Gates of the Arctic National Park Guiding Photos

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Gates of the Arctic National Park Guiding Photos

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Some of my favorite photos from guiding out in the Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve in June of 2019. I’ll be updating this as I edit the photos.

Out from under the clouds, and into the sunshine! Morning of day two with our first group (day one had us dropped off at Lake Omelaktavik besides the Noatak River - a mushy, boggy start, indeed) Hiking up the Kugrak River towards a high pass to cross over into the Angayu creek drainage, which we'll follow to link back up into the Noatak. The frozen snow/ice on top of the Kugrak made for good footing and a bit of relief from the tussocks we were starting to become intimately familiar with.

Overlooking Chitiok

One of the more curious characteristics of the terrain of the Gates of the Arctic National Park is the tundra: deep and spongy, it's also usually quite wet - even when high up a mountain pass (like here). Where it's wet and boggy, and where it's instead dry and (more) pleasant takes some mental conditioning, and guessing our future hiking conditions became a topic of many a heated conversation (all in good fun). If you take the time to look close at the carpet of green below your pack, you'll notice a incredible variety of different species of plants and lichen that make up this tundra - a full ecosystem in minature. Whole books on this tundra have been written. In stark contrast, Mount Igikpak (8,510') looms mightily in the distance, several drainages away. Igikpak will become to us a tireless sentinel, watching over our group, wherever we chose to roam. The highest peak in the Park, it's ridgeline cannot be easily passable, and our path will need to be routed far around its ramparts. I naturally would refer to it as, "Iggy Pop" - not to be insensitive to its native name (though I don't know it's translation/etymology), but to remind me to keep our Lust For Life.

Igikpak smiling down on us clear on the other side of its massif. After a bit of riverside hiking, our group made it over a series of mountain passes dubbed "Skinny 'bou", and, "Talus Top". These Anglophone names may clue you into their fairly recent naming - most likely named by Alaska-based adventurer Roman Dial. My comments section should now come alive with, "Oh hey: I know Roman!", as the more I scratch the surface in my research of him, the more I realizse just how many people I know that MUST know him; how many lives he's touched. And for good reason: Roman has done some fun stuff out there, be it mountain biking, packrafting, mountaineering - you name it. Andrew Skurka did these passes with Roman during his 6-month Alaska Yukon Expedition. Always love to hear Andrew tell us a Roman tale, and I hope one day to hear *Roman* tell me a Roman tale, even if it's just in print. Concerning Igikpak (and I'll get this - and all of Roman's stories a little wrong, as happens with oral legends): Roman was on a trip to summit Igikpak and was looking up at the last towering pitch up the highest of the two delicate fingers that make up its summit. After 8,000'+ of climbing from the valley floor, their advancement was haulted: they couldn't climb the last pitch, because no one brought the clutch piece of rock pro for an OW crack: a beefy #6. (If you saw the terrain just to get to the base of a climb like this, I'd leave the #6 home as well.) Another Roman story: when Roman was young (say: 6? 8?) his Father left him a dirt bike and a .22 and told him, "Gotta go to work kid, stay out of trouble!".

In the Arrigetch Creek Basin - Photo by Andrew Skurka

Arrigetch Creek Basin

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