A few months ago I talked a bit about selecting the best trek for you. This month I want to go into more detail not just about selecting a trek but tips for the entire Alaska trip planning process.

1. Define what sort of adventure you want.

Do you want to do day hikes from a comfortable lodge or spend 8 days hiking through rugged wilderness? How long do you want to be in the backcountry? How hard do you want to work? Are there special features that you want to include in your adventure? The better you are able to define what you want the easier it will be to sort through the many offerings of numerous Alaska adventure providers.

2. Determine your total overall itinerary

Start by knowing how many days you have for your total vacation door to door. It takes the better part of a day to fly to Alaska depending on your home city. Then you may spend the good part of another day getting from Anchorage to your wilderness destination. So if you are wanting to do a 7 day trek be sure to add on several extra days to allow for transportation.

3. Research the area

If you decide you want an adventure in a particular part of Alaska determine the logistics of getting there. Becuase of the great distances and low population density in Alaska there is not much public transportation around the state. Car rentals is a popular way to get around. Some areas have shuttle services but probably not on a daily basis. For example there is a van service that operates between Anchorage and McCarthy, but it only runs twice in each direction per week. So you would might to take that into account when selecting a trip. (more…)

Most people taking one of our adventures have never done an Alaska trek before. The majority have done a fair amount of backpacking or at least some hiking but are not sure what to expect and how to pick the best trip for them.

If you’ve never done an Alaskan wilderness backpacking trek, then realize that it’s going to be notch or two up from what you’ve done elsewhere. For example, one of the most common questions I get about a trek is – how many miles do we cover each day? I always tell people that it’s not the mileage, it’s the terrain that counts.

If you’re hiking on a nice trail in the Siearras then covering 10 miles in a day would be pretty easy. But in the backcountry of Alaska there are no trails, we make our own route over tundra, glaciers, meadows, moraine… and more. That same 10 miles in Alaska that might be at least two days of travel depending on the terrain. So when you look at the trip stats don’t judge a trek by its mileage.

To help put our range of treks into perspective here is a rough comparison of how they line up on the strenuosity scale. How difficult a given trip feels depends a lot on how good your conditioning is, but this will rank them in relative order of effort required. Some trips appear in multiple categories because those trips can be done in more than one way. That’s especially true of base camp and loop trips.

With the exception of the Donoho Glacier trek, all of our treks require bush flights in small planes to access the interior of the park wilderness. So these are all remote adventures.

Easier to Moderate
These are mostly combination base camp/loop trips where we put in and get picked up at the same backcountry airstrip. We have a lot of flexibility with our itinerary on these trips and can accommodate the interests and abilities of the group. These tend to be a combination of backpacking and day hiking. Trips in this range are great for folks with not much experience, families with younger children or those just wanting a more mellow experience. Steamboat Hills is especially good for kids.

Moderate to Strenuous
These trips kick it up a notch an while they are not in the strenuous category, there will be some more challenging sections along the way. For example the Skolai – Wolverine trek has some easier days but there are definitely some more strenuous days as well. A trip like Iceberg Lake or Skolai Pass is very customizable and can be done as anything from fairly easy to more challenging.

Strenuous
You will definitely want to be in good physical condition for these treks and some prior backpacking experience is a plus. These tend to be longer routes with some challenges including a few longer days, glacier crossings and moraine crossings. If you’re in shape and wanting a challenge then these are your best bet.

Most Challenging
This trek is our most demanding and you must have prior backpacking experience and be in very good condition. This route features some steep and rugged terrain as well as some extended bushwhacking and one or two demanding stream crossings. There are a few days that are long and challenging. This trek requires a phone interview.

There is a trek for all abilities, it’s just a matter of picking the best match for you.

Here is a chart of our trips with links to more information.

For the most part, if you are in good physical condition then you’ll do fine on most of our trips, at least into the moderate to strenuous range. Our treks are meant to be an adventure with some challenges, not but not extreme. We help you to select just the right amount of challenge.

There are other factors to consider of course. Some routes are better for wildlife spotting and others for dramatic terrain. Some treks have more variety or include special features like glacier crossings. But a good place to start is finding the right difficulty level for you.

For more on any of these trips click on the links to see the detail page, give us a call. 907.350.3710