Eagle Glacier, Eklutna Icefield (Ski)
If you love the mountains and work in Anchorage, you probably spend a significant amount of time gazing east to see what kind of weather might be coming in across the Chugach from Prince William Sound. Most of the time dark cloud banks hang on the horizon. Even while the Front Range may be bathed in sunlight, the mountains further back typically are draped in heavy clouds.
Throughout the fall, winter, and spring, those storms pound the mountains with snow. A quick glimpse from an airplane window or at a map tells where the snow falls almost continuously: On the relatively narrow band of glaciated peaks that stretches from Seward all the way to Valdez. This series of massive icefields includes the vast Knik, Columbia, Tazlina, and Matanuska Glaciers.
It also includes a relatively small icefield just twenty five miles from Anchorage, which is a prime location for spring skiing when May’s high pressure brings clear weather.
Many of the Chugach’s icefields are heavily crevassed and impassable for all everyone but technically skilled alpinists. In contrast, the Eklutna Icefield has miles of lightly crevassed glaciers that are passable for beginner mountaineers. This inland sea of ice, which includes the Eklutna, Whiteout, Eagle, Raven, Sparrow, and Finch glaciers, provides a veritable skiing highway from Eklutna Lake to Girdwood. In addition to a popular traverse route, it is a fine location for weekend ski trips.
A common route onto the icefield include hiking up Crow Pass trail, then skiing up Raven Glacier to the Raven Headwall and the West Fork of the Eagle Glacier. From the pass, it is a two to three mile ski downhill to Rosies Roost Hut. This route will take most people all day. Alternatively, it is possible to hike the Goat Ridge route that starts down by Crow Creek. Or if you want to maximize skiing over a normal weekend, leave a car at the Crow Pass Trailhead and fly up to the Eagle Glacier with Alpine Air. A helicopter drop for up two to three people and gear costs $350. On Sunday, it is a quick ski back to the car from Rosies Roost Hut. Make sure to join the Mountaineering Club of Alaska before using Rosies or other club huts.
With Rosies as a basecamp, many peaks are accessible on day trips. Between Golden Crown and Sparrow on the north side of Eagle Glacier, a delicate peak holds good snow on a thirty five degree or so slope above the glacier bench. Farther back the glacier, Yudi Peak offers expansive views across Portage Pass to the Isthmus Icefield and Prince William Sound’s many islands and fjords. Across the valley from Rosies, both Hut Peak and Hans Peak are within a reasonable day ski distance.
All the peaks around the Eagle Glacier require travel across, well, a glacier. As such, they require roped travel with appropriate knowledge of crevasse rescue to be safe. Of all the unpleasant ways to die, freezing to death after falling into a hundred or two hundred foot deep ice crack probably ranks pretty high. While Eagle Glacier is less crevassed than some others, it should be taken seriously. The Mountaineering Club of Alaska and several private guiding outfits offer glacier travel classes, and MCA’s is very affordable. Buy The Mountaineers’ book Freedom of the Hills to learn glacier travel basics and practice rescue techniques and refer to The Alaska Factor ski mountaineering gear list (in the appendix) to make sure you’re not forgetting anything.
The other safety consideration when travelling on the Eagle Glacier is avalanche conditions. It isn’t unusual to have heavy and wet snow on south faces with powder on northern aspects. Since the descent out Crow Pass requires travel on southern aspects including the Raven headwall, monitor temperatures to avoid descending on or below avalanche prone slopes during prolonged periods of heat, including after an evening when temperatures don’t dip below freezing.
Eagle Glacier and her surrounding peaks are one of the unfathomable blessings of living and skiing in Alaska. A relatively cheap helicopter drop off makes it easily accessible even for weekend trips. When the skies finally clear over the Chugach and the National Weather Service is forecasting clear weather, it’s time to head for our backyard icefield.
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| Looking down the Sparrow Glacier toward Knik Glacier and high peaks of the Chugach |
It also includes a relatively small icefield just twenty five miles from Anchorage, which is a prime location for spring skiing when May’s high pressure brings clear weather.
Many of the Chugach’s icefields are heavily crevassed and impassable for all everyone but technically skilled alpinists. In contrast, the Eklutna Icefield has miles of lightly crevassed glaciers that are passable for beginner mountaineers. This inland sea of ice, which includes the Eklutna, Whiteout, Eagle, Raven, Sparrow, and Finch glaciers, provides a veritable skiing highway from Eklutna Lake to Girdwood. In addition to a popular traverse route, it is a fine location for weekend ski trips.
A common route onto the icefield include hiking up Crow Pass trail, then skiing up Raven Glacier to the Raven Headwall and the West Fork of the Eagle Glacier. From the pass, it is a two to three mile ski downhill to Rosies Roost Hut. This route will take most people all day. Alternatively, it is possible to hike the Goat Ridge route that starts down by Crow Creek. Or if you want to maximize skiing over a normal weekend, leave a car at the Crow Pass Trailhead and fly up to the Eagle Glacier with Alpine Air. A helicopter drop for up two to three people and gear costs $350. On Sunday, it is a quick ski back to the car from Rosies Roost Hut. Make sure to join the Mountaineering Club of Alaska before using Rosies or other club huts.
With Rosies as a basecamp, many peaks are accessible on day trips. Between Golden Crown and Sparrow on the north side of Eagle Glacier, a delicate peak holds good snow on a thirty five degree or so slope above the glacier bench. Farther back the glacier, Yudi Peak offers expansive views across Portage Pass to the Isthmus Icefield and Prince William Sound’s many islands and fjords. Across the valley from Rosies, both Hut Peak and Hans Peak are within a reasonable day ski distance.
All the peaks around the Eagle Glacier require travel across, well, a glacier. As such, they require roped travel with appropriate knowledge of crevasse rescue to be safe. Of all the unpleasant ways to die, freezing to death after falling into a hundred or two hundred foot deep ice crack probably ranks pretty high. While Eagle Glacier is less crevassed than some others, it should be taken seriously. The Mountaineering Club of Alaska and several private guiding outfits offer glacier travel classes, and MCA’s is very affordable. Buy The Mountaineers’ book Freedom of the Hills to learn glacier travel basics and practice rescue techniques and refer to The Alaska Factor ski mountaineering gear list (in the appendix) to make sure you’re not forgetting anything.
The other safety consideration when travelling on the Eagle Glacier is avalanche conditions. It isn’t unusual to have heavy and wet snow on south faces with powder on northern aspects. Since the descent out Crow Pass requires travel on southern aspects including the Raven headwall, monitor temperatures to avoid descending on or below avalanche prone slopes during prolonged periods of heat, including after an evening when temperatures don’t dip below freezing.
Eagle Glacier and her surrounding peaks are one of the unfathomable blessings of living and skiing in Alaska. A relatively cheap helicopter drop off makes it easily accessible even for weekend trips. When the skies finally clear over the Chugach and the National Weather Service is forecasting clear weather, it’s time to head for our backyard icefield.
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| Raven Glacier |
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