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Topic: March 22-April 5 2014, The Neacola Range- AK (Read 55479 times)
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jtrue
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Have been a lurker for some time, but enjoy all the trip reports posted here. First post, and it's a long one. I'll add to it as I have time.
The idea for this trip started soon after our trip to Haines in 2013. It had been a trip of a similar nature; however the weather window we got was rather short. We had great weather for 3 days and then had a tropical storm roll in and blast us with 6 feet of snow and 60mph winds for 4 days, shoveling for 8 hours on a couple of those days.
The funny thing is that you easily forget the bad and just think about the amazing terrain and options you are presented with on a trip like this. Of course there is a lot of planning/logistics involved, but that’s part of the fun, at least for me. Got a couple partners interested in the idea and started planning.
First we needed a location, we wanted more couloir skiing vs big spine walls. The Revelations were the first range that came to mind that had an abundance of beautiful couloirs lining the walls in every direction. I got in touch with Rob Jones, a hunting outfitter that has a cabin 12 miles off the main Revelation Glacier, and started working with him on logistics for getting us out there via bush plane. As the season progressed the reports of low snow across Alaska were coming in. I got some beta photos from Rob in December and it was the lowest snow he had seen in the Revs to date. Things can change quickly in Alaska, but we made the decision to refocus on some other zones.
The Pika Glacier in the Central Alaska Range or the Tordrillos 85 miles west of Anchorage were now the main focus. The Tordrillos didn’t seem to have as much of the terrain we were looking for as the Pika
zone. So I started gathering beta on that zone. We were planning on flying out of Anchorage with Joe Schuster of Sportsman’s Air, which was going to pose a problem. He doesn’t have a permit to land in Denali National Park, which I didn’t realize when switching objectives from the Revelations to the Pika.
We could scrap our plans to fly out of Anchorage and fly out of Talkeetna instead to hit the Alaska Range or make a last minute call and look at yet another zone. I only realized this a week before our
departure; so I got back to researching and found an article in the American Alpine Journal about a 2009 ski expedition to the Neacolas, which are ~120 miles SW of Anchorage. They mentioned a zone with numerous 3k-4k E-NE facing couloirs. Did a little more research via Google Earth and it looked like the spot. The Neacolas don’t seem to see a ton of traffic because of the cost and distance of the flight.
The shot that sealed the deal
We planned the trip from March 22-April 9, accounting for the weather days that were bound to occur. The week prior to arriving I was watching the weather models closely, Anchorage had been in a high pressure flow for the last week and it didn’t look like it was letting up. My friend Matt, who would give us weather updates while on the glacier via our Delorme Inreach, agreed that we should see good weather for the first half of the trip.
Arrived in Anchorage late on the 22nd to clear skies and cold temps, snow should be holding up! We had a planned fly date of March 24th, weather looked like it was going to hold so we got to shopping the next day. Fuel, Groceries, Filling airbag tanks, check. We weren’t sure what the coverage was going to look like in the zone so we decided a scouting flight would be good in the Super Cub. We checked out some other zones in the Tordrillos as well since they were on the way.
DAY ONE:
John checking tire pressure, seems legit
Denali and Foraker in the distance
As we started getting deeper into the Tordrillos the snowpack started fattening up, lines everywhere.
No signs of instability, getting stoked!
The Tordrillos looked good, but had less zones with the big couloirs we were looking for. The pilot Ben let me know we were about to reach the zone for the coordinates I had provided. As we crested another ridge the zone came into view.
Yes please
I asked Ben to land so I could dig a pit on some N facing terrain, he set her down and we hopped out.
Dug a pit and although the structure was shit, there wasn’t any energy to propagate upon failing. It had settled for a week already, would have to feel it out a little, but I was pretty confident we could get into the steeps. Might be tricky if we got a lot of snow though.
Ben fueling up for the flight back
Continued...
What I didn't mention is that as we were flying into the zone I noticed a couple skin tracks at the bottom of the big couloirs, as we flew in closer we could see the remnants of a camp. At first I was a bit disappointed, but after looking through the shots I had taken in the air there was no doubt in my mind that tracks or not this was "the zone." Partners agreed as well.
Day Two:
The next morning we were at the airstrip at 9am unloading everything out of the rental car and into the Beaver.
Stuffed her full I tell you pc Adam
Stoke was high as we taxied, took off, and headed SW toward the zone
We decided to land next to the previous camp, turns out we could use the spot they dug out for our mid kitchen, and the platforms they had stomped out for our tents. More time for skiing!
