The closest town to the Revelation Mountains is McGrath, which is about 60 miles away.  Although I haven’t been to them, I have heard the Hidden Mountains near the Tordrillos are also called the Revelations, and although they have great skiing, are not the same as the Revelations we went to.

A big part of visiting the Revelations is getting in touch with Rob Jones of R&R Hunting and Outdoor Adventure.  Rob has a hunting lodge right on the Big River at the base of the Revelations and can provide any and all logistical support for your trip.  Rob arranged our flight into the glacier with a friend of his, Joe Shoeman, but once we were there we communicated with Rob as far as getting back and doing a gear pick up.

The Revelations, aka the Revs, are at the western tail end of the Alaska Mountain Range.  As an overall picture, the AK Range reminds me of a Stegosaurus with Denali/Sultana forming the main high backbone and the Rev’s are the much lower, but very spiky tail.  The Revs top out at about 9,000 and the glacier is at about 3,500, so it is an area with lots of vertical relief, but not necessarily very high.  In my case, we were camping 3,600′ lower than where I live in Park City, so the air was thick and fat.

Based on photos before we left, my initial impression of the Revies was “Hmmm, they look really steep and rugged, maybe too steep and rugged to ski..?”  Afterward my opinion didn’t changed much, except that there are actually plenty of lines to ski, but you have to sniff them out and go on a good snow year.  The 2010 season was supposedly at 60% of normal and we all toasted our brand new skis in the first couple of days.  By the end of the trip we were only taking our skis off for rocky sections over 30′ long – otherwise we just plowed through them and pillaged our edges and bases.  The Revies reminded me of skiing in Patagonia around the Cerro Torre/Fitzroy area as they both have amazing scenery, but the skiing lines seldom go all the way through to the top of a peak and they have lots of ice.

The main Revelation glacier is very cool as it is so small (only about 4 miles long), but packed with features.  It isn’t quite a dry glacier, but it is rapidly getting there.  We brought all of the standard crevasse gear and never used it, or even saw a crevasse big enough to fall into for that matter.

The Revy glacier kind of forms a letter “E” with four short legs coming off of a main body.  The glacier runs south to north and the legs come in from the southwest at 45 degree angles.  There was a distinct lack of north facing skiing terrain, which was too bad as that’s where the best snow was.  East and west slopes had all the crust you could ever want and the south facing lines were pretty runnelled and firm.

Avalanche-wise, the Revies seemed fairly safe as many of the couloirs tapered into nothing as they went up and didn’t have big collection zones at their head.  Many of the lines were also on the steep side of the 38 degree avalanche bulls-eye.  We saw a few big powder blasts, but never felt any weak layers or triggered anything ourselves.  It seems that a lot of the avalanches are started by ice fall and occur soon after the storms.

The camping opportunities were plentiful with flat, sheltered areas all over.  One of the trickier parts was finding snow that was deep enough to dig a cook tent (2-3 feet) as we’d often hit ice about 18″ down.  Going too far down the glacier would be problematic for camping as the glacier gets really rocky and icy.

We ended up skiing about 12 distinct lines in the area and most of them were great fun.  They may or may not have been skied before and the locations are listed below.  Many of the names in the Revelations (including the Revelation name itself) came from an early climbing party led by David Roberts who attached biblical references to everything.  We stayed with that theme and added some creative spelling.

The remoteness of the area favors small planes, which in turn favors small parties.  We were a party of four (Noah Howell, Jim Harris, Courtney Phillips and myself, Andrew McLean) which worked out well.  According to Rob Jones, this area is one of the most remote spots in Alaska as far as population is concerned.  We didn’t see  anyone else while we were out there, nor any signs of previous parties.  It’s a lonely corner of the AK range!

We looked at the possibility of traversing out of the head of the main Revelation glacier to the south, and although it could be done with a rappel or two, it is pretty sporty and not something you’d want to do with heavy loads and sleds.

All in all, it was a fantastic place to visit and a first-class adventure.  Highly recommended, but then again, I say that about most ski mountaineering areas… ;)

A big thanks goes out to Mountain Hardwear, Backcountry.com, Dynafit, K2, Black Diamond and the Hans Saari Memorial Grant for all the great gear and helping make this trip happen.

