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.

Turnagain Pass Skiing, June 2008

June 21st, 2008

On a rainy June 21st, 2008, in Anchorage, the web-cams for Portage and Whittier showed almost clear skies and nice weather. Adam Verrier and I decided to load up our AT gear and head down to Turnagain Pass for a mid-summer AT ski of Tincan. Driving down there the weather improved steadily, and by the time we got to Turnagain Pass it was all sunshine and shorts-weather. Amazingly, only one other group of people had taken advantage of this great opportunity. We skied in shorts all the way to the summit and have the sun-burns to prove it. The snow was a little slow, but well compacted, and on the steeper slopes the skiing was actually quite good.

Revisited on June 29th, 2008

Adam and I again went down to Turnagain Pass on a rainy Anchorage Sunday, June 29th, for another perfect day on Tincan. This time we skied the North face (Todd's Run) on near perfect corn snow. Wow! Pictures added at the bottom.


Tincan seen from the parking area at the top on Turnagain Pass
Adam and I about halfway up Tincan
Myself with Lyons Creek and Tincan Creek in the background. And for all you Tincan fans out there ... the actual Tincan Peak is not the one we typically ski on but rather the prominent peak at the head of Tincan Creek (in a line directly above my left ski tip).
Lyons Creek
Myself and ...
Adam soaking up some rays atop of Tincan
Pretty good skiing on compacted summer snow coming down from Tincan
Panorama from Tincan looking West and North towards the Turnagain Arm


We revisited Turnagain Arm on June 29th, 2008, for another round of great skiing. This time we decided to go all the way to the summit and ski down the North face (Todd's run). The conditions turned out to be optimal on the North side.

Bushwhacking our way up onto the Tincan ridge.
Heading up towards the summit
The last part up to the summit was easier to scramble than to skin-up
Adam enjoying the view of Tincan Creek with today's summit in the background (note: this is not the true summit of Tincan).
Adam on the North face.
Near perfect conditions on Todd's run.And bush-whacking back out to the road!

Turnagain Pass Crust Ski May 2008

Turnagain Pass Crust Ski

May 26th and 27th, 2008

Lyons Creek, Center Ridge and Tincan Creek

with Tim Miller, Chrissy May and Trond Flagstad

Trond Flagstad and I headed up Lyons Creek at 9 am on Memorial Day, 2008, with Chrissy May and Tim Miller whom we ran into at the parking lot. The day before I caught up with Tim Miller half way up Lyons Creek. Both days, we had the entire area to ourselves. Amazing that no more people are out enjoying this paradise. Temperatures overnight had been in the low 30's and the crust had set up perfectly. We had good crust skiing until almost noon.

Trond Flagstad, Tim Miller and Chrissy May heading up Lyons Creek

Trond Flagstad granny-skating up a steep section

Tim Miller and myself heading up the upper Lyons Creek drainage ...

.... for a promise of perfect S-turns

Upper Tincan Valley

On top of Center Ridge

Enjoying the rays on Center Ridge

Tincan Valley on the left, Center Ridge middle and Lyons Creek on the right.