Before Joe left we decided on a pickup date of Monday April 7th, again planning that we would have some weather and down days. See you later Joe.
Got camp setup around 2:30pm and decided to go for a ski. Couloirs everywhere, which one will it be? We decided to head east from camp and check out one of the biguns.
John and myself skinning out of camp in the afternoon shadow. pc Adam
Thar she blows
Adam smiling at the prospects
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« Last Edit: 04/17/14, 12:31 PM by jtrue »
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jtrue
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Didn't take too many shots on the ascent as we were trying to finish up before it got dark, but the conditions were perfect for booting. Névé with a couple inches on top. Everything in AK is foreshortened. It looks like you'll be there in 15 minutes, an hour later you're still skinning/booting. This first coulie was no exception, we could see the top the entire time. Took turns breaking, going at a steady pace. We topped out at about 6400ft, the couloir including the apron was 3100ft.
Booting pc: Adam
Happy to have topped out pc: Adam
Upon topping out we were greeted with an amazing view of the toe end of the glacier. You can make out Mt. Redoubt, a volcano, on the far back right.
I was stoked to be making some turns in the gut of this beast pc: Adam
More turns... pc: Adam
John surfing the big wave heelside, axe in hand
Adam making turns under the huge looming granite walls, this would be the theme for the trip
We skinned back to camp as the light was fading, Tour was 6.7 miles total with 4000ft of ascent. I believe we cooked some red curry with chicken, peas, peppers, and potatoes. Garnished with some peanuts and extra sriracha. Listened to some music and got to sleep around 10.
Since it was clear it stayed cold at night, we would wake up around 9am to 0 degree temps as the sun crested to shed light on camp. Eat breakfast, melt water, and get touring by 10-11.
DAY THREE:
We woke up to clear skies and cold temps. Adam dug a shitter, and not just any shitter. The last trip we realized it sucked even having a pre-dug hole and relying on your shovel for rearward support. So we brought a piece of wood from home depot and used that as a seat. Worked perfectly. I'll spare you the pictures.
We headed back to the same zone to try and ski another couloir, this one goes up straight for a bit then doglegs right before topping out. A couple thousand feet of exposure while booting the upper section.
All smiles as we had an idea of what was in store
Seen Here(2nd shot to the left with a snow field at the top)
Again the booting was perfect, Adam taking his turn on the stairmaster
John booting up where it doglegged, shitty unconsolidated sugar wallowing was the case
As we started booting up the upper snowfield we were a couple hundred feet from the summit. I had gone up and around the dogleg first to make sure it went, John and Adam followed after I called down that it looked good. As we continued to ascend the snow changed a bit and it felt a bit slabby. Thinking about the sugar we just wallowed through, even though it wasn't the same aspect. And the fact that any little slide here would mean death we pulled the plug and descended. Plus it was getting late in the day. I really wanted to top out, but just had a feeling this was the right call, Adam and John readily agreed.
More turns in couloirs
Myself pc Adam
Adam
John
Skinner to booter, about 2/3 of the couloir in view
To Be Continued...
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Pete_H
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Epic! Very nice. Looking forward to the next installment.
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Jonn-E
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SO RAD! I have flown low over the northern Neacolas and the Revelations for work and left drool on the window each time.
BTW after reading your post I realized you were kind enough to respond to my call for beepers over on TGR for my contemporaneous Alaska trip. Never did find any partners, but had a blast anyways and became totally hooked on Alaskan backcountry skiing. My little work in progress is over here:
http://www.turns-all-year.com/skiing_snowboarding/trip_reports/index.php?topic=31352.0
Look forward to your next installment!
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BillK
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Got to spend two weeks there back in the mid-90's...glad you enjoyed it!
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jtrue
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SO RAD! I have flown low over the northern Neacolas and the Revelations for work and left drool on the window each time. BTW after reading your post I realized you were kind enough to respond to my call for beepers over on TGR for my contemporaneous Alaska trip. Never did find any partners, but had a blast anyways and became totally hooked on Alaskan backcountry skiing. My little work in progress is over here: http://www.turns-all-year.com/skiing_snowboarding/trip_reports/index.php?topic=31352.0Look forward to your next installment!
Nice, enjoyed your TR. We were going to try to get out around Anchorage since we had a couple days to just hang out after the trip, but the weather didn't cooperate. Guess 10 days of bluebird when we were out camping was ok though  . Motivation was a little lacking as well, I was actually hoping for a weather day near the end so that I could rest.
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Jonn-E
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I was actually hoping for a weather day near the end so that I could rest.
You know you have it good when… 
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jtrue
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Some More...
