Skiing at Hatcher Pass

October and November found us skiing at Hatcher Pass.

Early snow in the mountains and little snow in town necessitated driving to Hatcher Pass every weekend. But who is complaining when the conditions are like this!

Independence Mine ski trails.

Patrick Stinson showing good form.

Helihiking in the Talkeetnas

Helihiking in the Talkeetna Mountains North of Hatcher Pass
September 6th, 2008, with Kimball Forrest
Highpoint: Peak 5409

I am not one to turn down an opportunity to flightsee Alaska, so when Kimball called to see if I wanted to fly up North to go hiking I quickly cancelled all other plans for the day. Our orignial plan was to fly up to the headwaters of the Skwentna river where we had seen some beautiful terrain a week ago. But cloudy weather to the West made us change the flight plan to a more northerly route where the weather appeared to be much better. 45 minutes of flying found us searching for a flat spot to land on the tundra. From there we went hiking and scrambling for 3 hours on ridges overlooking the Kashwitna River drainage. We got back to the helicopter just in time as the flog was setting in. With a small opening in the fog we managed to escape and get back to Anchorage in due time.

Fall colors in the Talkeetna mountains north of Hather Pass.
Ridges and peaks perfect for hiking and scrambling.
The only local inhabitant we ran into.

Lots of large boulder fields to scamble across
One of Kimball's favorite hobbies ... rolling large boulders off of ridges.
The Talkeetna mountains. Beautiful ridge for running and hiking. Mostly the ridges are made up of scree and lichen, although some places require a little bit of scrambling. Kimball power hiking the scree slopes.

Pretty soon we found ourselves on a somewhat sketchy ridge with loose boulders and lots of potential for getting hurt.
One of the day's high points (~5200 ft elevation). We got cliffed out and I didn't want the pilot to get hurt so we decided we had seen enough. The summit on the left background is at about 5400 feet elevation.
Mt McKinley barely visible in the rising fog.
Perfect timing. When we got back to the helicopter, the fog was setting in. We quickly changed and headed out so that we wouldn't have to spend the night up there. An hour later we were drinking beer in Anchorage!

Hatcher Pass - Bald Mountain

Hatcher Pass - Bald Mnt, September 1st, 2008
Highpoint: Bald Mountain, elevation 4902 feet.

On a cold and rainy Sunday (seems like there were a lot of them this summer) I headed North to Hatcher Pass and sunshine. I had to collect orienteering controls that had been left out since last year's mountain-O. Hatcher Pass had blue skies and ripe blue-berries. I decided to add Bald Mountain to the day's itinerary.

Jose Salas at one of the orienteering controls, September 2007.

I started from the Hatcher Pass road, about 2 miles West of the summit and headed up the tundra towards the Bald Mountain ridge. The route is shown below.

The weather to the South was dark and rainy ....
while to the North it was blue skies and sunshine.
Looking up towards Bald Mnt ridge across a beaver pond.
Mount McKinley to the North (~120 miles away).
Looking down the Grubstake Gulch where mining activities are still going strong.

Bald Mountain (elev. 4902 feet)
Fall colors on the tundra.
Panorama from the Bald Mnt ridge looking north.