There are a few things that keep me coming back to Alaska- but the one that I could not do without is the smell of sweet greenery when flying off a glacier after a couple weeks or more. As you slowly peel off hats and gloves and down jackets, your senses become overwhelmed by the smells of living earth. And they smell so much better than dirty socks! Necessarily though, submitting to dirty socks and the land of snow is a prerequisite. So, I was lucky to find some work in Talkeetna after skiing in Valdez for three weeks.
Alaska Mountaineering School hired me to take two brothers: Mark and Steve for a twelve day climbing adventure in Little Switzerland. We flew in after a storm deposited two feet of fresh snow and large cornices on all the North and East facing ridges. We quickly reviewed essential mountaineering skills: traveling roped on a glacier, digging pits, crevasse rescue, and anchor building. But the weather was too good so we set to climbing some of the safer classic routes in the area. I realized that I had a great team on my rope on the third day as we were approaching the summit of Little Arapile. We were situated just below a difficult rocky section. I asked them if they wanted to get gnarly and do some mixed climbing or if they wanted to head up the easier snow to the left. Mark looked at both options and just nodded his head towards the rock. So we went. And they sent.
We managed to all crawl on top of the tiny block of a summit and revel in the fabulous views of the Alaska Range before heading over to the Plunger for another radical ascent that day. Again, Mark and Steve, despite my doubts were eager to try a pitch of 5.9 rock in their plastic mountaineering boots- and we all sent! This set the mood for the trip, and we had many more excellent summits: Italy’s Boot, The Lost Marsupial, and the Hobbits Footstool. This is in addition to building some excellent emergency shelters and sending lots of overhanging seracs. We had just enough bad weather to truly appreciate all the great weather. The views took our breath away and instigated devious planning for future adventures. Mt. Russel, anyone?
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