Ewe Peak & Concerto Peak Ski - 5.6.2023

For years I've heard whispers of the giant couloir on the north side of Concerto. Tucked into no-man's land in the east fork of Ship Creek, I'd generally thought it too far away to merit attention.

But, the skiing around Ship Creek was great this year, and after a sneaking a peek of Ewe from Koktoya last weekend I was finally hungry. Leaving the Harp parking lot early on a spring day, we cruised up a mostly supportable crust towards the giants of the South Fork of Eagle River.


The ptarmigan were loudly celebrating the arrival of spring as we slid past the dwarf willows of the U-shaped valley, across Eagle Lake, and into the deep gorge between Eagle and Cantata peaks. After a few hours and a few more blisters, we were gaining elevation and onto the Flute Glacier.

On the Flute we found cold snow which immediately adhered to our skins like a heavy layer cake.


With scraping, cursing, and time, our skins adjusted from spring back to winter and we transitioned from hip-flexor wrecking glopping back to smooth sliding. A storm was hanging over the head of the Flute, enshrining the glacier in snow and wind, and making the mountains seem bigger and otherworldly.

Hanging Valley Skiing - 2.7.2016

Note: updated below the original post to include a new line for us on 2.12.2022 and again with a fun Eagle Lake loop on 2.7.2023.

Eagle River is a land of huge peaks, deep couloirs, and a temperamental snowpack.

Brady and Sarah entering the upper basin.

Approaches are often long, access is tenuous, and snowpack information is limited.
The views are one of many reasons to go.

Recently I've heard report after report of good conditions in Hanging Valley. Brunton, Zack and Khalial, and Erin and Abe have all been back there lately. Plus, the approach and access are uncharacteristically easy for ER.

Sarah taking it all in from the top of the first run. Harp in front of Foraker and Denali.

Eagle Lake Chutes - 4.23.2022

The Eagle Lake chutes first came into my consciousness on a cold and deep day of wallowing in Hanging Valley with Brady and Sarah in 2016. Swimming upwards through neck deep snow to claw over a vertical cornice brought us to the small nest at the top of a slanting couloir. On that dark and monochromatic mid-winter day we looked across the South Fork at the impossibly skinny hallways cut into the knob above Eagle Lake:


In a donut hole of snow surrounded by larger peaks, the aprons were a scoured mix of thin windboard and scree. The chutes seemed sized for snowblades more than skis. Since then, those elevator shafts have continued to elude me while I'm occasionally reminded by a peek while packrafting South Fork, skiing Calliope, or after work runs on the likes of Cantata, Hurdy Gurdy, and Triangle.

This February, while shivering in the wind at the top of that same diagonal Hanging Valley couloir with Dane, Nyssa, Tom, and Erin, those lines resurfaced in my frontal lobe.


With a fat snowpack in the Eagle River and Anchorage zones, it was easier to imagine jump turning down the lean corridors.

Temptation Ski - 2.16.2020

Note: updated below the original post to include an evening summit lap on the south face in April 2022.

After a really satisfying Saturday slog on Tanaina, all I wanted was more. So, by 7:30 the next morning we were headed to Hiland Road and Temptation.

Admittedly, Temptation would be easier from the Artic Valley Road. However, that seemed like a waste of the 9 hours of daylight we had to work with. Best to add several thousand vertical feet and a few miles. By the time we were done with the first unnecessary climb to Rendezvous Ridge, the Tordrillos were glowing across the inlet in morning light.


Meanwhile, Temptation's couloirs remained shaded by their deep rock walls.


No one would call the snowpack of the Front Range stable, and safely skiing towards Ship Creek was a process. So was skinning downhill thru the final section of alder gymnastics and beaver ponds. To add insult to bushwhacking injury, we both iced our skins on the soggy ponds. I couldn't help wondering what was wrong with us as we scrapped our skis in the zero degree temps. Ripping laps at Alyeska would have been far easier.

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: