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Along the Richardson Highway about 180 miles north of Valdez the road cuts through the AK Range at Isabel Pass. With a few extra days pasted on this past weekend, Tabitha and I escaped the Chugach Monsoon Season and went to check out Rainbow Ridge which hangs above the highway. Though there is a day route to the summit, I planned a two-nighter by hiking in along the moraine of the Caswell Glacier and coming up the backside. On the topo it looked like a nice valley there to camp and then do a long day hike to the ridge and return to camp for another night. Dependent on weather we would hike up the Caswell Glacier the next day.
All the pics are by Tabitha this time.
The social trail heads back that way and the up the scree to the ridge.
But we went this way. The Alaska Alpine Club has a hut back there on the other side of the glacier. I could see it from this spot. Fairbank backcountry skiers, climbers and trekkers have made this the favorite outdoor playground as its only a few hours south. Lots of big climbing history in the Eastern Alaska Range on minor but significant peaks.
We left the moraine and easily gained the upper area without a classic bushwhack. We hoped to get to the ridge visible in the center of the photo showing with Rainbow Mt on the right.
One might think water would be easy to find but the tundra was all dried up and the main drainage of the hanging valley was glacial till and grey. Somehow just as we thought water was gonna be a problem we found a clearwater spring that ran about 20 yards and then entered the grey water. So we camped right next to it and kept a close eye on the weather as we had been slushed by high winds and sleet on the hike up to camp.
During the night a Chinook blew with pounding rain and winds around 50mph, but the tent did its thing as it has so many time before. Thanks BD.
Woke in the morning with the same winds but no rain so we took off for the ridge and contoured to our objective. The last couple hundred feet was soft scree littered with dozens of rusty cans from a long time ago. Perhaps a sheep hunting camp as some of the largest trophies in Alaska come from this zone. We saw no sheep as if they knew that hunting season is on in AK and retreated deeper to escape the annual slaughter.
We made the ridge and made short work of photo's and such as the clouds were acting up and coming our way. This is the view down into McCallum Creek
Nothing like plunge stepping down steep soft scree.
No sooner did we get back the tent when another intense squall hit and weathered us in for about 2 hours and, when the weather broke, we hoofed it out to the trailhead. And thought about other objectives…..
All the pics are by Tabitha this time.
The social trail heads back that way and the up the scree to the ridge.
But we went this way. The Alaska Alpine Club has a hut back there on the other side of the glacier. I could see it from this spot. Fairbank backcountry skiers, climbers and trekkers have made this the favorite outdoor playground as its only a few hours south. Lots of big climbing history in the Eastern Alaska Range on minor but significant peaks.
We left the moraine and easily gained the upper area without a classic bushwhack. We hoped to get to the ridge visible in the center of the photo showing with Rainbow Mt on the right.
One might think water would be easy to find but the tundra was all dried up and the main drainage of the hanging valley was glacial till and grey. Somehow just as we thought water was gonna be a problem we found a clearwater spring that ran about 20 yards and then entered the grey water. So we camped right next to it and kept a close eye on the weather as we had been slushed by high winds and sleet on the hike up to camp.
During the night a Chinook blew with pounding rain and winds around 50mph, but the tent did its thing as it has so many time before. Thanks BD.
Woke in the morning with the same winds but no rain so we took off for the ridge and contoured to our objective. The last couple hundred feet was soft scree littered with dozens of rusty cans from a long time ago. Perhaps a sheep hunting camp as some of the largest trophies in Alaska come from this zone. We saw no sheep as if they knew that hunting season is on in AK and retreated deeper to escape the annual slaughter.
We made the ridge and made short work of photo's and such as the clouds were acting up and coming our way. This is the view down into McCallum Creek
Nothing like plunge stepping down steep soft scree.
No sooner did we get back the tent when another intense squall hit and weathered us in for about 2 hours and, when the weather broke, we hoofed it out to the trailhead. And thought about other objectives…..
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