Snowshoeing in winter in the boreal forest of Wrangell - St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska.

A Holiday Season Special – Spring Equinox Celebration

OK, this one is so simple it’s ridiculous.

In the best of the holiday spirit, here’s what I’m doing. I’m offering a free trip to Wrangell – St. Elias National Park. This offer is open to any who who think they’d enjoy a trip like this. The more people that enter, the more people will win.

If fewer than 250 people enter, I’ll give away a trip for free to 2 people. If I get more than 250 people enter, I’ll give away 4 free spots on the trip.

Wrangell – St. Elias National Park. 6 nights in a backcountry cabin; days spent snowshoeing, cross country skiing, and/or hiking, enjoying some winter landscape photography, possible northern lights photography and the quietest, peaceful-est cabin you never been to. Here’s what you need to know.

The Trip

We leave Anchorage, drive 5 hours to Wrangell – St. Elias National Park. 5 nights in the cabin, March 18-23, and return to Anchorage on March 24. During the day, we can either snowshoe, cross country ski, or, depending on weather and snow conditions, hike.

We’ll have the van nearby so we can easily saunter down to the van, drive 10 miles down the road, snowshoe all day, drive back to the cabin and enjoy the comfort of a wood stove, hot food and a quiet like no other. Next day, we can do the same in the other direction.

The exploratory opportunities are literally endless here. Winter landscape photography opportunities abound. This is a massive landscape; Mt Sanford rises over 16 000′ right out the window. It’s also an intimate boreal forest, for some great shooting opportunities. There’s a decent chance of seeing moose in the area, and possibly caribou. The northern lights are a strong possibility; displays are typically strongest and most active right around the Equinox, so this timing is optimal for great northern lights viewing/photography. There are never any guarantees with the aurora, of course.

Price: Normally $1400.00 per person, this year 2, or possibly 4 people get to come out for free.

Dates: March 18-23, 2012

My holiday gift and thank you to everyone who’s supported what I do.

Requirements to enter (more…)

Snowshoeing and backcountry skiing in the Mentasta Mountains, winter, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Please click on the image above to view a larger version of this photo.

Hey Folks,

Another photo from a winter trip; this one to the Mentasta Mountains in Wrangell – St. Elias National Park and Preserve. My favorite mode of travel; snowshoe up, and ski back down. It’s worth bringing the extra gear!

Heinous wind – Yikes!

Cheers

Carl

Winter in Alaska. The Viking Lodge Cabin, a public use cabin in Wrangell - St. Elias National Park and Preserve, makes a fantastic getaway for a winter trip. Please click on the image above to view a larger version of this photo.

Hey Folks

Here’s a shot of one of my favorite places in Wrangell – St. Elias National Park and Preserve; Viking Lodge Cabin. The cabin is not far off the Nabesna Road, which is nice; accessible. Unlike most public use cabins in the park, this cabin requires reservations, though that also means when you arrive, you know ahead of time you don’t have to share the cabin with anyone else who might show up. There is no fee to use the cabin, which is nice. It’s quite a treat, being able to head out in the winter and have a cozy, comfortable cabin to relax in.

An old barrel stove sits in the middle of the cabin, and warms the cabin pretty quickly, even in the depths of winter. It makes the world of difference after a day out in the mountains, skiing or snowshoeing, to come back to a warm cabin, rather than a cold tent. Perhaps in the morning it makes even more difference, waking up and having a nice warm pair of boots sitting by the cabin, rather than crusty frozen boots outside the door.  (more…)

Wrangell - St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Wrangell Mountains, Crystalline Hills and the Kuskulana River, from the Kuskulana River Bridge, McCarthy Road, Winter, Alaska. To view larger version of this photo, please click on the image above.

Hey Folks,

From a short trip to Wrangell – St. Elias National Park over the holidays.

Small piece of trivia – Minus 40deg F is the same temperature as minus 40 deg C.

Cold days indeed.

Stay warm folks,

Cheers

Carl

Wrangell - St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Wrangell Mountains and the Kuskulana River, Mount Blackburn, near Nugget Creek mine. Winter, Alaska. Please click on the image above to view a larger version of this photo.

hey Folks,

Welcome to mount Blackburn, winter, Wrangell – St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska.

Cheers

Carl

Hey Folks,

Here’s hoping you’re somewhere special, with people you love and care about, and enjoying the moment. And if ya can’t be with the one you love, well, love the one ya with. And love ‘em with everything you got. It’s a good time.

All my best to all you, and thanks so much for a great, great year. Here’s to many, many more of them.

Cheers

Carl

Hiking on the tundra beneath the towering Mt Blackburn, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska.

Dawn light on the Wrangell Mountains and reflection in an alpine tarn near Hidden Creek and the Lakina River, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Please click on the image to view a larger version of the photo.

Hey Folks,

Here’s another photo from the trek we did in August, from the Fosse, near the Kennicott Glacier, over to Hidden Lake, up the Hidden Creek drainage, and down to the Lakina River. What an absolutely gorgeous morning this was!

We’d spent the previous day basecamped near here, and it rained and sleeted virtually all day long. Rather than pack up wet and move on, we simply dayhiked and spent another night here. The main hope was to avoid packing up camp in the rain, but part of me was also hoping maybe, just maybe, we’d get a break, and score some nice light in the morning. Fingers crossed, I went to bed listening to the endless patter of rain on my tent, the temperatures sinking ever lower and lower.

