Ice Climbing in Alaska

June 2023 – Back in Alaska flying my cub for the first time since before Corona. During Corona i couldn’t fly it for obvious reasons, and after Corona my Cub had to be rebuilt after a ground loop which happened during a training flight by the flight school who leases it while I am not using it.

I spent ten days in Alaska. The first six days with two people who went with LenAir (a flight school in Roskilde, Denmark run by a very good friend of mine) to Alaska for their first time. And the last four days on my own.

The first six days the weather wasn’t exceptionally good, cloudy most of the time with rain and fog in between. The weather was mostly flyable and I decided to stay with the group and do day tours out of Palmer. Flying my cub for the first time in four years this gave me lots of opportunities to fly up Hunter Creek towards Knik Glacier where there are uncountable number of places to practice off field landings. I also flew two longer day tours with the two guests and had a lot of fun showing them why I love Alaska.

On the first day tour we (Lotte and I) flew into Lake Hood, down Turnagain Arm, through Portage Pass, into Whittier to explorer some of the glaciers in the area, back down to Moose Pass and Cooper Landing. With many landings on the way.

On the second day tour we (Flemming and I) flew into Lake Hood, then back across Knik Arm towards Beluga Lake, up around the summit of Mt. Spurr Volcano at 11,070 feet and then back via Talkeetna for a late lunch.

For the last four days I had a lot of plans. But the plans changed literally from day to day as the weather forecast kept moving the areas of nice weather around. Just a few hours before leaving Palmer I decided to head out on a four hour flight to McCarthy where clear sky and sunshine was then predicted for the following days. I called Kennicott Guides and booked a private full day Ice Climbing tour on the Root Glacier for the following day. I had never climbed on a glacier before and had a fantastic day climbing different walls and finally down a Moulin with their guide Megan Renz which i highly recommend. Last day before returning to Denmark, I flew back to Talkeetna, camped under the wing on the Willage Strip and got delicious fish and chips and single engine red beers at the Talkeetna Brewhouse.