2007-02-17 Trip to the Steese High Country

These are pictures I took on a day trip up the Steese from Fairbanks to the high country between 12 Mile and Eagle Summits. I've spent time in this country, hiking the Pinnell Trail a half-dozen or so times and worked a miserable fall at a goldmine below 101. I'd never seen it in winter though. The Yukon Quest mushers were due through here starting the next day, so there was more car traffic on the highway than usual (this seemed to be a good safety measure).

Deh Cho postholing over the crust at 12 Mile Summit. It looks pleasant enough, but it was brutal here. -25F, 25kt winds. Getting the camera out from under the parka and shedding the gloves to snap a picture was an ordeal. It wouldn't take much of a screwup at all to lose fingers here.
Same brutal conditions at the Pinnell trail head across from Eagle Summit. Here, though, a snowmachiner had driven up to the first knoll and the passage set the snow like concrete. As long as I stayed on the track, the crust held me.
Effete Eastern mountaineer.
Both of us were VERY happy to get back into the truck.
Coming down off Cleary summit heading toward Fairbanks. That's Denali on the horizon.