Bold Peak July 2013

There it is! BOLD PEAK! looking all majestic and what not. July 2012

My goal for the summer was to get up Bold Peak! I have wanted this peak for a long time, and I was going to crush it!

Access for Bold is out of Eklutna, a campground in Chugach State Park. Eklutna is one of my favorite places on Earth! I have been leading groups of children on overnight trips there for four summers. Its a great place to take younger kids on biking and hiking trips. Since I lead mostly those skills I get to spend A LOT of time there! Bold has been teasing me for years!

 Peak Stats:
 Elevation: 7522 ft
 Elevation gain:  just under 7000ft
Trail Conditions/Route: Eklunta Lake trail is the easiest trail in the history of trails to follow, East Fork is easy as well. There is no trail to summit Bold, but the route finding is relatively easy
Mileage: 22 miles round trip by bike and roughly 7 or 8 round trip on the mountain.
Time: It took us 13 hours round trip. I have read accounts of people summiting and biking out in 6. Pretty amazing!

The approach for Bold is fun, you get to bike! Once you get to the Eklutna Trailhead and Campground you bike a flat, easy 11 miles on the Eklutna Lake Trail to the East Fork Trail which is referring to the East Fork of the Eklutna River. You ditch the bikes and that's were the bulk of your journey begins. Bold can certainly be done in a day, but my friends Scott Fritz, Adam, David, and I turned it into a weekend retreat. We biked in on a Friday evening and sat up camp at the Alex Back-Country Campground 9 miles in on the Lake Trail. This put us at an easy morning bike ride to the East Fork Trail the next day.

We woke up early and got to the trailhead of the East Fork around 9 am. After locking the bikes to a tree, we followed the trail for roughly two miles to the start of Stiver's Gully. To find Stiver's Gully you look for cairns on the left side of the trail put there by fellow hikers. It could be easy to miss, but look for large rock piles as well as a small creek draining into the East Fork. You follow the cairns as you slowly begin to make your way up the gully. In about 20 minutes it begins to open up and gets steep. You start getting out of the trees and into the rocks! Luckily we had low fog and poor visibility so we weren't able to see how large and encompassing the gully truly was! Rocks and rocks and rocks, with two big walls on each side! As Adam put it "Welcome to the next three hours of your life!" It seemed like a never ending scree and talus field. In the gully you gain a lot of elevation fast, a change of pace comes when you make it to a steep, tight section that has a fixed rope. The rope is helpful on the way up, but the way down is where you really need it!


After the rope, Stivers gully travel becomes slightly easier, you come to talus field, then we had a snow field for a small section, and one favorite parts was a high meadow (I believe it was above 5000 ft not positive on actual elevation!) Around the high meadow we started peaking out above the clouds, and were treated to a bluebird sky and some sunshine! Bashful the highest peak in Chugach State Park was also making an profound appearance. With the summit in sight the last stretch was another nice long scree slope. David and Adam summited about 20 minutes before me near 6 pm

Talus field!

Bashful, highest peak in Chugach State Park. Next summers goal!

Above the clouds!

Adam and David lounging after some 'scree skiing'

The descent goes way faster then the ascent! After catching our breath and taking in the unbelievable views we quickly headed back down to get out before dark. It took about half as long, we 'scree skied' a good chunk of it. The roped section was sketchy to say the least. You need to trust the rope! Moving quickly but carefully we all made it through and crushed Stiver's Gully on the way back down. We were back on bikes around 9:30pm. I found the last two miles on the East Fork Trail a nice way to cool down after a long day. The bike ride was nice as well. I contemplated riding out and when I do it again I would, BUT it was nice to have a tent waiting for me at the campsite!

'Fixed rope' section. SUPER SKETCHY.

Looking down Stiver's Gully

 Just because rocks are fun! Here is a list of the differences in sizes of rock. Ya never know could come in handy!

 Scree- Smaller than a soccer ball but bigger than sand.
Talus- Bigger than a soccer ball but not bigger then a cooler
Boulder- HUGE. Range in size from a cooler to as big as a dump truck.

Boulder fields are sketchy! It requires traveling over the top of car sized rocks, you can get trapped in between it, requires good balance.

Scree slopes and talus slopes are pretty standard game in the Chugach! good ol'chugach choss!

Oh yeah dont ever say there is a boulder field when its actually a talus field.That's just confusing

Pioneer Peak July 2013

South Peak, looking up from the beginning of the ridge. Looks close, right!? July 2013

Fun fact: one of my favorite things of all time is to walk up hill. Lucky for me Pioneer offers over 6000ft of it! Pioneer Peak is located near the town of Palmer on the north edge of Chugach State Park. It is a giant beast of a peak  that rises up from sea level east of the Knik River in the Mat-Su Valley. You can access the ridge trail off of the Knik River Road, this brings you up the south ridge and face. I understand that there is also access from the north face but I have never tried it. Supposedly it is more direct and a bit of a scramble. Its sounds fun and worth checking into next summer, Ill let ya know how it works out! I have attempted Pioneer twice but only have summited once. Either way it was amazing to start at almost sea level and get super high!

Peak Stats:
Elevation: Ridge- 5300ft  Peak-6400ft
Elevation Gain: Over 6000ft
Trail Conditions:Easy, well maintained to ridge, there are even a couple picnic tables! Once on the ridge it gets a little hairy, it is exposed and narrow at parts. Parts are a class 3 and 4 scramble.
Mileage: 4.5 to ridge, and 8 to summit. 
Time: Allow 8 to 12 hours

My first attempt at Pioneer was August 2012 with my friends Scott Fritz and Adam. We started hiking late morning, and made it up to the ridge in the afternoon but were pushed back down due to high winds and weather moving in. We were still able to sneak peaks at Bold Peak, Bashful, the Eklutna Glacier, and some other good stuff! 

