Benji and I had never crust skied the upper reaches of the Snowhawk Valley in the Front Range of the Western Chugach Mountains.  The reason for this is that we both knew the access to get into this valley was not easy.  A long stretch of narrow and brushy uphill trail skiing must be suffered through to get into this valley.  We gave it a try anyway and persevered through the crappy section until we got to the promised land of primo crust.  We skated to the back of the valley and visited the remote Tanaina Lake.  We then had a good crust-cruising run back to brush line.  Getting out through the brush was not quite as bad as getting in.

This ski route is on Fort Richardson, so you need to get access from the military to ski or hike here.  It's convenient to get access as of April 15th.  You can now register, sign in and sign out using their new web site: www.jber.isportsman.net.

Here are a few photos from April ski outings that I did not post trip reports about ...

Here's a variant on the out and back ski to Williwaw Lakes ... Pack along running shoes and ski to Williwaw Lake, ski and hike up to the "Football Field" below O'Malley Peak, ski down across it, head down the west gulley and then skate back to Glen Alps.

This loop is a popular backcountry ski touring route just to the east of Anchorage.  In many years it is tricky to crust ski this loop.  The reason is that the lower part of this loop often melts out before the upper part crusts over.  The plentitude of snow and early crust season this year made this route very doable for crust skiing on this day.  Conditions were hard crust snow at all elevations.  So if you want to "bag" this crust skiing loop, now (or very soon) is a good time.

I started and ended at Glen Alps and skied this loop counter clock-wise: Glen Alps - Williwaw Lake - Williwaw Lakes Pass - Long Lake - Near Point Pass - Wolverine Bowl Trail - Middle Fork Trail - Glen Alps.  Another way you can do this loop is start and finish at Prospect Heights.  If you go clockwise from Prospect Heights you get a long downhill stretch to complete the loop.

Instead of doing the normal ski-in / ski-out on the same route in the Twentymile Valley, Benji and I decided to try to crust ski a loop in the valley.  We skied up the west side of the valley, visited Twentymile and Carmen Lakes and then skied out on the east side of the valley.  This "Tour de Twenty" loop is a fun variant for crust skiing this unique valley that is notorious for finicky skiing conditions.

After this ski Benji and I went to work (as I did after the Skilak Lake and Kenai Lake skis below).  Like Benji says, there are not many places in the world where you can go on a wilderness skate skiing adventure to remote, infrequently-visited lakes and glaciers in the morning before you head to the office.

A few years ago I skied Kenai Lake from east to west and back.  The skiing was on "normal" conditions then - a lot of windswept icy spots.  This year, as I was driving to Skilak Lake to ski (see below), my jaw dropped when I saw Kenai Lake.  It was very "abnormal" looking for this time of year.  It was completely white and covered with a thin but consistent crust snow.  No ice was showing, at all.  Seeing that I knew I couldn't let this chance pass me by.  So I made an escape to the lake with my skis as soon as I could.  I'm glad I did.  It was a unique and fun opportunity to skate crust snow from Quartz Creek to the Primrose Campground and back.

After checking out Skilak Lake a couple of weeks ago (see below) I decided to head back when the snow on the lake crusted up.  I was able to get back to this lake on an exceptionally nice day, with great snow conditions.  I was able to ski a 36 mile loop around the lake on crust snow conditions that were about the best you could ask for.  A fun day indeed.

Often the first good crust skiing near Anchorage is on the "soak zones" of this city's coast.  I don't know if "soak zone" is a real term, but it is the term I use to describe areas along the coast that get wetted, or soaked, by extra-high tides.  When this wet snow re-freezes it makes a solid base for skate skiing.  Soak zones occur in the area between the sea ice of Cook Inlet and Knik Arm and the drier snow further ashore.  Soak zones can range anywhere from a foot to hundreds of yards wide.

This ski route followed soak zones from the Oceanview Bluff Park area to Westchester Lagoon.  My wife skied with me for a while and then turned back.  This is a good ski to do with someone that wants some good crust skiing but doesn't want to do the whole point to point trip with you.  They can ski back to Oceanview and then drive over and meet you at Westchester Lagoon.

