Little Switzerland Alaska Ski Mountaineering

Day 1:

Meet in Anchorage. We will meet in Anchorage at 2pm at the your hotel for introductions and gear check. If you need to purchase additional items, REI and Alaska Mountaineering and Hiking are a 30-minute walk from downtown Anchorage. Alternatively, we can stop at REI and AMH before the welcome dinner at the Bear Tooth Grill—Anchorage’s favorite restaurant.

Day 2:

Fly into Base Camp. After breakfast, we’ll meet at 7 am and drive two hours to Talkeetna Air Tax in the small town of Talkeetna. There we’ll load our gear into a bush plane and make the half-hour flight into the Pika Glacier in Little Switzerland. Establishing base camp on the Pika Glacier will take several hours, then we’ll have time for a few laps on the surrounding slopes before an early dinner.

Day 3:

Skills review day. Little Switzerland is heavily glaciated—all of our touring will be on glaciers. To prepare for the following five days of ski mountaineering, we need to review our glacier travel skills. We will cover harnesses, knots, biners, snow anchors, belaying, crevasse rescue, crevasse self rescue (prussiking) and moving roped-up.

Days 4-8:

Touring. The options are endless for our five days of touring around Little Switzerland. We have the option of day-touring to passes around camp to make descents into the Pika Glacier or we can make day, or multi-day loops on the vast glacier systems around Little Switzerland. Of course the slopes surround our Pika Glacier base camp are perfect for laps and logging vertical at the end of the day.

Day 9:

Fly out, return to Anchorage. By 9 am we will be packed and ready to fly back to Talkeetna for a huge meal at the West Rib Grill. From Talkeetna you have the option of staying the night and enjoying this buzzing climbing town, or returning to Anchorage for your flight home. To allow for weather delays, please make your return flight reservations no earlier than the evening of Day 10.