This peak is relatively low elevation, and starts at a marked trail head: the generically named "East Fork Trail" on the south side of Eklutna Lake. Given the distance from the trailhead and relatively low elevation Abbey and I definitely underestimated this one, DO NOT be like us! We leisurely biked in on Saturday morning, set up a camp on Eklutna Lake near the crowded Bold airstrip, and were hiking out on the trail by 1pm. We didn't have a route in mind that we were 100% committed to. We had read mixed things about many of them. The trail was delightfully NOT overgrown (I've been in here just a few weeks late in the season, and it was a jungle). We got to the falls and started trying to find a way up the West/NW Ridge. I encountered my first strand of scratchy Devils Club, looked at Abbey and said "I'm not doing this". We had also caught a glimpse of the trail as it continued across the creek, it looked to be in great shape. And it was. As we continued to navigate the mountain, we continued to look up toward the summit and see a face littered with walls of vertical rock. It all looked very, very bad. A maze of grassy slopes and rock drop-offs. Eventually, we had curved around south and west of the summit and kept going. We then saw a clear, easy route up the mountain.! It was a magical veggieless path of scree and then snow up an alder-choked stretch of mountain. Just like we had heard it described by others. And then we saw a black bear right next to the scree slopes, munching on grass. We yelled at Them, and then yelled at Them some more and...They didn't really move. They just continued to graze, walk into the brush, walk out of the brush, repeat. Eventually the bear was out of view, and we started making our way up in the blistering heat. Progress was slow, but eventually the mountain cooled. Scree gave way to snow, and we could start to feel the gentle breezes of the valley. We got on the snow and it was much easier going. Great boot snow with no need for crampons. Eventually the snow we were on continued to thin and snake into a narrow constriction. The rock all around us was closing in and was really rotten. At some point the snow was gone and we found ourselves on 3rd and 4th class rock composed of thousands of brittle butter knife blades. It chipped off when you stepped on it. There were no cracks, there were no horns. Nothing to plug or sling. (not that we had any gear with us) This was, by far, the most challenging section, mostly for the brain, I wouldn't call the climbing quite 5th class...I would say it was very similar in character to Chickenshit Gully on Bashful, but it was much longer (it started at around 4,200-4,300') We just kept calm and continued upwards. The terrain did get easier to climb, but the exposure did not let up. Exiting the chossy butter knives section just before the ridge turns knife-edge, we climbed through a series of chimneys (the first started at about 61.27546, -148.89408): the stemming was fun, the extremely loose rock, was not! We had to gingerly take turns so as not to knock rock on each other. Finally the exposure started to level-off and we were leisurely scrambling to the true summit. It was warm and cozy, with blob of snow on what was mostly a comfy bed of turf. We hung out and drank our adult summit beverages, and pondered the the way down. The "West Ridge" (it's more NW if you ask me) looked to be pretty straight forward. It mostly was. (while on the ridge) The scrambling on this line was much easier than the line we took up, 3rd class at the worst, and mostly pleasant hiking. It starts to get challenging as you near the treeline though. There are a series of sneaky cliffs buried in the brush. When we followed the path of least resistance, we were suckered onto the tops of them. We needed to constantly side-hill and down climb around them. Once we were firmly below treeline, there were veins and memories of the trail but...there wasn't much. We grabbed lots of devils club and did a mudslide or two. I broke a beer (but didn't realize it, as it soaked all my camera gear) and a trekking pole and Abbey also sacrificed a beer. Still, we were grateful to not be descending what we had climbed up! Finally, we were free. As we rested at the creek, Abbey thought she saw another bear and instinctively yelled at it. It turned out to just be a sleepy Wolverine that quietly returned to the woods. We found a make-shift log bridge to cross the creek, and saw a mouse that looked like it was drowning, and then proceeded to run on the water, against the flow. Savior vole drowned for our souls. Times: it took us about 9 hours to get to the summit from the trailhead, and about 7 to get back to camp. We summit'd just before sunset, and got to our pre-pitched tent just before sunrise. Like a couple of vampires. read more

Baneful Peak - Trails of the area, bike the lake trail then start hiking in on the East Fork - Hiking Near Me - Anchorage, Alaska

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