Troublesome Glacier - March 2026

Years ago, Nyssa, Heather, Lars and I did an absolutely killer traverse through the East Fork of Eklutna and Hunter Creek. At the apex of that trip we coasted down the Troublesome Glacier as we connected from the East Fork to Hunter Creek drainages. I was struck by the amount of quality ski terrain stacked on consecutive small peaks back there. Since then, its been seared into my brain as a place that I've wanted to return to. In March 2026, we were lucky enough to spend a couple days there.

2026 was a pretty brutal season for the Southcentral ski clan. With sun and the possibly stability finally in the forecast, I raced out of work on Tuesday afternoon for an evening rip over to the Troublesome with Josh, Trish, and Dan. Circling our landing on the glacier, Josh pointed down at a heli perched on an mountainside with skiers pouring out of it. It was a jaw dropping sight, straight out of a skier's version of Jurassic Park. Their tracks looked great too. Despite the March sun, the glacier was in the deep freeze when we hopped out into the boot-deep snow and started skinning for the sunny slopes of Worrisome Peak.

Photo: Josh Gray




Photo: Josh Gray

Soon we were on the sunny shoulder of the peak and staring into the infinity of the glaciated monsters of the Knik.




Brady, Trish, Dan, and I would ski this wild face on Crown Point later in March. Before we dropped in Brady something something like: "maybe this is too mega". It was indeed a memorable line.


We took mental notes and photos of intriguing lines on Crown, then harvested a couple laps of rolling terrain through the mellow glaciers clinging to the south side of the peak.



Photo: Josh Gray



With the shadows getting longer and the temps plummeting, Josh and I ran back up for one last lap in the golden pink and purple glow painting the west face of Worrisome.

Photo: Josh Gray


Photo: Josh Gray

It was steeper than the first two runs, and we shivered happily as we lifted off for home.

A week later, with the stoke from Tuesday evening buzzing in our ears, Nyssa and I went back to the Troublesome for more. There had been no new snow in that time, and I was happy to have more ski tracks in the zone as a point of reference. Starting from the same spot, we followed last week's skinner up the southerly benches of Worrisome.


This time we hoped to keep going from the shoulder to the top of the peak so that we could drop into its beautiful and steep north shoulder. Getting to the summit was a junk show of getting cliffed and corniced out before we successfully wallowed thru a faceted traverse of trash to the top.


From the summit I was still hung up on Crown Point. Matt and Price are in the photo looking like little ants on the north side of Crown as they skin away from their planes towards a beautiful west facing panel that is definitely on my hit list.


We peered over the edge of the convexity at heli-ski tracks on the glorious face. We were happy that these unknown skiers had gone first and were stoked to spoon their old pow leftovers.

Photo: Nyssa





Staring back up at our handiwork on the aesthetic fin, Nyssa pointed to a dramatic funnel dropping just north and left of our last line at Worrisome. It was rad, steep, and tantalizing, but felt exposed for me, so she agreed to save it for a day with the hard girls, and we skinned for the next peak to the north.


This run started with a short, steep north facing bowl followed by a long soulful glacier that we party skied together.

Photo: Nyssa



Done with lap two, it was time to rinse and repeat for the next peak to the north.


Like the first run, it took us a bit to navigate to a cornice-free drop-in at the top of this peak. We could see Crown Point again from up here, and it was now adorned with fresh tracks from Bethke and Price.


Eventually, our poking rewarded us with a glorious steep bowl feeding into another glacier cruise.




On our way in to land we had spied a sneaky westerly bowl dropping off the lap three peak, so we skinned back up our tracks to try to find a way in. Of course, the run was guarded by a pile of unconsolidated sugar that we swam through to get to the top of.

I was glad we got there. As a reward we found a cool hanging triangle of snow dropping into a miniature glaciate gorge that the rolled away as a nose of ice into a long face to the Troublesome Glacier far below.




Satisfied with a great day of new lines in this magical zone of linked peaks, bowls, and glaciers, we wound our way up through the crevasses of the Troublesome and back to the parking lot.




There's so much more cool terrain in this zone, I can't wait to go back.