Outdoors/Adventure

For breathtaking scenery, hard to beat Arctic Valley to Indian ski trek

CHUGACH MOUNTAINS -- Alaska's largest city has witnessed a record snowfall. Snow-dump mountains now rise to multi-story height and snowberms still frame the roads, making April look more like February. Many residents are unhappy. Some are depressed. And a few are, well ...

Happy might not be the perfect word, but it's close.

Nothing but smiles graced the faces of those making the 21-mile Arctic-to-Indian ski traverse on Sunday. The sun was warm and dangerously bright. Sunglasses were mandatory. It was almost painful to look without them, and it was hard not to want to look.

The scenery was, as always, overwhelming. Snow that's usually fading this time of year remains several feet deep, and snow bridges over Ship Creek on the north end and Indian Creek on the south end of the trip remain intact.

High in the Chugach Mountains near Ship Pass with wilderness all around, Ana Jager and Taryn Hunt-Smith marveled that the rush and rumble of Anchorage could be only one ridge away, while a group of adults contemplated the old tracks of a wolverine emerging from a thicket of mountain hemlock, heading for a thicket of alders, and then traipsing almost straight up a steep, gnarly ridge.

Intriguing animals, wolverines.

What was it searching for so high? The carcass of a Dall sheep killed in an avalanche perhaps? Wolverines are famous for their sense of smell, fellow skier Doug O'Harra noted. It's nice to have a science writer along on trips like these. How good is that sense of smell? It is said a wolverine can smell an animal carcass buried under 20-feet of snow, a huge survival advantage for an animal that lives largely on carrion.

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It is a good winter to be a wolverine. Deep snows will contribute to many moose deaths; they cannot easily roam in search of food during their season of starvation. Even during mild winters, moose struggle on the edge of survival in winter. The willow and aspen twigs on which they browse contain only enough energy to sustain them, not enough to nourish them. They are dependent on stored fat from the previous summer to get through until the land goes green again.

Don't expect that anytime soon.

It might be better for sheep and mountain goats than for moose. Many a high, south-facing ridge has been swept bare by the winds. Sheep that live high in Alaska may find fresh food before moose if an avalanche doesn't kill them first.

The wind that moves snow away from one slope piles it on another. It's already been a big year for avalanches in the Chugach, and avalanche season is far from over.

Avalanche debris can fill sections of the upper Indian Creek Valley, burying the Arctic-to-Indian trail beneath tens of feet of rubble. But these zones were still largely empty Sunday. A lot of snow is still to fall from the peaks that tower thousands of feet high to the east.

Alaska is a dynamic place full of awesome scenery. "This is why we live here," O'Harra said, as he traced the view across the broad, open basin near snow-buried Ship Lake. Underline this and remember it. It could boost your mental health when shoveling, snowblowing or plowing the driveway for the umpteenth time. Storm clouds actually can come with silver linings.

Contract Craig Medred at craig(at)alaskadispatch.com

Craig Medred

Craig Medred is a former writer for the Anchorage Daily News, Alaska Dispatch and Alaska Dispatch News. He left the ADN in 2015.

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