The rain ended around 3am, and the temperature had dropped further. I went back to sleep hoping against all hope the skies might clear up.

Unfortunately, I slept too soundly, and missed first light, but immediately upon waking, I knew things must be good. It was very cold, definitely below freezing, and silent. A good sign. I unzipped my tent door and viola! What a sight!

I threw on some clothes, and got outside to photograph as quickly as I could. I woke the folks on the trip, the Ball family from Texas, because I knew they’d love to see this. ‘Wow’ was all Saundra uttered when their tent door slid open.

‘Wow’ was right. This was definitely a ‘wow’ morning. Indeed, a ‘wow’ trip, but this morning the ‘wowest’ of them all. Fresh snow covered the peaks just west of us, and the air was so wonderfully clean the light literally dripped off the mountains. Absolutely amazing morning.

We photographed for a couple of hours, had a great breakfast, packed up camp, and took a fantastic hike down the valley into the Lakina. We spent the following evening camped on a gravel bar in the Lakina river drainage, with a gorgeous sunset over Castle Peak. This was a great, great trip, and one I’m so glad the Ball family got to share. They still hold the record for ‘worst weather yet’ on a trip, their infamous Skolai-Wolverine trip of August 2006. I can’t think of anyone who needed some really great weather on their Alaska trip than these great people, and I was so glad they got it this time. Good times for sure!

Cheers

Carl

Hole in the Wall, near Skolai Pass, is a great place to explore. Wrangell St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Please click on the thumbnail to view a larger version of the photo.

Hey Folks,

Photo of the Month for June, 2010, is this photo of some folks hiking up at Hole in the Wall, near Skolai Pass, Wrangell – St. Elias National Park and Preserve. I love the sense of scale this photo gives for the peak in the background. This is one of the peaks known as the 7 fingers, glacier-capped outcroppings towering above the tundra. Hole in the Wall is a classic old glacial formation, and a great place to walk and explore; I’ve spend many a day wandering around on the moraine, awestruck at the magnificent jagged cliff faces soaring above me.

This trip was a few years ago, and we had a grand time. The weather was, as you see here, unbeatable, and we all enjoyed the week we spent in Skolai Pass. We camped on an open ridge above the pass, before heading south to Chitistone Pass, where we camped and enjoyed the scenery. From Chitistone Pass, we ventured down to Russell Glacier, over into Chitistone Valley, and checked out the Goat Trail. Then we made out way back along the floor of Skolai Pass.

The big boulders in the foreground are called erratics; a piece of rock that differs from the size and type of rock native to the area in which it rests. They’re moved into place, carried by glacial ice , and deposited when the ice retreats. Sometimes they’re moved hundreds of miles by advancing glaciers; at Hole in the Wall, they were moved a mile or so. But a number of these large boulders technically aren’t really erratics, as they have fallen from the cliffs above. Massive, some of them are the size of a small house. The geology here is incredible.

I’m looking forward to getting back up to Skolai Pass this summer; it’s just one of “those” places that I can go back to every year and love it. It’s kinda like going home each summer. Each trip brings both new vistas and intimate views of the nooks and crannies, the secrets of Skolai. At the same time, seeing the features like Hole in the Wall and Russell Glacier again is a welcome treat. I love it.

We’ll be up at Skolai mid july this year, and I can’t WAIT!

Cheers

Carl

Hey Folks,
This short video was taken on the Skolai Pass Phototour, fall 2009. We had a great trip, some great weather, some great people, and loads of fun. This particular afternoon we put in some miles hiking out along the Russell Glacier toward Mt Bona and Mt Churchill, to awesome peaks 16 000 and 15 000 feet high, respectively. The Russell Glacier runs right up to the north face of Mount Bona, and inspiring sight.
We had a fantastic hike, enjoyed lunch on the high flat plateau, and then walked back toward camp at Chitistone Pass for the afternoon, and to shoot the evening light on the mountains. And, I must say, we had a simply unbelievable evening, with gorgeous alpenglow on the mountain peaks. It was a lot of fun being in the right place at the right time for some photography. That doesn’t happen everyday, but when it does, it makes al those hours and miles worthwhile. (more…)

Backcountry cross country (XC) skiing in the Mentasta Mountains, Wrangell - St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska. Click the image to see a larger version.

Hey Folks,

Happy New Year to you all! I hope the coming year brings you all the good times you’re looking for.

I know for me the Year got off to a phenomenal start. 12:30am on January 1st had me skiing through the boreal forest for nearly 90 minutes under a gorgeous full moon, just me, the snow, my skies, the big full moon, the mountains and the cold. The temperatures were down around minus 5 (Fanhrenheit) so it wasn’t too bad at all – just perfect for a nice long ski through the Mentasta Mountains in Wrangell – St. Elias National Park and Preserve. It’s pretty hard to think of a better way to start the new year – it was possibly one of my favorite experiences yet, absolutely amazing. I got back to the cabin feeling a sense of what it really means to be fully ‘alive’ – Awesome stuff!

This photo is of me on another ski (I didn’t take the camera on New Years Eve) up around the Mentasta Mountains, right at dusk. The wind was fairly whipping by, and the minus 10 temps felt like minus 50 and then some. Ouch!

Best to all,

Cheers

Carl