Sheep Creek Ski - 3.23.2024

From the hubbub of Anchorage, Juneau is always in the back of our minds as an escape from the big city. About once a year we notice that the weather is drier in Southeast than Southcentral and rush to put together last second plans to get down there.

On a Friday night in March, we looked into the crystal forecast ball to see a sunny weekend in the coastal rainforest while our northern mountains were cloaked in clouds, wind, and snowfall. We rushed to jam our gear into our bags and jump on the first flight south the next morning.

In Juneau, we stepped out of the airport into a chilly and crisp spring morning. An hour and a cup of coffee later, and we were parked out the Thane Road and hiking into the mossy old growth forest of sheep creek.

Hawthorne Peak, the second objective of the day.

Wearing our running shoes, we followed the dirt trail up the valley until we were standing right under the big steep south face of Sheep Mountain.


We jotted down mental notes and snapped photos of the complicated 3,000 vertical foot face, shoved on our ski boots, and started climbing the frozen snow towards the west ridge of the peak.

Sheep Mountain Ridge Hike

We've seen countless unbelievable photos of what seems like everyone in southcentral AK exploring the surreal painted rocks of the Sheep Mountain Traverse. I've always wanted to go, but somehow time just flows by. Summers are so busy, and there's so much to see - what a great problem to have. Finally, on a hot and sunny day in late June of 2024, Nyssa and I joined the pilgrimage to the crumbling colors of the Glenn Highway.

By nine we're lifting off the ground into a beautiful morning above Merrill Field. We climb over the western edge of the Chugach then cruise northeast across the Knik River Valley before reentering the mountains around the glaciated peaks of Friday Creek. We follow the creek up-valley then the little plane is dwarfed by the behemoth of Skybuster as we start to glide towards the Sheep Mountain Strip. We do a low pass before landing, tie down, then jog onto the ATV trails that depart from the lodge.

The trails are nice and smooth, and quickly bring us across the cobbles of Glacier Fan Creek and to the Gunsight Mountain Trail on the southern flank of the peak. 


The steep solar aspect feels like its perpendicular to the summer sun and cooks us as we hike up the trail. We're relieved when we reach the cooler air of the tundra benches a couple thousand feet above the road. From the grassy slopes, we look across the Matanuska Valley towards where the South Fork's headwaters spill from the toe of the Powell Glacier.


An acceptable path weaves thru the talus and to the summit of Gunsight. On top of the peak, we lunch on PB&J sandwiches and stare east thru the haze to the glaciated monsters of the Wrangell Mountains and south to the Chugach which are just out of reach.