360 degree panoramic taken while crust skiing in the Broad Pass area.

29-April-09 update, email excerpt:
Hello Tim.
According to the Superintendant of Chugach State Park they did not remove the cabin. They do believe it was the [NOAA] weather service that may have removed it.
Sincerely
DNR Public Information Center

01-May-09 update, email from NOAA Weather Service:
Maybe the wind finally blew it away, or, the River Forecast Center is replacing it with a new one.

I LOVE SNOWMOBILERS!  They are so thoughtful and kind!  They must have known I was getting hungry climbing back up to the pass, so they dropped their lunch for me on the trail!  Oh ... you guys shouldn't have!  The chocolate and coconut macaroon cookies really hit the spot!  Thanks sledheads ... you guys rock!  PS - Maybe keep that pack zipped up better or some skier might pick up your wallet and credit cards the next time!  ;-)

I should make a disclaimer of sorts concerning snowmobiles.  Using a snowmobile for remote backcountry access can be great.  But it can also be dangerous.  A snowmobile adds a new layer of potential problems you may have to deal with in the middle of nowhere: engine malfunctions, getting stuck, sliding off overflow glaciers into the trees, tipping over on side hills, parts breaking, etc.  An ideal situation would be to have two snowmobiles in your group in case one machine dies.  My wife and I use one snowmachine of course on ski trips, which ups the risk factor in case of breakdowns.  We rely on decades of snowmobiling experience dealing with just about everything and anything that can go wrong with these machines.  That helps us to prepare for and deal with 80 to 90 percent of snowmobiling challenges.  But we know there is always the 10 to 20 percent chance of a problem that will be very tough for us to get out of.  So if you want to use a snowmobile for backcountry access, take the time to learn how to troubleshoot and fix it and get your skill level up for driving it in challenging terrain.

While skiing this loop I looked for the Castle Mountain Fault.  This is a major earthquake zone that comes through this area and supposedly you can see where it has uplifted on the north side of the fault.  Here is a web page about the Castle Mountain Fault by USGS geologist and fellow cross country skier Peter Haeusller, and Keith Labay.  Judging by Peter's map of where the fault is, the picture above is where I think I crossed it.  It was where a low east-west ridge dropped down to a swamp.  But I can't say for sure that this is the fault line.  Thanks Peter and Keith for the interesting information about this unique geological feature in the Susitna Valley  !!

Mount Susitna - Mid-March 2009: My wife and I tried to ski up the North Ridge of Mount Susitna earlier this winter, but deep snow and no trail discouraged us and we decided to try again later.  Going back in March we found a good trail to tree-line.  And then good classic skiing on windblown snow on up the ridge, with a stiff north breeze pushing us along.  The last step on the ridge had a wind-hardened crust on it, as did the last rise to the summit.  My wife is smart enough to not climb this stuff in slippery cross country racing boots, so she let me prove I was less smart and I scrambled to the North Summit.  5 snowmobiles arrived while we were on the ridge and they broke up the sastrugi and made a good trail for coming back down.

I waited until after the party to ski the length of this trail.  I did it as an overnight camp-out trip that took me two days.  Things had sure quieted down.  I encountered only 13 snowmobiles and two four wheelers in 120 miles.  Beautiful weather, fantastic trail ... the SVWT is yet another reason to love the Susitna Valley!!

Here is the State of Alaska Department of Natural Resources map of the Susitna Valley Winter Trail (6MB pdf file).

Trapper Creek: No sense in driving to WalMart in Wasilla, when you can snowmobile to WalMike's !!

Recent winds had blown out some of the Trapper Lake Trail, but it was still decent skating.

Camp for the night.

I'm home!  Well, not really.  But I always feel like I'm home in Willow because I like it there so much.  Here is a shot of the beautiful Corral Hill Trail and a view from the trail looking down at the Big Su just below Deshka Landing.

The Iron Dog Trail heading towards Big Lake.

THANK YOU!!!  To the State of Alaska Department of Natural Resources and their SnowTRAC program, the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, the Curry Ridge Riders, the Mid-Valley Trail Club, the Willow Trail Committee, the Big Lake Chamber of Commerce, Governor Palin and others for your efforts in creating the Susitna Valley Winter Trail.  You have created an outstanding winter recreation asset for the Susitna Valley of Alaska.  Your efforts are very much appreciated!!

