Bird Ridge Overlook Ski - 4.4.2020

Its hard to remember exactly why we decided to head for the steep, complex, and sheltered north face of Bird Ridge Overlook on an early April day last spring. I think we were targeting the sweet spot between the winds sweeping the Anchorage Front Range and the hard snow conditions at Turnagain, but it was likely also the appeal of something new.

Leaving the ice of the drippy parking lot it finally felt like spring had arrived. Our climbing skins were fast over the wet snow, but we all struggled to control our body temps as sweaty swamps formed in our clothes. Some items were easy to squeegee (like my eyebrows), or wring out (like Dmitry's buff), but layers buried in deeper, darker, swampier places were destined for a soggy day.


The the air cooled below freezing as we climbed, our skins went from slippery to sticky, and we repeatedly stopped to scrape the bonus training weight. None of us were interested in slowing down just cause mother nature had added 10 pounds to each of our skis, and our hip flexors paid the price.


1.5 miles before Indian Pass Dmitry signed for us to take the turn towards the gap between Bidarka Peak and BRO. I'd never really thought about using this pass before - it provides a great shortcut for skiers looking to access The Beak, BRO, or other area peaks.

RondyBird Backpack - July 2017

Last summer we did a fun weekend thru-hike of Chugach State Park from Crow Pass to Glen Alps. One of the highlights was passing thru less traveled areas along the way. I've been looking forward to going back those places, and have been brainstorming ways to do it.

Arctic to Indian is a Chugach winter classic, but in summer is complicated by miles of bushwhacking and bogs. So, we settled on trying out a summer ridge-line version of Arctic to Indian following Rendezvous Ridge then connecting thru to Bird Ridge. This would pass thru some favorite places from last summer's thru-hike.

After stashing our shuttle at Bird we started Saturday at Hiland Road. Shortly after Hunter Pass we climbed to the ridge.


From there we could look south to the peak group that would take us to Bird Ridge.


As always, ridges take one above it all, bringing better views and less swamp-dogging. This guy was on his way back from climbing Triangle and Calliope: