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

Lake George Glacier Skiing - March 2026

A couple days of skiing long runs of thousands of feet of powder above the Lake George Glacier started as what looked to be a day of getting shut down in the Western Chugach:

Our mountains (and souls) had been through several rough weeks of cruddy weather and wind when late March finally brought a period of sun. With a rare forecast for sun and calm in the Prince William Sound, we pointed for the long aesthetic runs dropping from the Meares Glacier plateau to the toe of the Yale that we skied years ago.

Photo: John Hermus

The zone was as dramatically beautiful as always, but the snow was dust on crust. John:


After a lap we jumped back into the expensive old piles of metal and avgas and pointed towards the Eagle Glacier. From the air above the Eagle it was clear the snow was likely wind affected here too, so we turned east again to check out a cool skintrack zigzagging up from the Lake George Glacier. 

It was afternoon by the time we were parked next to Chris and Jon and were climbing their beautiful skinner - thanks a lot guys. The sense of scale was warped around this huge coastal glacier, and what looked like a quick lap turned out to be 3,000 feet of vert - it reminded me a lot of the east face of Twin Peaks in terms of pitch, length, and consistency minus the messed up terrain trap at the bottom. Trish and Shira: