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.

Blueberry Hill

Blueberry Hill (4530 ft)
Chugach National Forrest
5 hrs 40 min roundtrip, August 16, 2011

Tuesday, August 16th, provided a single nice day sandwiched between a lot of rainy days.  I decided to knock off from work early and go for a climb.  Initially, I had planned to climb Crow Peak, but as it was still fogged in I diverted my attention to Blueberry Hill at the end of Turnagain Arm. 

I had tried Blueberry Hill once before this year (May 28th).  On that attempt I had to trn around some 3-400 yards shy of the summit due to bad snow conditions (corniced summit ridge).

The lower parts of this mountain provides ample bushwhacking (typical for this part of the Chugach) with lots of Devil's Club.  However, if you are lucky you'll find a path through the hemlocks that is not too bad.  Most likely you'll find some of both.  The map below shows what I believe is the best route for this "hill".

 You know you are on the Blueberry Hill ridge proper once you get to the communication repeater.  From here the ridge flattens (for a while) and provides some of the nicest ridge-tundra hiking anywhere in the Chugach.

The Blueberry Hill summit ridge looking back at the false summit.  Placer Valley is seen on the left side of the picture.

Looking West out the Turnagain Arm and Cook Inlet.  Penguin Ridge is in the center of the picture.

Another view along the summit ridge.  The summit ridge provided fun scrambling over and around a number of false summits and gendarmes.

Looking Northeast from the summit towards the 20-mile glacier terminal lake and Carmen Lake.

Summit ridge rocks.

Blueberry Hill in the late evening seen from the communication repeater.

Panorama from Northeast to Southeast.  20-mile lake and Carmen lake on the left.  Boggs and Begich peaks in the middle.  20-mile river, Portage river and Placer River on the right.  The Blueberry Hill false summit is on the far right.  Turnagain Pass can be seen on the very far right side of the picture (Blueberry Hill is a very impressive mountain seen from Turnagain Pass).

Tincan Crust Ski (Hurra for 17. mai)

Tincan Valley Crust Ski, May 17th, 2009
with Adam Verrier

Despite being tired after skiing Center ridge and Tincan valley yesterday, I couldn't resist an encore today. Adam Verrier and I headed to Turnagain Pass early Sunday, May 17th, for one more day of crust skiing. Yesterday, I headed up Lyon Creek and up onto Center Ridge. This involved a bit of alder bush-whacking, so today we decided to access the valley from the Tincan pullout about 1 mile north of the Turnagain Pass. We started at 7:30 am and skied until about 11 am. The crust held up quite well the whole time, even down low by the main road.

I had for a while been eyeing the saddle between Tincan Peak and Kickstep Mountain and today we got all the way up to the saddle and had a great view of Placer Valley and Spencer Glacier. The weather was so nice that we sat around for half an hour in t-shirts - there was not a breath of wind. Even for Alaska it is uncommen to have this nice and warm weather at 4000 ft at 9:30 in the morning on May 17th.

The skiing back down the valley provided varied crust skiing, from fairly icy conditions up high to awsome corn snow lower in the valley. What a way to spend May 17th (Norwegian Independence Day)!

This first photo is of Turnagain Pass on May 16th after skiing Center Ridge and Tincan Valley (about 10 am). The snow is disappearing fast and the alders made for interesting bush-whacking to access Center Ridge.
Adam traversing off of the Tincan ridge into the Tincan Valley.

Any doubts about the snow depth in the Tinan Valley on May 17th? Here it must be 10 ft!

Heading up the upper Tincan Valley.

Adam showing great skate form, both uphill ...

and downhill (making slalom turns on hard crust with old skate skis with severly rounded edges is a little different than normal downhill skiing).

Heading up towards the Placer Vewlley overlook.

Adam on the last pitch. Tincan Peak in the background.

On the Placer Valley overlook. On the east-facing slopes there was no snow at all.

Spencer Glacier across the Placer Valley.

Looking back the Tincan Valley. The upper parts of the decent was quite steep (30-40 degrees) and a little icy ... a challenge on skate skies with a bum knee (I recently tore the MCL and miniscus in my left knee ... but I couldn't let that stop me from enjoying this great spring skiing).

Adam coming down from the Placer Valley overlook back into the Tincan Valley.

Tincan Valley and Tincan Peak (~4300 ft).

Adam carving turns on perfect corn snow.

Eastward looking panorama overlooking Placer Valley and the Spencer glacier.

Spencer Glacier Crust Ski

Spencer Glacier Crust Ski, May 2nd, 2009
Round trip Portage to Spencer Glacier, ~24 miles
7:30 - 10:30 am.

Another cold and clear night prompted another crust ski up the Placer Valley. This would be my fourth time up the Placer Valley this spring. On previous occasions I has either started too late or had to return early (stupid work commitments). This time I was determined to start early and try to make it to the Spencer Glacier before the crust started breaking down. 30 degrees and clear skies at the starting point indicated that it would be a great day for crust skiing.

Pulling my skis out of the car at the little known access point for late spring Placer Valley crust skiing, I am surprised to see Rachel Steer pull up with the same plan as me. We both enjoyed the superb crust conditions all the way to the Spencer glacier. Especially on the way back down the Placer Valley did we catch some awesome corn snow as the top layer of the crust was just starting to melt.

Spencer Glacier seen across the lake at the terminus of the glacier. Observe the icebergs frozen into the lake ice.
We could safely skate across the lake and all the way up to the toe of the glacier.

Interesting ice-formations at the toe of the glacier.

Rachel catching some rays.
Looking back across the lake at the broken up terminus of the glacier.

Crust skiing past icebergs.

Great corn snow on the return down the Placer Valley.

We got back to the trail head around 10:30 am, just as the crust was starting to break down. It was quite warm - it must have been in the low 50's already.

Panorama across the terminus of the Spencer Glacier.

Early Bird Special

Placer Valley Crust Ski, April 28th, 2009

With the encouraging weather forecast I decided to get up at 5:30 am and try the crust skiing at Portage. I skied on relatively good crust for about two hours and was off the snow before 9:30 am when the snow was starting to melt. Some sloughs are starting to open, and the snow is starting to get sun-cupped - otherwise very good crust skiing. And there is no sign on ash-fall from Mt Redoubt. Up on the Skookum glacier I started punching thought he crust already at 8:30. It seems that it froze harder on the valley bottom than up on the glacier.

Looking up the Placer valley. Skookum valley is the first left hand valley entering the Placer valley.
Looking down the Placer valley towards the Turnagain arm. The prominent mountain in the center of this photo is Blueberry hill.
Skookum Valley.

The prominent peak at the head of Skookum Glacier is Carpathian Peak (5856 ft).

Sunrise on the Skookum Glacier.

The Skookum Glacier.

Looking down the Skookum valley from the toe of the Skookum glacier.

Southern panorama showing Skookum valley on the left and Placer valley on the right. The pronounced saddle on the far ridge (in the middle on the photo) leads over to Center Creek. The highpoints on the ridge on the right include Kickstep Mountain and Tincan Peak (popular back-country skiing peaks accessed from the Turnagain Pass.