so this summer i did a nols semester up in alaska and was up there from june 10th until august 23rd playing around in the wilderness and earning college credit. 
the first section of the course was backpacking in the healy area of the alaska range, followed by mountaineering on the matanuska and powell glaciers in the chugach, and finally by sea kayaking in the prince william sound. it was by far one of the most amazing experiences of my life. i highly recommend visiting alaska and spending time in the wilderness, it is one of the most beautiful places i have ever been.
i'm in the process of writing up a more detailed account of the trip on my blog. check it out at www.justsaynotocubicles.blogspot.com.
here's a handful of pictures from the trip. the rest can be found here.
the nols alaska branch, otherwise known as the farm.
the first of a couple passes that we would hike over throughout the backpacking section.
along the wood river
as you can see, the scenery sucked.
caribou!
woke up one morning to this...
it's kind of hard to see, but there are a couple faint brown blobs just left of center. those blobs would be a grizzly with her 2 cubs. they were about 200 yards away from our camp.
we saw a ton of ground squirrels. curious little guys.
looking down the yanert fork toward the highway, which was around 30 miles away.
we busted out the stove and decided to take a tea break at 6400 feet.
now onto mountaineering. our first night on the matanuska.
don't fall in.
best toilet view, ever.
looking toward our destination, turtle flats.
first night camping on snow.
heading up through the icefall to get to turtle flats. we ended up going through the icefall twice.
just chilling next to a big crack on the way up the icefall...
the view from turtle flats.
our base camp for almost a week.
the clouds were a sign of what was to come...
one of the other rope teams coming up the other side of turtle peak.
i was stoked to have successfully led my rope team up turtle peak. it ended up being like a low angle ice climb with crevasses, except i had just one ice ax and no crampons.
and so the storm began to roll in...
navigating icefalls riddled with crevasses in a whiteout is supposed to be fun, right?
it was nice to get back to living things, instead of just ice, snow, and rock.
and finally, sea kayaking. a beautiful day on the sound.
this seal was checking us out for a while.
paddling near the chenega glacier.
a couple humpback whales.
i caught a fish!
this is what happens when the sun comes out after a week of pissing rain. it was nice to have dry stuff again.
i wouldn't trade the experience i had this summer for anything.
the first section of the course was backpacking in the healy area of the alaska range, followed by mountaineering on the matanuska and powell glaciers in the chugach, and finally by sea kayaking in the prince william sound. it was by far one of the most amazing experiences of my life. i highly recommend visiting alaska and spending time in the wilderness, it is one of the most beautiful places i have ever been.
i'm in the process of writing up a more detailed account of the trip on my blog. check it out at www.justsaynotocubicles.blogspot.com.
here's a handful of pictures from the trip. the rest can be found here.
the nols alaska branch, otherwise known as the farm.
the first of a couple passes that we would hike over throughout the backpacking section.
along the wood river
as you can see, the scenery sucked.
caribou!
woke up one morning to this...
it's kind of hard to see, but there are a couple faint brown blobs just left of center. those blobs would be a grizzly with her 2 cubs. they were about 200 yards away from our camp.
we saw a ton of ground squirrels. curious little guys.
looking down the yanert fork toward the highway, which was around 30 miles away.
we busted out the stove and decided to take a tea break at 6400 feet.
now onto mountaineering. our first night on the matanuska.
don't fall in.
best toilet view, ever.
looking toward our destination, turtle flats.
first night camping on snow.
heading up through the icefall to get to turtle flats. we ended up going through the icefall twice.
just chilling next to a big crack on the way up the icefall...
the view from turtle flats.
our base camp for almost a week.
the clouds were a sign of what was to come...
one of the other rope teams coming up the other side of turtle peak.
i was stoked to have successfully led my rope team up turtle peak. it ended up being like a low angle ice climb with crevasses, except i had just one ice ax and no crampons.
and so the storm began to roll in...
navigating icefalls riddled with crevasses in a whiteout is supposed to be fun, right?
it was nice to get back to living things, instead of just ice, snow, and rock.
and finally, sea kayaking. a beautiful day on the sound.
this seal was checking us out for a while.
paddling near the chenega glacier.
a couple humpback whales.
i caught a fish!
this is what happens when the sun comes out after a week of pissing rain. it was nice to have dry stuff again.
i wouldn't trade the experience i had this summer for anything.
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