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Alaska Performance Backcountry Skiing Photos and Videos
2008/2009

by: Tim Kelley

Kenai Lake - Late February 2009: I went down to the Kenai Peninsula to ski up the Snow River.  I found conditions to be bad - too much open water and too little snow.  So I scrambled for a Plan B.  I popped into the Primrose Campground and noticed a musher's  tracks heading out onto Kenai Lake.  I've always been leery of skiing Kenai Lake ice, but I trust mushers, when it comes to safety judgment, way more than I trust snowmobile tracks.  So I headed out skating on the winter crust that covered most of the lake.  In a couple of hours I was at the other end of Kenai Lake (Quartz Creek) ... and having a good time!  I skied back to Primrose by a different route to check out other parts of the lake.  This turned out to be a fine impromptu crust ski.

Mount Susitna - Late February 2009: One of my goals this winter was to go up the South Summit of Mt. Susitna with my tough and wild wife.  I'd been up this route with our dogs before, but my wife had not yet done this trip.  The days before we initially planned to climb and ski this route, high winds blasted the mountain.  Pretty much all snow that wasn't frozen hard to something got blown off.  On our last day at the mountain the wind died down.  My wife had to get up and go to work at 4:00 AM (ouch) the next day back in Anchorage, so we decided to do a quick one day scramble up to the South Summit.  Due to wind scouring, not much decent snow was left for skiing on our route.  So at  the base of the mountain we broke out snowshoes, hiking boots and crampons and had a great day savoring the best weather February in Alaska has to offer.

If you want to climb Mount Susitna, consider joining the Mountaineering Club of Alaska.  For the past several years the fabled "Susitna Stu" Grenier has led winter and summer MCA trips up this peak.  This same day we summitted the south peak, an MCA trip led by Stu was enjoying this phenomenal weather as they headed up to the main summit of Mount Susitna.  Way to go Stu!

Houston - Mid February 2009: I'd been scheming to do this ski loop for a couple of months.  But I had to wait for the right conditions.  Recon I did last fall indicated that lack of connector trails to the north of Wasilla would require 4 miles of road skiing to tie this loop together.  So I had to choose a time when these roads would be ski-able.  This loop started in Houston and went out the Herning Trail to the Bench Lake cut-off, across the Bench Lake Trail (and a new logging area that made trail finding difficult) to roads that lead to the Bald Mountain Trail, up over Bald Mountain, down to the north end of the Herning Trail and then 16 miles back into Houston.  The trail and road skiing was good, mostly skating.  But it was slow going getting up and going over the wind scoured, wide crown of Bald Mountain.  With lots of  climbing and battling winds on top of the ridge, this loop was tough.  But the big bonus of this 40 mile route was fine skiing conditions on the Herning Trail ... one of my favorite trails in the Valley.

Chugiak - Mid February 2009: I was in Anchorage and had an afternoon free.  And, as usual, I wanted to ski someplace I had never skied before. I had kayaked to Kethtaydut Point a few years ago (while kayaking from the Glenn Highway Knik River Bridge down Knik Arm to the Port of Anchorage).  So I figured I'd start from Beach Lake in Chugiak and try to ski there.  I made sure the tide was on its way out ... and gave it a go.  It was a pretty fun ski and conditions were decent.  I used my Fischer Superlight Crowns and did a combination of powder striding, crust skating and double poling on ice.

Palmer Hay Flats State Game Refuge - Early February 2009: After having a good time skiing the Glenn Highway side of the Palmer Hay Flats I decided to check out the Knik side.  From the Cottonwood Creek access to the refuge I skated some nice snowmobile trails to Knik, and on past until the trail ran out at an old gravel pit / barge loading facility a mile past Knik.  I turned around, skied back to the access then switched to classic skiing and headed to Weinie Lake and back.  I think the name "Weinie Lake" is "reverse psychology named".  As you can tell from the pictures below - the trail is challenging and it would be easy to "weinie out" and turn back.  But I didn't weinie out ... and now I can proudly say that I have skied to Weinie Lake !!

Western Susitna River Valley - Early February 2009: Recent pictures of skiing and winter ... from west of the Big Susitna River.

Palmer Hay Flats State Game Refuge - Early February 2009: I've driven by the Palmer Hay Flats hundreds of times, but I had never skied there.  The main reason for me never skiing there is because the snow on these wind-swept plains is fleeting.  Strong winds from the Knik and Matanuska Valleys often scour the snow from this area.  So if a bit of snow falls here, you better get skiing on it.  If you blink the snow could be gone.  The day I went skiing here there was not much snow, but enough snow to put in 25 miles of wandering in perfectly clear, and sub-zero, weather.  This is a unique and often passed by gem of a location.  Here is the Palmer Hay Flats State Game Refuge web site.

Yentna / Lower Susitna Drainage - Late January 2009: I had never been to Alexander Lake.  I'd gone by it quite a few times on trails to the east and west of it, but I had never actually set foot on (or in) this lake.  So, from Luce's Lodge on the Yentna River I skied into Alexander and Rabbit Lakes and back out to check out this area.  Good trails.  A bit cold (-10 F) and windy.

Trapper Creek - Late January 2009: The Curry Ridge Riders, the snowmobile club that I'm a member of, has some phenomenal trails in the Trapper Creek and Petersville areas.  This year they are opening up two new trails that you can access from the Trapper Creek Inn.  The first is the Chulitna Bluff Trail connector from the Inn to Mile 121 of the Parks Highway.  I've got to give the CRR an "A" for trail layout on this new trail.  This section of the Bluff Trail is right on the edge of the bluff (see pictures below).  So - it's cool to be skiing along and looking down at the scenery off to your side.  Very nice.  The connector to the Rabideaux Creek Trail is still a work in progress.  Currently it's marked from the Inn to Mile 110 on the Parks Highway, and then a bit further.   When this trail is done (next month?) it will be the needed link for a Susitna Valley "backbone trail" from Denali State Park to Big Lake, Knik and Point MacKenzie.

Glenn Highway - Mid January 2009: After the mega-meltdown in the Anchorage and Lower Mat-Su Valley regions I headed north see if I could find winter in  Alaska.

Susitna Valley - Mid January 2009: My wife and I left the Pt. Mac Store to head to the Western Susitna Valley.  It was 20 below F. when we left, which was warmer than the 36 below the day before.  When we got back a few days later it was 40 above zero F., and on its way to 50. 

Anchorage - 08 January 2009: This was a good day to see Fata Morgana mirages.  Below are pictures showing Fata Morgana distortion while viewing Mount Susitna (top picture) and the Alaska Range (bottom picture, Foraker, Hunter and McKinley) from Anchorage.