DAY FOUR:
Started like the other days, except as soon as I woke up John was unzipping my tent door and handing me a breakfast sandwich. Talk about 5 star service!
Adam spied a cleft that looked like it would hide a west facing couloir. We hadn't been on anything west facing yet, but were all willing to check it out. It was pretty close to camp, before we knew it we were skinning up to the bottom of the shot and got our first look. Snow seemed like it would be firm, but manageable to get up/down. But there was a huge overhanging cornice at the top that had us a bit spooked upon topping out. I took lead and charged as fast as I could up and under it, limiting exposure. John and Adam followed suit.
Upon topping out we were greeted with a mellow snow slope that lead up to a wide summit. Amazingly the low angle east facing slope held amazing snow. At this point in the year the sun was low enough in the sky that it didn't seem to hit some of the higher elevation lower angle slopes. We decided to skin up to the top and do a little sightseeing.
Adam and John working their way up, glacier below
Another shot of Mt. Redoubt with a lenticular sitting over the summit cone
John on top, looking to the west, #couloirsfordayz
Made some mellow turns down to the coulie pc Adam
Then dropped in, keeping my speed up to get past the scary overhanging cornices that wanted to squash me pc Adam
Snow by far was the most variable and sketchiest we skied, I took a little digger but popped back up without any ill effects pc Adam
Adam
John
Got back to camp and decided to build an igloo in case the weather got bad. The mid works great most of the time, but if you start getting strong winds and heavy snow it can be tough to keep it standing. We figured this out last year in Haines when our mid collapsed mid-storm.
Started dinner early, had Jambalaya with summer sausage and hit the tents to get a good nights sleep. We were planning to go big the next day.
To Be Continued...
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jtack
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First and foremost thanks for a spectacular trip report, I think you might have had some luck selling it to some ski mag, but so glad you decided to share it with us in stead. You sure hit the sweet spot, the right guys, in the right spot, to just slay big stunning lines, nicely done. Standing by for more, thanks!
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« Last Edit: 04/17/14, 07:27 PM by jtack »
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Floater
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How id the igloo kit work? Did your igloo hold up well? I have used mine a few times, but the igloo has a tendency to sag with age. Probably find out in the next installment. Looking forward to it. Wild trip.
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jtrue
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How id the igloo kit work? Did your igloo hold up well? I have used mine a few times, but the igloo has a tendency to sag with age. Probably find out in the next installment. Looking forward to it. Wild trip.
We didn't use it too much until we got very light precip on the last day. Took down the mid since we were planning on flying out anyways. It was a bit cramped since we only built a 7 footer for 3 people. Would build a larger one next time and dig down a bit deeper so that you could stand fully while cooking. The vent hole we poked in the top was growing larger each time we cooked, so that could be an issue as well if it's not really cold out.
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jtrue
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First and foremost thanks for a spectacular trip report, I think you might have had some luck selling it to some ski mag, but so glad you decided to share it with us in stead. You sure hit the sweet spot, the right guys, in the right spot, to just slay big stunning lines, nicely done. Standing by for more, thanks!
Thanks! Will post more in a bit.
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jtrue
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DAY FIVE:
We woke up early feeling rested, cooked breakfast, melted snow and started out around 10am. It felt like it was colder than the other mornings, probably just earlier, and we all had numb toes. Only way to remedy is to go faster. Skies were blue with a smattering of cirrus clouds, creating a beautiful backdrop for the huge north facing alpine walls we were passing under.
We walked for about 6 miles to the west, heading for a cirque that we thought might hold some nice lines
It did not disappoint
So far we hadn't had to pull out the ropes, but staring up at the intended line it was obviously steeper than our other objectives and had a big schrund at the bottom
Roped up and moving up the slope towards the schrund
Adam taking his turn
Shit was steep, John contemplating his mid slope crampon application(soft boots), still smiling
John went first making some turns then stopped to get his bearings above the schrund and sent it with no problem. I followed, rolling down the windows a bit as I took it bigger than I needed to. Adam came last, can see him making a turn above the schrund.
Adam sending it, unfortunately his TLT-5 buckle slipped and we went into walk mode upon landing. It made a horrendous sound and sent him tomahawking. We nervously waited for the wave, luckily we got one, seemed like he was relatively ok. John and I were both relived.
We contemplated hitting another line in the area, but with the amount of distance we had to cover back to camp we decided to start heading back. Had Chili Mac, with TVP, peas, and sundried tomatoes, then retired to the tents and warmth of our sleeping bags.
