Alsek River Day 4

July 9, 2012

Layover day.

Goatherd Mountain

Slick rock

John, Pat, Anita and I hike up Goatherd Mountain. Would like to see up the glacier to the ice field. The first section of the hike is to get to the ridge that leads to the top. We do a little rock scrambling and reach a section of slick rock that is at about a 30° slope and goes for about 30 feet. I'm a bit nervous but make it to the top! This brings us to the ridge and now we are walking through low brush and tundra. At a couple of stream crossings we have to push through the ever present willows, we haven't done a hike yet without forcing our way through willows. From camp we can see the waterfalls that these streams create as they go over the edge.

Just after wer stop for lunch it starts to rain. It rains pretty steadily, the temp is still fairly warm and we are moving so we stay pretty warm. We continue to hike, going back, away from camp, up to even higher peaks that we couldn't see from the bottom. We cross a snowfield or two and are headed up to another high spot hoping to see to mountain goats on the other side, but no such luck, the high spot is a false ridge. My knees are starting to stiffen and we still have to get back down. We tell John and Anita that they can continue hiking but they decide to come back camp with us.


We look for a different way down to avoid the slick rock slope (now wet and probably really slippery) that we came up. Lots of scrambling, sit on your butt and drop down off of rocks scrambling, to get down. Everyone makes it back to camp safely.