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Chugach Traverse/ AK Range Base Camp, April ‘23
I had a terrific time in AK this spring; I’ll dump a bunch of photos here and some details of what we got up to….
The first leg of the trip was a rather aspirational attempt to traverse the Chugach from north to south; from the Matanuska Glacier at the Glenn Highway to Prince William Sound and hopping on a shrimp boat ride to Whittier. I’ve got a few pals in Anchorage and this was mainly their plan and logisitcs- We all spent lots of time on maps though. We had several options including going over Mt Marcus Baker and Goode, or longer routes with less hazard if needed. The planned route was 75-80 miles, and we packed for 10 days. I arrived on April 8 and we started up the Mat on the 9th with a shaky forecast and fingers crossed for an improving trend. Attachment 458122
The north side of the Chugach had a very faceted, structureless snowpack and the first two days going up the Mat were slow, but the terrain and weather were inspiring and vast.
We stopped for a night at the Scandanavian Hut and then continued towards Marcus Baker; we camped near the base of the climb on the third night. Distances proved harder to make than anticipated (never heard that about AK before, have you?). The thin snowpack and wind had set us up with lots of thinly bridged cracks on long convexities; everyone put their foot in cracks. I had one that left me with tips and tails touching, looking down into the crack and listening to the pieces of the bridge falling for a long time. At times we would probe each step for miles at a time, especially when whited out. An extendable pole with the basket removed makes a decent half probe that’s easier to handle than an avy probe. Anyway, we made camp near Marcus in a ground blizzard and rode out 20-30mph winds all night. Our next piece of terrain wasn’t much in good conditions, but wind and visibility urged us to be cautious. I took a pretty sizable ride in WA this year on a wind slab, so I’m not too eager to go into bigger terrain right after wind events, and we were all feeling the exposure of being out there. We ended up returning to the Hut; we didn’t have enough time to wait for the coming storm to pass. The forecast had deteriorated, at least south of Marcus Baker. Attachment 458128
We did a sweet day tour from the Hut and worked out an alternative plan to climb out the head of the Mat through a rather huge icefall, cross a high plateau and drop into the Powell Glacier and return to the Glenn Highway. New plan was between 90-100 mile total, but more managable terrain and kept us out of the tougher weather to the south. Attachment 458129
We used the storm day to travel up the Mat to the icefall, put in a nice camp and waited for the visibility to return. Attachment 458130
When we rose the next morning, there was a collective spike in concern; the icefall was nearly three miles wide, and looked challenging. We ended up finding a few dead ends but traveling safely and steadily; we only made 3 miles but gained our planned camp on Turtle Flats at 9300 ft. A striking locale, for sure. Maybe one of the biggest feeling places I’ve spent a night. All the summits have beefy icecaps on them, and the views to the south over Marcus were a very satisfying sunset. Attachment 458131Attachment 458132
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Chugach Traverse/ AK Range Base Camp, April ‘23
It was probably the coldest night of the trip too. The next morning we walked across to the pass into the Powell Glacier, and took a lovely lap down along a utterly massive wall of icefall/serac we called Dynamite Alley. Occasionally we’d hear a sound like large aircraft, and a piece of the ice the size of an office building would be exploding on the edge of the valley and pumping a powder cloud a half mile. A terrific place to cruise through with clear skies. Attachment 458133
After the cruise, we arrived a hard left into an icefall, that thankfully had a gentle workaround that led into the best ski lap of the trip; cold low angle pow 4” deep that you could ski fast with confidence; a condition mostly lacking elsewhere on the traverse. Attachment 458136Attachment 458137
The middle third of the Powell had a gorgeous selection of ski terrain, but we knew the weather was shutting back down the next day and wanted to make tracks out of there before we lost vis again. We ended up making 20 mile this day, and as we dropped signs of life began to show. We saw birds for the first time in a week, and wolverine tracks everywhere. The Powell treated us really well, with easy travel and a toe that proved simple to exit into the river valley. Attachment 458138Attachment 458139
During our change of plans after turning back from Marcus and the south side of the range, my pal said “there’s one problem with this change of plans. Bears.” He wasn’t wrong; we saw tracks frequently after hitting valley bottom, but as a group of three we felt pretty decent and didn’t see any in person. Moose tracks everywhere also. The track we were most stoked to find was a snowmachine track though- we had returned to the severely faceted snowpack of the low country near the Glenn Highway and without the snowmachine track, the final 15 miles would have probably taken two more days. Attachment 458140
We had good luck navigating the fringes of the river as spring began to complicate the travel plan. We arrived back to the Glenn Highway on day 9, with a 95 mile track behind us and lots of treasured memories and lots of respect for the Chugach! Next year we’re trying again, with a few food caches and perhaps 14 days to allow for more weather flexibility. This was one of the largest and most satisfying mountain journeys I’ve had the pleasure of taking, and the guys were consistently excellent travel partners. I’m grateful for the conservative decision making and good outcomes- these mountains demand respect.
We had a pool on who would lose the first toenail; in the end nobody did! Leuko tape is incredible, get some. No blisters, no cold injuries, no dire moments beyond the thinly bridged cracks here and there.
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I’ll get back later to post up about the 8 days in the AK Range I did with WA pals following this outing.
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