Winter Camping/Hiking in Alaska

   Hello from the cold land!  A few weeks a good friend of mine, John Castenholz,  and I decided we needed a cure for our cabin fever!  When the days are only 6 hours long and the temps dip beneath 0 often it is very tempting to stay in your house ALL winter.  When John called and asked I was pumped.  I had never done any winter excursions and knew it took a different skill set to survive.  The last thing I wanted was to head out on my own and lose an arm to frostbite.  John has lived in Alaska for 18 years and is a very experienced mountaineer and outdoorsman.  His resume of adventure includes several of the highest peaks in the lower forty eight as well as ice climbing and big wall climbing El Capitan.  To say the least he would be guiding me on this one!

We headed up the trail and made pretty good time until we hit the lower Fuller Lake.  At this point the snow was 6-12" deep but at the lake it was 24" and very dry.  We stopped middle way down the lake and had lunch!  I had several left over Mountain House meals from our adventure trips last summer and took one out of my bag.  John, too, had a few Mountain House(MH) meals from the "past".  After careful inspection I commented to John that I had never seen a MH package look like this one did.  He casually and softly mentioned that these may be from some of his early excursions......in the early 1990's!!!!!!  Opening the package, we both noticed the funny smell.  I tested the meal only after John promised me he would carry me off the mountain if I became ill.  When your cold anything warm is accepted as possibly edible and this 20 year old "chicken and rice" was no different.  Although stale as a pile of heated, decaying leaves is felt good to eat!
    After our meal we hit the snow covered trial and made our way slowly up the mountain!  After struggling through several 5ft snow drifts on a 40degree angle, we made it to our first camping spot.  It was 11pm and we were exhausted!
The next two full days of travel were intense.  I nearly died once....slipped and skidded down an icy slope before endoing and landing on my head. Overall it was a great trip and the weather was beutiful!  Watch the video and see our journey and the beauty we had stumbled into!
 If you are interested in taking your adventures to the next level check our website and take the plunge!
http://AlaskanVentures.com