Trip Report
Splitboarding in Alaska with Gus Jepsen
January 14, 2025
2022 Jones Backcountry Adventure Grant Trip Report
Excited to present a trip report from the 2022 Jones Backcountry Adventure Grant winner - Gus Jepsen of Carbondale, Colorado.
Gus was awarded the grant in 2022 for his proposal to attempt a traverse of the Elk Mountains in his home state of Colorado. Fickle weather and dangerous avalanche conditions the last three years forced Gus and his partners to rethink their plans and shift their focus to planning an expedition to a range that offered an equal opportunity for adventure, but a more consistent snowpack.
In April 2024, Gus and a crew of friends used the grant to help fund an expedition to the Alaska Range in Denali National Park. They set up a base camp on a glacier in the Little Switzerland region and spent the better part of two weeks navigating through crevasse fields to access striking couloirs that split the flanks of the many towering peaks in that zone.
Check out Gus’ trip report and photos to get inspired to start working on your application for the 2025 Jones Adventure Grants.
Splitboarding in Little Switzerland
This trip was the culmination of three years of planning, waiting for conditions, waiting some more, and eventually pivoting. Our original plan was to do a classic traverse of the Elk Mountains in Colorado with a twist of adding descents of 14ers along the way. However, this objective proved to be untenable with Colorado’s fickle snowpack.
When we first received the grant in Spring 2022, our snowpack had a prolific layer of facets, even by Colorado standards. We had a few weeks blocked out to get the traverse done, but the snowpack wouldn’t cooperate. The following year, we had a big winter, so good that it maintained a winter snowpack into May with all our wonderful weak layers. Year three rolled around with my wife pregnant and work commitments stacking up. Our window of opportunity seemed to be quickly closing, so rather than hoping for the best with our snowpack in Colorado, I convened with my three partners, Blake Newby, Andrew Pearce and Gabriel King, and we made the call to pivot and head north to Alaska.
Pulling off a successful expedition requires timing and luck. We planned to spend three weeks in Alaska, which allowed us to stay flexible and keep our options open. Leading up to the trip, the four of us bounced around a few ideas about where to go and decided to focus on Little Switzerland, an area in the southwest corner of Denali National Park known for steep couloirs and deep snow. Our plan was pretty simple: Hire an air taxi to fly us into the range, set up a cozy basecamp in a safe spot on the glacier, and go splitboarding!
We arrived in Anchorage weary-eyed, but in high spirits. After a quick coffee stop, we hit the grocery store and bought an expedition’s worth of food and liquor in anticipation of spending 14 days on the glacier. The next day, we sorted all our food and gear at Gabe’s apartment in Anchorage. With our expedition packed, we headed to Talkeetna, hoping to get ahead of a forecasted storm and catch an afternoon flight into the Alaska Range.
After checking in with our air taxi, we headed straight to the Fairview Inn to wait. About an hour later, we got the call that we would be spending the night in the hangar; better luck tomorrow. We awoke to a worsening forecast and were told to return in five days after the storm had passed.
The following week, we caught a break in the weather and were able to fly in. While waiting things out in Anchorage was a bummer, the good news was that the storm dumped a lot of snow, setting us up for excellent conditions on our trip.
After setting up our basecamp, we started exploring close to home, checking out lines from a small mountain called the Munchkin. We spotted a sizeable crown from a slab that broke free on the Crown Jewel, ruling out a pair of couloirs we hoped to ride. So we returned to basecamp for a quick snack before heading up a line with a different aspect on Middle Troll.
Snow rolled in the next day, forcing us to wait things out in our cook tent. We spent the day listening to podcasts, cooking bacon, and drinking whiskey. The following day, the skies cleared and we headed down the glacier to scout other lines. We spotted a steep rollover on the Throne and had a few really fun powder laps. Things looked much less wind-affected on this part of the glacier, and we took photos to review at camp that night.
The next day, we awoke to more snow, keeping us close to camp. We spent the day packing out a runway because our tracks from flying in were almost completely filled in with snow.
Life on the glacier has a nice rhythm to it. The mornings are slow and cold as you patiently wait for the sun to crest over the ridge. Once it does, a flurry of activity takes place to gear up for the day. We’d spend our days splitboarding, returning to camp with just enough time to dry out gear in the fading evening sun. After a hearty dinner, we’d crawl into our tents and repeat the process all over again the next day.
During the second half of our trip, the weather cooperated and we were able to knock out some bigger objectives. We set a skin track through a heavily crevassed section of the glacier above basecamp to access a steep couloir on the Crown Jewel. The north-facing aspect was shaded and provided significantly better snow quality than anything we had previously ridden.
The following day we headed down the glacier, picked our way through more crevasses, and bootpacked up a line on Italy’s Boot. On our last day of riding, we stuck close to camp, opting to reuse our skin track through the crevasse field above camp to climb another steep couloir on the Crown Jewel. The next day we broke down camp and flew back to Talkeetna, capping things off with drinks at the Fairview Inn.
Looking back, it was a great trip with a solid crew. Little Switzerland ended up being a good choice as it offered lines on multiple aspects, allowing us to adapt to ever-changing conditions. Spending time in big mountains is always a treat, especially with friends who share the same passions. Big thanks to Jones Snowboards and the American Alpine Club for making this trip happen!
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