Flexibility Mode

We just got back from what was supposed to be a 10 day mountaineering trip, however due to poor weather conditions and increasing snow pack instability we had to return on day 7.  That being said the first 4 days were excellent, which allowed us to get a few things done. Here is the breakdown:


Day 1: The only objective for the day was to cross Portage Lake from the lodge with our heavy packs and set up a camp on the opposite side, below Burns glacier. The day went pretty straight forward, however we stuck out like a sore thumb amongst the masses of skate skiers. The highlight of the day was seeing a recently awoken black bear in the alpine crossing some gnarly looking avalanche paths. The down side was we had to rig up a bear hang and couldn't cook in the tents......suckage.

Day 2: Spent the day on our old friend Portage Pass running some classes on basic snow skills (i.e. crampon use, ice axe use, self arrest, etc.) Being a weekend we were once again an oddity, with numerous skate skiers and mountain bikers whizzing by. The afternoon temps produced some great ski conditions, which we had to take advantage of. It was our first time using the mountaineering boots while skiing, needless to say it was interesting but not as hard as we thought it would be. Wrapped the day up with a skate ski back to camp.

Jake shredding

Day 3: Early start to avoid avalanche paths on our way up the Burns glacier. The glacier was still snow covered and had a pretty mellow angle which made travel a breeze. Nothing more to really say, we just did some reconnaissance and practiced some rope work. We made a ski decent down the snow covered moraines, across some snow bridges and down to camp. The afternoon was spent building and testing snow anchors.

Burns glacier

Day 4: Pre-dawn start at 4 am to take advantage of the snow stability. We cruised up Portage Pass then ascended the convex rolls of Shakespeare's glacier to the col. below the summit of Shakespeare's shoulder. We roped up and started making a traverse, to avoid large cornices, to one of Shakespeare's Shoulder sub-summits. About halfway across the slope the snow stability became very questionable due to solar radiation, so we decided to descend  700ft to the Whittier glacier and traverse over to the Burns glacier. The decent down to Burns glacier was too dangerous to do with a rope or skins on, which we managed by unroping and shredding some gnarly turns down to the Burns and then all the way back to camp.

Portage Pass

Ascending Shakespeare's glacier

Col.

plunge-step

Day 5: The big day before took it's toll on some of the group. Logan's old Achilles tendon injury started to flare up and Jono was wiped out after snow shoeing all day. This rest day also coincided with bad weather moving in and a serious of colds that were developing. We did take a little field trip up to a small knoll overlooking Portage glacier, which we planned on getting onto the next day. After we skied down we spent the rest of the day working on crevasse rescue techniques. Dan and I took a pretty scenic skate ski on the lake after supper, it was pretty awesome without a pack on.

Portage glacier

Day 6: The weather finally started giving us issues. Large amounts of rain started dangerously affecting the snowpack making glacier travel unsafe. So we stayed around camp and worked on 2:1 and 6:1 crevasse rescue systems.

Day 7: With a giant low over us, gail force winds, and howling rain we decided to pull the plug and head back to the lodge before the lake started melting. Fortunately for us the wind was at our backs which allowed us to ditch the skins and let the wind push us back. The most dangerous part of the day was trying to stop on ice after gaining so much speed.



Tentative Plan:  Given the large amount of rain over the past 4 days the snow stability has drastically decreased causing numerous class 3-4 wet slab avalanches. That being said we have decided to ditch our other trip down the Kenai Peninsula and onto the Sargent ice field. To escape the bad weather we have decided to drive around to the other side of the Chugach and walk up the Matanuska glacier to the Scandinavian peaks with a possibility of attempting Mt. Marcus Baker (the highest in the Chugach). We are still working on logistics but it will most likely be a 23-24 day trip.

Squarebanks

 We had a few days off after the ski trip, so I decided to head up to Fairbanks and see some old friends. It was nice to relax a bit and get some gear for this upcoming 120 mile traverse of the Chugach. Saw all the sights, which was limited, and ate a lot of food. My body is still able to metabolize a copious amount of calories, so I took the opportunity to indulge heavily. I think I ate at Cold Stone at least 6 times with the minimum of a double gotta have it everytime. I finally got to go out to Chena hot springs this time round, though it looses a bit of ambiance when its 40 degrees out instead of -40, and in broad daylight. That being said, it was a pretty enjoyable trip. Now back to rations planning and getting gear in order......fun.

