The downside of the WSE is that it is difficult to access, to say the least.  There may be a few places where you can do day trips, but for the most part it is Expedition Central and to get anywhere beyond the fringes  often involves winter camping, sled hauling and lots of shivering. With this in mind, I’ve teamed up with Wild Alpine and the Ultima Thule Lodge  to put together the inaugural “Wilderness Ski Week” from April 1-7, 2012.  This will be my forth time up to the Ultima Thule lodge and I’m sure it will be the highlight of the 2012 ski season.

Some photos from a previous trip – mouse over for captions, click to enlarge.

The idea behind the Wilderness Ski Week is to use the  Ultima Thule Lodge as a basecamp and then do daily ski mountaineering excursions from there using the planes and superb piloting skills of Paul Claus. Paul’s Turbine Otter has an incredible range and carrying capacity, which means we will have excellent access to a variety of regions and elevations.  A typical day might involve getting dropped off and skiing one zone, or if need be shuttling to a different area after a run or two and then flying back to the lodge for dinner and/or sauna.  There are also endless peaks to be skied (see Solidarity video below) and backdrops such as the Bagley Icefield, Mount Saint Elias and University Peak.

The trip dates are April 1-7 and a second week may be added based on demand. Group size will be limited and the objectives will  be adjusted based on conditions and skill levels of the group.  It is recommended for skiers with solid touring skills and although we will be getting flown out to each area, once there, we will be ascending under our own power.

Prices vary according to the level of accommodations and range from deluxe to ultra deluxe.  Suffering in a cold, wet tent and eating partially re-hydrated food is NOT included in this event.

For more information, visit the Wild Alpine website, or send an email directly to Aria Thomases who is the Programming Coordinator for the event.

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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.

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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.

We were out for a Claus “family day” of skiing, which involves loading ten or so people into a million-dollar bush plane and flying around until we found the tastiest looking place to ski, then setting down and doing a few laps.  In this case, we ended up at Iceberg Lake, the name of which later became apparent.

All photos by Ruedi Homberger

Family style skiing - at least if you are the Claus family. The Iceberg Lake namesake bergs are in the background.

As we were munching away there seemed to be some sort of covert activity going on in the background and I was halfway expecting a snowball attack (Logan Claus was in the house…).  Instead, Paul Claus asked for everyone’s attention and announced that Eli had just proposed to Aria, she had accepted, and as he was granted the authority to perform one marriage a day in Alaska, we were going to have a wedding.  Right now.  Everyone step behind the plane.

Logan Claus, on the far left, gives away Aria.

Reverand (Bishop? Minister?) Claus performing the wedding ceremony.

"By the power vested in me, I now pronounce you... married!"

My short, futile attempt at being a Wedding Director. "Throw rice now dammit!"

The wedding party photo.

The happy couple consummated their wedding by taking a victory lap on Iceberg Lake while the rest of us took another run.  It was a fantastic location and I was/am honored to have been part of the occasion with such a great group of people.  Best wishes to Aria & Eli!

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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.

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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.

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This sounds too good to be true – a week long steep skiing camp in the greatest mountains on earth, the Wrangell-Saint Elias range.  This is being put together by Eli Potter of Alaska Wild Alpine and will be based out of the Ultima Thule Lodge where we will be flying with Paul Claus in his Turbine Otter. In conjunction with Eli and the Ultima Thule crew, I’ll be guiding for the entire outing and space is limited to a small group.

It’s hard to know where to even start describing a trip like this as there are so many cool aspects to it.  To begin with, the Wrangell-St.Elias (WSE) range is the largest National Park & Preserve in the U.S. and it is known as “the mountain kingdom” for good reason – it is packed with an endless vista of skiable mountains.  As if that isn’t enough, it is right next to Canada’s Kluane National Park, and between the two of them there are roughly 24 million square acres of skiing to be had.  That is like having an entire New England state to yourselves.  WSE has nine of the 16 highest peaks in the United States, including Mount St. Elias, the second highest in the U.S. and home of the longest potential ski descent in the world at 18,000′ from the peak to the ocean shore. For size and scale reference, the entire Chugach Mountains (of which the famed Valdez big-mountain skiing is only a small part) is just one of four ranges that make up the Wrangell-St. Elias Park.  The place defines “immense.”

All of this hugeness would we wasted if you didn’t have some way of getting to it, which is where Paul’s Turbine Otter comes in.  The original Otter was described to me as a “ground loving airplane,” but by chopping off the stock engine and replacing it with a turbine, it can fly far, fast and high.  Paul’s Turbine Otter was one of the first ever made (if not the first..?) and it is equipped with skis and wheels so it can land almost anywhere.  The plane is worth about a million dollars, and with a ten-million dollar pilot like Paul, you can land just about anywhere.  The skiing is amazing, but the plane flights are almost better.

This will be my third trip to the WSE’s and I can’t wait.  Eli and Paul know the mountains much better than I do, so between the three of us, I’m sure we will find some amazing skiing.  First descents are the norm in this area and there is no shortage of them. At night, we will be flying back to the warm, spacious Ultima Thule Lodge where Donna Claus & Company prepare the meals.

The price tag is not for the faint of heart, but if you are looking for the be-all, end-all backcountry skiing experience, this is it.  Space is limited to five people for the first year and skiers/riders should be comfortable with skinning, riding off-piste terrain and traveling through various types of snow.  There will be at least two guides for the group (Eli and myself), and perhaps more.  For more information, check out Eli’s website, Alaska Wild Alpine or email me directly at amclean@xmission.com

Wrangell-Saint Elias Websites:
National Park Service Wrangell-Saint Elias Website
Wikipedia Entry on the Wrangell-Saint Elias Wilderness
Photos from a previous trip to the Bagley Ice Field in the WSE Park

I hope you can make it!
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I had planned on spending a day skiing while I was up there, but… there’s no snow.  Instead, I went for a hike up Flat Top with Joe and although it was lightly raining, the Big Boy and his Old Lady were sticking out.

Sultana on the left and Denali on the right with Anchorage in the foreground.

It was fun to give a talk about skiing them the night before and then see them poking out from the skyline like old buddies the next day.  Denali, Hunter and Sultana are three of my all time favorite skiing peaks and it was bittersweet to think that I don’t really have a compelling reason to return there any time soon.  I’m sure I’ll think of something.  ;)

Joe in his element on Flat Top. Come on Joe - at least pretend like you are having fun...

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This flight took place on the way out from the Kahiltna Glacier back to the town of Talkeetna.  Our pilot, Tyler from TAT, was mildly disappointed when he showed up and found out that the Swinging Sultanas (our official team name) was four stinky guys, not a group of girls.  Fred Marmsater asked if we could fly back via the famous “One Shot” gap, but Tyler said, “We could… but I know an even better way.”   He wasn’t kidding – I have no idea where we were or the names of the peaks, but they were mighty cool and beautiful. At about the 20 second mark, a random point release avalanche cuts loose from near the top of a peak.

On the flight in, we flew in TAT‘s Turbine Otter, (aka “Precious”), but on the flight out, we were in a classic old Beaver, complete with Jonny Cash in the headphones, wood dashboards and the throaty, roaring engine.

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