Joe Stock
The First Ski Traverse of the Neacola Mountains, Alaska
Favorite Packs: Aether 85, Torque Next time you're in Anchorage, go downtown and have a pint at Simon and Seafort's grill, and watch the sunset. As you dip into your Alaskan Amber, look across Cook Inlet. You'll see a big glaciated mountain called Mount Spurr with a tiny pompom of steam venting from the summit. Stretching left from Mount Spurr are the Neacola Mountains. A ragged and lonely range of ice and granite. A range that most Alaskans have never heard of.
In early April, Doug Brewer loaded Andrew Wexler, Dylan Taylor and I into his DeHavilland Beaver and flew us from Kenai, over the Cook Inlet oil rigs to Lake Chakachamna below Mount Spurr. For six days, we skied through whiteout, icefalls and snorkel-deep powder to a food cache in the center of the Neacola Mountains. We base-camped near the cache for ten days while exploring the granite walls, skiing more blower powder and fighting storms and crippling negative temperatures. When avalanche conditions stabilized, we got first descents of The Gorilla Finger, a 2,600 vertical foot couloir, and Immortal Technique, a 3,000 vertical foot couloir.
One day we racked up 10,000 vertical feet of skiing. From the cache, another five days of touring took us through more glaciers, past countless untouched couloirs and down to the lowlands of alder "hell bushes" - so thick we often crawled on grizzly trails, dragging our skis behind. Our last night on the traverse we slept in the open on a gravel bar by the Tlikakila River. We armed ourselves with ice axes, rocks, and clubs to ward off hungry bears. Fresh tracks 12 inches across surrounded our bags. We survived the night and touched Lake Clark the traverses end the next morning. Twenty-two days after leaving the north end of the Neacolas, Doug landed his Beaver on a gravel bar and flew us back to Kenai.
Our Neacola traverse was about 100 miles and 20,000 vertical feet. We skied 57,000 total vertical feet. We found the Neacola Mountains to be a heavily glaciated version of the North Cascades. These low elevation Alaskan glaciers are melting fast, like all glaciers around the world. Along our tour, we compared ten GPS elevations to 1958 USGS maps and found an average elevation drop of 70 feet.
We used Osprey Aether 85 backpacks on the traverse and they worked great! At only 4 pounds 15 ounces, they are light, yet they are the most comfortable pack we've ever used. We especially liked the minimal excess features, yet the features we needed, like ski straps and isoform harness, were there.
Keep up the great work Osprey!
Photo Gallery
[Click on images to enlarge]
|