Alyeska Pipeline

North Pole

Chena Hot Springs

Lost Lake Ski Tour

Day 1:

The day started with an exciting van ride down to Seward.  We arrived at the Lost Lake trail head in the early afternoon and proceeded to skin up an extremely icy snowmobile track to gain 1500 ft. It snowed pretty heavily making it hard to navigate but we made it to a ridge just overlooking Lost Lake and hunkered down.

Camp

Day 2:

Woke up to blue skies and some fresh powder. Ended up running laps down some mellow slopes trying to learn how to ski powder. I think the trick was lots of speed, which inherently equals fun. Everything was going extremely well until Jono tried to ski.....third turn of the day on the first run he fell and pulled something in his ankle. The guides took a look and decided to evacuate him via snowmobile. Being a weekend and fresh powder there were numerous snowmobilers in the area "Lost Lake Locals," so we didn't have a problem arranging a ride out for Jono. Mike, one of the guides, had almost ruined our repoire with the snowmobilers earlier in the day when one stopped to talk, I think the exact contents of the conversation was "Fuck you, this is America and I pay my taxes," and "damn skiers are more trouble than they are worth." Needless to say Jono got out and Nick skied out with some of his gear to the trail head. This day ended up dictating the rest of the trip, as we now had a shit ton of Jono's gear and food......an anchor really.

Logan gets all the great shots.

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Rescue Sled construction

Jake flagging down a snowmobile for Jono

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Day 3:

Most of the day was spent skiing short laps on convex rolls. The snow was extremely variable, going from skiable powder to hard crust. Needless to say I fell quite a bit trying to transition between the two types. Early in the afternoon Nick returned and informed us that Jono's injury was non-threatening, they didn't even give him any pain meds. We also got introduced to the beauty of the rutchblock test, this snow pack was an unofficial RB8 and only slid with a bonsai jump from 4 people.

epic fall

rutchblock

Day 4:

I led the day up a shoulder NW of Lost Lake following a steep gorge to the north. Logan took over halfway up and took us up to a high point at 3900ft. Dan took over at the summit and we skied down the backside with some nice fresh powder all the way down, at which point it became a complete whiteout. It was our first time having to deal with whiteout navigation, it was a very good learning experience and something that came in handy the rest of the trip. It was slow going but we made it back to camp all in one piece.

Day 5:

Woke up to a complete whiteout and decided on an objective close to camp. Logan navigated us up to the top of a small knob at 2533 ft on some sketcky slopes that felt like they were going to slide. Once we made it to the top the weather broke and we took the short window to ski down quick, after we dealt with Jake's broken binding.  We spent the afternoon learning out hasty pits and compression tests right before it started to puke snow like crazy.

Day 6:

Dan took the group out of camp following the same shoulder as a few days before and topping out at a high point with a great view of Kenai Lake to the north. We had a great ski run down to a survey point called Prim , at which point I took over right when the weather went to complete shit again. It took some route finding but we managed to get to the high point and skied down  the back side and down the shoulder in a complete whiteout. And of course once we hit Lost Lake it cleared right up all the way back to camp.

Day 7:

We all decided to take it easy and do some snow shelter building. Turned out to be a great blue bird day so we worked on our tans. Half the day was spent making a 4 person snow cave and the other half was spent experimenting with how to make an igloo. Overall it was a great day, and we got to dry everything out.

We didn't finish it

Day 8:

The final full day was spent skirting around the south side of Mt. Ascension over a gorge to and onto a high point. The weather the day and night before seemed like they were in our favor, how terribly wrong we would be. White out conditions from the get go all the way to the top. We ended up crossing what used to be a ice field, which has now receded significantly, a sad tendency these days. The last push to the summit was a bit rocky and icy so we ended up carrying the skis and kicking step up. It was by far the worst whiteout conditions we had had the entire trip coupled with the most unforgiving terrain. Needless to say the ski down was interesting. Then as what seems to always happen the weather cleared enough for us to make a quick ski down to the lake. The snow was probably the worst we had seen too. Got back to camp fairly early and passed out Jono's gear equally, and then slept soundly in our bombproof snow cave.

the summit, in a whiteout.

Day 9:

Long slog back to the trail head with roughly the same weight in our packs as we had on the way in, thanks Jono1500ft we had skied yet. Survival skiing at its best. Dodging rocks, tress, and other misc. objects. We ended up having to walk the last bit out do to lack of snow on the trail. Ben showed up about 5 mins. early and the rest is history.