This is a great hike near Eagle River that I was surprised I hadn't heard much about…read more You start at a trailhead on a winding road (see my photo for exact Google Maps location), you switchback up through the trees and eventually make your way to a ridge line. You ride the ridge line, up and down, until you finally reach the proper summit of Mt Magnificent. Be advised, there are many false summits on the way. You'll think you're about to summit the mountain numerous times, then reach the "top" only to see a larger summit in front of you, in the distance. (it can be rather heart-breaking) I'd imagine this hike can go quicker in the summer/fall (the website I read said it was casually done in less than 3 hours, RT), but it takes a decent amount of time to do in the winter/spring (microspikes and a pole are a must). I think it took us maybe 4.5 hrs. There was a bit of route finding and some side-hilling you have to do because it's difficult to scramble on the rocks when they are covered in slippery snow. There are event some flat spots on here that would be great for camping in the summer. I look forward to exploring the Eagle River hiking scene. This one is a pretty big step up from Mt Baldy. Give it a shot!

We got here about 630am on 20 May 2021 (a Thursday) and the gate was still closed but we are able…read moreto go around the side. There is not too much ice on the trail and other than a snack and a single glove that someone seemingly dropped accidentally, it is fairly clean. The initial incline will have you gasping for air (you'll be fine if you're fit or not coming from flat, low incline area). There are a lot of switchbacks but the trail is clearly marked.

This is a great after-work hike, especially if you're getting bored of Flattop…read more The hike is shorter than Flattop (only 1.5 miles one way) and probably has less gain (although I'm not certain). Don't be fooled by its being in Eagle River, the driving distance is still pretty similar to Flattop. (you can go faster on many of the roads) The hike is pretty steep and the trail isn't incredibly defined in spots, but it's straightforward. Just keep going up. It's not a scramble like Flattop, you'll never need to use your hands. There ain't many trees up here, hence the name. You'll get some really unique view of the Eagle River area Chugach mountains. You can turn this into a larger hike by continuing up the ridge to Blacktail Ptarmigan Rocks, or a longer day by going up to Roundtop. If you want to go higher still, you can go up Vista Peak. This trailhead is still accessible in the winter, just be sure to bring gaiters and/or snowshoes. Huge snow drifts can accumulate on the trail, and you will probably punch through a couple times. This trail sees enough traffic that there will often be a bootpack leading up, though. I'd also recommend some form of foot-traction/spikes if doing it with snow. Watch out for: the winds. They can be pretty insane up here. I went up yesterday and it was sustained 40mph with 50-60mph gusts!

This peak is accessed from the penguin creek trail:…read morehttps://www.yelp.com/biz/penguin-creek-trail-anchorage Depending on who you ask, it may be considered the most difficult hike in Chugach State Park. It definitely requires lots of off-trail travel and navigation, that's for sure! Here's my trip report from when I summitted it: We left the penguin creek trail shortly after and began our traverse into the hanging valley. We ended up maintaining an elevation of roughly 1400 ft before steadily ascending to 2600 ft to drop down into the hanging valley. This decision was...OK. It wasn't a sufferfest, but it wasn't exactly great. There was definitely some bad snow and some alder-wrangling. The lake of any chlorophyll in any of the foilage made route-finding through it much easier...but there was still ample grunting and rubber-banding-gunning of branches. Rather than take the full ridge up Bird, we decided to go up-valley and then gain the ridge near "Point 4800"/"Point 4840" (I've heard it called both things, and on my map it isn't either of these elevations, anyone know where this name is documented?) Anyway, we started ascending form the valley floor at roughly 60.9989, -149.3137. It was mostly snow climbing on snow of marginal quality. Lower down it was very bad wallowing, so we climbed the rock bands. Eventually the rock bands ended and we were climbing a spine of snow (reminded my of the "hogsback" from my Mt Hood climbing days!). It was straightforward ascending, but extremely bad visibility was a little anxiety-inducing. We were in and out of rolling whiteouts and there was so little contrast my camera couldn't auto-focus, ha! We kept taking the obvious gully up, and eventually were dumped out onto a flattish rock band. From there steep, firm snow climbing to gained the ridge proper. (we didn't put our crampons on for this, but we probably should have) We aggressively side-hilled to avoid going up and over Point 48XX, a decision that didn't end up saving any time. Knife-hard Icy snow slopes peppered sloppy scree fields making travel annoying, unless you're really good at crampon-changing! Eventually we were at a low-point in the ridge, where I found a sneaky route down. I was a line I had heard described in some trip reports at the end of the valley that could take you directly to the summit ridge and probably save a lot of time, if it had snow on it. There was a ton of good-looking snow on it, so I noted it in caltopo (60.9981, -149.2958) for a possible, hot-pizza-at-Moose's Tooth-preserving descent short-cut. What we did next is hard to describe, but sticking to the ridge became difficult so we started side-willing east towards the true summit. Eventually we were on and off of really bad choss that was either dusted with half-melted powder or hardened by rime ice (similar to what Kevin Downie experienced last fall: https://www.peakbagger.com/climber/ascent.aspx?aid=1524570) . I can see how this would be a fun scramble in the summer, but dodging icy gullies and scraping choss with crampons was not! Abbey found an "easy" icy ramp to the summit area (I thought it was kinda scary), and after front-pointing on some rime, we reached the snow-and-rime dome that is the Bird Peak summit...to absolutely zero views. Vis was probably at 20-30 ft? There was enough visibility for us to scout an easy snow ramp that would take us down from the summit. (Anything to avoid down-climbing the Abbey M0 variation!) Long story short, the snow ramp was also extremely hard snow. It would've protected beautifully with even vertical pickets. We just kept our heads down and slowly front-pointed down it for what seemed like forever. Eventually we got back down to the scree slopes, took the crampons off, and started side-hilling back to the ridge (west). We went right to the descent line I had marked and...it still looked pretty good. I got out and tested it a little and it was just too hard to tell what the quality of the snow would be once we got out on it. I still had some mild anxiety from the summit downclimb and wasn't interested it going down a long slope with that level of firmness (especially with my crappy ultra light crampons, but that's for another time) We talked about it and, with some hesitancy, decided to go down the way we came up. We didn't side-hill Peak 48XX this time, we stayed pretty high, and travel was much faster! We found where we were topped out on the ridge, put our crampons on, and started down-climbing. The first small section was really steep, but eventually we were quickly plunge stepping down the slopes. I decided to go left (south) down a different way than what we came up to make it a pure snow down-climb. Heavy, wet snow in this area made for perfect wet-cement, slow-and-steady glissade conditions. We then trudged through chunky-water-style snow back to our tent, and we quickly saturated our gaitered mountaineering boots. Good day in the hills? Um, kinda?

