As of April 20, there are 61 registered backcountry users climbing and skiing in the range. Unfortunately, due to unsettled weather, many of them may still be playing the waiting game at their air taxis.
April is a popular time to recreate at lower elevations in the Alaska Range. There have been teams climbing and skiing in the Pika, Ruth Gorge, and Kahiltna Glaciers over the past few weeks. Unsettled weather since about April 14 has resulted in only a few windows for climbing, skiing, and travel in and out of the range.
Early season skiing on Glacier 1
On the upside, the stormy weather will be a nice refresh to climbing and skiing routes on the south side of the central Alaska Range. Bergschrunds and snow bridges were described as “anemic” by one team, so we will take what snow we can get.
Last report from Moose’s Tooth was submitted on 4/14: low snow, difficult to reach some anchors, needed screws for protection up top. This may have changed after a week of steady snow.Skiers out of the Pika this weekend reported 35 cms of new snow over five days, with likely more now. Multiple persistent slab avalanches reported, running about 30 to 50 cm’s deep. Human triggered and natural.
If you head into the range, please share conditions reports at the ranger station. These are a great resource for other climbers. If you check out after hours, you can submit your observations electronically; there is a QR code at the station when you drop off your Clean Mountain Cans.
Ranger Team Update
The 2026 Denali South District Team
Our team of 11 mountaineering rangers just completed five weeks of preseason training to get prepared to the 2026 climbing season. EMT refresher training, ropes training with Rigging for Rescue, an avalanche training and traverse out of the range, and finally, helicopter and short haul training. We are ready to respond!
Brushing up on skills with Rigging for Rescue
In other exciting news, all of the gear for Basecamp and 14,200’ camp infrastructure was successfully inserted into Basecamp on April 14. Every year, we work with the Army National Guard out of JBER and the Sugar Bears out of Fort Wainwright to move close to 10,000 pounds of gear into the range. Using their CH-47 helicopters (Chinooks) is significantly more efficient than using Otters or our AStar helicopter, and we are always grateful for their help. When weather permits, we will separate the gear destined for 14 camp and use our helicopter—more capable at higher elevations—to sling load it up the mountain.
A Chinook has significantly more cargo space than our high-altitude helicopter
West Buttress and Higher Elevations
The upper mountains will be seeing some traffic soon; the first team of the year was briefed and has started their journey toward the mountain, traversing in from Petersville. Other teams will start trickling in for orientations next week, with climber volume really picking up the second week of May. We currently have 979 climbers registered for McKinley and 9 for Foraker.
14k’ Camp sits empty awaiting climbers. Our pilots Tide Smid and Jon Combs got some pictures on a high-altitude training and recon flight.
The first West Buttress patrol of the year will be lead by Scotty Barrier and Joey McBrayer. They are scheduled to fly in April 27. Joe Reichert is headed in to set up Basecamp on April 25.
Short Haul refresher training