Click here for a Revelation Mountains photo gallery from our trip.

________________________________
Help support StraightChuter.com and find out where the hell you’ve been with a National Geographic TOPO! State Series CD-ROM from Backcountry.com. Click on the photo below…

This was my third trip to the Ultima Thule Lodge in the Wrangell-St. Elias Mountains and I was there with Eli Potter, Aria, Hombi, Reto and the Claus family to do some skiing and discuss the 2011 Wrangell Ski Week.  The conditions were about as good as Alaska gets with only one true down day out of the entire outing.

This area had a bit of a low snow year, and between that and being there towards the end of April, there wasn’t much snow at the lodge, although there was plenty of snow up higher in the mountains.

Click here for the Ultima Thule Lodge 2010 trip report.

This one is a video of a single run, Peak Solidarity, in the Wrangell-St.Elias Mountains.  Before skiing this peak I happened to see it in a photo book and of the entire book, this is the one that really stood out as it is such a beautiful, classic pyramid peak.  It has a 5,000′ plus ridgeline that snakes all the way up it, but aside from that, it is steep and intimidating all around.

A special thanks goes out to Paul & Donna Claus of the Ultima Thule Lodge, as well as Ruedi Homberger and Retro Ruesch for making this happen.

The video was shot with a VHoldr Contour HD 1080 camera which I had just picked up and was playing around with the settings on.  Unfortunately, the snow is a little washed out, but you get the idea – deep, soft and fluffy.

________________________________
Help support StraightChuter.com and take your VholdR underwater with a VholdR Contour HD Waterproof Camcorder Case from Backcountry.com. Click on the photo below…

________________________________
Help support StraightChuter.com and nail the POV footie with a VholdR ContourHD 1080p Wearable Camcorder from Backcountry.com. Click on the photo below…

When getting into a new sport, I usually over-estimate my abilities and under-estimate how difficult it will be, which has led to lots of exciting times, especially with kite-skiing.  But, Rick Angell came up with the novel idea of trying a mellow float & bike on the lower Provo river, which turned out to be an excellent idea.

Load'em up cowboy. Rick Angell lashes his bike to the deck.

It works! Rick drifting down the Provo with Squaw Peak in the background.

Utah's scenic underbelly.

The PackRafts handled amazingly well considering the ungainly loads on the bow. By true PackRafting standards, this is a fluffy, light load.

Take out and pack up. My deflated raft and paddle are in the foreground.

On the road. We floated for about 1.5 hours and made it back to the car in 25 minutes.

PackRafting is one of those sports where the overall experience is way more fun than the individual components that make it up.  Floating down the Provo is done hundreds of time a day in the summer, but there was something really cool about doing it in a mini boat with a bike, and then riding back.

I’ve got a ski PackRaft outing coming up next week, which should be a blast!
________________________________
Help support StraightChuter.com and stuff your PackRaft in a Mountain Hardwear Superscrambler Backpack from Backcountry.com. Click on the photo below…

Geoff Tabin took a break from saving entire countries from blindness and along with Huckleberry, invited me out for a lap on the Cold Fusion Couloir off of Mt. Timpanogos. Cold Fusion is a beauty of a line off of the NE side of Timp that holds snow well into the Spring.  It’s fun in many regards, but especially cool as you are skiing on a ribbon of snow surrounded by the rocks of American Fork Canyon along with big vista views of the Salt Lake Valley below.

Three miles into the four-mile approach with the object of desire looming in the background.

PB&J Tabin Style. I hope his patient's eyeballs look better than his sandwiches.

By chance, we met Chad and Rob near the summit. Chad dropping the first turn with 3,000' to go.

Huck on the edge of the Utah Universe.

The line was originally known as “The Forked Tongue Couloir” but was later renamed (at least by some people) to memorialize the theory of cold fusion which has strong ties to the University of Utah and Brigham Young University.

