Shakes Again

One of the guys rappels as Bob watches from above. A deep blue iceberg seems to float on the pillows of snow not far from the face of the glacier.

Bob leaps from the face of the glacier.

This reminded me of a Dr. Seuss illustration. If you look closely you can see the ski tracks wander across the top of the glacier almost all the way down to the base of the glacier.

Snow cascades down a cliff. This rock face can be seen in the panorama below.

On Top of Shakes

This is a near 360 degree panorama of the Shakes glacier from a side gully. The far right of this photo shows 3 guys playing at the terminus of the glacier. Unfortunately I the guys aren't quite visible at this resolution. The Shakes Glacier stretches toward the middle of the frame and disappears from view. Some large cliffs on the North side of shakes glacier make up the right side of the photograph.

Bob heads back to camp after a day of glacier play.

Musty the muskox guards the entrance to my snow cavern. He did a good job of keeping out intruders. Who would want to go toe to toe with a ferocious muskox anyway?

Bob emerges from his cave where Musty is faithfully standing guard. Who needs a dog when you have a muskox?

Leaving the Lake

It was finally time to got back to the warmth of the cabin. The weather pattern changed as well which helped convince us that it was time to go back to our base camp. The overcast kept dropping as the day wore on. This particular photo is of the creek flowing into Shakes Lake from which we got our water.

Anthony and I decided to hike up a side valley near the lake just to see what was there. It was pretty impressive. We decided that if the valley was in the Midwest it would be a wonder of the world but in Alaska it was just another valley. It did have some monster ice and about 4000' of near very steep (too steep for snow to cling to) walls. On the way out I walked right up to this ptarmigan. She (I think) kindly posed for a number of photographs. I love those feet! I wish I could grow feathers on my feet during the winter. 'Till then I'll just make due with my down filled slippers.

The "Cedar Shack" was anchored upstream from Shakes Cabin just a quarter mile or so.

Hot Tubin'

After three nights of sleeping on Shakes Lake, what could be nicer that a long soak in the hot tubs? The answer? Nothing.

As I was leaving the tub (As a sure sign of superior intelligence Matt decided to spent the night at the tubs, while the rest of us left.) I saw this porcupine and tried to get its picture. It was mighty uncooperative and kept climbing higher and higher in the tree. I finally managed to get a silhouette but that was about all.

As I headed back to the cabin, terrific winds would blow me to the side and I would stumble and wonder why I wasn't spending the night at the hot tub. I believe this was the windiest day of the trip. Bob had climbed partially up a ridge and said that he was blown to his knees on several occasions. At least the wind was at my back as I went back to the cabin.

The following day Bob and I decided to do a traverse. We hiked up Alpine Creek making several sketchy crossings like this. The creek was beautiful. It would be fun to photograph it after a fresh snow or as the wildflowers bloomed in the summer.

Attempted Traverse

The idea was to traverse from Alpine Creek to Shakes Lake but it didn't quite work out as planned. But on the way up we did see some nice scenery. This was an exceptionally wide waterfall for the size of the stream. Very beautiful. I needed an ice climber to pose for me.

We met up with a very steep unwelcoming ravine and decided to find shelter before it got too dark instead of attempting to cross it. We dug out a large snow cave and made some soup as Bob's stove struggled to keep a flame going in the wind and its state of apparent disrepair. The wind howled all night and by morning the entrance of the cave (visible behind Bob) was 60-70% filled in. All that the extra snow did was just make use that much more comfortable. It was cozy!

Bob packs his sleeping back the following morning. The stove had just enough power to heat up the exact amount of hot water we needed for breakfast before dying. It fixed itself as soon as we got back to the cabin. Actually the stove itself wasn't the problem. Something happened to the plunging mechanism that pressurizes the fuel bottle - seemingly as a result of the cold and/or contamination.

While eating breakfast, we found a sunny spot on a nearby slope and soaked up the warmth. More could be said and photos could be added but I'll save those for blackmail.

Feelin' Dare Devilish

After getting down the mountain we dropped our packs when we reached Alpine Creek and then headed upstream for a number of miles. At this point Bob was leading the way when I noticed this nice snow pillow on a boulder in the stream and thought that this had the makings of a good action photo. I called ahead to Bob and asked the simple question, "Do you feel dare devily?" I'm sure that whenever he hears me ask anything like that in the future he will run in the opposite direction, but this time he didn't know any better.

Not quite.

