Category Archives: Backpacking and Hiking

Trekking, hiking, backpacking, camping, and all things to do with walking in the backcountry.

Glacial hiking, Wrangell St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

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Glacial hiking, Wrangell St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

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Another image from my little venture into the winter wonderland of Wrangell St. Elias National Park out on the Kennicott Glacier. This is another of those spots that would’ve been ridiculously difficult to get to in the summer. The river and a large lake block the route, which would mean a long and arduous clamber over the moraine approaching from the east .. I’m not even sure it’d be possible. I walked right up to this wall and took a few photos. This one I need to reprocess, I did it on my laptop. I’m not sure the calibration is right, and will look at it on my iMac, but for now, this shall do. Continue reading →

Winter hiking, Wrangell St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

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Winter hiking, Wrangell St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

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That peak there in the middle of the frame is called “Donoho Peak”. I kid you not! And folks ask why I love ths place? I even have my own mountain (misspelled though it is)!

This is me (of course) looking up towards the Wrangell Mountains. Mt. Blackburn is just out of the frame, a 16 500′ mountain that rocks my world. The Kennicott Glacier roars down from the mountain on the west (our left) of Donoho Peak, and joins up with the Root Glacier which comes in from the right hand side of Donoho. Continue reading →

Kennicott Glacier, Wrangell St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

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Kennicott Glacier, Wrangell St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

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Here’s another photo from my recent trip to the Wrangells. This is a photo of a couple of chunks of ice. I spent quite a bit of time right around this little area, watching the light – it’s amazing how much it changes in a very short time in the winter here. I found some great pieces of ice and chunks and walls and all kinds of cool stuff. If it had been summer, I wouldn’t have been able to cross the river and lake to get to this part of the glacier. Continue reading →

Wildflowers in the Chugach Mountains, Alaska.

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Chugach Mountains, Wrangell St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

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I’ve been working on some updates on my backpacking website www.expeditionsalaska.com, and haven’t really had much time to keep up on the journal lately. I’m also working on something REALLY cool, but I can’t tell you what it is yet. Stay tuned! 🙂 Continue reading →

Chittistone Pass, Wrangell St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

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Sunrise, Chittistone Pass, Wrangell St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

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I know I said I would stick with the Tebay Lakes Trip for now, but I’m not much of a stickler for plans – I like spontaneity. So, here’s a photo from earlier in the summer, from just near our campsite in Chittistone Pass, looking over Skolai Pass, Skolai Lake and the toe of the Russell Glacier, Wrangell St. Elias National Park. Summertime is awesome in Alaska, but wow, does sunrise come early. Not just early, but really soon after sunset. It makes shooting and keeping to any kind of regular schedule somewhat problematic. Continue reading →

Bremner River, Wrangell St. Elias National Park.

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Sunset over the Bremner River, Wrangell St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

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OK – we’ve officially left Denali behind. For a while. I’m going to post some images from Wrangell St. Elias National Park, because it’s been a while .. must be a few weeks at least. This photo was taken on a backpacking trip I did this August, near Tebay Lakes. We flew in to the backcountry, after waiting around McCarthy all day for the weather to clear – we’d flown in earlier in the day, only to be turned back by a dense fog, less than a mile from our landing strip — arrgghhh – so close! Then we hiked for 10 days, and had an absolute blast. The weather couldn’t have been better – you know it’s good weather in Alaska when I’m swimming in lakes and showering in waterfalls. The blueberries were out of this world. Continue reading →

Denali and the Alaska Range photo – a panoramic view.

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Denali and the Alaska Range photo - a panoramic view.

Hey Folks,

Well, here I’ve finally got this image done – for now. It took me a lot of working, and a lot of learning, but I’m reasonably happy with the processing – for now. The image is a stitched composite of 5 horizontal frames, to form a big long wide skinny panoramic photo of Denali and the Alaska Range. I got a full moon in there too, which was nice. The moon was absolutely awesome – glowing like it only can glow in Alaska. As the final image didn’t really fit on this webpage very well, I just linked the thumbnail here – if you click the thumbnail it will open up a larger file. Continue reading →

Granite wall, Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada.

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Granite wall, Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada.

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Wow! Here I go and sy ‘Ill try to update this journal more often, and then I go and don’t post to it in 2 weeks. That’s not too hip. Sorry about that.

I’m looking forward to heading back over to Wrangell St. Elias National Park in a couple of days. Hopefully the weather forecast will in incorrect (which has been to happen) and the sun will shine. We’ll see.

I don’t really have any specific to write about. This photo was taken one evening in the Canadian Rockies, in Jasper National Park. I believe this mountain is part of the Colin Range, but I can’t be sure. I didn’t take notes, like I should have, and now I can’t recall. It’s an impressive slab of granite though .. way cool. The evening sun lights it up nicely in the summertime, and makes it even more impressive.

I’ll post a couple of grizzly bear photos in a few, just so I’m not outdone by Ron Niebrugge.

🙂

Cheers

Carl

A new day – Wrangell St. Elias, Alaska.

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Chittistone Valley, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Alaska.

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Today is the last day of my tenure here in Atlanta, GA. Tomorrow morning I venture north, and west, to Alaska. I’ll be working, as usual, as a backpacking guide in Alaska, running trips for my company, Expeditions Alaska. However, this year, come fall, I won’t be returning to Atlanta. Continue reading →

Oil Barrels, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska.

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Empty oil barrels, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

Hey Folks,

Here’s the last of my series on the Arctic national Wildlife Refuge, for now. I’d like to write some more about the place, but will do that later. I wanted to post this because I read somewhere the other day that because the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is not a pristine wilderness, we may as well go ahead and drill there. What so often is forgotten or neglected is that much of the disturbances to the pristine nature of the land here are a function os previous oil exploration. Out on the coastline, the tundra is littered with signs and debris of oil exploration. Whilst I was hiking one afternoon, I counted over 300 empty oil barrels lying on the tundra in one very small section of coastal plain. Continue reading →