March Madness

Well its hardly college basketball, but March certainly brings on the madness: surely spring should be here already, surely? Why is it still -20 C outside?! To stave off the is it summer yet blues, we've hit the Alaska range the last three weekends.

First, Lise and I ventured south with our friend and my climbing buddy Frank. South to Panorama Peak, just south of the Denali Park area - about 2.5 hours from here. After surviving a super strong northerly wind with a wind-chill of probably - 50 C we got onto the south-facing gully - out of the wind and into the sun - ah!

It was Lisa's first time climbing snow in crampons but she's a fast learner and very methodical. We topped out the gully to a col with a great view of the Alaska range including Denali off to the West. The summit of Panorama will have to wait.

Lisa and Frank en route, Panorama Pk snow gully. Denali is making clouds on the horizon.

The next weekend I went into the 'Deltas' the Eastern margin of the Alaska range, east of the Richardson Highway, again with Frank, and a couple of other guys from the University-based Alaska Alpine Club. This was the same trip as last year - to climb Mt. McCallum. Frank and I again summitted on Saturday after the ski in, and we all went up Sunday morning. it was nice to be up there with Frank - he's a great guy and will be leaving town this summer, and after 10 years up here, he might seek out greener pastures.

Then last Saturday, Lise, Frank and I went ice climbing with friends Dragos and Carrie. After a wee tiki tour looking for some new ice fall off the Parks Highway, again not far from the Park/ Healy, but after the Nenana River looked a little too open to safely cross, we settled for Fox creek. Only 5 minutes up the road, and 10 minutes up a frozen creek we found enough ice to keep up busy for a few hours. We set up 2 top ropes and all climbed slightly different variations of plastic wet ice, brittle cold ice and funky little chandeliery stalactites until we'd got our fill. Lise knew her time was up when she got 'retard arm' - a common affliction whereby your (usually left) arm won't swing the axe in straight and instead rolls inwards and you just can't get the pick in. This nicely bookended her climbing session which begun with the 'screaming-barfies'. (Stupid/ special names for everything, huh?) You can find out how this feels by putting your hands in an ice bucket in a walk-in freezer for about 10 minutes and then letting the blood return. (Hint: the name says it all!)

Fat Fox Creek ice! Lisa and Dragos (top) defying the screaming-barfies and retard-arm.

Anyways, despite my best to make it sound like a suffer-fest, it was really a nice day out out and a lot of fun with nice peeps. I never thought I say this, but 0 F ( -18 C) is really not that cold if you're dressed right and moving. Just don't stop.

(Cheers, too, to the State Trooper who lit up his flashers as I sped along at 75 mph on the 65 mph highway, but then carried on going. ..exhale..)