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ski2fly
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This is just fantastic. Thanks for sharing such an awesome adventure.
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powhound
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Awesome report! I'm heading up there next spring looking to do something similar. What did the plane cost?
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Saign
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jtrue
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Awesome report! I'm heading up there next spring looking to do something similar. What did the plane cost?
$300 a flight hour in the cub, $625 in the beaver. Other operators might charge more or less. Average cruising speed for both is a little under 100 mph. You're obviously paying for a RT flight on the way in and out. When calculating mileage in Google earth it's not straight line distance, be aware of that.
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jtrue
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DAY SIX:
Not as much to report on day six, pretty mellow. We woke up late made a good breakfast and chatted about where we wanted to tour. There was an 1800 foot mellow glacier run to the N of camp, the snow looked surprisingly good considering it was S facing. We decided to go on a short tour and have a semi rest day. We would find that snow wasn't as aspect dependent as we originally thought. The sun was staying relatively low in the sky still so anything mellow wasn't getting a ton of heating throughout the day, once the angle kicked up the snow quality suffered a bit down low. Getting up higher in elevation this was less of an issue.
As we ascended the mellow glacier run the tops of some high alpine spires came into view, mountains on top of mountains
We knew for sure where we would be heading the following day
Took some mellow turns down to camp with plenty of time to relax and dry out gear. So far the weather had been unbelievably good, bluebird every day. My friend Matt was feeding us weather updates through our Delorme Inreach, which we were all grateful for. He mentioned we might see some clouds come in over the next couple days, but clouds are pretty hard to forecast. We were hoping the high pressure held and the vis stayed good.
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jtrue
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DAY SEVEN:
Dawned clear, which was starting to make us worried; we were getting it too good. Alaska weather is usually pretty fickle, but hey we weren't going to complain. Cooked some bagel spinners with cheese and summer sausage then started to get ready. We toured up the mellow glacier run and the big couloirs we spotted the day before came into view.
This one looked especially nice, mmhmm
Booting was nice and consistent, made for quick travel. We felt dwarfed with huge granite alpine walls rising up above us on either side
Climbed through the crux, a rocky section with some deep sugar. Gotta love the wallow
Coming back down was "fun"
We all made some nice turns on the chalk covered neve
Adam getting his
Schlarped
Got back to camp, had chicken alfredo and hit the tents
More to come...
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Jonn-E
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The xenoliths (black blobs) in those granite walls make an amazing texture! Were any of the nearby mountains made entirely of the black stuff?
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Zap
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Fantastic TR and photos.
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jtrue
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Thanks, there were areas that were completely black. Seemed like the higher you went, the darker the rock got. Down lower not so much. A couple friends hit me up after I posted a couple pics and were interested in the zone for climbing in the warmer months. Not sure how access would be with everything melted out, but could probably land down lower and do some talus hopping up the fork we were camped in.
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Jonn-E
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Very cool. Without doing any research, I'm going to hazard a guess that the granite intruded a large magma chamber into the black rock. The molten granite then partially melted some of the wall rock (black rock) enough to break chunks off to float around in the magma chamber. The heat continued to melt them into rounder shapes (like ice cubes in water). However the black rock (which I'm guessing is a gabbro) has a higher melting point so didn't give up completely, and the chunks just floated around until the whole thing froze into solid rock a few million years later. That's usually how xenoliths form anyways, and it probably indicates that you were near the "wall" of the Neacola magma chamber.
Yeah I'm a geologist
Sick ski line too!
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Marcus
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Awesome TR and fascinating explanation of the xenoliths, thanks Jonn. Very cool.
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jtrue
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DAY EIGHT:
Woke up, same routine. Melt snow, drink water, coffee, and eat a good breakfast. We had decided the day before to head back up to the same zone. Just a bit further east to hit another coulie we had spotted. As with everything in Alaska it looked much closer than it was.
Travel was quick though and before we knew it we were at the bottom. I was feeling good and kicked steps to the top.
John making his way up
We named this one Beelzebub, it had huge granite horns on either side of the entrance, velvet.
Decided on a little air, I took it conservative...
John sent it off the prow, must've been a 30 footer, he didn't die
Adam getting his
On our way back to camp we stopped by the glacier ice factory and picked up some chunks for cocktails
Would the weather hold? Matt was telling us we would probably see a storm move in over the next couple days. Should we fly out or risk staying and hitting a couple more objectives?
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Jonn-E
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That photo of John hucking the cliff against a huge Alaskan backdrop is so money!
Also, I know from scientific testing that glacial ice cocktails are in fact the best.
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