Pete's North and Glacier Creek

Another year older...

I celebrated my 32nd birthday this past week.  What a better way to ring it in than with an outdoor backcountry adventure.  I got this hairy idea to ski-raft-bike all in one day.  What the heck...lets do it!!

I convinced my buddy Marc to join me.  He just returned from 6 weeks in the lower 48, and was jones'ing for an outing.  The plan was to ski this couloir in TPass off of Pete's North, packraft Glacier Creek, and mountain bike back to the truck.

Phase I: Backcountry Skiing

We headed down to the pass with a truck full of gear to find dismal weather.  Typical Western Prince William Sound weather - windy, rainy, and snowy.

Marc making the best out of a difficult situation - skiing in a ping pong ball...

We never reached our destination.  We lived to ski another day, and skied the mellower aspect down to Pete's Creek.  The pass received about 6-8" of fresh heavy snow, so we saw a lot of wet snow slides.

Marc workin' it.

Marc hucking his meat.

Marc enjoying the heavy wet stuff.  But its fresh, so that's why he's in the back seat...

This is what May skiing is all about.

Instead of going back the way we came (good idea), we headed down Pete's Creek (not so good idea, but interesting and fun).

We made it back to the 'Delta Tango', and were headed to the next destination.  Damn that's a lot of gear.

The finer things in life.  Utica Club and Dynafit's.  Phase I complete.

Phase II: Packraft

We headed back to Girdwood and dropped our bikes at the bridge near Chair 5 and headed to the Crow Creek Mine.  Our objective was to float Glacier Creek, but the lack of a recon would prove to be a terrain mistake.

I did see a pretty neat vehicle though.  This is a vintage 'Deuce and a half' with the US Army Alaska shoulder sleeve insignia.  We call it the "Binky Bear".

We rapped down to Crow Creek and inflated the boats.  Marc making his way to the put-in.

And the parting shot.

At this juncture, I am unable to give details about the final leg (ie. Phase III) of our trip.  You'll have to ask Marc or I for further details.  All I can say is that it involved a situation that would require problem solving and both of us swimming.  Nuff said.

We were successful in our triple header, finally navigating lower Crow Creek to Glacier Creek.  We made it back to the bikes in wet gear, and pedaled the ~4 miles back to the trailhead.

As one of my skiing buddies say, "Backcountry adventures make you late for dinner."