Before the glorious midwinter ski window of 2025 came to an end, Dan and I drove south out of Anchorage to give the Summit classic a go. Around Twentymile I realized my beacon was not present. Discussions, brainstorming, justifying, and phone calls ensued. We were saved in Girdwood with a loaner beacon from George - thank you so much. Back on track, we were soon leaving the inversion of Canyon Creek behind and skinning up the old mining road.
We left the road behind where the west ridge of Spirit Walker met the mining grade and began to climb up the ridgeline. I'd heard horror stories about trying to navigate this ridge and imagine they are true between the top of Soul Fire and the true summit, but when we dropped into the Soul Fire face we'd encountered nothing but smooth travel on our climb.
The snow surface had an unpleasant looking texture and it was hard to believe it would ski ok, but a little bit of faith and a few bad turns brought us past the bad wind affect and into really faceted windboard that skied a bit liked corn. I enjoyed the consistent pitch of the ribs of Soul Fire and chased after Dan until we were at the bottom and right under Spirit Walker proper. The detour warmup lap was a great way to maximize the approach to the objective and spend less time in the mega terrain trap of Mills Creek. Stoked on the snow conditions we'd found and what was to come, I continued my hopeless pursuit of Dan as he raced towards the top.
We followed Zack, Claire, and Eli's old skintrack up the south ridge towards the summit. Soaked in sunlight and generally out of significant avalanche terrain, it felt like a great way to get to the peak.
Topping out, I was stoked to take in new views and new perspectives on old views. Looking south into the heart of Mills Creek we dreamed over the many lines back there that we may or may not ever ski. Dan has already been back for at least one of them.
To the east, we had a great perspective of the south face of Isthmus which Nyssa and I skied at sunset years ago; then we skied the north face in alpenglow. I was also reminded of the Isthmus Icefield Traverse that really opened my eyes to all the terrain back there.
Rotating further, we drooled over Lynx Creek with Carpathian crowning the skyline. Lynx Creek is a bit like Spirit Walker for me: its always on my to do list, but its hard to drive past more stable zones to get there. Byron is poking up back there too - I'd like to ski its steep and complex south face someday.
I really enjoyed the new views of familiar zones from here including the unique angle of Turnagain Pass. Here's Goldpan, Pastoral, the Santa Zone, Grandaddy, Pete's, and everything else. You can see the big avalanche chute that drops 3,000 feet from the top of Pete's to Johnson Pass. Nyssa, Erin, Tony, and I skied that under mostly moonlight three or four years ago. It made my grundle tickle.
Before we were ready to drop in, there were more things to mindsurf to the north, including, but not limited to, the Jewel Loop, Goat, and TT43. TT43 is one of my all time favorite tours for a high spine to slog ratio.
Full of views and questionable breakfast burritos from Safeway, we tipped into the huge catchers mitt. Dan:
Dropping into the huge avalanche funnel, I could not help but think that a beacon would not save me here. In terms of the size of the slide path, it felt like TT43, but with a worse snowpack and without spines to help stop a propagating crack. Plus more skiing over cliffs. Like Soul Fire, the orange peel skiing was kinda loud but nice.
Standing on top of 25 feet of concrete avalanche debris at the bottom, we debated what to do next. The obvious decision was to avoid the Mills Creek approach/deproach and head up Raven's Ridge. We zigzagged through, around, under, and over the alders as we followed a traversing climb towards the ridge. While hacking steps into bulletproof raincrust, Dan's ski went flying off and he heroically dove after it as it fled for the creek thousands of feet below. Then a rumbling collapse had me pondering my existence - exactly why I avoid this zone most of the time.
We made it to the top of the next run intact, and dropped into the recycled and loud, but soft turns of giant surface hoar and faceted sastrugi.
The soul turns of the egress run to the lake worked great and we were soon shuffling and skating past ice fishing holes and dog poop towards the short walk down the road back the car.
To the east, we had a great perspective of the south face of Isthmus which Nyssa and I skied at sunset years ago; then we skied the north face in alpenglow. I was also reminded of the Isthmus Icefield Traverse that really opened my eyes to all the terrain back there.
Rotating further, we drooled over Lynx Creek with Carpathian crowning the skyline. Lynx Creek is a bit like Spirit Walker for me: its always on my to do list, but its hard to drive past more stable zones to get there. Byron is poking up back there too - I'd like to ski its steep and complex south face someday.
I really enjoyed the new views of familiar zones from here including the unique angle of Turnagain Pass. Here's Goldpan, Pastoral, the Santa Zone, Grandaddy, Pete's, and everything else. You can see the big avalanche chute that drops 3,000 feet from the top of Pete's to Johnson Pass. Nyssa, Erin, Tony, and I skied that under mostly moonlight three or four years ago. It made my grundle tickle.
Before we were ready to drop in, there were more things to mindsurf to the north, including, but not limited to, the Jewel Loop, Goat, and TT43. TT43 is one of my all time favorite tours for a high spine to slog ratio.
Full of views and questionable breakfast burritos from Safeway, we tipped into the huge catchers mitt. Dan:
Dropping into the huge avalanche funnel, I could not help but think that a beacon would not save me here. In terms of the size of the slide path, it felt like TT43, but with a worse snowpack and without spines to help stop a propagating crack. Plus more skiing over cliffs. Like Soul Fire, the orange peel skiing was kinda loud but nice.
Standing on top of 25 feet of concrete avalanche debris at the bottom, we debated what to do next. The obvious decision was to avoid the Mills Creek approach/deproach and head up Raven's Ridge. We zigzagged through, around, under, and over the alders as we followed a traversing climb towards the ridge. While hacking steps into bulletproof raincrust, Dan's ski went flying off and he heroically dove after it as it fled for the creek thousands of feet below. Then a rumbling collapse had me pondering my existence - exactly why I avoid this zone most of the time.
We made it to the top of the next run intact, and dropped into the recycled and loud, but soft turns of giant surface hoar and faceted sastrugi.
The soul turns of the egress run to the lake worked great and we were soon shuffling and skating past ice fishing holes and dog poop towards the short walk down the road back the car.
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