It's that silly season, the one for planning next summer's adventures.
Already, people are asking for info about a packraft trip that Jason Geck, Jay Jay Brooks, and I did back in 2003 we named "Arctic Circle". It's a cool trip, maybe one of the all-time coolest ones that I have done with a packraft. It's also part of an on-again/off-again guidebook idea, so I thought that I'd just post it here.
I'd welcome comments and ideas on the format and presentation. Ultimately the guidebook might just find its home here on the "Roaming Dials", as I don't fancy publishing it myself and doubt anyone out there does either.
Enjoy your own planning and dreaming for next summer.
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I think the format of publishing it here is perfect. Maybe make it available as a pdf, so one could just save it and print it out.
ReplyDeleteIt does look like an awesome trip, by the way. Photos are pretty and the description has me all fired up and ready to go!
Roman - excellent idea. I was wondering when you were going to produce a collection of your trips in a guidebook-type format. At this point I don't want winter to end, but your Arrigetch circuit trip reminds me that we live a playground of endless fun no matter what season. Ed
ReplyDeleteRoman - it was quite the surprise for me to see this trip posted... I proposed and have been discussing this EXACT same route with a couple friends for the past three months! I had no idea you had completed it in '03. Exceptional documentation. I'm glad to hear it is of the epic scale I imagined it would be. Nice route selection, I have to say! Josh
ReplyDeleteSounds like a classic, just need to find somebody to team up with. Couple of questions:
ReplyDelete1) Best month to go in your opinion?
2) Any recommendations on air charter service?
Thanks - Scotty
Scotty:
ReplyDelete1) June has light good weather but snow.
July has light, worse weather, sun and bugs
August has no bugs, maybe good weather, less sun.
September is cold.
IMO Late June.
2) See if Coyote Air will fly there; otherwise maybe Brooks Range Aviation out of Bettles.
Thank you! I had the exact same question about season.
DeleteHi Roman,
ReplyDeleteThe presentation style and prose looks/sounds great. Super descriptive and helpful for non-Alaskans to picture the terrain (like me)...I particularly like how you broke up the trip into "bite-sized" pieces showing mileage, elevation chg, etc. And my imagination is going off like fireworks for when I can do it!
Would you entertain my humble commentary?
- The labels in the 1:250,000 map are hard to read b/c they are on top of each other (methinks they are intended solely for the 1:63,000 version).
- A short "legend" for the maps would be awesome. Does the purple line mean a side trip? Blue is water and red land?
- You mention a rope as unnecessary on Indep. and Decep. pass; is that the worst of the "mountaineering" part?
As far as publishing goes - that's so 2004 :) - putting together an e-book would probably be just as effective, less cost and hit all us packrafters with more viral intensity. And we could load it on our iPod to save weight in the bush plane. My vote goes for the .pdf!
Cheers and thanks again for the write-up.
-Kevin
I find July to often have very settled weather in Central Brooks Range. August can be rainy. Always depends on the year, and bugs can come early (early June), and persist until August, so plan on some bugs, no matter when.
ReplyDeleteKevin:
ReplyDelete- Does the purple line mean a side trip? It's the route over Ariel to get from Arrigetch Valley into Awilinyak -- it's a typo really
- Blue is water and red land? Yes
- You mention a rope as unnecessary on Indep. and Decep. pass; is that the worst of the "mountaineering" part? yes, Independence Pass in particular
Just finished the trip last week. Amazing trip! A friend and I flew out of Fairbanks on the 18th of June into Bettles via Wrights Air service. The cost was $270 for round trip ticket per person. The flight from Bettles was dependent on your load...we did it with the two of us in a cessna...around $800 for both of us, and a little cheaper for the pick up...Julie at Brooks Range Aviation will email you a cost sheet, she was awsome...www.atalkata.com has a slide show, just click on the wolf print. Water was a little low, but weather was great, mosquitos were pretty bad at times...We did the whole trip in about 8 days. That was pretty full on hiking for about 10-11 hours a day. The river days makes up for a lot of time. Portage Pass was hit by a land slide and the bush wack has since turned into a highway straight down to the Alatna...that was a great surprise. To tired to find the hot springs, heard they were quite low at the time. Best to go light on this trip, the park service requires you to take bear barrels. Our packs were around 50ish at the start, most amazing trip I have ever done in my little boat! A true classic.
ReplyDeleteDo you have any pictures of the west face of Xanadu? I am planning on an expedition there and pictures of that face are elusive. Also how difficult is Independence Pass and Deception Pass- recommended gear?
