Joe Stock

The First Ski Traverse of the Neacola Mountains, Alaska
Favorite Packs: Aether 85, Torque

Joe is an internationally-certified mountain guide based in Anchorage, Alaska. He has been climbing and skiing around the world for 25 years with extensive time in the mountains of Alaska, the Southern Alps of New Zealand, the North Cascades of Washington and Colorado’s San Juan Mountains. Living in Anchorage offers easy trip scheming. In 2005 Joe skied from Anchorage and emerged in Valdez 18 days and 180-Chugach-miles later. He also made the first full-length ski traverse of Alaska’s Tordrillo and Neacola Mountains and in June 2009 he skied from the summit of Mount Chamberlin, the highest summit in Brooks Range. Like Fred Becky, Joe has a black book loaded with trips ideas.   Guiding allows Joe to share his passion for Alaskan mountains with clients. Within an hour drive of Anchorage are three mountain ranges: the Chugach Mountains, Kenai Mountains and the Talkeetna Mountains. These ranges are ideal for day and multi-day backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering. He also enjoys adventure guiding in Alaska’s more remote ranges such as the Neacola Mountains, Brooks Range and Chigmit Mountains.   Joe became fully-certified in 2009 by the International Federation of Mountain Guides and the American Mountain Guides Association. IFMGA certification includes three guiding disciplines: alpine, ski mountaineering and rock. This is the Ph.D of mountains. Joe uses this knowledge to assure his clients a safe, successful and enjoyable experience in the mountains.

Starting in 1995, with a feature article in Rock & Ice on climbing the Balfour Face on Mount Tasman in New Zealand, Joe has been freelance writing for magazines. Since then he’s published numerous articles on adventures and mountain technique in rags such as Climbing, Backcountry, Alaska, Climbing, Trail Runner, Men’s Health and Off Piste. His photos have accompanied most of his articles and have appeared in catalogs such as Patagonia, Osprey and Mountain Gear. With two professors for parents, Joe has the science itch. He attended the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand for an undergraduate degree in geology and geography and then received a graduate degree in watershed science (snow science focus) from Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado. Joe applies this science background to guiding, avalanche instruction, writing and photography.   After a year-long honeymoon in India in 2001-02, Joe and his wife Cathy moved to Anchorage. They bought a 1952 house in Airport Heights and have fallen madly in love with the big ugly city, its crazy inhabitants, the endless mountains and eachother.   Read more about Joe at: www.stockalpine.com

Mount Chamberlin—Skiing from the Highest Summit in the Alaskan Arctic

Brooks Range, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska

I had to pee five minutes after climbing into the Helio Courier bushplane. Ten minutes later, I felt nauseous. I chatted with the pilot Sean, but mostly looked out the window in that ethereal stage between endless planning and realizing I have no idea of what lies ahead. We flew north from Fairbanks, crossing the limestone White Mountains, Yukon Flats, the bushtowns of Venetie and Arctic Village then up into the scree-laden slopes of the Brooks Range. As we drifted down the Hulahula River valley, we saw the first grizzly, a mass of furr-covered muscle lumbering down the tundra. The flight lasted two and a half hours,   The Wrights Air pilot landed Matt and I on a gravel bar along the Hulahula River, just down from Katak Creek. This would be our base camp for the next ten days. Not far away, in 2005, grizzlies had eaten two people. We came prepared though: pepper spray, bear-proof food canisters, a battery-powered electric fence, a twelve-gauge shotgun and a .44 handgun. I’d never shot a gun, but as they say, you just have to run faster than your partner.   Photographer Matt Hage and I had never been to the Arctic Refuge. Located in the eastern end of the 500-mile long Brooks Range, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge contains the highest concentration of high Arctic peaks outside of Greenland. Matt and I came to ski Mount Chamberlin, the highest peak in the Brooks Range at 9,020 feet.   No logical person ventures to this region for good skiing. During winter, minus fifty-degree winter temperatures turn the measly arctic snowpack into knee-deep depth hoar. When spring arrives, the snow becomes knee-deep isothermal slop and mosquitoes swarm in black clouds. Matt and I went to 9,020-foot Mount Chamberlin for a crazy adventure.   As the drone of the Helio Courier faded away, we took stock of our situation. We were at 1,500 feet, 12 miles from the base of Chamberlin and on the opposite side the mountain from our plans. We also saw no snow. “Here goes the adventure!” Matt said.   Over the next two days, Matt and I cowered under crippling packs to establish a high camp within striking distance of Chamberlin. As we hiked, we watched three grizzly’s run from our scent. We also questioned our sanity to lug ski gear into dry mountains.

At 5,000-feet we set up a high camp in the green tundra below the summit pyramid of Mount Chamberlin. Three days of snow and rain crushed our supplies and we returned to the Hulahula for more armaments. The next day we returned to 5,000 feet, hoping for cooperative weather to ski Chamberlin. On our seventh day, we left the micro tent at six in the morning, skinning up a dying glacier through clouds and mist. At 7,000 feet, we scrambled through snow-coated boulders and kicked steps up a 45-dergree snow face to a winding summit ridge of snow. A hundred feet below the summit and still unroped, my foot punched through the roof of a crevasse into a cavern of glittering crystals. We tied together with a Dyneema rope, thirty feet apart, and continued kicking steps up the twisting snow arête to the summit of the Brooks Range.   Maybe we should have center-punched the Chamberlin Glacier; ripping turns between gapping crevasses, taking the proud line. But reality stayed with us. We knew that rescue was laughable in this lonely corner of Alaska, so we clicked into our skis and skied 40-degree snow-coated glacier ice along the glacier’s margin. Past the last crevasse, we carved hero corn for a few glorious turns until the snow deteriorated into isothermal slop. We struggled down through the erratic snow for the final 2,000 feet to our high camp. We felt lucky to have any skiable snow. Matt and I camped for three more days at 5,000 feet, venturing into the midnight sun for skiing photos and into the daytime mist to document the Katak Glacier before its imminent death. We then slogged back out to Hulahula landing strip and waited for the Helio Courier.   Special thanks to The Hans Saari Memorial Fund and Osprey Packs for making this trip possible.   To fly into base camp we used Transporter 95 travel duffels. These bags weigh less than three pounds so we weren’t lugging around extra baggage. They also have quick deploy shoulder straps, which become essential during mad airport dashes.   On the mountain, we used Variant 52’s. These packs proved to be the ultimate combination of comfort, low weight and function. On the approach we had them loaded with 70 pounds of ski gear and food and they still carried well—incredible for a pack weighing less than four pounds. On summit day, we stripped down our Variants to small ski packs.