Alaska Gurus

Alaska is BIG!  Not only is it the largest state in the union (even if you cut Alaska in half, Texas would remain the 3rd largest!), it's also the most magnificent.  Some of what really sets Alaska apart from any other place North America is the incredible wildlife  diversity, the vast quantity of protected public land, and the shear magnitude of its landscapes.  And nowhere is the emotional and physical significance of the Alaskan landscape better represented than in Denali National Park.

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©Dan Oberlatz

As I was sifting through images to feature for the March photo of the month, I discovered an unedited folder of pictures taken during an amazing Alaska backpacking trip into Katmai National Park in 2009.  While I hadn't forgotten about the trip (it was incredible), I had misplaced the folder of images - something any of us with a digital camera and a computer definitely understands.

I got this shot in the Brooks River of Katmai and close to the world famous Brooks Camp.  If you've ever seen a photograph of a brown bear standing near a waterfall and feeding on salmon, there's a 90% chance that it was taken at Brooks Falls.  Brooks is a place where salmon, bears, and people meet each year for one of earth's greatest wildlife spectacles. On peak days in July, there will be 30 plus bears feeding at the falls as over 200 people shift shoulder to huge camera lens, safely perched on elevated platforms above the show.  While one would never call it a wilderness experience, it's certainly one of a handful of places on the planet where a visitor can, at very close range, participate in an intimate gathering of brown bears and wild salmon.

On this particular day in July of 2009, a lone wolf fed right along side a dozen brown bears, each 10 times her weight. Interestingly enough, they paid her no mind, even though she appeared more adept at snatching the agile sockeye salmon than some of the local congregation. She fished as if she'd be tutored by the bruins themselves.

At one point, the wolf began to strut downstream along the south bank of the Brooks River.  I took notice, pushed my way through the crowd, and hustled down the elevated boardwalk toward the lower platform about 100 yards downstream. To my amazement, the lower viewpoint was completely vacant, and as the wolf came off the grassy bank and into the river just upstream of the deck, I had just enough time to snap this photograph. So goes the magic of Katmai.

Thanks again for following Alaska Alpine Adventures.  Look for us on Facebook or on Twitter- @AlaskaGurus. We've been more diligent about posting current happenings and trip videos on these social media platforms, so if you can't wait for the next photo of them month, then check us out there.  You can also visit our Alaska Gurus Blog for past photos of the month and other AK rants.  As always, we promise not to inundate your email boxes with anything other than a monthly Alaska pick-me-up!

It's been an amazing winter in Alaska!  Some are calling it the best ski season in 20 years or more.  It's hard to argue the other side of that assertion.  We only hope that an equally spectacular summer of Alaska hiking, kayaking, backpacking, and rafting is in store.  In the meantime, we'll just have to suffer through through more backcountry skiing fun.

As I continue pouring over images from this winter, here are a few of my favorites thus far!  I'm not much of a fast action sports photographer, but promise to work on more downhill skiing shots over the next few weeks.  But these will give you a good idea of the landscapes around Turnagain Pass, AK!

The 2012 season is certainly here, and starting with one of the coolest alaska adventure trip out there. IFMGA certified Alaska guide Joe Stock and 3 guests from France have just begun their 12 day Alaska adventure - backcountry skiing in the Neacola Mountains of Lake Clark National Park on our Alaska Ski Mountaineering adventure.  For the next 10 days, they'll be learning the skills necessary to travel safely in glacier country, manage avalanche terrain, and how to survive and thrive in a winter environment deep in the heart of the mountains.

The plan for the trip is to spend the first 5-6 days at a base camp, focusing on skills including glacier travel, avalanche awareness, efficient ski touring, and winter camping.  They'll spend their days ascending into the high country in search of stable snow, moderate slopes, and untracked powder - I don't think they're going to have a problem getting first turns where they're going.  We're confident they'll get their fair share of turns each day.

The second half of the trip will be dedicated to a backcountry ski traverse.  Each day they'll move camp in search of endless powder, hopefully completing a new circuit through the remote Neacola mountains.

Here's a link to Dan's spot messenger, showing their drop off location just north of Lake Clark Pass.  It looks like a great place to dig in, establish a comfortable base camp, and get out for some turns.  As the northern lights display was amazing last night, we can only imagine the 4 of them, wide eyed, staring at the sky as nature provided them with the most amazing evening entertainment - it's even possible that they skied while blanketed in the green hues of this electric sky.

Here's a link to Dan's spot messenger - follow along for the next few weeks as we watch they're progress.

http://fms.ws/7EvRg/60.86875N/152.77214W

In December I introduced you to Mark Stevens in a 2010 photo taken at Dick Proenneke's log cabin on Twin Lakes, deep in the heart of Lake Clark National Park.

I immediately received a whole host of questions posed like "what kind of adventure trips have you guys done together in last 10 years?"

