

We reached the pass and the sun crested over the mountains minutes later.  Primo.

View of the Milk glacier from the top of Jewel glacier.

Not bad for lunch-time views.

Can't get this one right-side-up.

October Turns

     A clear day in the forecast and we rallied for an attempt at Jewel glacier just off Crow Pass: a well-known and fairly reliable spot for early-season turns.  With our hot sandwiches for the day and a Dewski from the Carrs' Huffman, we were on our way.  This time of year is great for a number of reasons:
-there is still enough daylight to seem normal
-since I haven't skied in months, the relatively limited conditions are amazing
-re-uniting with people I haven't seen in months
-ski movies are coming out
-temperatures are cooling off
-I can start talking about skiing with my wife

Looking at this pic, you might think we had no idea what we were doing.

     We hiked up in perfect weather.  Although there was less snow on the glacier than I was hoping for, there was enough for it to be totally worth it.  We hiked up the Crow Pass trail in conditions as seen in the pics.  We couldn't skin until the glacier proper.  There was a pair of two ahead of us who attempted to ascend the glacier below the crevasses to the North-Northeast.  We chose an alternative route below a less-crevassed area and later noticed they had decided to turn around and hike all the way back out, without making a single turn.  (What!?) So sad, but we would make turns for them on the un-tracked glacier.

The Crow Pass cabin is down by that lake.  Jewel Glacier is tucked back up a few benches above.

Some super cool rime-y patterns.

     After a brief lunch we skinned up and took a look at the Milk glacier below(tempting for future efforts), ripped skins and began to do what we came for.  The snow had a crusty, wind-buffed surface that could be skied through with relative ease on the powder beneath it.  We did several laps, enjoying the calm and clear skies as well as the success of the early-season outing.  This locale should be sufficient until more substantial snow flies.

Swapping hiking boots for ski boots.  Trade-up what?  That dog ate my sandwich.

Yesssssss

Snowbird: checking it off

     So I put a night at the Snowbird Hut in the Talkeetna Mountains on the list this fall as I am on a "start doing it" push for personal goals like that.  I had been to the Mint and Bomber huts as part of a ski traverse this past spring, but we headed out after the Bomber.
     Saturday morning we went to check out the Snowbird.  Based on what I read, it sounded like the best travel conditions over the boulder fields would have been either dry or covered by enough snow to ski/skin.  However, when the mountains got a thin and slick dusting I was too internally committed to wuss-out because of the inconvenient travel conditions.  To Archangel we went.  I was also hoping they hadn't closed the Archangel road yet, and despite the 2-3" of wet snow it was still open.  I brought my ski stuff with the chance that the 'bird got enough snow for the seasons' first turns, if not it would be good training.

Heading up Reed Lakes Trail.

She was not a fan of the pack.

     We left the cars beneath overcast skies and trekked down a snowy trail with increasing snow depth and sunshine as we gained elevation.  As we ascended we came across a pair who were at the hut, they reported ~6" fresh and dry which increased my stoke with the possibility of rewards for my work.  The boulder fields turned out to be as inconvenient as I expected, but the group handled it well.  As we crested the pass it started to snow and it seemed there was enough to ski.  We descended down the glacier then up the boulders to the hut, fixed dinner, dried out and warmed up.  I would attempt to ski the next morning with hopes of more snow at night.


View of the Snowbird Glacier from the hut.  Note the former 'nunatak'.

     It didn't snow much, but there was enough: about 6-8" of fresh and dry.  The sun was trying to poke out and not another track on the glacier was visible: I was so stoked.  Lucy didn't know what we were going to do yet as I busted out the skis and skins.  It has been awhile and I felt like someone in a movie picking up a lost and cherished object they hadn't seen in years as I put the skins on.  We traversed the glacier and ascended.  I was pleased with the lack of rocks I heard could be there.  Skinning to the top I caught glimpses of Denali and Foraker.  The views of the Talkeetnas continue to amaze me with their ruggedness which was emphasized by the hint of snow illuminated under that typical Alaskan fall sunlight.  The stillness of being solo in the mountains, noise-dampening snow, untouched snow-fields, the ravens, the expansive views, it was all great.  Ski season started today.