Pictures of volcanic ash in the Lower Susitna Valley from the Mt. Redoubt eruption of March 21, 2009.  The ash fallout here was very light.  You could only see the ash where wind had accumulated it in depressions (like moose hoof prints in the snow) or on snowdrifts along the rivers.

Picture of Mt. Redoubt ash that fell on Anchorage March 28, 2009.  Skiing was great in the morning.  But a then big cloud of ash rolled over Anchorage and skiing was shut down.

I used my skis to stamp out a 50 foot ramp up out of this creek bed so this guy could get out.

These were tough climber dudes.  They would have gotten this sled out without my help.  But I helped them anyway.

And I'll never forget the time I had the privilege of helping out Alaska's most badass and beautiful snowmobiler woman when she was in distress!!

It's amazing when you think about it.  The Tour of Somewhere (Anchorage) ski route has been skied many tens of thousands of times.  But less than ten miles away from that popular ski trail, in the middle of "Nowhere", there is a logical and neat ski loop that had likely never been skied until this day.  So ... I call this loop - The Tour of Nowhere!  I really like Nowhere.  And I hope Nowhere does not become Somewhere for a very long time.

This is a Hercules C-130.  A "Herc".  The Alaska Air National Guard is often flying these very cool beasts over the lower Susitna River drainage on low altitude training missions.  When you are out skiing you often see them.  Some notable encounters I have with Hercs have been at night while I've been snowmobiling.  The pilots of the Hercs often fly right over the Gas Line Trail which many folks use.  So there have been a couple of times when I have been cruising along on a snowmobile and start hearing this ambient low rumbling.  I start to get a bit spooked ... what the heck is that sound!?  Then the lights of the Herc and it's HUGE belly come into view RIGHT above me!  The plane has come from behind and is flying at what seems like about 50 feet above me!  Ahhh!

I went to the air show last year at the Anchorage airport and toured a C-130 Herc.  There were a couple of Air National Guard pilots there and I asked them if they have fun scaring the crap out of snowmobilers on the Gas Line Trail.  They started chuckling and giggling.  "You don't hear us coming until we are right on top of you, do you!!!  Ha! Ha!", they said.  I laughed too.  It's actually pretty entertaining getting buzzed by these monsters.

Goose Bay - Early March 2009: Recent snow and wind covered the trails I was trying to do a ski loop on this day.  So I changed plans and spent most of the day exploring trails around Goose Bay, a place where I had never skied before.  I parked at the Tug Bar near mile 19 of the Knik-Goose Bay Road.  From there I took the Klondike 300 trail out into the Goose Bay region.  I searched for and found a location I definitely wanted to check out - the Goose Bay Nike Site.  This was a Cold War missile site that was in operation from 1959 to 1979.  I had heard that this site had been razed.  But apparently I had heard wrong.  It still stands ... but it has been vandalized heavily in the past 30 years.

Mount Susitna - Early March 2009: A week before this trip I went up the South Summit of Mount Susitna with my wife.  We did this trip as a "tribute trip" to our dogs, of which our last (of 5 Malamutes) died recently from old age.  The South Summit was the route I used to take our dogs up Mount Susitna.  The same day we were climbing the South Summit, Stu Grenier was leading a Mountaineering Club of Alaska trip up to the Main Summit via the Pierce Creek route he had pioneered during his multiple trips to the top of Mount Susitna.  In an email after the MCA trip Stu said the Pierce Creek trail was in and to "Go Now!".  I'd never been up his Pierce Creek route and I surely didn't want to let a good trail go unused!  My wife and I tried this route the day before, but high winds kept us from going beyond the upper MCA campsite.  The next day the winds died down and I did this route myself in 6 hours (3 1/2 up, 2 1/2 down).  Above  tree-line the trail was mostly blown over.  But there were enough clues left so I could find the route.  Thanks a lot to "Susitna Stu" and fellow MCA'ers for a great day on this cool route up Mount Susitna.  I now owe the MCA to be their trail breaking grunt on the next winter Mount Sustina trip.

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.  Stu has climbing Mount Susitna dialed in and MCA'ers have had fun trips up this peak recently on the trips he has led.