A Lot of Hiking, A Pot of Water, and A Tin Can
Whew, it's been a long week or two! Last Monday Richard, myself, and my wife Tracy took off to walk our way in to the best climbing around and see if the snow was dried up yet. Archangel Valley is accessed by a road that gets gated off all winter, and is only opened once the snow recedes enough to prevent severe rutting. We parked our car and began a few hours of trudging to get to the climbs.
Tracy gives off a grin early on in the hike.
A couple miles in we encountered snow in the road, which slowed us down a bit, but wasn't impassable.
Eventually it was time to put on the snowpants and gators. :rofl
A glance back at the trail (circling around the base of the mountain on the right) and a bit of a glimpse at the amount of gear needed to combine camping AND climbing.
The snow got a little deep up toward the end of the hike, which led to some nice wet shoes and grunting and panting.
Our plan was to make it to one of the cabins in this valley and spend the night. The farthest cabin in is, of course, the most well-stocked and coziest, but with the snow rising by feet as we got higher we decided to call it good at the second cabin we reached, and hung our gear on the nails.
This is when the trip turned from an ordinary camping and climbing trip to something I'll always remember. Before we started out, I had realized I forgot my fuel canister for my stove, and asked Richard to grab his. We pulled it out to piece the stove together and make dinner, and of course, Richard's canister doesn't fit my stove! DOH! So we're owned... stuck eating dry ramen noodles and M&Ms.
BUT WAIT! A couple of days ago a friend of mine showed me how to make a stove out of a pop can. It was a trick he'd found online and tested in his kitchen for no reason other than playing with fire indoors. At the time, I laughed and moved on, but now I remembered passing a discarded energy drink a few hundred yards back down the road. Doubtless left behind by one of the winter visitors to the valley, it was in perfect condition, so I brought it up to the cabin and tried to pull the stove design from my memories.:rofl
I learned later that I left out a certain key feature and therefore didn't get maximum efficiency from my stove, but I did manage to get enough heat to cook both dinner and breakfast and still bring some fuel home.
The next morning woke us with warm sunshine peeking in through the cabin's cracks. We decided to hit the rocks before breakfast, taking full advantage of the blue skies while they were still blue. Weather changes fast in Hatcher Pass.
On the way to the rocks we were forced to improvise snowshoes, finding walking practically impossible.
It was tough. :rofl
But also fun at times!
Finally we made it to what we came for. The rock was indeed dry, and the sun was warm, so we went for it and did a nice and gentle route.
The rest of the trip was relatively uneventful. Richard suddenly remembered he had to work that evening, so after finishing the climb, we crawled our way back to the cabin for breakfast, stopping only to leap from several tall boulders along the way. Then we trudged our way back out to the car.
Hope you thoroughly enjoy!
Tracy gives off a grin early on in the hike.
A couple miles in we encountered snow in the road, which slowed us down a bit, but wasn't impassable.
Eventually it was time to put on the snowpants and gators. :rofl
A glance back at the trail (circling around the base of the mountain on the right) and a bit of a glimpse at the amount of gear needed to combine camping AND climbing.
The snow got a little deep up toward the end of the hike, which led to some nice wet shoes and grunting and panting.
Our plan was to make it to one of the cabins in this valley and spend the night. The farthest cabin in is, of course, the most well-stocked and coziest, but with the snow rising by feet as we got higher we decided to call it good at the second cabin we reached, and hung our gear on the nails.
This is when the trip turned from an ordinary camping and climbing trip to something I'll always remember.
Before we started out, I had realized I forgot my fuel canister for my stove, and asked Richard to grab his. We pulled it out to piece the stove together and make dinner, and of course, Richard's canister doesn't fit my stove! DOH! So we're owned... stuck eating dry ramen noodles and M&Ms.BUT WAIT! A couple of days ago a friend of mine showed me how to make a stove out of a pop can. It was a trick he'd found online and tested in his kitchen for no reason other than playing with fire indoors. At the time, I laughed and moved on, but now I remembered passing a discarded energy drink a few hundred yards back down the road. Doubtless left behind by one of the winter visitors to the valley, it was in perfect condition, so I brought it up to the cabin and tried to pull the stove design from my memories.:rofl
I learned later that I left out a certain key feature and therefore didn't get maximum efficiency from my stove, but I did manage to get enough heat to cook both dinner and breakfast and still bring some fuel home.
The next morning woke us with warm sunshine peeking in through the cabin's cracks. We decided to hit the rocks before breakfast, taking full advantage of the blue skies while they were still blue. Weather changes fast in Hatcher Pass.
On the way to the rocks we were forced to improvise snowshoes, finding walking practically impossible.
It was tough. :rofl
But also fun at times!
Finally we made it to what we came for. The rock was indeed dry, and the sun was warm, so we went for it and did a nice and gentle route.
The rest of the trip was relatively uneventful. Richard suddenly remembered he had to work that evening, so after finishing the climb, we crawled our way back to the cabin for breakfast, stopping only to leap from several tall boulders along the way. Then we trudged our way back out to the car.
Hope you thoroughly enjoy!
John Borland
www.morffed.com
www.morffed.com
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Comments
Thoroughly!
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Cuong
I Live at http://www.alaskamountainforum.com
We sometimes pack a couple of beers for somewhere in the middle of a trip.
So we'd almost always have a can available.
A quick search shows some really good instructions on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beverage-can_stove Too bad I didn't get it exactly right, it looks like it can actually be done really well!
www.morffed.com
this was a two week hike was it? looks like you had an excellent time.
Les
i love her style... climbing in a dress