Girdwood to Penguin Traverse

The arrival of snow in the high mountains of South Central Alaska is eminent but Karol, Jen and I managed to tag one of the area’s classic ridge traverses recently, sneaking a good one in before snow closes the door on running up high. Girdwood to Indian via the high ridgeline that looms above the Seward Highway spanning between California Creek to the South and Penguin Peak to the North is one of the best outings found here. Roman Dial, no stranger to Alaskan adventure, calls it THE best ridge traverse he’s done. Hyperbole? Perhaps. But it’s been on our lists for a while and we were psyched to have a look.

There’s quite a bit of discussion amongst those who’ve done the traverse as to the best direction to travel. The two main variables that get discussed are the technical ridgeline on the North end and the slightly cryptic drop into California Creek near Girdwood. Some argue it’s good to do the rocky parts off Penguin when you’re still fresh. Towards the other end, however, miss the trail into the finishing drainage and you’re in for some Alaskan quality bush bashing and bear dodging that you soon won’t forget. Start from this end, on the other hand and you’re likely to find your way through the alders into the alpine and onto the ridge without much fuss following a beat in trail and some flagging that shows the way.

Eat Up!

Every big day starts with a tasty meal, in this case, my version of Breakfast Pizza

Onward

There was a threat of building high winds the day we went so we opted to keep them at our backs and started from California Creek in Girdwood. We opted for a car shuttle, leaving a vehicle and recovery treats in a cooler at the trailhead for Penguin. Starting on Crow Pass Road,  the going was straightforward through the woods and when the trail thinned out as the alders did the same, a few key pieces of flagging kept us on track.

A good place to be "bearanoid"The grind to the ridge is just under 3,000 feet, mostly on an indistinct, near vertical track and shallow tundra vegetation. Going down this section would be strenuous and potentially sketchy in the wet due to its 35°+ pitch, something to consider when choosing your poison.

Steeper than it looks

A small segment of the route aheadOnce on the ridge, the going was easy and running was often possible. None of the climbs were particularly long but the constant up and down added up to over 9,000 feet. Footing was generally good with very little loose scree on any of it. The goats and sheep know the way so following their signs nearly always avoided any route shut downs.

Lots of cruiser running along the way

Only 4,500 verts down to the car now.Although we happily rambled along the pleasant ridgeline for nearly seven hours, I knew that the final descent off Penguin was going to suck. I’ve skied the run many times and was dreading what walking down it was going to do to my quads and knees. Much tastier in winter

It went fairly quickly but did the damage I figured it would. It took me the better part of the work week to get over. I still prefer to ski it. The nice thing about finishing on Penguin is that once down the avalanche path, you have a short ten-minute run on a road to the car. I stopped the watch at just over eight hours. 

Fueling

Although you could likely fuel this type of low intensity outing on just about anything that tastes good, I chose my standard Gu Energy diet of about 200 calories/hour. My new Salomon S-Lab Adv Skin3 5 Set running vest comes with some nifty 500ml soft flasks so I decided to try them out. I was able to put 15 gels into one flask with a bit of water, enough for 7 hours of fun for me. I supplemented with a couple packs of Chews. The only down side of the single vessel on a long outing is that I couldn’t vary the flavors. I opted for a mix of Lemonade Roctane, Cherry Lime Roctane and standard caffeine-free Lemon Sublime gel. Having a couple of smaller flasks would allow me some of my favorite Salted Caramel and Caramel Macchiato. Next time. With the cool fall temps, I was able to get by with 1.5 liters of water in my vest bladder. The low snow pack this past winter left no water source along the way, something that can be found most years at about two thirds distance to Penguin.