So here's a starter!

In late August of 2009, Mark and I embarked on an ambitious 12-day backpacking/mountaineering/packrafting traverse of the remote Revelation Mountains in western Alaska.  As the venerable David Roberts wrote in the American Alpine Journal account of his 1966 expedition into this area, the Revelations "...are so remote that they may not even be visible from inhabited land." As soon as our bush pilot bounced down on the gravel bar of the Lyman Fork of the Big River, I knew that this, my third expedition into the range, would end up one of my best Alaska trips yet.

Our route would take us into the gut of the northern portion of the range -  up the Lyman Fork Glacier, over a steep pass, down onto the Fish Creek Glacier, across another glaciated pass, down and off the rather spooky Hartman Glacier, and into the stunning tundra country of Sled Pass. We'd then inflate our lightweight packrafts for an uncertain descent of the Stony River, eventually reaching our bush-plane pick up on a gravel bar 40-miles downstream.

I took this shot at the very top of pass one and our third camp of the trip. 50+ years of climate change had significantly altered the surrounding landscape, thus rendering our 1954 topographic maps almost useless. Our first indication was the glacier on the east side of our pass (beyond the left side of the photo) had pulled back some 300 vertical feet - leaving in its stagnant wake a dangerous 40 degree slope of unconsolidated boulders perched upon the upper icy slopes of the Fish Creek Glacier.

Rather than tackle this uncertain descent 1000' down through dark shadows and onto the Fish Creek Glacier late in the day and physically exhausted, we opted to pitch camp. While I normally try and avoid camping at at the apex of any col like this (think exposure to wind & weather), on this night all was kind and the location was too spectacular to turn down!  The next morning we descended the sketchy slope in bright sunshine, left pass one behind, and embraced the full commitment of our traverse through the inner sanctum of the Revelation Mountains.

Thanks again for following Alaska Alpine Adventures.  Look for us on Facebook or on Twitter- @AlaskaGurus.  We've been more diligent about posting current happenings and trip videos on these social media platforms, so if you can't wait for the next photo of them month, then check us out there.  You can also visit our Alaska Gurus Blog for past photos of the month and other AK rants.  As always, we promise not to inundate your email boxes with anything other than a monthly Alaska pick-me-up!   

I won't say "I'm on a roll here" because in addition to excuses and procrastination, I'm also prone to exaggeration. So I'll simply preface this photo of the month with a simple Happy Holidays!

I'm way past overdue introducing you all to Mark Stevens. This past August Mark, pictured here at Dick Proenneke's cabin on Upper Twin Lake in Lake Clark National Park in 2010, completed his 11th expedition over 10 consecutive years with Alaska Alpine Adventures. And it's my honor to say I've been with him for 10 of 11 of those trips.

In August Mark and I completed what we believe to be the first summer-time traverse of the Neacola Mountains in Lake Clark National Park. Our route was 87 miles long, involved 55 miles of roped-up glacier travel, 7 glaciated passes, river crossings, some steep & scary terrain, and two rappels to get over our final pass. But in classic Oberlatz/Stevens fashion we completed the route in style - light (64 lbs going out), fast (11-days of travel), and with ample Kentucky Bourbon and fine cigars to make every finished day complete.

Mark owns a highly acclaimed deli & catering business in Louisville, KY called Stevens & Stevens. Guests of his catered events have included Queen Elizabeth and Laura Bush among others and his deli on Bardstown Road is on everyone's Louisville hit list. When it comes to food, Mark's game is always on. But he's more than an amazing chef and accomplished explorer, he's also an incredible family man and a person who has been an important mentor to me over the last decade.

Over the next few months, I'll be sharing a few photos from my trips with Mark through the years. And as the images periodically end up in your in-box, you'll be able to put in context the amount of commitment, dedication, training, and passion for Alaska that it takes to pull these adventures off year-in and year-out; not to mention the cumulative experience it takes in this type of terrain to execute these trips safely.

First things first - what comes to mind when you look at this photo? If you're thinking words like ominous, dark, wet, slippery, steep, loose, or just plain scary, then you certainly have good wilderness instinct! In fact, in reality, this slope was even more difficult and dangerous than the picture conveys.

After hiking up the extraordinarily rocky Kanikula glacier in a driving rain storm, we had to find a suitable place to exit the glacier on its west flank in order to continue our route to Bear Creek. Our only option turned out to be this 500' talus field that teetered uncomfortably close to the angle of repose - the steepest slope a pile of rocks will take before it collapses. Not only were the rocks dangerously loose, they were also incredibly slick with rain saturated lichen.

After we got to the top of the field, Aaron and I decided that we would never attempt this particular route in the Denali National Park again. What we were calling Denali "unexplored" had, in brief period of a couple of hours, become Denali "unrepeated!" All future backpacking trips into Denali would avoid the miserable Kanikula Glacier valley.