Indian Pass Peaks - 10 Aug 2012

Indian Pass Peaks (Bidarka, 3835 ft; The Wing, 4985 ft, Shaman's Dome, 4010 ft)
August 11th, 2012, with Ian and Jen.
19 miles (30 kms), 7900 total vertical (2415 m), 10.5 hrs round trip.

I had (as usual) big plans for the day and hoped to summit 5 peaks in the Indian Pass area on this gorgeous Saturday.  But distances are deceiving and we "only" managed to summit three peaks.  This area offers some great tundra travel.  We didn't see anybody all day.  It is amazing to have this entire area to ourselves.

We started from the Indian Valley trailhead and bush-whacked up the trail to Indian Pass.  The trail is not much travelled and thus very overgrown this time of the year.  From the Indian Pass we headed up the easy ridge to the Bidarka Peak (3835 ft) and then descended to a little tarn North of Bidarka were we had an early lunch.  After lunch we crossed the ridge between the Beak (4730 ft) and the Wing (4985 ft) and traversed towards the col between the Wing and Bird's Eye Peak (4970 ft).  But the West ridge of Bird's Eye Peak seemed too technical for running shoes and shorts, so we cancelled our plan for Bird's Eye and headed back up to the summit of the Wing.  After the Wing we had hoped to traverse directly North to the Tail Feather Peak (4960 ft), but this ridge was also much too technical so we decided to head back West and bag Shaman's Dome (4010 ft) before returning via the col between Bidarka and Bird Ridge Overlook ("Bidarka" Pass).  After an hour of serious bushwhacking we were back on the Indian Valley trail and another hour of bush-whacking down the Indian Valley trail put us back where we started 10.5 hours earlier.

Water stop at the Indian Pass before heading up Bidarka.

Jen and Ian on Bidarka with Turnagain Arm in the background.

Bird's Eye Peak.

The Wing

The Beak (left) and Bird Ridge Overlook from high on the Wing

Summit ridge of the Wing.

Jen and Ian on the Wing

Trond on the Wing with Tail Feather Peak in the background.

Decadent.  Jen and Ian enjoying a brewski on the Wing with Bird's Eye Peak in the background.

Summit of Shaman's Dome.  In the background are Ptarmigan (left), the Wedge, and the Ramp)

The Sail seen from Shaman's Dome.

Tail Feather (left) and the Wing (right).  We descended the left-hand-side ridge from the Wing.  An interesting ridge; 30-40 degrees ridge with lots of loose gravel on friable Chugach crud.

The Beak (left) and Bird Ridge Overlook seen from Shaman's Dome.  Our return was via the pass ("Bidarka" Pass) between Bird Ridge Overlook and Bidarka seen as the low point on the right hand side of the photo.

On "Bidarka" Pass.

Eastward panorama from the Wing.  Left to right are Bird's Eye Peak (4970 ft), Esbay Peak (4050 ft), Bird Peak (5505 ft), Nest Peak (5030 ft), and Penguin Ridge.

Northward panorama from "Bidarka" Pass.  Left to right are Shaman's Dome, the Wing, and the Beak.

Bird & Nest Peak Combo

Bird Peak (5505 ft) and Nest Peak (5030 ft)

July 9th, 2011

Roundtrip 15 miles, 8500 ft vertical, 10 hours

I have been wanting to climb Bird Peak for a long time.  It is a beautiful pyramid that can be glimpsed as one drives Eastbound along the Turnagain Arm.  Very few people visit Bird Peak because of its perception as a very tough peak.  In "50 Hikes in Alaska's Chugach State Park", the Bird Peak hike is described as the most challenging, listing the roundtrip time to 12-16 hours.  However, a fit hiker can usually cut such time estimates in half.

July 9th turned out to be a perfect day for Bird Peak.  The cloud ceiling was at 5500 ft which precluded climbing anything higher.  And the overcast and cool conditions made hiking through tall grass much more bearable.  The Bird Peak hike actually turned out to be quite nice.  It did not involve any real bush-whacking, only a couple of miles of high-grass bashing.  And although the upper part of Bird Peak is steep and scrambly, it is not technical.  The worst part of the hike was actually to reconnect with the game trail that would take me back though the tall grass to the trail head.

Nest Peak is Bird Peak's neighbor to the West.  It is a simple walk-up with some beautiful tundra hiking along the top ridge.  With a bit of energy left, I decided to detour on my return from climbing Bird Peak to also bag Nest Peak.  The detour added about 2500 vertical feet and 2 1/2 hours to the total roundtrip.  The Nest Peak detour was well worth it.  The Bird-Nest route is shown in the Topo map below.

Bird Peak (in the background) seen from the Nest Peak southern ridge at about 2600 ft.  Point 4800 is in the front right side of the picture. The route to Bird Peak goes up and over point 4800.

Closer view of the Bird Peak Southwast face.  The route goes up the right hand side screen slope and then follows the ridge to the summit.

Looking back down at point 4800 from the Bird Peak summit.

Bird Peak summit cairn.

Point 4800.  Turnagain Arm in the background.

Grassy slopes at 2600 ft on the Nest Peak southern ridge.  Bird ridge and Turnagain Arm in the distance.

East to South panorama of Bird Peak (left hand side), Pengiun valley, Penguin ridge, and Penguin Peak (right hand side).