Our flight would take us from Merrill Field north past Eagle River and over Eklutna Lake to get a look at the mountains there. Then we would fly around for awhile over the Knik Glacier and head south over Lake George and the Colony Glacier to Harriman Fjord. We would then head southwest over the Harriman and Twentymile Glaciers to the Turnagain Arm where we would angle northwest and head up through Crow Pass to the Eagle River Valley. I really wanted to get a good look at possible routes up Polar Bear Peak, so we circled it several times then headed down Eagle River Valley and back to Anchorage.
Me and Alex at the plane
Me and the good Dr. reviewing the maps
Alex is strapped in and ready to go!
Looking across South Fork at (from left) Polar Bear, Eagle, Organ, Cantada, and Calliope
Mount Rumble and the Peter's Creek valley
Mount Rumble
Bellicose Peak and The Shroud
Bashful Peak, the Chugach State Park high point at 8005 feet
almost above Eklutna Lake looking at the mountains at its eastern end
The east end of Eklutna Lake, The Mitre dominating
Benign Peak
Peril Peak and the Eklutna Glacier
and again
Bashful Peak from a more northwesterly angle
Baleful and Bashful
The Hunter Creek Glacier
Another of Bashful and Baleful
The Knik Glacier and Mount Goode
Knik Glacier and the Gorge with Colony Glacier and Mount Nuir in the background
Knik Glacier ice
The vast expanse of the Knik Glacier
crevasses deep enough to conceal houses