Hutlinana Hot Springs

One of Jeff's old roommates was in town, and he and his friend wanted to get an Alaskan experience. Being that they were relatively raw campers and hikers, we decided to go out to Hutlinana Hot Springs. I'd never been there before, but found the route from some documents floating around and knew that the hike wouldn't be more than 7 miles in.

We ended up driving out the night before and camping by the side of the road. We awoke to snow coming down, truly giving them a part of the Alaska experience.

On the hike in, we walked by a huge array of beaver dams damming up the Hutlinana River. It was pretty sweet.

I don't know what the mountain range around the area was, but there were several clusters of cool mountains. A good reminder that no matter where you go in Alaska, you run into some amazing terrain.

We encountered the hot springs early in the afternoon. It wasn't a totally natural springs, there was a small pool built up out of tarp, but it was pretty well worked into the river.

The temperature of the water was quite nice.

On the way out, we had a good little climb back up to the highway. Overall, the springs was pretty cool. I think it could be way better in winter, but I'm glad I got out to it before departing the AK.

Triangle Attempt Part Deux

In May Jeff and I decided to make another attempt on Triangle. Because of the time of year, there was a significant amount of snow melted off the glacier. We ended up hiking in a couple of miles before being able to switch to skis.


This of course made us infinitely more core, as Jeff can attest to.

So can I.

We ended up skiing for a while through some hard driving snow. It wasn't whiteout, but it was pretty rocking.

When we got to camp, we had blue skies for a while. Camping on a glacier at 25-30 degrees is way more awesome than doing it at -10, let me tell you.

The bluebird didn't last, then, and when we awoke to make our bid, then waited another hour, then another hour, and the skies were getting worse, we packed it up and headed in.

Not before cursing the snow gods, though.

We ended up skiing through more intense snowfall most of the way out. It started to clear up at the end, though, providing some reminders of how awesome the Deltas are.

The glacier looked pretty cool, too. So much melt made it a study in contrast, especially with the gray light.

So overall, good trip, but summit denied once again.