South Fork to Ship Creek

Via Rendezvous Ridge in Chugach State Park.  This great park has countless options for ski trips, but Arctic Valley-to-Indian is perhaps the classic winter ski trip, about 24 miles end-to-end from Arctic Valley Road to Indian. Several variations of the classic have been skied, but skiing to Indian from the South Fork Trailhead is a dream route I've pondered while skiing along Ship Creek Valley Trail. Rendy Ridge from 3200 ft has beautiful lines down to the valley floor at 1300 ft elevation. I took one step closer to the dream route, and explored the route from Rendy Ridge down to Ship Creek and back to South Fork.

Conditions were excellent on fixed heel alpine touring skis (102 mm at waist, K2 Coomback), and would have been enjoyable and challenging with my free heel touring set up (68 mm at waist, Fischer Outtabounds 88 Waxbase). There was a firm base in most areas with 8 to 12" of powder on top. The really great thing about the route was its lack of bushwhacking and deadfall.

I toured up to about 3800 feet to ski the Swiss Bowl powder, somewhat higher than one needs to ascend to access Ship Creek from South Fork. After such a pleasant trip down the mountain, I was almost surprised to stumble onto the Arctic Valley-to-Indian ski trail. I saw a couple of skiers on the valley trail, and about 6 sets of tracks.

Ship Creek

Ship Creek had enough ice and snow that finding bridges would be likely, though there was also substantial open water.

My route started from the South Fork Trailhead, and took me toward Symphony Lake, then up to Rendezvous Ridge, according to the sign.

On prior trips there, skiers up on 'Rendezvous Ridge' have told me this area is named Swiss Bowl, adopted on my route maps. Wouldn't it be great to have an organization that creates maps with backcountry ski trip routes with commonly accepted place names? Advocates for quiet backcountry pursuits? Provides additional support for snow science and safety?