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.

Eklutna High Ridge Traverse

September 18th, 2011
24 miles, 7 true summits, 10,000 vertical feet

I had been saving this ridge hike for a fall day when the higher mountains had already recevied their termination dust.  September 18th arose with clear skies and calm winds.  Perfect!  As the day wore on, I experienced some varied weather - snow flurries and wind - but nothing to prevent me from finishing this great ridge. 

I started out from the Eklutna trailhead around 8:20 am and finished at 8:40 pm, so just over 12 hours to finish the roundtrip.  The ridge-traverse involves 7 true summits (prominence of at least 500 ft) and a number of lesser peaks.  The true peaks are:

Bright Peak (5875 ft)
Bleak Peak (5430 ft)
Yudikench Peak (5732 ft)
Peak 5450 (5450 ft)
Peak 5285 (5285 ft)
Salt Peak (5455 ft)
Pepper Peak (5450 ft)

I started in the Eklutna lake-side trail and then headed up the Eklutna overlook trail.  From there it was back-country travel until I descended from Pepper peak back to the Eklutna trailhaed.  Some easy scrambling and scree was involved, but most of the ridge traverse is over gradual terrain and on sheep trails. 

Especially Bright peak was a pleasant surprise.  I decided to climb the southwest ridge.  This was a fun ridge with great views overlooking the tundra below.  The ridge ended with a gully and exit crack leading to the summit ridge.  I didn't know if the exit crack was passable until I was about 50 yards away.  It turned out to be a fun little scramble.

Route outline of the Eklutna High Ridge Traverse.

Bright peak with southwest ridge in the center.

Bright peak southwest ridge and gully.

Bright peak exit crack.

Hunter Creek drainage.

Massive rams on Bright peak.

Bold peak seen from Pepper peak late in the afternoon.

Finishing in the dark.

Western panorama from Yudikench peak with the Eklutna ridge traverse continuing to the left, the Pioneer ridge to the right, and Goat Creek in the center.

Eastern panorama from Peak 5285 showing the ridge leading back towards Yudikench peak (left).  Bright peak is in the in center and Bold peak on the right.

Eastern panorama from Pepper Peak showing the entire ridge system leading back towards Bold peak in the distance.  Eklutna lake shows to the right.

Crow Peak

Crow Peak, Chugach State Park, August 28th, 2011

5953 feet, 5 hrs roundtrip from the Crow Pass trailhead

On August 28th I climbed Crow Peak via the Crow glacier and the Crow Peak South ridge.  The hike and scramble included all the ingredients necessary for a great hike and scramble: a nice trail approach, some tundra, moraine and scree hiking, glacier and snow travel, and a non-technical but challenging summit ridge requiring a bit of route finding.

View of the new forest service cabin at Crow Pass (3500 ft elevation) next to Crystal Lake.

Crystal Lake at Crow pass with Crow Peak in the background.

Eastern view from the tow of the Crow Glacier with Goat Mnt (right) and Raven Peak (left) in the background.

The intimidating Northwest face of Magpie Peak as seen from the pass between Magpie and Crow peaks.

Crystal Lake and Crow Pass seen from the start of the summit ridge.  The summit ridge started from the pass between Magpie and Crow peaks at about 5100 ft.

Looking up the summit ridge from the beginning of the ridge.

The summit ridge comprised several sections like this where a traverse seemed easier. 

The upper scree gully leading to the Crow Peak summit.  Not difficult, just very loose scree.

Northern panorama from Crow Peak.  Along the left bottom is Clear glacier.  From left to right are Camp Robber, Gray Jay, Delgga and Paradise peaks that I climbed earlier in the summer.  In the center is the Eagle River valley drainage.  On the right hand side are the Raven glacier, Raven Peak and Goat Mnt, and Crow pass with Crystal lake.

Summit portrait.

Self portrait on the Crow glacier.

North & Eastward panorama looking down the Crow Glacier.  Crow peak on the left.

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).