I made it a point to ski the coast the whole way and not use the Coastal Trail.  I was able to this because of the this year's deep snow that bridged over blocks of sea ice along the bluffs at Pt. Woronzof.  But if you are doing this ski route and the coastal skiing gets grim, there are a number of places you can jump onto the Coastal Trail and finish up with an easy cruise to Westchester Lagoon.

Early April Update:  The entire Anchorage Coastal Wildlife Refuge, between the rifle range and Pt. Woronzof, has been offering some excellent crust skiing.  It's been some of the best crust skiing ever for this area ...

Recently I went to Skilak Lake to see what the conditions were like.  They were okay, but not that great: 39 degrees, wind, rain and snow showers and the snow was too deep to skate off of established snowmobile trails.  But as a heads up to fellow crust skiing enthusiasts: in early April it is possible that there could be some really good crust skiing on this lake.  There is plenty of snow on the lake and it is dense and settled.  So the likelihood of all the snow blowing off the lake is low.  If a clear spell moves in during the first 10 days of April this lake may be ready for prime time crust skiing.  Of course, if Skilak Lake is good at this time then Kenai Lake should be too.  So if either of these lakes are on your crust skiing list then this might be the year to check them off.  The emphasis here is on "might", because we have no clue of what the weather will actually turn out to be.

I first went to the Upper Campground at Skilak Lake.  I wanted to ski to the Caribou Islands, but the single snowmobile track leading that way was was too punchy.  So I started following a well used snowmobile trail east that took me around the rocky, forest fire ravaged point and on to Lucas Island, through Irish Channel and on to the end of the lake.  After skiing back the same route back to the campground, a 17 mile round trip,  I drove to the Lower Campground to see what was going on there.  Once there I realized that this was the takeoff point the Caribou Island cabin owners used.  There was a well used snowmobile trail heading out to the islands.  So, I put my damp ski clothes back on and skied out to Caribou Island and back (10 miles RT).  Caribou Island is a recreational cabin enclave that is quite remote and not known by many.  It was neat to check this place out.

In the western Susitna Valley there is a 40 mile loop that I like to ski.  Usually I've done this loop in January or February, but with all the snow we've had I figured it would be fun to try and do a variant of this loop in late March.  I set out skiing up Alexander Creek and followed recent freight hauling tracks that went to a remote cabin.  There was no trail after this point, but I knew there would likely be good skiing on the Old Iditarod Trail a few miles upstream.  So I started following "moose highways" up Alexander Creek through the deep snow towards the Old Iditarod Trail.

Soon I got to a narrow section of Alexander Creek where the snow was incredibly deep.  Moose had literally plowed trails in the snow here with their bodies.  And you could see where they had tried to get out of the creek and into the willows to get food, but failed.  The snow was too deep for them to escape this trench they were trapped in.

Eventually I came upon a big group of moose clustered in a "pen" in the creek bed ahead of me.  It was an easy decision when seeing these survival-mode, struggling moose to turn around and not stress them out.  These moose will need every ounce of energy reserves to last until spring.  And some of them likely will not make it.  So they don't need to expend precious calories running from a skier.  A 40 mile loop turned into a 36 mile out and back ski, because I have respect and compassion for my moose neighbors.

To ski around Anchorage has been on my list for a while.  I had done a 44 mile ski around the northern half of Anchorage in 2008, and a 52 mile ski around the southern half of Anchorage in 2009.  So I wanted to put the outer parts of these two loops together, and then some, to make a complete circle around Anchorage.

The idea of skiing around Anchorage is to ski a circle around as many homes in the Anchorage Bowl as you can.  The loop I skied gets the vast majority of the Anchorage Bowl dwellings, except for a couple of dozen homes in upper Stuckagain Heights and some homes and apartment buildings in the northwest corner of Mountain View.  This loop also excluded Government Hill, which may or may not be a part of the Anchorage Bowl depending on your definition.