This is a great trail!…read more But I don't hike it much... Why? My (your, kind reader!) State Park pass doesn't work here. You need a special pass to park here. Or, you can buy a day pass. The year membership is $25, you are effectively joining the Anchorage Ski Club. More details here: http://arcticvalley.org/anchorage-ski-club/ However... You can also access this trail by going to the South Fork Eagle River trail: https://www.yelp.com/biz/south-fork-eagle-river-trail-anchorage After about a mile of hiking, you'll see a sign post pointing right (if you are hiking in) to Rendezvous Ridge. This will take you up onto the ridge where you can hike parallel to the South Fork trail with WAY better views. There is a lot of up and down on the ridge, but none of it is the type of climbing that requires a rope. It's the perfect way to spend a long day when the weather's good. There are even numerous flat spots where you could backcountry camp. (there isn't any water up here though, so plan accordingly!) Eventually the ridge connects to Triangle Peak. This is a hideously difficult-looking mountain from the South Fork trail but...it's a puppy dog when you're right up on it. It's a scramble up loose blocks of rock, similar to Flattop, although much longer. It's about 8 miles from the car to Triangle Peak from the East Fork Trail. There are tons of Dall Sheep all along the ridge. They kept sauntering ahead of me, I felt like I was herding them. This area (the area near the parking lot) is also very good for berry picking.

This is the sister trail to the South Fork Trail…read more It's very interesting because you walk under and around all the ski lifts connected to the ski lodge. I'm going to try and give a comprehensive review for this. From the Glenn, take the Arctic Valley exit like you are headed to Moose Run Golf Course. You'll pass the golf course on your left and the driving range on your right. The road will turn to dirt/gravel and head up and incline. Just keep going until the road ends at the ski lodge. There is a 5 fee per vehicle and a trail map guide at the parking lot. From here you have lots of options. We headed out to the overlook. It was about a ten minute walk. Right before the overlook there is a four way. The overlook is straight ahead and the left trail heads up toward the ridge. Once you head up to ridge. It is a clear gravel/dirt trail at least wide enough for an ATV. I would say the hike is moderate. You head up for quite a while (about 2 miles). At around the two mile mark you will be able to see down into the valley with the South Fork Trail. As best as I could gather, you're to the left of the South Fork Trail parking. From here you have several options. You could head down following the trail along the chair lift. It's muddy. It's about a 1.5 mile stretch down. Or You can continue up the next ridge or around the peak in front of you and check out all the trails you see across the valley. Lots of options. Hope this helps!

What a great hike/climb!…read more Depending on who you ask, this is either an extremely difficult hike or a non-technical climb. There is one section where, if you don't have experience rock climbing, you might be pretty sketched out. But, fear not, there are fixed ropes! I'd just caution on not relying on them 100%. I might also recommend wearing a helmet. This climb starts at Eklutna Lake: https://www.yelp.com/biz/eklutna-lakeside-trail-eklutna From there you travel 10.5 miles along the lake to the trailhead. I'd HIGHLY recommend doing this with a mountain bike. I rented one from here (they are open till 10pm!): https://www.yelp.com/biz/downtown-bicycle-rental-sales-and-repair-anchorage?osq=mountain+bike I'm not a good cyclist and it took me about 90 minutes to get to the trailhead. Once there, you go up a densely vegetated trail for about 1.6 miles. It's not quite bush whacking but...in a month or two it probably will be. Eventually you find a creek, take this up into a large, scree-riddled gully. You then ride this gully up to the summit. And it's gorgeous. As you undulate up and down the gully, the canyon narrows and widens, the vegetation changes, creeks wind through it, it's incredible. Eventually you're on the SE face which is a pretty easy scree-scramble to the summit. Views from the summit are incredible. The main thing that makes this hard is the gain: 7,000 ft of it. That's a lot for a Chugach hike. (For comparison, Flattop is about 1,300 ft)

