Early Season Touring at Hatcher Pass
By Matthew Scragg
A night spent between the pavement and the stars.
October 15-17, 2022.
For the past month I had been tied down to school and work in Fairbanks seven days a week. My only Friday class was canceled and I had Saturday free, so I made a few phone calls to plan a quick trip to the mountains. An hour later, still with no plan, I arrived at my friend Kris’s house with my car loaded full of packrafting, climbing, and ski gear. We discussed our options and figured it was too late late in the season for rock climbing or mountain biking, and too early for ice climbing or (probably) skiing. We talked about a run down the Nenana river, just two hours south of Fairbanks.
After consulting the weather app we decided we would see if there was any powder to be found down at Hatcher Pass. Skiing at 20 degrees is much warmer than boating at 20 degrees. We left Fairbanks around 9 PM and arrived at the trailhead around 2 AM, eager to get a few hours of sleep.
We slept in until sunrise and then promptly packed our bags for the hike to the Snowbird hut, one of three huts along the Bomber Traverse.
The majority of miles covered on this ‘ski’ trip were actually on foot.
As it still was quite early in the season, the first four miles up the pass on foot. We briefly put on our skis and skins just before the pass summit, and minutes later, ripped them off for the short descent onto the glacier. After arriving at hut, we spent the evening drinking coffee, burning incense, and chatting with new friends from Girdwood and Anchorage.
Later that night when most of us were bundled up in our sleeping bags, one of the new friends came in and whispered ‘if anyone’s awake you should take a peek outside.’ It took me a few minutes to unzip my bag and brace for the cold, but it was worth the effort.
After weeks of balancing graduate school work two other jobs, the silence here was sublime.
After a quick breakfast we headed up for a a few mellow ski lines we had scoped from the hut the night before. Uninhibited by heavy packs, an enjoyable uphill brought us to an unnamed saddle, where we had views of the Chugach Mountains to the south, and Denali & the Alaska Range to the north.
Early season conditions made glacier travel simple.
Looking south. Talkeetnas in the foreground, Chugach in the background.
Dropping in off the saddle.
Kris coming in hot.
One more lap.
After each run, we’d check the time and justify ‘just one more lap’, dreading the unavoidable skin/hike that would lead us back to civilization. The hardest part of any trip to the mountains is leaving the mountains. With limited snacks and work the next day, we used up most of our daylight skiing, sparing an hour to make our way back up and over the pass, followed by a few more hours of hiking with headlights before the six hour drive back to Fairbanks.
The sunset alpenglow never gets old.
After five hours scanning the darkness of the Parks Highway for moose (aided by lots of caffeine and loud music), we were treated to another spectacular light show. It really boosted the morale for the final stretch back to town.
Just another night in Fairbanks.
Trips like this are the perfect escape from the turbulence of everyday life - no set plan, no grand objectives, just fun - it was exactly what the doctor ordered.