Uh-oh. Yes, he is standing on a little ice. Unfortunately it was very little ice. I felt so guilty at this point that I stopped taking pictures and ran ahead to try to help him off the ice before it broke through completely. I got up to him in time but there was no way for me to pull him off the ice before it finished breaking and dropped him into the water. After struggling in that spot for a few moments he finally had to wade upstream in his snowshoes before finding a suitable location to crawl out.

Wringing out socks. Good thing it was warm in the sunshine. But still...

A Few More from Alpine Creek

I skied into this school of fish on the way upstream as well as downstream. The fish would part as I tried to ski over the school attempting to get a good photo. Finally I just had to wait and they slowly got closer and closer to me but in a much looser group than before. After the trip we found out that these were a whitefish. Mountain whitefish I believe. I had never heard of them but there they were... about 200 of them in all. Oh, that ice is pretty cool isn't it? It was about 8 inches thick in this spot and crystal clear.

There were several large cliffs with rock that looked pretty friendly for those inclined to test their skills on their faces.

After a good night's rest in the cabin Bob and I were joined by Matt as we decided to go up to a little peak near the terminus of the Popof Glacier. (Photos from another trip near Popof are in the archives - August 2007. You'll have to scroll down a little before reaching the trip photos.) As we were walking the flat floodplain we ended up drifting to the left of the ridge and valley we desired to ascend. We had to backtrack to get around the ridge and into the valley where our route was. As we were attempting to go around the ridge I noticed a slot in it and decided to see if it was a shortcut. Turns out it was, and a pretty impressive little shortcut at that. Bob gave it the nickname "Quentin's Canyon of Consternation" which I liked. The Canyon did resemble a slot canyon but as far as we could tell, no water was flowing through it. There were overhanging cliffs and huge boulders. In one area we had to take off our packs and skis to crawl through a little tunnel under a large slab type boulder to get to the other side.

Little Nob

Matt poses in front of some really big ice on the other side of the valley.

As I hiked up to the top of the nob well behind Bob and Matt I noticed Bob's signature floating in the air. A kite!

Bob anchored the kite with a couple ice axes and the kite remained aloft by itself in the strong steady wind. Here he winds up the string as we prepare to go down the mountain.

Home sweet home after another day's adventure. I skied down from the 2000' knob and actually ran into some nice powder making it a fun trip down. This is the good ol' cabin. Christina's heart shaped decoration hangs from my "bedroom" window.

Last Night at Shakes Cabin

Since this was my last opportunity to see the ever impressive Castle Mountain in its full splendor, I decided to make one last journey to catch the sunlight hitting its flank in the late evening light. It was worth it.

Back at the cabin Matt listens to some tunes as he does what all grown men love to do... Play with candles.

Anthony at a particularly riveting portion of his book. (This was a long exposure lit only by candles. He was super still.)

The kitchen was pretty much a tribute to MSR. We had four of their stoves and seven of their fuel bottles to go along with many other items.

Shakes to Admin

It started to snow lightly as we prepared to leave the cozy confines of the Shakes Cabin. Anthony separates noncombustibles from the fire as Bob looks on.

One horse open sleigh.

Bob attempted to use his broken ski without the emergency fix. It didn't work. He ended up switching to snowshoes before too long. Who can blame him?

While Bob was changing into his snowshoes we continued on. The wind picked up and we made it to the admin cabin. We were excited about going in except for one small problem... Bob had the only key. (Now WHY did I foolishly lock the door earlier???) So we tried to find a spot out of the wind to stay somewhat warm as we waited for Bob to arrive. Matt (foreground) is sitting on a drift on the roof of the A-frame. The wind was still pretty fierce.

Ryna Cabin

After Bob arrived with the key we attempted to unlock the door and get inside. The wind was really howling as it always seems to do in this area. Naturally, the lock was frozen. We had to use hot water to warm it up before the key could even be inserted. Then the door was frozen shut as it had been the first time we tried to get in. Fortunately this time around it opened without having to apply too much force.

Cribbage. While the stove warmed itself up, then the cabin, and finally us, we decided to play a game or two after to day's journey.

The following day we hiked up Andrews Creek. Bob left first and followed the right side, a few minutes later I left following the left side of the creek. After following fresh, really fresh, wolverine sign I ended up a mile or two upstream near a point where boats usually turn around. From there I started skiing up a slope I always wanted to hike when I suddenly noticed a moose! Almost simultaneously I noticed Bob was pretty close to it. I tried to signal to Bob that there was a moose nearby but he didn't quite seem to understand. The moose could tell Bob was there and trotted off into the woods. When I skied down and talked with Bob I found out that he had been even closer to the moose but it had hidden from him in the brush. After that I skied up stream several miles and turned around near these snow cushions.

Bob catches some rays along the stream bank.