Every week I have been watching the weather forecast and waiting for a sunny day in the Seward area. Finally, after weeks of waiting, a perfect weekend window of sunshine appeared! Seward lies beneath sheer, jagged mountains, most of which are completely inaccessible. Mt. Alice is one of the larger peaks visible from town. Fortunately for hikers, Alice happens to have a steep ridgeline that you can follow up above treeline, but the rock near the peak is very flaky and unstable. It would take extraordinary weather (and guts!) to make it to the summit.
This is a picture of the rotten rock that characterizes these mountains:
The trail starts at sea level, in mossy rainforest.
Then transitions to the subalpine hemlock zone, also know as the blueberry factory.
Looking ahead, the peak looms in the distance.
Looking back, Resurrection Bay glows tropical blue.
At higher elevations, we had continuous snowfields to climb. It was steep enough that we had to pick our way carefully, ramming our toes into the snowpack to make footholds.
The peak of Alice going behind clouds.
Once you crest the ridge and get a view into the other valley, you can see a glacier!
The summit ridge was making clouds on the north side.
A fuzzy view down through clouds.
View out towards the town of Seward.
No comments:
Post a Comment