Since the road leading to Cold Fusion goes right through American Fork Canyon, it’s fun to catch a quick route on the way out.  After the four-mile approach to go skiing, the four-meter approach to go climbing is much appreciated.

GT gettin' it on at the Division Wall.

________________________________
Help support StraightChuter.com and clip into the shining path with a Black Diamond LiveWire Quickdraw from Backcountry.com. Click on the photo below…

________________________________
Help support StraightChuter.com and send the Ramen Headwall with some Black Diamond Neve Pro Crampons with ABS from Backcountry.com. Click on the photo below…

Light provisioning, Alaska style. Three full mega carts at the Anchorage CostCo get ready to be flown into the Ultima Thule Lodge.

Planes spoken here. Ultima Thule Lodge

Reto Ruesch, aka "The Man in Black." Like the Stephen King novel, there is no escaping him.

A very small slice of the very large Wrangell-St.Elias mountain pie.

Aria and Eli's impromptu wedding on Iceberg Lake, presided over by Paul Claus.

Deep Powder Airlines. Coffee, tea or a rawhide bone Sir?

Welcome to the Revelation Mountains where everything is bigger, steeper and scarier than it looks.

Courtney checking out the tail end of the Alaska Mountain Range.

A rare moment of mellowness in the Revelations.

Uhmmm, sure I'll have one. Can you put some pants on?

Noah and Jim climbing out of the crevasses and clouds in the Revelations.

Rocky revelations.

A the bitter end of the Revelation glacier.

Cruising out the Big River.

Noah crosses a stream and glances back at the Revelations.

A moment of moose appreciation - bushwhacking through brush with a big rack on.

Alaska ski rack - Rob Jones loads 'em up on his Super Cub.

Hehee...

More photo galleries and trip reports to follow.  Thanks to Mountain Hardware, Backcountry.com, Dynafit, Scarpa and K2 for making it possible!

___________________
Help support StraightChuter.com and get the best prices on the best gear at Backcountry.com! Click the Golden Gear Goat below:

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 17^th, 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 26^th, 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.

________________________________
Help support StraightChuter.com and stay cozy and dry in a Mountain Hardwear Trango 3.1 Tent 3-Person 4-Season from Backcountry.com. Click on the photo below…

The Rubies are located just outside of Elko, Nevada, which started life as a railroad town, then turned to ranching and mining.  Perhaps because of the ranching, Elko has a strong Basque culture (sheep herders) which is reflected in the many Basque restaurants that specialize in “family style” dining, a euphemism for more meat than you could possibly eat. The Ruby Mountains were named after the garnets that were found in the area.

The Ruby Mountains from the one-horse town of Elko, Nevada.

While the mountains themselves are flawless, the man-made restrictions on them are not.  The range runs north/south for about 80 miles and is roughly ten miles wide, so it is long and skinny.  Most of the range is surrounded by private property, so access is severely restricted.  The main public trailhead, Lamoille Canyon, pierces the mountain range at about mid point on the west side and goes in roughly seven miles before hitting the north/south ridgeline which forms the Ruby Crest Trail which is the Wilderness boundary dividing line. As a multi-use area, snowmobiles, helicopters and ATV’s are allowed on the west side of the range, which in itself is fine.  The problem from a backcountry skier’s perspective is that because there is only one main trailhead, all of the use multi-use takes place in that concentrated area instead of being spread throughout the range.  Two-stroke is the language of choice in the Rubies and human powered activities are outnumbered by 10:1 from what I have seen.  I’ve had good luck bringing a rope and getting a tow in on the main road from the sledders, and if not, there is plenty of good skiing (including the super classic “Terminal Cancer”) within a short distance from the trailhead.

"Terminal Cancer" with a heli on top. This is about a ten minute skin from the main trailhead.

Noah going with the flow-ah in da Rubsters. Nice plumage.

There is something about the geology of the Rubies that make them very conducive to couloirs and the place is littered with them.

For more photos and comments, please see the Ruby photo gallery on the “PHOTOS” tab.

________________________________
Help support StraightChuter.com and glow like Noah in a Mountain Hardwear Dragon Softshell Jacket from Backcountry.com. Click on the photo below…