     My party wouldn't want to wait for me to lap it to exhaustion, so I knew this ski of opportunity had to be savored.  I forgot to freshly wax my skis so they were a little slow, but I didn't have to work for it on the way down.  There was just enough snow to get a little bounce in there but not so much that a harder turn wouldn't scrape crustiness.  There was enough sun so that it wasn't flat but not so much that it was 'sunny'.  It was a plenty good run for October 5, my earliest.  I am not a year-round skier so this is a super-early preview.  I'm still getting use to the new(ish) boards I got at the end of last season.


Ascending next to the no-longer nunatak.

Pristine.  Stoke meter is up.

Views of Denali and Foraker.  

Nothing more, nothing less.

   I met my group at the pass, we descended back to the car, down into the socked-in valley.  It was mostly clear up high: one of my favorite rewards for climbing mountains in any season.  You don't know unless you go.

Vista Peak

     So ants-in-her-pants-Lucy-dog and I headed out on another perfect fall day.  I needed to do something new, I had to be back by dinner, and it should be something that takes advantage of the mountains before snow comes.  I'm not in tip-top shape but I'm trying to increase my vertical and back-to-back days in prep for ski-season which I hope starts any minute now, like tomorrow.  I looked at a map and Vista was the highest, closest, and un-bagged for me.  In addition, I had been eyeing it's slopes as a possible ski run for some time and had read about one ski report on it here.  I would go up Mt Baldy in Eagle River, follow the ridge to Blacktail Ptarmigan Rocks, possibly tag Round Top on the ridge back to the summit of Vista.
     Again the weather was great.  It cooled enough at night to freeze the muddy trails but the temps weren't harsh on the body.  A crusty dusting of snow was left over on the Northern aspects and shadows which made me thankful I wore my thicker smartwools.  I ran the flats and mild inclines, hiked the steeper and slippery slopes.  I hadn't been to Blacktail Ptarmigan or beyond in about 2 years so the new-ish scenery was nice.  We saw an already white ptarmigan up on there with just a few hints of gray in it.  I then traversed the ridge and decided to focus on Vista rather than Round Top.  The ridge afforded views of a drainage I had not yet seen, the one north of Little Peters Creek but South of Peters Creek proper.

     The white, shadowed valley below was littered with sheep/goat trails, but I saw none.  About 300 feet below Vista's summit I saw a single bear track.  I always find it odd why they come up so high: seemingly un-traversable cliffs to the north, mostly rock and no vegetation all around, not crossing to another drainage, perhaps the views?  I would think I would have seen something back here like a black bear or sheep or goat.  Anyway, the summit was a short and easy scramble.  Despite being in my light running clothes the wind was calm enough to allow for a rest and take in the views and scope the line which looked good aside from funneling into a terrain trap.

     We descended down and along the ridge out.  I was too fatigued to tag Round Top, however it would have been the icing on the cake if there were more gas in my tank (ER's afternoon linkup of Baldy-Blacktail-Rountop-Vista and out, akin to the front-range loop of Flattop-Peak 2-Peak 3-Flaketop and out.  I took the creek between Blacktail and Rountop down and traversed below the Blacktails.  I found pristine ice already choking out the creek in that drainage.  I wish my phone hadn't died because creeks in winter/frozen are a favorite of mine.  The rest was uneventful.  I did see the local coyote and a pond I didn't know was there.
     Lucy-dog struggled on the way up and in, concerning for what winter holds for her.  She did fine on the way down and out though.  She loves the open tundra, the closest thing to what I would think of as a pasture, and reflective of the herding dog in her.

