Trip updates are at the bottom of the page.
Alaska is one of my favorite places to ski as it has so much variety and such wild terrain. It has three different snowpacks, high peaks, rugged mountains, huge ice fields, traverses, rivers, wildlife and everything in-between. I go there for the skiing, but often times the actual turns are secondary to the sense of exploration and adventure that Alaska provides. Good skiing conditions are just icing on the cake.
Up to date location tracking beginning on April 19th:
Starting on April 17th, this year’s trip has two parts. The first week will be in the Wrangell-St.Elias Mountains at the Ultima Thule Lodge for a steep skiing camp . This is being organized by Eli Potter of Wild Alpine and will be annual event if you are interested in going next year.
The Wrangell-St.Elias National Park and Preserve is the largest National Park in the U.S. and entails over 12 million acres of the most rugged alpine terrain in Alaska, if not the world. It has been called “The Mountain Kingdom” for good reason and there is no shortage of amazing skiing. For reference, the famed skiing of Valdez, Alaska takes place in a tiny section of the larger Chugach Mountain range, which in turn is only one of four mountain ranges which make up the Wrangell-St. Elias Park. This area defines the absolute top end of the “Big Mountain Skiing” spectrum.
Starting on April 26th, the second part of the Alaska odyssey involves meeting up with Courtney Phillips, Noah Howell and Jim Harris (all from Utah) to spend two weeks in the Revelation Mountains. The Revelations are 140 miles northwest of Anchorage and are best known (if they are known at all) for their technical rock, ice and Alpine climbing. People have climbed here and traversed through the range, but as far as we know, the ski mountaineering potential of the area has not been explored. We want to see what there is to ski.
This part of the trip will involve landing on the Revelation Glacier, setting up camp and doing day trips to the nearby peaks. The plan is to move camp every few days to fresh skiing terrain, but like most trips to Alaska, the weather will be the ultimate determining factor. Afterwards, we will walk out of the Revelation Glacier and down a river bed to an outfitters cabin where we will be flown back to Anchorage.
That’s the plan.., but you never know what will happen in Alaska. Sometimes it exceeds your wildest dreams and other times you spend a lot of time sitting in tents reading books or playing Scrabble. You never know until you go.
We will be sending location updates with a SPOT locator beacon (see map above) and also calling in to GreatOutdoors.com for some color commentary.
Updates:
April 17-21 Flew into Anchorage complete with both of my bags! Big bonus. I was met by Eli and Aria, did some shopping, spent the night in Anchorage and then headed out to Chitina (Where the Hell is…) which was about a four hour drive. After a short wait, Paul Claus flew in with his Turbine Otter and picked us up, then flew up the Chitina River to the Ultima Thule Lodge. Two Swiss friends are here and we got out for an afternoon of skiing. The next day was a down-day due to bad weather, which gave me a chance to read “The Greatest Trade Ever” which was all about how John Paulson raked in 8 billion dollars by shorting the housing market. Today the weather cleared a bit and we were able to get out and do some skiing. Much to my surprise, it was some beautiful powder! We got in about 3,000′ and on the flight back to the lodge saw a herd of buffalo and a beautiful brown bear on the Chitina river. I love this place.
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Interesting…as a board member of the Hans Saari Memorial Fund did you give a thumbs up vote for Courtney’s proposal? And then jump on the trip? Potentially a conflict of interest?
Maybe they should call the fund, “Friends of Andrew Mclean”?
Just razzing you a little though I am curious…
Hi Smokey – It led to some interesting discussions. From the start, I abstained from voting or commenting on Courtney’s application, although I did encourage him to apply for the grant, as I do everyone. Because the ski mountaineering community is so small, many of the board members personally know, or know of the Hans Fund grant applicants, but this was the first time that a person actually applied for a trip that a board member was going on as well.
