Chugach-St. Elias Mountains, West-East Ski Traverse. Jack Duggan ...

Chugach-St. Elias M ountains, West-East Ski Traverse. Jack Duggan, G unnar N aslund, Brian Okonek, Roger Cowals, V ern Tejas and I com ­ pleted a 365-mile traverse of the extensive east-west-trending glacial system between C ordova and Y akutat. We started on M arch 5 at Miles Lake on the C opper River, left the ice at H arlequin Lake and arrived at Y akutat on A pril 8. We individually carried 40-to-60-pound packs and pulled up-to-80-pound sleds while skiing across ten m ajor glaciers: Miles, M artin River, Stellar Glaciers, Bagley Icefield, Columbus, Seward, H u b ­ bard, A rt Lewis, East N unatak and N ovatak Glaciers. T he 35-day trip took us out of and into A laska three times, Y ukon T erritory twice and British Colum bia once. T he traverse was mostly self-supported w ith one food-and-fuel cache en route, which we picked up north of the Bagley Icefield at Barkley Lake near the T ana G lacier term inus. The immense scale and vastness of the region becam e apparent while trekking across the Bagley. As we skied eastw ards tow ard the St. Elias and Logan massifs, we thought they looked three days away. It took us over ten to ski to between their bases. Stev en H

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