Pre-Deployment AK Jaunt

Prior to heading out for Afghanistan, I took a trip to Alaska and to Texas. I wouldn't of course visit Alaska without taking a trip down to the Fairbanksans' Playground, the Delta Mountains. The plan was to ski up Michaels Creek and climb Silvertip. Things didn't turn out quite as planned, but the mountains remained amazing.

Yes, Virginia, the Delta Mountains are awesome.

The ski in was mostly through a tight canyon. Pretty different from a glacial ski in, there were some interesting spots trying to avoid running water. Overall, though, it was pretty awesome getting a new view every few minutes as you twist and turn through the canyon.

These big waves of snow were formed by wind ripping through the canyon...pretty intense.

Jeff's stoked about the view once we cleared the canyon. Having climbed up through the canyon, we didn't realize just how high up in the mountains we'd be once we got into the bowl. Turns out that Michael's Creek is a hidden gem of the Deltas. Almost all of the terrain seemed skiable and easy to access, which was awesome.

Hanging out in the kitchen on our first day. It had been really warm, but as soon as we set up the kitchen clouds moved in, the temps dropped, and a slight wind picked up. Which was pretty good timing on our part.

We woke up in the morning to cloudy, snow, near-whiteout conditions. Trying to sleep in a few more hours didn't help matters much, so once again the Deltas defeated my summit bid. After deciding not to go for Silvertip, we waited around a little while longer figuring out what to do. In the end, we decided to explore the bowl we were in. We went up one spot that wasn't as cool as it appeared it would be, then decided to climb up to the ridge that would have spilled over onto the Jarvis Glacier. It got pretty windy as we got to the top of the ridge.

Real windy.

Jeff brought the ol' ski goggles for the trip. Would have been a good move up on the ridge.

A little product place for Hilleberg. The tent was my new toy for the trip, and it was awesome. Way more spacious than any other mountaineering tent I've been in.

Jeff rocking his AK Rocks hat.

The ski out included some nice mellow slopes that were very doable, even with a pack on, even for me.

On our ski out we encountered what looked to be some pretty sweet snow with a moderate climb up, so we decided to drop packs and hit it. Turns out the snow was sweet.

Looking back as we climbed up for our run. The cloud-covered mountain is Silvertip. I don't know what the winds would have been like up there, but based on what they were like on the smaller ridge in the foreground, it wouldn't have been a whole lot of fun.

A view on the way down. To the left were some rocks that weren't that cool, and to the right was a big gully with plenty of cornices and other uncool features, so we stuck to the little line of good snow all the way down.

I was pretty excited by my first (only) real good backcountry run of the year.

Our tracks coming down the run.

Jeff approves of these tracks.

So do I.

The wind from the night before had brought a whole bunch of snow into the canyon. It coated the rocks on the canyon walls and evened all the snow out, creating some awesome views.

The snow on the side of the canyon.

And some more.

The entire ski out of the canyon, there was an amazing view of the mountains west of the Rich.

As we drove down to check out Arctic Man, we noticed this sweet cloud caught by Black Cap.

View of the Deltas from the Highway. I didn't realize until I came back just how much I'd miss those mountains. The water in Florida's okay, but this stuff's awesome.