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In June of 2017 my friends and I semi-naively stumbled into the world of wilderness packraft traverses. We had been developing the independent skills for some years (Wilderness travel, advanced navigation, whitewater safety) but had not applied them together to reach an objective.
A connection with Alaska had led me to Wrangell St. Elias National Park on several prior occasions and immediately felt that area calling to me. Between 2010-2013 we had traveled the two long remote roads permitting cars into the park, The McCarthy and Nabesna Roads. In 2014 I had the privilege of visiting the area from the air on a multi day flight in through the Wrangells, to McCarthy, out through the St. Elias Range and the Bagley Icefield. It would be the aerial photos from this trip that would inspire and form the backbone of the later 2018 Ice Route Traverse.
During winter of 2017 there were numerous discussions on route selection. The well establish, well documented Goat Trail in the park was among the possibilities. If we’re all being honest with each other, the lack of sustained glaciation along this route made it less attractive to me. There was some information, albeit somewhat sparse, regarding traveling from Skolai Pass towards the Fredrika Glacier, up and over the Pass and down to the Rhon Glacier.
After combing the internet and reviewing pictures against topographical maps/satellite imagery it appears that this route is actually guided, although at a (no pun intended) glacially slow pace. The semi-published route involved an additional flight OUT from the Chimney Mountain area on the far side of the Rhon Glacier which 1) required ascending from the Rhon/Nizina Glaciers through brush (unpleasant) 2) did not include packrafts. After more review we discovered that the Nizina river is a popular option for packrafts and full framed rafts alike that are flown in from McCarthy. In an attempt to combine both glacier travel and pacrafts I set about trying to find a way to link two semi-established routes into one less established route. The Skolai-Nizina Packraft Traverse was born. The linking of these two options necessitate the undescribed descent of the Rhon, then the Nizina Glacier to it’s terminus. Copious review of aerial imagery (both satellite and from airplanes – taken from internet sources) and topographical maps were only semi useful in determining a definitive route. In traveling on bare glacial ice, it’s ideal to link areas with little crevassing for ease of travel. It appeared that much of the route down the Rhon and Nizina would be relatively straightforward, however, the terminus of the Nizina has been becoming increasingly more complicated over recent years and aerial and satellite imagery was not very useful in suggesting a Left-down glacier, center, or right-down glacier approach. Flash forward to the bush flight in, high above the Nizina Glacier, I anxiously peered down snapping as many photos to later be analyzed for route with it still no obvious route through the talus/moraine/crevasse fields. Those hastily shot telephoto zoom shots would later be the deciding factor that led to our packraft descent of the Lower Skolai Creek alongside the Nizina Glacier. I specifically recount from this timeframe our bush pilot asking “so you’ve done this type of thing before?” as the gnarled, unrelenting crevasse field stretched out in front of the cockpit window.
Watching the plane fly away at then chilly Skolai Pass was rather sobering. I remembering thinking that it was unlike any experience that I had come across before. Absolute solitude. Exposure. Uncertainty. It was liberating and intimidating at the same time. I suppose another component of that was the 2 grizzlys we encountered 30 and 60 minutes, respectively, after landing.
On the first day we had some unfortunate rainy, snotty weather on the Skolai-Nizina Traverse that was only consoled by a campfire at the base of the Frederika Glacier. Fortunately, although not forecasted, the following day was a beautiful bright day to head up the Frederika Glacier and over the pass to the Rhon Glacier.
The Frederika was extremely straightforward with smooth ice and very little crevassing. In years to follow we would find that sometimes these bare ice glaciers are crisscrossed with rivers of meltwater that make travel complex, however, the Frederika was quite simple. The upper Frederika forked and at least in June 2017 the snow began slightly above that point. Although we didn’t know it at the time, 2017 was actually an extraordinarily low snow year and it was very unusual to land at Skolai Pass in mid-June and successfully cross Frederika Pass at 6500′. We did finally encounter snow at Frederika Pass as it, much to my dismay, blanketed the small uncrevassed valley glacier that had to be crossed. Side note: The USGS Quadrangle map is incorrectly labeled for this pass, although, at first glance you’d never know it. What is listed as 5000′ actually turns out to be 6000′ it becomes a very unpleasant surprise to discover snow (and post-holing in glaciated terrain) where you’d thought there would be none…
The other side of Frederika Pass was rocky talus fields giving way to tundra…Prime bear country with lots of sign to support that conclusion. The scope of the Rhon Glacier dwarfs that of the Frederika and makes the area feel very unique. Glaciers this long and wide are really something special to behold. We strolled through the tunda until the re-emergence of brush made us more carefully evaluate our route the glacier. After navigating some semi-friendly moraine fields we strolled down the Rhon to the Nizina with ease.
After considerable review the previous night of satellite imagery we elected to stay left-down glacier. within about a half mile of the glacial terminus the cracks started to open up and then the moraine fields started. After a considerable amount of effort we reviewed aerial photos taken from the flight in and elected to investigate a possible packraft option alongside down lower Skolai Creek.
Above where the creek T-bones the glacier Skolai Creek is Class IV/V with big big water. That said, there is a YouTube video of someone descending it in a packraft during low water conditions, presumably late summer, from the Skolai Pass area. In June 2017 the river was RAGING above the intersection with the Nizina Glacier. When we found a safe place to enter the water we blew up the boats and off we went. The creek was Class II/III- at the time. As a stroke of bad luck, our strongest paddler hit a rock and immediately flipped his boat which subsequently took off without him. Andy’s boat ended up a couple hundred yards downstream grating itself against an iceberg in the lake below…not cool.
The Nizina River proper was a hoot to packraft. It’s Class II/III- at the top with splashy, fun rapids. Nothing overly serious, but it should be respected as it has claimed lives. Below the top 25% the river becomes a braided and easy. The take-out is ABOVE the old defunct bridge. DO NOT pass it…as we did. The hike back to town is 8-10 very buggy miles. We arranged a pickup.
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