33 Days Across Wrangell St Elias NP, AK: The Southern Spiral (NSR)

**skifishbum** · 09-25-2009, 04:40 PM

Blessed are those who accomplish great adventures and share.
I'll be looking or you tonight. I'm more stoked to hear some stories as I am for ski porn.

**schwerty** · 09-25-2009, 04:41 PM

Incredible shots and story of your journey. Thanks!

**cramer** · 09-25-2009, 04:44 PM

holy shit that was just simply amazing. I really need to get out of the house more. Thanks for sharing! So cool...

**tommyvee** · 09-25-2009, 04:49 PM

Beautiful!
Amazing what you experienced, and the team of partners that shared it all.
More than "once in a lifetime", that trip for most of us would be "never in a lifetime".
Thanks for sharing.
A great daydreaming resource.

**keksie** · 09-25-2009, 05:35 PM

wtf, nice..!

**wcf3** · 09-25-2009, 05:39 PM

Five star, ultra-epic, <insert various synonyms for superlative here>...

Amazing "Dr. Livingston I presume" stuff. Must have felt at times like the first folks across the land bridge from Asia. That is seriously burly and empty (for a reason) territory to be out in under your own power. Thanks for the great write up and photos!

**zion zig zag** · 09-25-2009, 05:55 PM

Holy shit!! That was so awesome, I can't believe I put off on reading that.

Epic.

**Trackhead** · 09-25-2009, 05:56 PM

Jim,

Don't you have a Canon G9 or G10 or something?

**jon turner** · 09-25-2009, 06:22 PM

Awesome. Wrangell-St. Elias is such an amazing place. Thanks for posting this.

**montanaskier** · 09-25-2009, 06:27 PM

best TR I've ever seen.....amazing adventure!

**The Gnarwhale** · 09-25-2009, 06:29 PM

Originally Posted by Platinum Pete

That was so awesome. How do you build up to a trip like that? Seriously, friends and I have done mountaineering trips, hiked the AT and PCT, and I am sure we'd all back off from a trip so ambitious.

For me, the intimidating part was the remoteness of the route. With lots of days in the 10ish mile range we werent covering ground at the rate you mustve been on your thru-hikes and, with the exception of some crevassed sections, the terrain wasnt too gnar either. If you've done the PCT you probably have all the skills you need to tackle something more remote.

Originally Posted by JayPowHound

How long have you guys known each other? Had you done any major trips together before? On a trip that long and difficult there musta been some tense moments among the group...

What's your background? NOLS, etc? Have you ever done any major trips like this before?

All four of us work for Outward Bound in Colorado. I think all of us had been out for 30 days at a time before. This was my fourth +28 day trip but the first time it was a personal trip. I'd worked and traveled with Adam quite a bit, but it was my first trip with Joe and Cisco. There definitley were moments of disagreement, but even now, only a week or two out, I'm having a hard time remembering what they were about. Working for OB probably prepares one better than about any other employer on the planet for dealing with conflict in a useful and articulate way.

Originally Posted by grubbers

to get on the question-asking bandwagon... what did you guys bring in case the shit hit the fan? i'm assuming you had a first aid kit, but did you bring a sat phone or a sea-air radio? and also, how much did getting flown in and resupplied cost you?

edit: was there any evidence of bears trying to get into the kegs? we didn't carry any when i was in the alaska range this summer and luckily didn't end up having to fast at all.

Well, we had a well-stocked med kit full of all kinds of groovy 'scips, and from which all we used was some tape and a few IBs. We rented a sat phone in Anchorage, which cost $300-something for the six weeks we had it.

Also, we also borrowed a SPOT and it was incredibly useful in that girlfriends and family would get emails with a pre-set "OK" message, assuring them we hadn't died nor mutinied, each time we pressed a button. Along with the "OK" it also gives coordinates and a google maps link to the place the message was sent from. It wasnt until I got back that I learned that the more backcountry-savvy folks on the email list were theorizing about our route choices based on these messages.

If none of us get one as a Christmas gift this winter I'll be extremely surprised. Having said that, SPOTs have some substancial design shortcomings and I'm not inclined to buy one until after a re-design.

As far as flight costs, I think the total was right around $2400 for one dropoff and three resupplies, though I'm not sure of the breakdown per flight. An extra cost for us was that a couple of the "landing strips" were unimproved gravel bars and the pilot charged extra for taking the risk of landing on them. Fair enough.

We flew with Garry Green, owner of McCarthy Air but his rival Wrangell Mountain Air, also based in McCarthy apparently specializes in flying backpackers and mountaineers in the area.

We didnt have any indication that bears messed with any of our stuff at any point along the way. The bears we saw were terrified of us, thankfully. All the same we did lots of "HEEYY BEAR!" through bushwacky parts and kept a clean camp. There are some very, very large footprints in that place.

**The Gnarwhale** · 09-25-2009, 06:34 PM

Originally Posted by Trackhead

Jim,

Don't you have a Canon G9 or G10 or something?

Panasonic Lx3. But dont these look sweet for a small package.

**JayPowHound** · 09-25-2009, 06:38 PM

Originally Posted by The Gnarwhale

All four of us work for Outward Bound in Colorado. I think all of us had been out for 30 days at a time before. This was my fourth +28 day trip but the first time it was a personal trip. I'd worked and traveled with Adam quite a bit, but it was my first trip with Joe and Cisco. There definitley were moments of disagreement, but even now, only a week or two out, I'm having a hard time remembering what they were about. Working for OB probably prepares one better than about any other employer on the planet for dealing with conflict in a useful and articulate way.

A-Ha! That makes sense, congrats again on accomplishing such a stellar personal trip!

**Dhelihiker** · 09-25-2009, 06:43 PM

Wow what an adventure! Way to pull it off.

that was really fun to look at, thanks

**Loon** · 09-25-2009, 06:56 PM

eye popping badass little walk you guys went on. Great shots great write up. Thanks for sharing.

**roark** · 09-25-2009, 06:59 PM

holy fuck, best tr EVAAAARRRR. Heading out to someplace that remote and gnarly takes some serious balls. I'm sure many parts were absolutely miserable, but wow. Just wow.

**ak_powder_monkey** · 09-25-2009, 07:22 PM

wow thats fucking crazy

**ja007** · 09-25-2009, 07:24 PM

I spent 2 weeks with an RV. Nothing like this, but got to spend time in Denali, Talkeetna, Whittier, Seward, Coopers Landing, etc.

Spend any time at Yukon Jacks?

**GBB** · 09-25-2009, 08:00 PM

Probably one of the best, most awe-inspiring things I have ever read. Thanks for taking the time to 1) document it & 2) write about it.

The feeling that was invoked while reading that is hard to describe.

**SorryBro** · 09-25-2009, 08:34 PM

I've read through this three times and I'm still at a loss for words.

THANK YOU for taking the time to put this together. It's the best TR I've ever seen on TGR.

Beautiful, spiritual, amazing, and inspiring. I'm speechless...

**^^^** · 09-25-2009, 08:34 PM

Fucking sick! Now that is how it's done.

**FLEX** · 09-25-2009, 08:58 PM

Amazing adventure ! Thanks for sharing.

**spar** · 09-25-2009, 09:00 PM

severely jealous - but not of the scrub bashing thru the alders, that looks foul

**BFD** · 09-25-2009, 09:02 PM

great trip. Probably took 45 minutes to load all the pictures. well worth the wait. Would of enjoyed meeting you in cordova.Always nice for myself and sons to meet people doing inspirational things. Thank's for the posting. Next year in the Wrangell's.