Trip report
Splitboarding in Alaska with Mikey Alosio
October 18, 2023
Excited to present a trip report from the 2023 Jones Backcountry Adventure Grant winner - Mikey Alosio of Crested Butte, Colorado.
In April 2023, Mikey and his partner Jack Caprio used the grant to help fund an expedition to the Neocola Range in southern Alaska. The pair got dropped off on a glacier by bush plane and spent a week riding lines before starting a 50+ mile split/packraft traverse following a partially iced over river to the ocean. They got picked up where the river met the ocean at the Cooke Inlet.
Check out Mikey’s trip report and photos to get inspired to start working on your application for the 2024 Jones Adventure Grants.
Splitrafting The Neocola's
Most Americans spend hours scrolling social media. Not me. When I’m not splitboarding, maps and books are what devour my time. Pouring over trip reports from intriguing alpine areas and cross referencing the zones on digital maps is what inspires my motivation in the mountains.
I had never heard of the Neacola Range before stumbling across an article published in The American Alpine Club journal about some new climbing routes recently put up in this remote range. The article was primarily focused on the huge rock features, but it also mentioned there were some massive couloirs in the area. I started digging around on FATMAP and Google Earth and found the jackpot - an unnamed mountain with multiple steep and narrow four thousand foot splitters on its northeast face.
Locating the face was a thrill, but the real fun began as I dove into figuring out how to ride these monster lines. My favorite ways to travel in the mountains are via splitboard and packraft and I quickly realized this trip would be the perfect “splitraft” trip. If everything lined up we could ride the lines and then exit the glacial zone by floating a river to the ocean and our pick up spot.
With my ultimate partner Jack Caprio onboard, and the support of the Jones grant, the trip becomes a reality in April 2023. We give ourselves two weeks, a week to spend on the glacier and a week for exit travel. The legend himself, Doug Brewer from Alaska Backcountry Adventures is our bush pilot. The plan is for him to fly us from the Kenai Peninsula to the heart of the Neacola Range in Lake Clark National Park and drop us off on the Pitchfork glacier. We will shred for a week, then split and float 55+ miles down the Big River for a pick up at the Cooke Inlet.
Flying into the zone we carefully scout the rapids and ice blockades on the Big River and our route options through the glacial moraines. Before finding a smooth spot to land, Brewer gives us a tour of the entire glacial valley from the sky. The lines we came to ride looked incredible, and enormous!
We set up base camp on the Pitchfork Glacier at the base of the unnamed face I had found on Google Earth. Because we plan to float out with all our gear, we pack light. Floorless shelters, 20-degree bags, and just enough food and fuel to last 14 days. We head to bed that first night fully stoked. In the morning we will set a booter up our first couloir!
Looking up at our first line of the trip.
We could not have asked for a better start to the day. After some coffee and breakfast, we leave camp under good weather and after a couple switchbacks we start bootpacking. Hours of booting later we still aren’t to the top of the line. Flurries begin falling and the temps drop so we pick up our pace. Topping out we’re ecstatic, but the weather is only getting worse so we quickly transition and begin our descent.
Descent conditions are a bit of everything, from wind pressed alpine powder to ice.
Gusty winds motivate us to build wind walls to shield our tents.
On day three we explore an unnamed fork of the glacier which gives us an imposing view of the line we climbed on day two. We dub the face Nicholas Cage Face.
Following a down day of well below zero temps, we score a perfect weather window and decide to climb another couloir on the face above camp.
Working our way up another four-thousand-foot couloir
This line gets much steeper toward the top. We climb the skinny ramp in the center and ride down on the climbers right of the cliffs.
Epic views from the top of the line.
Dropping in, the line seems to go on forever. We leapfrog our way pitch by pitch and stop a couple times to soak in the surreal surroundings. Later that day we name the three lines above camp Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. The line we had ridden earlier is Breakfast.
That evening we check the extended weather forecast and find out that a large weather event is coming in a few days that could trap us in the mountains for another week or more. It’s time to start our trek to the ocean.
We load up and snag a last look at the lines we rode as we leave camp.
Exiting off the glacier proves to be entertaining as we drag our packrafts around boulders, glacial ponds, crevasses, and massive seracs.
Roped up split skiing while pulling a boat is hysterical.
Jack and his boat breach a rise in the glacial maze.
Leaving the glacier we trade the danger of crevasses for the danger of Alaskan wildlife. We pitch our tents that night on the banks of the Tlikakila River.
On the second day of our exit traverse we find our first floatable water. We float as far as we can before exiting the river to climb over Lake Clark Pass.
After exiting the river we hammer out a few more miles and skin well into the evening. We don’t want to miss our pick up and get stuck in the rain for a week.
We start day three of our exit with a spooky crossing of Summit Lake. Nearing the shore the ice starts breaking beneath our skis and we watch water start creeping up our boots.
We reach the Big River midday and thankfully find floatable water. We jump back in the packrafts and float the rest of the day until we’re forced to make camp because of a gear failure. The floor of Jack’s packraft develops tiny holes from hitting some shallow spots on the river and begins taking on water. Just as his raft starts taking on substantial water, we round a bend in the river and find a perfect place to set up camp and start a fire to dry gear.
Pitching our tents right on the river bank we make a fire and repair Jack’s raft using patches and glue. The large storm is now only a day away so we’re eager to make the final push to our pick up spot the next day.
Waking up the next morning is exciting. As soon as the sun touches camp the temps rise dramatically which makes the thought of floating all day in ice water a little more appealing. Floating down the river we encounter fun, splashy rapids with the occasional portage where the ice conceals the river. Jack barely manages to scrape through one tight ice tunnel, but I don’t fare so well. Wedging the bow under the ice I flip and have to exit my raft. I quickly swim to the side of the river and find an iceberg ramp to get out of the water and drain the water out of the boat. The move gets my heart racing, but I'm still smiling.
After a few more hours of floating we are nearly at the pick up spot. Just as we exit the river for another portage we see Brewer flying in over our heads. He makes a few low passes and signals out the window that he found a good landing spot about a quarter mile from us. When we skin up to his plane he has two PBR tall boys in the river waiting for us.
This trip was beyond phenomenal. After dreaming of this trip for multiple years, completing it was hard to believe. The lines we rode were some of the most exciting I have ever dropped into and every aspect of the trip from the glacier camping to the exit traverse to the packrafting was phenomenally fun. Having such a positive and skilled partner as Jack was also critical to making this trip successful. Thank you Jones and the American Alpine Club for giving us this golden opportunity to chase our dreams and turn a wild idea into a trip of a lifetime.
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