Alaska is the land of legends and I’ve always wanted to go ice climbing on the storied steeps of Valdez. I joined friends, Dr. Olga Dobranowski and Sarah Fritz, a practicing nurse, to explore this maritime land of snow and to our excitement, amazing ice climbing.
Valdez is situated on the coast with huge mountains surrounding its bay, and if you go a little inland, up river, there are magnificent ice routes in the Keystone Canyon. So we flew to Anchorage, drove five and half hours, to Valdez, and made the ice our home for the next few days, hurling our axes and kicking our crampons into the vertical surface until our arms and legs hung heavy from us like tree limbs downed by winter’s mighty weight.
My favorite climbs were the 5-pitch, 800-foot iconic ice face, “Bridalveil Falls,” and another 4-pitch, 650-foot classic called Greensteps, a route put up by Jeff Lowe and his partner, Jon Weiland, sometime in the 70s with rudimentary crampons and wood handled tools. Talk about adventure! Sub-zero temps kept us honest, and while I was bloodied at one point by a block of ice that shattered down on my face on the last day … There is something about the feel of ice climbing that makes it all worth it.
Ice grows in the shadows, but eventually the sun would get high enough in the sky to warm us at our backs and the briny air would waft up from seas below. Almost magically, in this space of shivers and hardship,a catharsis would wash over me … A gratitude that I was lucky enough to be there, in such incredible company, ascending — together —into the beautiful wonder of it all.
Adventure Photos
What’s in these photos? Courtesy of Olga! Eight snaps alternating between capturing us up close on various routes – suited up with helmets, backpacks, axes, crampons, harnesses, carabiners, ropes (and smiles) – and us at a distance as captured through the lens of a drone, a vantage that helps you see the scale and beauty of these cascading ice falls, where we look like ants hanging in space.
