Upper Knik Glacier May 2006

Upper Knik Glacier Crust Ski
May 2006 with Kimball Forrest

Kimball Forrest and I flew out from Merrill Field in Anchorage on a beautiful May 28th, 2006. There was bomber crust everywhere, so hard in fact that Kimball had a hard time landing the plane. Once on the glacier, we could skate ski (at 8000 feet elevation) almost everywhere.

Too bad we didn't bring climbing gear ... on a day like that we could have reached the summit of Marcus Baker in 3-4 hours.


The landing strip at 8000 feet on the Upper Knik glacier
View to the East towards Marcus Baker
Skate skiing on bomber crust towards the high point on Knik Glacier (looking South)

Kimball posing with Marcus Baker in the background

Looking West from the high point on Knik glacier

Another pose with Marcus Baker in all its glory

Looking Northwest down the Knik glacier (towards Palmer)

Kimball finishing his "average crust ski"

Mt Goode from the East

Crust skiing in shorts at 8000 feet ... Show-off!

Pure fun!
Panorama from Knik glacier high point towards Prince William Sound

Indianhouse May 2006

Joe Stock and I headed out for Indianhouse Mnt (4350 feet) in the Chugach Mountains on a gorgeous May 27, 2006. Joe had a wedding to attend in the afternoon, so we had to make it pretty quick. The conditions were quite good and we did the whole climb roundtrip in 3:45.


Breaking out on the ridge above the alders and bushwhacking we were met by great grass slopes up to the point were we had to traverse over to the main gully.
Looking across the traverse towards the main gully
Looking up the main gully. We stayed on teh left side until the first Y in the gully
At the first Y, take a right.
At the second Y, also take a right. Very loose scree in this part of the gully.
Joe topping out onto the summit ridge

On the summit ridge with South Suicide in the background
Running back down to make it to the wedding.
Exiting the alders onto the Seward highway.
Panorama from Indianhouse summit looking East along the Turnagain arm.