Wrangell Traverse

In June Jeff and I decided to throw down a little cash and do a fly-in to the Wrangells. I'd looked at a few of their suggested trips, and a traverse that went near Donoho Peak jumped out at me, in part because it was described as one of the most rugged trips and in part because the itinerary didn't give a full trip plan, sort of ending with "once you've gotten to this point, figure out how to get the rest of the way". I'd heard when calling to the fly-in places that they were having a late spring, so we brought snow shoes down just in case. In the end, we were on the shoes probably 50% of the trip, so it was a great call. Once again, the Wrangells were mindblowing. We ended up hiking for about 5 days (6 total, but two were sort of half days), then doing a day hike the 7th day and getting flown out the 8th. Jeff also picked up a fisheye lens for the trip, which you'll see below. If this wasn't the most intense trip I've done in Alaska, it was close. We put in long days covering some hard miles over snow, across rivers, up and down mountains, over and by glaciers. The scenery, as typical, well, suffice to say it seems impossible sitting in my chair now that I could have seen such amazing beauty. Oh, and I saw a bear on foot in Alaska. Not a griz, though...that would come a few days later in Denali. Anyway, lots of pictures of an amazing trip below.


As a result of poor route finding on the way down, we had to descend through these sharp drops to get to our next valley. The photo doesn't properly portray how intense it was; at one point we had to drop packs and after Jeff down climbed about 15' I tied our packs to the tent fly and lowered them to him, then I down climbed myself.


Good view from the first valley we descended into. We climbed up the mountain to the right of the photo, bypassing the glacier with some sketchy snow covering it.


Jeff after our second big climb on our second day. This was also the highest elevation we would achieve - 6700'.


The aircraft contrails in the background of these photos is pretty sweet, as is the view created by the fisheye.


View from the opening of the valley on our third day. This valley would end up being a long mix of snow, not quite dry ground, and dry ground that made the snowshoe vs. boot decision difficult.


There were some pretty significant river crossings to contend with. The water was especially high given the late spring.


View inside the tent.


Pausing for a break just down off the second pass of the traverse. Coming up from the glacier on the other side of the traverse, we walked through a notch in the mountains where three different ranges came together. Walking out of the notch and into this area was a revelation...the kind of alpine high that instantly affirms for you how incredible it is to be out in the mountains doing what you're doing.


This couloir had Jeff going nuts thinking about the skiing possibilities. It was across from our camp in a high valley that for some reason had an entirely different character than the rest of the traverse; large chunks of rocks with more of a granite feel to them than anywhere else, and unbroken by any tundra.


I'm a fan of this photo of me pumping water, for some reason.


Hmm...rice and beans.


About halfway up the last major climb we had for the traverse. This was over a 2000' climb, but by day 5 we were in peak condition, and didn't have any problems making it up to the top. Jeff's sporting the bandana to prevent the ol' sunburn.


Photos can't possibly represent how stunning the blues of this lake were. The clarity of the water created by the snow melting into a lake was breathtaking.

There were slides from the spring melt just about every day we were walking, some of them fairly significant. We definitely had to take into account the snow conditions as we were climbing up and down the mountains. This slide was older, but pretty impressive.



The traverse ended in a valley that was once a major mining area. There were several cabins marked on the map, but we stopped at this one after we didn't see any others. As it turned out, there was a cabin about a mile up the valley that was constructed by NPS for hikers to sleep in. We never found it, but this one served as a fine place to cook dinner. The next day we explored the valley and ended up climbing up to a mine entrance on the side of a mountain at 6200'. None of the pictures turned out great, but suffice it to say that a short day of exploring turned into a long day of hiking, snow traversing, and climbing, to discover that if you were a miner in the Wrangells, you probably spent most of your day waking up on the side of one of many beautiful mountains, only to eat breakfast and walk back into darkness for the rest of the day. Not exactly fun.


Jeff rocking the '60's era snowmachine we found in the cabin.


Rocking it at the cabin.


This building was used to haul equipment up to the mountain behind it. Pretty intense - the wire runs out of sight now. I can't imagine what it took to haul the equipment to get this thing up and running.

So I don't have a good ending photo for this one, but it was one amazing trip, and I wish I had several lifetimes to explore this area and all of Alaska. Just awesome.