East Fork of the Chulitna

     So it's been some time since I've posted and will likely be quite awhile before I post again due to changes in life.  Every now and then I find the time and desire to put one up.  This time I wanted to packraft something up by Denali, but with Sanctuary River being closed for wolves I had to choose another option.  After researching a bit, the best reviews pointed to the East Fork of the Chulitna River.

     The routes to the put-in were plentiful, but we settled on the one with the least perceived bushwhacking and moraine. Cory Smith had done the route and written about it.  After a drive up to the Denali area, we stashed our bikes where the East fork crosses the highway, drove north, and parked at a construction/mining site where the ATV access trail use to be.  The long Alaskan days allowed for a late start at 6pm.  We hiked the ATV trail up into the valley with no bushwhacking.

     We noted some bear tracks, wildflowers, spruce grouse, eagles, and some caribou.  Sparse snowfields were still present in the river bottom, but overall the valley was green.  Walking was easy and scenery was great, but the mosquitoes were bothersome.  We crested our first pass, hiked to the summit and enjoyed incredible sunset views of Denali and the surrounding mountain ranges.  We also saw a few sheep on the ridgetops.  Despite being close to 6000' with a breeze and cool temps, the mosquitoes persisted.  We proceeded to drop down into the next valley, setup camp, ate dinner and slept.  I slept, but I hear others had more difficulty related to mosquitoes.

     The next morning we broke camp, headed up and over the next pass and dropped down to the East fork of the Chulitna, enjoying blueberries along the way.  The caribou trails made the descent below the treeline easy.  We picked a nice spot on shore, blew up  the boats and started floating.  The river looked bony, but actually floated very nicely.

     After some splashy floating the river mellowed out where Crooked Creek joined in.  After a bit, the gradient increased and it was more splashy.  Then we entered a canyon with several fun class III sections.  The water mellowed out a bit and then we encountered a section that did require scoping.  We established our route and executed with success.  From that point we rode the remaining canyon of clear blue and white water until the river opened up and ran south.  The rest was pretty relaxing given the nice weather and easy floating.  We even got to do some salmon-spotting in  the shallows.  

     Once at the bridge we stashed our gear, and biked back to the car in record time thanks to our pace line leader, tailwind, and overall downhill course.  

     For those of you who don't know, albedo is a non-dimensional, unitless quantity that indicates how well a surface reflects solar energy.  Also, the H&H Lakeview Restaurant near the Talkeetna turn-off has some decent burgers for the hungry traveler, a nice lake out back, original AK paintings, and some scrappy dogs running around in the restaurant.  Enjoy the video.

Finally, Savage-to-Sanctuary

     So I had made it a point to float the Sanctuary River in Denali National Park this summer.  The planned weekend had come so Sarah and I busted north despite clouds and scattered showers in the forecast.  We were greeted with mostly sunny skies and construction on the drive up, but it was still gorgeous.
     We arrived at the Wilderness Access Center, obtained our permit, bear canister and found the next bus heading to Savage River.  I was unaware, but should you be planning a backcountry trip in Denali they require you to have a bear canister for your food.  This canister was larger than our food, had no tie-downs or straps, and weighs a bunch.  I was less than thrilled having to work this thing into my packing strategy.  In addition, make sure that the wilderness unit you will be camping in is not full as they allow only a certain number of campers each night in each unit.  Luckily ours was not, but had it been a nice weekend we may have been out of luck.
     The green bus gave us a ride to the Savage River bridge.  In hindsight, we could have left from the Savage River campground and saved ourselves about 2 miles, but whatever.  We repacked with the canister and headed upstream on the banks as thunderstorms approached.  Thunder is rare in Anchorage, so the thunderstorm was a treat reminiscent of Michigan.  It rained for a brief period and then became scattered, decreasing as we climbed farther up valley.  We alternated between caribou trials, game trails, and riverbank walking until we were a draw or two deep in the valley where we set up camp.
     The next morning we continued up the valley along the riverbank which carried us most of the way and made for easy walking.  The weather was prime with billowy white clouds in sunny sky and a gentle cool breeze that kept us comfortable.  We spotted a cow and large bull caribou as well as numerous moose and caribou sheds/skulls.  Lunch was on the last bit of the riverbed before we headed up to the pass through grassy fields chuck full of wildflowers.
     The pass proper was unremarkable when compared to views and scenery on either side.  Still interesting, though, was the spring from the top which flowed down to both East and West.  We had an easy descent down into the Sanctuary drainage with the continuously impressive vista of the Sanctuary valley, fields of fireweed, ground squirrels darting and chirping, mountain goats on the ridgeline, and the storm clouds gathering to the north while we still enjoyed sunny ones.
     As mentioned the descent was easy and we arrived at the river, rearranged gear, inflated our packrafts and started floating.  I was worried there wouldn't be enough water given what the upper Savage looked like and having never seen the Sanctuary, but there was plenty.  We didn't drag butt at all and the water level was just right all the way to the bridge(~7ft-ish).  We did the float in about 2.5 hours.  We started in clear/partly cloudy skies, floated through sprinkles with rain elsewhere, and even saw a rainbow.  The rain had enriched the greenery, especially as the river left the valley and into the open.  The river was an ideal float in my mind.  It was just splashy and curvy enough to not be boring, but just tame enough that I could still look around and enjoy the scenery.  It was a good speed and volume with no sweepers or log jams.
     The park bus picked us up from the Sanctuary bridge, we rode back to the care in sunshine with good views of the park.  At the car we encountered an Idahoan who had floated the same but came in from the Calico Creek side(west) and higher up valley.  He said he had been rained on a lot and had poor weather, so I guess we lucked out considering that route was our alternative.  Impressively, he had been touring and packrafting all over Canada and Alaska, managing to do all this from a motorcycle and his raft fit in his saddlebags in addition to all his other gear.
     Anyway, I would highly recommend this trip.  I finally made it to Denali National Park(other than the mountain proper) and it was great. I would go back in a second.