The climb to this peak starts at the overflow lot (where all the ATVrs park) for the Eklutna Lake…read moreTrailhead: https://www.yelp.com/biz/eklutna-lakeside-trail-eklutna Somehow I'd gotten it into my thick skull that West Twin was more difficult that East Twin (https://www.yelp.com/biz/east-twin-peak-palmer). Somehow I've done East Twin twice, and back-burnered West Twin. I was wrong. I was silly. This is probably one of the most pleasant peak-bagging experiences I've had in the Chugach: - no people - amazing fall weather: crisp and cold on approach; sunny, warm, and glorious for the rest of the day - fun "bushwhacking": you go through the trees but it's very quick and easy travel - great summit views: fun to take shots of people on the summit of East Twin, I wish I had brought my telephoto! - lots of lazy sheep - we got back in time for ice cream at Rochelle's (https://www.yelp.com/biz/rochelles-ice-cream-stop-chugiak)

You've probably seen this peak a million times if you've ever driven up to Palmer…read more It's the second most-notable peak in the area, behind Pioneer (which is sits right next to). The twin peaks vaguely resememble a pint-sized version of the Tetons if you squint your eyes just right. To get to the tops of them, you need to start at Eklutna Lake: https://www.yelp.com/biz/eklutna-lakeside-trail-eklutna Take the trail that goes *away* from the lake, you'll quickly start gaining some elevation. Eventually you'll come to one of the most scenic trail benches in Alaska. Keep going up! The trail will end and you'll see an expanse of tundra in front of the craggy Twin Peaks. You want to go for the one on your right. (if you continue up the "hill" behind you, you'll summit pepper peak, which is a walk-up) You've got two options for summitting East Twin: East Ridge: this is on your (climber's) right. It's got some pretty exposed 4th class terrain and maybe one or two 5th-class moves. The climbing is easy but the consequences of a fall could be dire. (there are a couple spots where a fall might be fatal) Just keep making your way up the ridge, scrambling through the path of least resistance, until you can't anymore. If there is still snow on the ridge, you may need crampons. Main South Gully: this is a garbage chute of loose rock located roughly in the middle of the Twin Peaks massif. It's the descent route for the East Ridge route as well. This is the most common way people take to access the summit. While the movement isn't anywhere near as exposed as the East Ridge, rock fall can be a serious issue. The scree/talus here is very loose. If there are people ahead of you, they could easily knock stuff down on you. In winter/early spring, this gully is filled with snow and is probably more pleasant, however, avalanches would be a very real concern. It took us about 9 hours roundtrip, going up the East Ridge and down the Main South Gully. The views from the summit are incredible. Eklutna Lake and Bold Peak dominate the area and there is also a backside view of Pioneer Peak. On clear days, Denali can easily be seen. You'll also probably see lots of Dall Sheep on the way up/down. Summit post is a great resource for topping out on East Twin: http://www.summitpost.org/east-twin-peak/753392

This starts at the same trailhead:…read more https://www.yelp.com/biz/prospect-heights-trailhead-anchorage as Wolverine Peak: https://www.yelp.com/biz/wolverine-peak-anchorage I think of this one as a "baby Wolverine". Like.... *SPOILERS FOR A MARVEL MOVIE BELOW THIS* Like that little girl in the movie "Logan". *END SPOILERS* Anyway. It's a decent hike. The start is the same as Wolverine, and it's brushy as hell. It's scary. Bring bear spray, know how to use it and be loud. Once you exit the brush, the trail keeps going up and up, but no one point is super-steep. You won't use your hands (like flattop). There isn't much exposure (big cliff drops) here either, so it's a great hike for your friends that are afraid of heights. In all honesty though, I feel like the views from Wolverine are MUCH better...and it doesn't take THAT much longer (maybe an hour or two). So I'd probably do that one instead. This is a great winter hike as the trailhead is much easier to get to than others in town. It's not anywhere near as snow, or icy, or steep as even some place like Glenn Alps.

I see this hike as the Anchorage equivalent to Mt. Baldy in neighboring Eagle River. Also, most…read morelocals equate Mt. Baldy with Flattop. So... I guess you could say this is a far less crowded alternative to Flattop. It can be accessed via the Prospect Heights Trailhead and provides great views of the Anchorage bowl. It gets pretty windy up here sometimes so I would bring extra layers even on a sunny day. There's not much else to say except you reach Williwaw Lakes if you continue on towards the Campbell Creek Canyon Trail. Although most people seem to go the opposite direction for a pretty great overnighter.