Hatcher Pass, Independence Day

With Independence Day falling on a Tuesday, we seized the opportunity of a four-day weekend to get out of town. We made the trek down to Hatcher Pass, an alpine area about 100 miles north of Anchorage with friends Frank, Lalida and Tom. The 6.5 hour drive was a little rough - particulalry the bumpy but beautiful unsealed 'short cut' that we inadvertently took - but we were rewarded with great scenery, unusally good weather, good granite bouldering and cragging and plenty of wildlife.

Lise and Lalida up on a taus field; black bear ambling along water pipe; curious ground squirrel; typical low-lying Hatcher Pass scenery.

The roadside pullout/parking lot/campground had about 6 Subarus, 3 Toyota trucks, 12 people and 6 dogs - fairly standard ratios there! Lots more folks came in on the 4th for day hikes and strolling around the alpine meadows and valleys. Although we had appropropriately driven up past Indepenence State Mine on the way in, there wasn't too much ado on the 4th of July apart from Tom doing his best to help Lisa along with the correct pronunciation of Palmer (Pahl-merr not Pahr-mah!). The beer lovin' trad climbin' locals let off bottle rockets, but we only heard them - the whole visual effect of fireworks is kind of lost when its easily bright enough to still be climbing at midnight!

Tom, Lise and Lalida lounging roadside; Tom cleaning a new line; Sarah, Tom and Garvie; Frank, Lalida and Tom hiking out from the boulder field.

The climbing was great fun, notwithstanding the finger damage sharp granite can do. We met up with ex-Fairbanksan Sarah Mosco, now living nearby, and she joined us on the boulders one day. With incredible potential for bouldering as well as trad climbing on good rock, its a crying shame that this isn't closer than a 13 hour round-trip from Fairbanks!