Picnic table view looking out on the Knik Glacier and Talkeentas

The ridge line looking down from the top! Super Fun!!

On my second attempt with my pals; Tim, Liam, and Nathan, we summited with time to spare and a blue sky. We started hiking around 10 am in the forest, pushing hard up to treeline. With a couple picnic table breaks we made it to the ridge early afternoon. Getting up to the ridge is the tough part, it is 4.5 miles with over 5000 ft of elevation gain. Travel is less strenuous on the ridge, but from there it is still a couple hours, a good amount of elevation gain and loss, and plenty of false summits to keep ya from getting bored! The ridge is a hoot! Super fun mostly because it wasnt windy... It is very exposed and narrow at parts with a steep drop into valleys on both sides, some parts could be considered a class 3 to 4 scramble. We went in a little blindly not really knowing how long it would take to summit. Our goal was in view but the false summits were killer! Once we made it down to the car we realized that it was a lot more mileage and elevation gain/loss then we thought and we felt even more awesome! The summit is wide with lots of room for a snack break and to gaze at the biggest peak in the Chugach: Marcus Barker, along with glaciers galore, and the Alaskan Range. The descent from the peak went fast! I was dehydrated, it was a warm day so Nathan and I stopped to fill up on water at a snow melt creek after the ridge. Tim and Liam who must be part mountain goat sprinted down most of the way back to the trailhead. BEAST! Once Nathan and I reached treeline we ran too, which is an awesome rush in its self! Almost 11 hours after starting we were back at the car with Chacos on our feet!

The crew at the top! Tim, me, Liam, Nathan and  adventure dog Mazzy!

Mom shot! Bold, Bashful and the Eklutna Glacier in the background!

Alright just for fun and future reference this is the Yosemite Decimal System which rates hikes and climbs. When I refer to class 3 or 4 scrambles, this is what I mean! Now you know! Knowledge is power yo' Also if you are my mom you might not want to read any farther....

Class 1: Travel is easy, low chance of injury
Class 2: A little tougher, might need to use hands for an easy scramble, low chance of injury
Class 3: A scramble, need to use hands, more exposure. Chance of injury, not necessarily fatal
Class 4: Tough scramble, exposed, simple climbing with natural protection, but a fall could be fatal. Could use a rope
Class 5: Free climbing, needs ropes,belaying and other forms of protection.

Sorry mom! Love you :-) 

Matanuska Peak June 2013

There is no better way to celebrate Summer Solstice than by getting high in the Chugach Mountains on Matanuska Peak! At the beginning of the summer I was slacking off a little on hiking. Sure I ran Flat Top a few times, and lead a backpacking trip or two for kids, but I spent a good chunk of May and June with a beer in hand at bluegrass festivals. Dont get me wrong I love a good ho'down but it does not beat a weekend in the mountains. To jump-start the summer, I rallied a crew for a jaunt up Matanuska Peak.

Peak Stats
Elevation: 6119 ft
Milage: 4 miles to summit
Elevation gain: 5000ft
Trail Conditions: Easy to follow, well maintained. Relatively steep! Scrabble near the top
Time: Allow 7 to 10 hours round trip

View from the town of Palmer. Matanuska is the biggest peak on right, and that is Lazy Mountain on the left.

Matanuska also known as Byer's Peak is the large prominent peak (elevation 6119 ft) west of the Knik river and looms over the town of Palmer. It reminds me of Mt.Crumpit from The Grinch by Dr. Seuss! There are two easy ways to access the peak, the only way I have is from the trail head off Smith Road, but the other access from the McRoberts Trailhead via the Lazy Mountain Ridge and is worth exploring! For being such an accessible peak it offers a good work-out, you start near sea-level and gain over 5000 ft in 4 miles, and the view cant be beat either!

 

View from the Bowl! Fantastic Camping! June 2013

The first time I summited Matanuska was late October 2012. On a COLD Friday evening my hiking buddies; Scott and Adam and I hiked into the Matanuska Bowl via the Matanuska Trail off of Smith Road. The Bowl is a fantastic valley to camp in. We sat up camp near a stream and luckily had a four season tent, the temperature dipped below zero but it wasn't true winter camping; there was no snow! We slept cozy, and woke up the next morning for the summit ascent. Deceived by the low mileage, its only 4 miles to the summit from the trail head, we thought it would be an easy peak to tag. We quickly learned that despite the low mileage it's the elevation gain that gets ya! The trail is steep,but easy to follow up until the final push, where it becomes a scree slope.The last 1000 feet of elevation gain which is by far the toughest and the most fun part takes some scrambling, and if you're small like me it becomes a full body work-out! Loving life and scree we did not summit until well into the early afternoon. We were rewarded with the treat of a bluebird sky and views of five mountain ranges. After summiting and packing up camp we didnt make it out until around 8pm.

View from the top October 2012. Hello high Chugach Peaks!!

View from peak October 2012

 The second time I tagged Matanuska was this summer with a another crew of hiking buddies, Scott Fritz, Tim, and Liam. Even though it was the first biggish peak I summited all summer, I found it easier going the second time around! Perhaps it was the warmer temps! We accessed the peak the same way from the Smith Road Trailhead. It was warm, 70s and another bluebird day. We started hiking early afternoon 2pm, tagged the peak around 6, and we were down by 10, with a few breaks just to enjoy the views!

Summit "Mom" shot! June 2013

Headed down the scree and talus