Skiing the Neacolas - Lake Clark National Park - March 2014
Shadows and light in the Neacola Mountains.
The winter of 2013-2014 I spent three months traveling, backpacking, and drinking wine in Patagonian Chile and Argentina. Then I returned to the United States and spent five weeks skiing in Colorado, Montana and Washington. Finally, in March of 2014 I headed home to Alaska. I was rather reticent to return since all I had heard for the previous few months was how disappointing of a ski season it had been.
Lucky for me, the snowpack stabilized and the the skiing was surprisingly good both close to Anchorage and further afield in Alaska. So, after coming home from a winter already filled with great travel and snowboarding, I was able to spend the rest of the winter on several great snowboarding trips. The best of all of my 2014 riding was definitely the Neacola mountains.
I was basically homeless at the time, so I organized my gear in Malcolm's family room, a friend's garage and the foyer of a house I was housesitting. We packed my car to the roof and headed south. Four of us (Andy, Aliza, Malcolm and I) drove from Anchorage to Nikiski, hopped into a DeHavilland Beaver bush plane on skis piloted by quintessential Alaskan bush pilot, Doug Brewer, and flew up the Glacier Fork of the Tlikikila.
Flying through the Neacolas is pretty spectacular. Steep, cracked hanging glaciers spill off of granite spires while long valley glaciers carve deep, winding valleys. I've flown through these mountains so many times headed to Lake Clark National Park for summer trips. I was so thrilled to finally be headed into these dramatic peaks for a winter adventure! Doug put the plane down under the shadow of the Citadel, an iconic Neacola peak, with an imposing, smooth granite face. There we set up our tents under crystal clear blue skies. Our home for the next ten days was looking pretty good!
Beautiful and cold morning in the Neacola Mountains.
Clear skies meant cold temperatures and we all shivered our way through our first night as temperatures dipped to below -20F. But the next day dawned beautiful and once we were sufficiently caffeinated and had thawed our toes, we were all eager to go explore the nearby terrain. We found the diversity of the terrain to be really incredible. We were treated to low-angle, glacier runs with boot deep powder, narrow couloirs stacked one after the next, long meandering touring routes and steep chutes plummeting from craggy ridges.
We basked in the March sunshine and shivered during the cold glacial nights when cool katabatic breezes blew down the glacier. It was great to practice and improve my glacier travel skills, hang out with some great people and spend ten days doing nothing except riding. We started out each day with french pressed coffee in our snowy kitchen while our boots thawed from the frigid nighttime temperatures. Once the sun had cleared the peaks we headed out in a different direction each day. Its a pretty special way to spend one's time - concerned only with food, shelter and the daily quest for adrenaline and endorphins!
Before we were ready it was our final morning and we were packing up camp for the airplane to whisk us back to civilization. There are many destinations I hope to still cross off my backcountry skiing tick-list, but I would definitely return to the Neacolas in a heartbeat. I can't wait to go back - until next time!