After the first round of voting, people liked Courtney’s proposal, but ended up not funding it as it seemed like a conflict of interest, or at least smacking of cronyism. I was fine with that, but it did lead to further discussions about how in the future it would automatically disqualify any outing that involved a HSMF board member. Part of being on the Expedition Grant committee is that the members are involved in ski mountaineering expeditions, so any trip with someone like Kris Erickson, Hans Johnstone, Nat Patridge or myself would immediately be excluded. In a sense this is unfortunate going on a trip to Morocco with Kris Erickson would be very cool, especially if you were just getting started in the sport and had no money.
So, originally Courtney’s application was denied, but a day or so afterwards, Drew Sessell (head of the HSMF) read through the original foundations charter and found that there was a clause in there which specifically addressed this. He also talked to a lawyer about it and they decided that as long as I didn’t vote or give any input into the application, or personally profit from it, that the application was valid. They later met and decided to award the grant to Courtney, with the stipulation that the funds are just for him, which is what he stated in his application.
The fund is now in it’s third year and it is very cool to see how far the level of applications has come, as well as the number of them. There were a lot of good trips this year and it was a tough decision to pick the winners. In many cases, I had friends who applied and had strong applications, but didn’t end up winning a grant because of the competition.
Looks like a way cool trip. I look forward to reading the reports.
Closer to home, you think Bart and Jared will complete the WURLOS today?
Word…thanks for the explanation Andrew. I’m glad this brought up some good discussion because as you mentioned, the community that applies for this grant is indeed fairly small and this type of thing is bound to come up again.
I’m no lawyer, but…
“He also talked to a lawyer about it and they decided that as long as I didn’t vote or give any input into the application, or personally profit from it, that the application was valid.”
Personally profit from it could be argued. Financially…no, at least directly. Would you be invited to hold steep camps in AK if you didn’t have such a vast resume of experience of skiing up there…probably not. Does this trip add to the resume…yes. “Personally profit”…indirectly, I would say yes. But ya know, it’s an art form to have accomplished the things you have all across the world so keep it the good work!
And have a fun trip too…
Andrew, have an awesome trip(s). Looking forward to charting the improvement in your Scrabble skills after some (but hopefully minimal) tent-time.
Remember, Greek letters are legal, as are phonetic spellings of the alphabet: phi, tau, em, en, etc.
(Etc., of course, is not legal.)
love the location tracking! are there any dogs following you? :) have fun, stay safe!
The Revelations Mountains are an interesting area. The first group went in there in July 1967. Check out the article about the expedition in the 1968 AAJ (pages 27 – 35). The one thing that Dave Roberts talks about a lot when it comes to the Revelations is how foul the weather was in July and August. There is a really “cool” (i.e., terrifying) looking couloir in one photo on the Four Horseman peak. Good luck Andrew.
Cheers,
Hacksaw
KatieC,
Please don’t encourage him, or provide tips. The Glacial Scrabble scene is plenty competitive without honing the word weapon that is the Andrew.
Thank you.
Yes skiers have been into the Revelations, and made interesting descents. Remember Andrew , many Alaskans just go and do things and don’t feel the need to tell the world about it, or profit from it other than enjoyment. Just because the bro bras don’t know about it doesn’t mean it hasn’t been done.
Enjoy.
I think Andrew’s SPOT has him at the Great Alaskan Bush Company….
Well, the great thing about a SPOT is you can’t tell where or what the user is doing. Andrew you just proved I don’t need or want to buy a SPOT.
Smokey,
I wanted to follow up on Andrew’s comments
As Andrew alluded to in his explanation, the Fund has in place a Conflict of Interest policy which describes the way we deal with grant applications like the one mentioned. In awarding the grant, the Grant Committee and Board of Directors acted in accordance with the policy. In addition, we consulted with our attorney to review the decision, and he confirmed our actions were consistent with the policy and appropriate. Comments like yours are good and force us to question and make sure we are acting fairly. In this situation, we believe we are. As to who profits, we hope by giving skiers the opportunity to pursue their goals, everyone in the ski community profits… those who took the trip, those who learn of new routes and places to be visited as a result of those trips, and those who are inspired by the accomplishments of folks like Andrew and Courtney. I am happy to discuss more if you want…drew@hansfund.org.
Respectfully,
Drew Seessel
Hans Saari Memorial Fund