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New
Trips for 2007
Last month I gave an overview of some of
the treks from last summer. One of those was a new trek, Tumble
Creek. Several people asked to know more about this trip and
what sort of terrain it covers. So decided to do a more detailed
report of the exploratory trip I did this summer and finish
with some of my ideas for routes in the area in 2007.
In the last newsletter I mentioned doing
an exploratory of this route last summer. Several people have
asked to know more about this trek, so I have written up a
report that is partly a record of that exploratory and partly
an itinerary for this summer's trip.
Until now all Trek Alaska trips have departed
out of McCarthy. That has made it difficult to do treks in
the northern part of the park. So this year I hooked up with
Kirk Ellis of K-Air out of Nabesna to check out some new territory
in that area. I sat down with Kirk and went over maps and
talked route ideas over several cups of coffee. We finally
decided the Tumble Creek area offered the best mix of what
I was looking for: not too long of a flight into the backcountry,
stunning scenery but terrain that was in the moderate range.
Equipped with maps and a few ideas from
Kirk I hopped into his Super Cub and away we went. I'm no
stranger to barely-there backcountry air strips but
even I could barely make out the spot where Kirk intended
to land. Just as he curved around on final approach we spotted
a caribou out on the plateau.
The landing strip was on a gently sloping
plateau not far from the XXX glacier. I decided that the first
order of business was to get good close look at Mt. Jarvis
which was not very far away. An easy hike over the plateau
gave me a jaw dropping view at the edge. The plateau was a
bit wet since it was still early summer, so dropped down a
bit and found a bench that was flat enough for my tent. I
had great light so I spent a lot of time in the late afternoon
snapping photos as the clouds blew in and out on the top of
Jarvis. As soon as I arrived in that camp I knew I was going
to have to offer a trip here next summer. In the morning I
snagged a few more pics with great light and much less cloud
cover.
Reluctantly I shouldered my pack and heading
back up and over the plateau then descended the gentle slope
to the east. The views over the next few days were fantastic
and the terrain was in the moderate range. That's when I knew
I had the perfect combination for a great trek. Usually, to
get to this kind of extreme scenery, you have to do some very
aggressive and strenuous hiking.
On the third day out I charted a route
down what appeared to be a really nice ridgeline, but it was
hard to tell how steep or rugged it would be. As I crested
over a pass and started down the ridge I was happy to find
that it was just what I was a delightful ridge walk with views
all around including a big glacier up valley. There was a
sheep trail about half way down that I took advantage of while
it lasted.
The ridgeline leads straight down to Tumble
Creek and the first real stream crossing of the trip . I crossed
just above where a tributary empties into the larger Tumble
Creek. Tumble Creek was an easier crossing than I expected
but the tributary was a bit of an eye opener.
I camped farther downstream at a spot
that was okay, but not great. The next day I headed up the
next ridge and part way up found a perfect campsite, much
better than the one I stayed at the previous night. That's
the spot we'll use this summer.
In fact, another thing I like about this
route is that most of our campsites are up high on plateaus
and ridges so we should have lots of great photo opportunities.
The best time for photos is early morning and very late afternoon.
Our high camps will give us the ideal perch for taking advantage
of that light.
Twisted Landscapes
I have years of wilderness routefinding
and map reading experience and am pretty expert at it. But
there is one section that had me scratching my head a bit.
The terrain is very convoluted and with maps that have 100
foot contour intervals it was tough matching map to terrain.
It's hard to describe this section - you'll just have to come
see it for yourself.
Once through that interesting stretch
I found myself looking down from a ridge at a lake below.
It looked a bit wet around the lake so I decided to bypass
it and instead camp part way up the next ridge for yet another
high camp. Very near my campsite I found an unusual rock formation
in the form of a human face. Now it's common to pick out a
chiseled profile of a nose and chin in rock formations but
this one was different. The face was almost three dimensional,
it was rounded and the face appeared to be laughing. So I
dubbed it Laughing Man Rock which means that the lake became
Laughing Man Lake. That's one of the great things about trekking
in Alaska - none of the features have names so you can just
assign your own.
The next and final day was a very pleasant
hike down the other side of the ridge and finally out onto
the gravel bars where my pickup airstrip was easily found.
2007
I was so excited about the trip that I
have put two treks on the calendar for next summer. Check
out the Tumble Creek trip page for dates and other details.
If you are looking for an exciting trip with outstanding scenery
and difficulty in the moderate range, then the Tumble Creek
trek is an excellent choice. I just posted a slideshow
of Tumble Creek photos, so be sure to check it out.
This trip has always been on the unofficial
roster but now it's listed on our website. The Iceberg Lake
valley is one of the most beautiful and varied valleys in
that part of the park. There is just sooo much to explore
there. Hanging glaciers, an iceberg filled lake, valley glacier,
high alpine ridges and thundering waterfalls are a sampling
of what waits to be discovered on a trip to Iceberg Lake.
Some other outfits offer base camping
trips in the valley, but we take a slightly different approach.
Our Iceberg Lake trip is a combination basecamp/loop trip.
Five days is a good amount of time to explore this valley,
but it's too long to stay camped in one spot. So we begin
by hiking down the valley and part way up a ridge to a spot
few others ever visit. Then we spend two nights camped there
and doing a day hike with light loads on the second day. We
then pack up and move our camp to another spot in a different
part of the valley and again spend two nights in one spot.
I have to tell you about the second campsite.
It's a spot that I discovered last summer on a day hike with
a group. We were doing a day hike up the ridge to the north
of Iceberg Lake and getting pretty high up so the views looking
down on Iceberg Lake were amazing. I was thinking how fantastic
it would be to camp up so high but there were no spots even
remotely suitable for a campsite. Then suddenly we cleared
some rocks and there was a beautiful, large, flat area that
was just perfect for a campsite.
I thought, well this is great, too bad
there isn't any water anywhere near.Then we hiked a little
farther and discovered a gorgeous, deep blue melt pool surrounded
by snow. I had my campsite! And the views were just stunning
in every direction. But don't take my word for it, check out
the Iceberg
Lake slideshow on the website.
Trip
Planning: The Trekking Season
Every year I get a few folks asking about doing a backcountry
trip in May or early June. I tell them sure, just bring along
some snow shoes. In most places, May is pretty much summer
and by June the season is well underway - but not in Alaska.
Winter comes early and lingers for a long
time in the mountains of Alaska and certainly in Wrangell-St.
Elias. There are treks that can be done in early to mid June,
but others are best planned for the second week in July or
later. So it's best to plan your trip early while there is
still some flexibility in your schedule. I've had people wait
till spring to book a trip only to find that the only slot
in there schedule will find the passes still full of snow.
There are trips that work well for different
parts of the summer. Here is a breakdown of our treks and
the best season for each trip. Every years is different and
if there is a low snow year followed by a warm spring, then
some trips might be possible much earlier than usual, but
these are the best date ranges to use for your planning.
