Objective: Basecamp, ski, and explore the Buckskin Glacier

Trip Length: 6 Days

Trip Type: Backcountry skiing with fly-in glacier basecamp

Group Size: 2

Dates: April 15-April 20, 2021

The Tale: 

“You can still go to the beach and wear a bathing suit”…. that’s what my surgeon told me when I was 17 years old and learning about my option for jpouch surgery (an internal pouch as opposed to the external ostomy).  If I could respond to him now, I’d say, “Yes, but did you know that you can fly out to a remote glacier and go skiing and camping with an ostomy?”

This year was my second trip into the Alaska Range after last year’s plan was foiled by COVID and my revision surgery.  After a solid season of skiing this Winter, I was pretty excited to spend a week or so out on a glacier. 

We ended up planning our trip well and hit the perfect weather window in April (we hear it was pretty much the best window of the season). We drove up to Talkeetna Thursday morning and headed to the ranger station to pick up our Clean Mountain Cans. This time, we definitely asked for 2 rather than sharing 1 which was definitely a no-no in 2019. And then we headed over to Talkeetna Air Taxi to do the classic wait-and-see. The morning was still a bit cloudy after a week of storms, but it looked like we would hit an afternoon weather window. 

It seemed like EVERYONE was headed into the Root Canal to climb the Moose’s Tooth or going on other climbing trips, so we felt a little like the odd ones out in the group. But, just as they were loading up the climber’s gear, the owner Paul came over put the kibosh on that plan because of too much snow. Tyler went over and asked about the Buckskin, and Paul said that we would be able to fly out. So the skiers ended up prevailing in the end. 

We loaded our gear into the Cessna and off we went with Paul to the Buckskin. I’ve never flown in a plane smaller than a Beaver, so I was a little nervous, but it ended up being an amazing experience….well, other than feeling super nauseous flying over the pass to the Buckskin. It’s a good think I try not to eat a lot before getting on a small plane because there’s nowhere for me to empty my ostomy. If I had eaten, I’d have a lot more to worry about. 

But we made it onto the glacier, unloaded the plane, and headed off to set up camp. There was already one group out there who had weather out the storm, so we set up our camp a bit up glacier from them. Because we knew we had a good weather window and it was a bit later in the day, we spent the first day establishing camp. 

On our second day, we went on a nice exploratory tour up the glacier while we let the storm snow settle. Since we didn’t make it out of camp much on our last trip, it was nice to be able to see the scenery and check things out. Our first day was pretty slow going as we put in the track. I’m still learning the best way to manage my ostomy while roped up, so that was also an added challenge. I think I’ve decided that I just need to buy new ski pants for better access. 

Anyway, we skied up to check out the north face of the Moose’s Tooth and then headed back to camp. On our second day out, we decided to head up to the pass above camp. Luckily the group that was there before us packed in a stellar skin track, so the going was easy on the way up. We skinned up the pass and then did a traverse back around and down to the glacier as things started to heat up in the afternoon. Back at camp we took a rest and when things started to cool off in the evening we were able to do some nice runs above camp. The skiing was incredible with perfect Alaska Range powder. 

I’d say my only mishap was on the last day with my Clean Mountain Can…I never seem to have much luck with them. I’ll just say that 1 can is not enough for a 6 day trip with an ileostomy. I swear my can weighed 20 pounds by the end of the trip compared to Tyler’s that was probably only 2 pounds. If anyone has any waste disposal tips for glacier travel with an ostomy, I’d love to hear!

Our last day was a bit hurried packing up camp with not much notice, but we were rewarded with a beautiful flight tour over the range. We were lucky enough to be the first in a series of pick-ups so we were able to stop off on the Pika before heading back to Talkeetna. It was neat to see the Pika with clear skies since we spent most of our time in 2019 in a snow globe. 

Overall, our trip was quite pleasant. We skied or toured around in the mornings, lounged around at camp in the afternoons, skied in the evenings, read books, and enjoyed our time together. This trip seemed so uneventful (in a good way) compared to many of our other trips. We were happy relax and enjoy the snow and sun!