packraft crow pass

     So there are several local floats I had yet to do, sometimes being limited by logistics, starting in one place and finishing in another.  Waiting for it doesn't get it done, so the next time the Crow Pass float opportunity presented itself I pounced, and it paid off.  Crow Pass is about a 23 mile trail connecting Girdwood to Eagle River(ER).  It starts at the end of a mining road, goes up through a valley with an obvious mining history, over a pass with views of high mountain lakes, glaciers, streams, you name it.  It then traverses down to the valley bottom, crossing the gorge a few times before dropping down to the Eagle River, crossing it, paralleling it out to the Eagle River Nature Center.  It can be done in a long day hike, a few-hour run or multi-day hike.  It turns out it(the river) can also be packrafted.
     We took advantage of the incredible fall weather we had been having and started hiking from the Crow Pass Trailhead.  The weather held: sunny, cool, calm.  Less than 1/2 mile from the pass we thought we heard a jet, which was unusual as not many flight patterns go over this area.  Nope, not a jet.  We noticed alders quivering in the windless valley and the rumble was steady.  While scratching our heads about it the whole ground began moving back and forth and we realized it was an earthquake.  My first thought was rockfall.  We were right in the fall-line should anything large break loose.  The sound of all the loose rocks bouncing down the valley walls was both incredible and slightly unnerving.  It continued for some time, the longest one I have felt and the only one in the backcountry.  I wondered if we would come out of the backcountry to civilization in chaos.  It was recorded as a 6.2 with a deep epicenter in nearby Willow, AK.

Down in the valley headed to ER.

     We continued on, taking in the always amazing views on a clear day in Crow Pass.  We saw some sheep up high, moose down low, and some tracks we didn't know for sure but could have been wolverine.  Fall is a great time to hike muddy areas when they freeze over, it was easy-going down to Eagle River's edge.  We gambled with the water level a bit thinking that if it was too low we would just hike the trail out. It was about 3.5ft at the ER bridge at Glenn Hwy and looked low for this far back.  Were it higher we would have hiked upstream a way but we put in right where the trail first sees the river.

The descent to ER.

     The fall colors were in their prime and reached up the valley walls in streaks of yellow and orange and some green hanging on for a super-vibrant effect.  The sun was still high enough to warm the valley bottom despite the tall mountains on either side.  We did a fair amount of butt-dragging and had to walk one 100ft section, but it was do-able and I wouldn't try it any lower.  We saw plenty of sheep and goats, bald eagles including one that was eating a salmon.  The salmon were still running but not looking good.  I had no idea there were so many large waterfalls back there until I saw them from the river.  From the trail they are shrouded by woods or bad angles but from the river their full height and width can be seen much better.
     As the day went on, the sun got lower, the feet and hands got colder.  We had to portage one log-jam lower down, easily seen and avoided.  We stopped and pulled out before Echo Bend rapids and hiked out to the nature center to warm up.  I would definitely recommend this float, especially with slightly higher water, but the pleasant weather and fall colors redeemed that.  We concluded with some beer and food at the ER alehouse.  Another hash on the tally-board of great AK outings.  Can't beat it.

 Photos: Adam Baxter

heeeere moosey moosey moosey

     So fall has been odd with random and new activities.  A five-day trip house-to-house got our our hunting party some moose meat.  Being my first real hunt ever I found it way more enjoyable than I expected.  We had 2 days of sunny weather followed by a partially rainy day, a full rainy day and concluded with a sunny day.  We saw a number of caribou as well as several legal bull moose and ended up shooting one under the >50" category.  We also saw eagles and coyote, but no bears.  The scenery was amazing, and it even snowed one evening.  I learned a fair amount, most notably how large a moose really is.  It was a good time and we plan to repeat next year with experience on our side.

There was evidence we were clearly in caribou country.  Next year I might opt for shooting one of these in addition to the moose hunt.  We'll see.

I have never seen this columnar ice curl like that, usually it is straight.  The frozen ground made for some easier walking than swampy low-land.  Dry feet are a luxury.

Caribou country.  This bunch moseyed on through: 2 bulls of small to moderate size were in there.

This was our measurement method to confirm the spread was >50".  It was.  

Going to town.  I was a noob so took pics and did an occasional slice here and there.  The moose is heavy when you have to carry it.  

Once at the water and floating, things were much more pleasant.  Rafts are and excellent way to transport meat.  

Photo: Adam Baxter