The Talkeetna Mountains, AKAs my late ski partner, Steve Romeo, liked to say, there are two seasons in my life....winter and waiting for winter. I love that and think of him whenever the snow flies. That's a good thing. Up here in AK, winter has been creeping upon us more slowly than is typical. We've had snow up high but temps have remained warm this fall. It's made for some good hiking but I'm getting impatient for winter to arrive in full.
Last weekend, a favorable forecast got Mat and me out the door heading to the Talkeetnas for some mellow glacier skipping. I'd never been to the Snowbird Glacier area so seeing it first on skis was a great option. Archangel Road off Hatcher Pass is closed for the season so the first few miles are best traversed on bikes. The recent freeze/thaw laid down some pesky ice and frozen foot tracks so wheeling wasn't great but we made the start of the hiking in about 30 minutes. It's a gentle 500 vertical to that point so the out was going to be easier.
Pretty dry down low
The Talkeetnas are an unusually boulder strewn mess of a range so travel before an ample snow pack is established can be annoying. Fortunately, a few others before us found most of the booby traps and the passage was easy in running shoes. We hit the pass over looking the glacier in about two hours from the car. We caught a couple from Colorado there as we transitioned to ski boots. Another party of three was just ahead already skinning up the glacier making travel pretty cushy for us.
There was still a bit of a rain/freeze/thaw crust on the surface down low but this improved up higher. The run to the top of the glacier covers about 1,000' of mellow terrain. The last 100 vertical climbs a headwall and some evidence of instability on adjacent slopes had us treading carefully to the top.
We were more than happy to take over trail breaking for the three in front. They were a friendly bunch and we enjoyed conversation to the summit. Matt and I were ready quickly and said our goodbyes. The slope is broad so there's more than enough to go around. The skiing is low angle and not super exciting but it was good to simply be sliding along on skis again. The stunning vistas and windless skies completed the awesome conditions. We had about 18 inches of fresh, slightly wind affected pow to play on.
The Great One in full glory
The couple from Colorado stayed on the first 500' for some reason and our three friends did one run and headed out. Matt and I did three runs before the shorter day had us heading back down. Our suspicions about the last pitch were confirmed as I inched closer to the steeper part on the last run, sending some cracks out and Mat completing the deal by kicking off the mini slab on his final pass. We walked out in boots which made the boulder bashing even easier. I left them on for the bike back to the car. It was 6.5 hours of fun. A nice start.