Placer Valley - Spencer Glacier
26 April 2012
42 kms, 2:40

The weather and crust conditions were beckoning, but the question was: could I fit in a 42 km ski and a 2 hr drive and still make it to my 10 am meeting at the office?  I decided to give it a try.

I left Anchorage at 5:20 am and started skiing at 6:20.  I made the turnaround on Spencer glacier at 7:45 and was back at the car at 9:10.  Guess what ... I was 10 minutes late for my meeting.  But it was well worth it.

Panorama looking west from the Spencer Glacier

Route from Portage Valley, up Placer Valley and up onto Spencer Glacier.

Kickstep and Tincan Mountains at the Head of Placer Valley

Skookum Glacier and Carpathian Peak

Nice crust conditions above the confluence with Skookum

Crust was so solid this morning that I ventured about a km onto the glacier (with nothing but skate skies for safety)

Bergs in the Spencer Glacier terminal lake.

Twenty Mile - Upper Carmen Creek

Twenty Mile Valley, Carmen Lake and Upper Carmen Valley

Trond Flagstad and Trond Jensen

April 13th, 2012

53 kms, 5 hours.

Twenty Mile Valley

GPS track of our route in to Upper Carmen Creek from the Seward Highway.  The strech from kms 5 to 8 was slow going along the west bank of the Twenty Mile River.  Otherwise, the skiing was a good mix of open areas and alder forrest.  Carmen Lake and the Upper Carmen Creek offered the best skiing.

Not all the way was easy going.  3-4 places along the Twenty Mile River we would have to take skis off and hike along the bank.

Twenty Mile river crossing on last remnant of winter ice.

Flats between Twenty Mile and Glacier  Rivers.  Blueberry Hill in the Background (see http://trondsalaskaadventures.blogspot.com/2011/08/blueberry-hill.html)

Looking West across Carmen Lake

Carmen Pass.  On the other side of the pass it drops steeply down to Billings Creek and Passage Canal East of Whittier.

Upper reaches of Upper Carmen valley.  Carmen Glacier?

Carmen Lake

Carmen Creek below Carmen Lake

Lots of wildlife in Twenty mile - moose, bald eagles and trumpeter swans.

Lower couple of miles in the lower Twenty Mile valley.

Panorama looking West down the Upper Carmen Valley.