We’re just about out of the Yukon headed on last leg to Anchorage. Spent last night on Destruction Bay. Another bluebird day with no bugs. Unusual conditions for a place where it’s often raining or swarmed with mosquitoes (or both).
Views of Wrangell St. Elias mountains kept stunning us. Later, we drove by 16,000-foot plus Mount Sanford, the one with the big BIG ski ramp that goes off the summit down to the Tundra. It is now on the list.
The vastness continues. Mountains of the Saint Elias range rise everywhere we look to the west. A few miles of driving, and another peak moves from behind a range into full view. Many glisten with ice caps, all are still ribboned with spring snow. Most look like great climbs or ski mountaineering adventures. We’re like drug addicts forced to pass by an opium den. At least we can look
According to the locals we’ve got some rough road ahead of us that’ll be tedious. But we’ll nonetheless cross into Alaska soon, where our cash is good, our cell phones don’t cost a fortune, and you can legally pop a beer in a parking lot.
The high pressure weather we’re driving through apparantly extends all the way to Denali. Fun to think of all the climbers up there, gearing up for summit days during their weather window. Let’s hope we get the same.
And yes, we are planning a beer review to originate in Anchorage.
WildSnow.com publisher emeritus and founder Lou (Louis Dawson) has a 50+ years career in climbing, backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering. He was the first person in history to ski down all 54 Colorado 14,000-foot peaks, has authored numerous books about about backcountry skiing, and has skied from the summit of Denali in Alaska, North America’s highest mountain.