ReplyDeleteLooking at doing this this coming summer with some friends. Combining the map images with some USGS US Topo GeoPDF maps, I think I managed to create a Google Earth route of this. In case it's helpful to anyone else, here it is (.kmz file): https://1drv.ms/u/s!Aj4hDxhinTdbq3V5t9XGkV6fIaVO
ReplyDeleteThis route is not as great as it sounds. There's no real whitewater unless heavy rains swell the upper Noatak above Lucky Six Creek and also make the Alatna spicy. Furthermore, the steep talus between the Arrigetch and the Noatak is dangerous, as the angle of repose of the giant boulders is at very critical point with climate warming melting the ice that keeps those steep coffin sized boulders at such a steep angle.
ReplyDeleteMore fun and doable and safe is the three day loop up and over Ariel then down the Awlinyak and back to the Alatna Bar strip used by Coyote Air. Check out http://packrafting.blogspot.com/2014/03/arrigetch-creeking-25-years-of.html to piece together the Ariel-Awlinyak Arrigetch Loop.
And if you do want to hike from the Arrigetch to the Noatak the best way follows a series of five passes for 35 miles to the mouth of Lucky Six Creek that begins at the pass above the 2000 foot contour along Arrigetch Creek and ens with the unnamed pass leading into Lucky Six just south of Gull Pass. I'd call that route the "Treeline Traverse" if you need a name.
Hi Roman,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the years of inspiration. Was studying up for a Brooks traverse, when I noticed your new comment here, on your 12-years-published route! This was the route that first brought me to the Gates, and in the back of my head, has been the 'end-goal' for a long time.
I'm so curious about 100 things, but if you had a second to respond:
- Are each of the main passes of your original route (Independence, Deception, Talus Top, Skinny Bou, Mystery Spot) equally dangerous here? Or are there specific passes in the route that have become especially dangerous?
- What is the impetus for this change-of-heart? Did you re-run the route, or hear from a group that's run it recently? Your judgment is gold obviously, but I'm curious what new info came your way.
I tried to map out your Treeline Traverse (https://caltopo.com/m/HPUCF), alongside the original Arctic Circle traverse, and the route that Luc Mehl took on his traverse. If you had a second to take a look, two questions:
- Does my Treeline Traverse route look correct? I had trouble identifying the five passes you mention.
- Do you think the two passes Luc did are a safer alternative to the original Arctic Circle route? Or would you have the same concerns there?
I'm primarily a hiker, who uses a packraft when needed (so, I guess I'm a raftpacker as well). Low water at the Noatak headwaters is less important to me than the safety of the hiking portions. Trying to piece together the best route moving forward, in a rapidly-heating Arctic.
Thanks again,
Devin
Hi Devin,
DeleteWell, I have repeated the route, yes, or at least the portion over Talus Top, Skinny Bou and Mystery Spot. I have also heard from someone who wrote me recently that "Independence Pass was fun," which I took as tongue-in-cheek. My feeling is that the Deception Pass is fairly stable on bedrock, rather than on talus with a heart of permafrost or even worse, degrading moraine. So it's likely doable in good weather with clear visibility.
The impetus for the change of heart is several-fold: first, I have received complaints that people following my routes are getting in trouble in the Gates of the Arctic Park--see for instance "No Place for Novices" in the print magazine Adventure Journal 21 (https://shop.adventure-journal.com/shop/adventure-journal-issue-21/); second, I have found that water levels are too variable across time, bushwhacking and route-finding skills too variable across people, and the NW Alaskan Arctic so rapidly changing that my advice can be troublesome and misinterpreted; finally, the Treeline Traverse is neat, and it has no river packrafting so I will likely not catch flack for it getting people into trouble. The traverse is still very much "No place for novices" as it has some stream crossings that are serious on foot (but with plenty of room to cross in a packraft if you are carrying one en route to the Noatak). I will post a map and description shortly.
Unfortunately, I have not seen Luc's route first-hand. But I have discovered that, FOR ME at least, neither high resolution imagery (i.e., 1m pixels) nor topo maps are a good substitute for on-the-ground route finding. So I cannot speak to his route. I do recall him being rather cagey when I asked him about his experience there.
Treeline Traverse: http://packrafting.blogspot.com/2021/09/the-treeline-traverse.html
DeleteThanks for posting the route, valuable info as always. I purchased a print copy of the magazine you linked and read your article - it was a good read. Thanks again,
DeleteDevin