This past December, we began to notice unusual stability and snow quality in the south end of the Anchorage Front Range. Since then, we've been focused on taking advantage of these rare midwinter conditions. As this Eye of Sauron has focused, we've ventured deeper into the mountains of Bird, Ship, and Indian.
On a rare sunny Saturday in February we skinned out of the Penguin parking lot hoping to check out the north couloir and west face of Nest Peak.
On a rare sunny Saturday in February we skinned out of the Penguin parking lot hoping to check out the north couloir and west face of Nest Peak.
Intense snowfall the day before had coated the birch trees in flakes the size of silver dollars, leaving behind a magical tube of winter as we followed the trail up Penguin Creek. The first few miles of the well-worn ATV trail were fast until the path ended and we waded into the downed windowmakers, devils club, and alders of the forest.
Reaching the top of the old growth, we began to traverse towards the hanging valley under the west face of Bird Peak that we hoped would take us to the final pitch up Nest. This contouring route behind Penguin Ridge was about what you would expect: inefficient, bushy, and tedious.
Slithering under alders, falling into trapdoors of facets, and tiptoeing across slabs sitting on facets, we emerged into the hanging valley. There we were surprised to see a group of moose who were equally surprised to see us. Honestly, they had a far better reason to be confused than we did.
Passing the swamp donkeys, we climbed into the featureless cloud layer. This pea soup was a small problem as we'd have to roll the dice on the right route thru the gullies of Nest's east face.
