Backcountry Magazine

The First Traverse of Alaska’s Neacola Mountains

by Joe Stock

“Coolers—huge, unskied coolers," Derek said, describing the allure of the terrain in Alaska's Neacola Mountains. That's all the motivation I needed to round up Andrew Wexler and Dylan Taylor for a spring trip to complete the first traverse of the Neacolas, a ragged sub-range of the 600-mile long Aleutian Mountains.
A month later, in April 2006, we drove from Anchorage to Doug Brewer’s hangar in Kenai. He flew us across Cook Inlet to the central Neacolas, where we buried a cache of food and booze in waist-deep snow at 5,000 feet on the Glacier Fork, and then flew on to Lake Chakachamna at the north end of the range.

Our goal: ski south from Lake Chakachamna to Lake Clark—roughly 100 miles—snag the first traverse, and indulge in copious amounts of powder and steep lines along the way.
We left Lake Chakachamna, crossing unnamed glaciers and soon were cringing below 4,000-foot gullies dropping from granite summits. Six days of supplies to travel 50 miles wouldn’t allow us to hang out and make descents. We crossed the shrinking McArthur, Blockade, and Tanaina glaciers and reached the Glacier Fork cache as we gulped our last gel.

Storms pounded us for most of the 10 days at base camp. When the storms subsided, we dodged avalanches and skied snorkel-deep powder. We wanted to sample the array of taunting couloirs that dangled above camp, but rock walls and hair-trigger slabs kept us at bay.
On our 15th day a snow-choked gash emerged out of the clouds, dropping like a plumb-line to the North Fork Glacier. Dylan broke trail up an access glacier to the Gorilla Finger Couloir’s notched apex, and we bombed down 2,600 vertical feet of powder and wind slab, finally collapsing with laughter on the moraine-entrenched glacier below.

   When our base camp food ran out, we loaded our packs and headed down the North Fork to the southern extremity of the Neacolas. We traversed below more 5,000-foot monster couloirs; their 50º entries loaded with avalanche slabs and five-ton snow mushrooms dangling from their walls.
   We stopped again for three more days of logging vertical. We followed Dylan up to a 3,000-foot shot dubbed the Immortal Technique Couloir. Ten feet of slough filled the exit of this 45° venturi after we made our descent.
   On day 20, only 18 miles from Lake Clark, we passed a peak called Three Fingers. I skated ahead on the Kijik River overflow ice, trying not to look back at Andrew, knowing he would be itchin' to make tracks in the two massive couloirs that were cut between granite buttresses of the summit. Dylan and I outvoted Andrew and kept heading into the lowland forest to flame-broil our remaining summer sausage.

After 100 miles and 57,000 vertical feet, we declared uncle in the dense alder a quarter-mile from Lake Clark and called Doug Brewer for a pickup. We ticked the Neacola traverse, but access to most of the couloirs remained elusive.
We found solace and motivation for a return trip in one of the few upsides of climate change—the Neacola couloirs just get longer as the valley glaciers melt.

Source

Guidebooks: none

Maps: Order 1:250,000- and 1:63,360-scale maps from the Denver USGS office (1.800.275.8747). Or pick them up at the Map Store on the APU campus in Anchorage. National Geographic Topo CDs are a great investment if you’re planning on a bunch of Alaska trips.

Guides: Alaska Alpine Adventures are the local experts for the Neacolas (1.877.525.2577, www.alaskaalpineadventures.com).

Access: Doug Brewer of Alaska West Air in Kenai (a four-hour drive from Anchorage) will get you back and forth across Cook Inlet to the Neacolas for about $800 per person (1.907.776.5147, www.alaskawestair.com).

Times: April is best for traverses at lower elevations, but if you’re heading to higher elevations for couloirs, then aim for May.

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