I used the map and route in red from Go Play Outside! blog as a guide but the blue is more like what we actually did.  Major differences include our start point and that we went up the West side of the river the entire time.

Post-Denali quickie

     We are back, safe and healthy, from our climbing trip to Denali.  This write-up will be short relative to all that I have to tell.  2.5 weeks worth is a lot to write about but a summary should do and there is plenty of information out there regarding the climb in general so most of this will be personal and random.
     We decided that the four of us would travel best in 2 roped teams of 2.  This worked smoothly for us.  The weather was pretty much perfect.  We had some spotty clouding and precipitation while at 14 camp, but hardly enough to prevent travel, we were just patient and cautious and got some good skiing in while waiting.  The group dynamic and communication couldn't get much better either, likely due to our previous experiences skiing the backcountry together.  We skied until 14 camp and used the traditional crampons from there to summit.
     2 of us summited on June 5 while the third summited the next day pretty much solo.  Our final member made it to 17 camp but was unable to summit due to a prolonged battle with nausea and the subsequent weakness.
     I learned a lot on this trip about myself, climbing, winter camping, the mountain, my climbing partners.  I was surprised that being Americans, we were in the minority.  We met many internationals mostly from Europe and Asia.  The sense of community was strong, and pleasantly so.  We were all there to climb the mountain and the interactions between climbers was refreshing in that information and tips/advice flowed so openly between everyone.  The park rangers were excellent resources.
     Pictures don't do it justice.  It was some of the most breath-taking and awesome places to be with stunning scale and scenery.  One can only appreciate this in real life.  My scale was way off. I was accustomed to the typical 4-5000 ft of vertical in the Chugach but surrounded by 3-4x that going up Denali.  Breathing was much more of a challenge than I anticipated.  I didn't sense it until 11 camp, but it was progressively difficult with elevation gain and still noticeable at 17 despite our length of stay and acclimatization at 14. 
     We saw the record for speed ascent on the West Buttress being broken as we were going up the Headwall by Edward Warren.  We had some pretty good skiing out of 14 camp with a picturesque carpet of clouds below, behemoth mountains jutting up through them, blocks of blue ice the size of buildings on one side and boulders/crevasses on the other.  I'm telling you this is national geographic stuff. 
     I will try to include a link to some photos at a later date.  It was more challenging to take pictures given that my attention was on climbing, breathing, rope management, breathing, taking the next step and carrying a heavy load.  And breathing. 
I lost 13 lbs during the trip. 
I did take a short fall but was able to arrest quickly. 
My total gear weight including ski stuff was 128lbs. 
We met Alex Honnold and shared a plan ride with him and his film crew up in the Ruth Gorge before we flew to Kahiltna base. 

PICS: https://plus.google.com/photos/116759503566424990671/albums/5891395918231480177

Denali Prep, final thoughts before the climb

     So today is my last packing and prep day before working tomorrow and then off to Talkeetna, the fly-out location begin climbing Denali.  We are allotting 21 days total, planning to ski as much as possible.  We are going un-guided, a team of 4 ski-buddies.  I think we have an excellent group dynamic.  I am incredibly stoked for this trip, to say the least, it's a bucket-list item.
     I am finding this trip is similar to my training for my ironman.  Lots of preparation, practice, planning, experimenting, personalizing gear and methods, all of which leaves you at the start line with a chill peace knowing you are ready and the work has been put in.  From here it is all game time, the pinnacle of my flow-state will begin when we arrive to the glacier and step off the plane and also when summiting.
     I feel I am not over-confident, my expectations are realistic and I know my respect for nature and the mountains will be enhanced with this trip.  I hope to learn a lot.  There is quite a bit of published information and anecdotes about the climb but I find everyone has advice of what worked for them and there are many things that have worked.  Here a few random thoughts as my mind is still in a packing-frenzy:
My first priority is safety. 
Second: a good time. 
Third: summiting.
My greatest fear is a fall/slide. 
My greatest challenge will be the heavy load.
My food weighs ~46lbs, maybe a few more after adding last minute stuff.  I won't weigh my gear, it's too intimidating.
Lucy can't come with on this one.
3 weeks without my better half will be tough: no communication, the most since we got married.
The expected highlight of the trip will be summiting in good weather.
     I'll be missing out on early running/biking season and a few fun races for each, but it will be worth it and I can do that stuff anytime.  There will likely be a lengthy post or several posts about the trip when I get back.  I hope to take many photos.  I also hope to execute my game-plan without to much selective deviation, mostly regarding hydration, pace and layering/gear use. 
Wish me luck.



Denali from Talkeetna. 



My 21 days of food.

50lbs