Much of this 60 mile loop was on trails of some sort: backcountry skier skinning-tracks, ski-touring tracks, snowshoe and walker trails, snowmobile tracks, roads, sidewalks and groomed bike trails.  No groomed ski-only trails were used.  Enough of this loop required trail breaking, especially the uphills in the mountains, to drop the pace average and make this ski drag on into the dark.  And it was fun to start and end this ski loop at my house.

I was somewhat surprised that I was able to ski 99% of this loop.  I ran/hiked less than a kilometer.  The fact I could ski so much of this loop in late March was due to the extreme amount of snowfall we got this winter coupled with cold temperatures for late March (it was -8 degrees F in Bicentennial Park the morning I started).

The following are pictures I took during this fun ski loop AROUND my hometown ...

Having good conditions for skate skiing the entire 22 miles from Butte to the Knik Glacier is rare.  This area is notorious for low snow levels due to warm winds that happen when low pressure systems in the Gulf of Alaska suck warm Prince William Sound air through this valley.  Because of frequently thin snow here even snowmobilers have a hard time getting to Knik Glacier in some years.  More often this trip is done by ATVs or 4-wheel drive trucks.

Often there will be passable skiing conditions to Friday Creek.  But past this area and Wolf Point you enter the land of rocks - miles of river stones on a wide glacial outwash plain.  And it is in this area that skiing often gets bad.  I know because I've gotten turned back at this point in two previous attempts to ski to the glacier.

With all the snow we got this winter, and because we have had little wind recently, and no chinook melt-downs, I figured the trail conditions would be the best in years for skiing.  And it was.  I was able to get to the glacier in 2 hrs and 15 minutes.  It was a nice day, so once I got to the glacier I skied around a bit to check out the icebergs in the terminus lake before heading back.

This was my third time trying to ski to Nellie Juan Lake in the past several years.  The first time I ran into water, and the 2nd time I ran into water over my knees.  Because of that I brought along hip boots this time, which turned out to be overkill.  Water levels this year were not as high and I could have done the crossings in NEOS overboots, which are a LOT lighter to carry.  There were three water crossings.  But had it been warmer recently there would have been several more fords.

I started out skiing from the Seward Highway and followed snowmobile trails up the South Fork of the Snow River.  It looked like a large group of snowmobilers likely traveled this route the previous day.  I skied past a northern arm of the Godwin Glacier and climbed over a wooded shoulder to the high country beyond it.  As I approached the pass the wind picked up and was blowing hard (about 45 mph I'd guess) all the way past a second arm of the Godwin Glacier and on to the lake.  I tagged the lake and immediately started back, wanting to get over the pass before the wind got any higher.  Wind on the river heading back was moderate, making for a good ski back to the road.  This was a quiet ski trip as I didn't see a single person all day.

I had been to one or both lakes at the end of the Twentymile River Valley four times before, three times by crust skiing and once by kayaking up to Carmen Lake and back.  Our crust skiing route goes up the west side of the valley.  But I had never been up the east side of the valley all the way to Carmen Lake.  This is the route that snowmobilers take and I wanted to check this route out.  We were having a short good weather window between storms so I grabbed my skis and gave it ago.

A major factor in this route are the Glacier River water crossings.  There are 8 major crossings.  Four going in, same four coming out.  So you need to bring some footwear for wading these shallow crossings.  Depending on conditions, more than 8 water crossings could be encountered.

I started out following three snowmobilers who were making the first trail up the valley since a recent snowstorm.  Where the Carmen River met the Glacier River I left their sno-go tracks and slogged a trail through 12 to 16 inches of powder and made it to the lake.  The snowmobilers apparently got off track while boondocking woods towards the lake, and didn't make it.  I appreciated their trail, without it I would have never made it through the new snow to the back of the valley and back.  Hopefully these guys have better luck and make it to Carmen Lake on their next try.

Crust skiing is definitely the more fun way to get to Carmen Lake.  But conditions that allow crust skiing to the back of this valley, without getting your feet wet, are rare.  The last good year was 2007.  If you want to crust ski to Carmen or Twentymile Lakes, and you are prepared to wade water crossings, this route will probably work when lack of Twentymile River ice shuts down the route on the west side of the valley.