Home with a View
We stumbled down from the Pika Glacier at 3:30 am, groggily dodging crevasses on snowshoe. Now it was evening, and from the almost-flat tent-sized ledge we could see the fantastically-named mountains guarding the Pika Glacier: The Hobbit King, the Throne, and The Troll. Exit Pass, which we had climbed down, setting protection and belaying each other across a cliff band, was just visible. Granite Glacier lay below, leaving a trail of boulder fields in its wake. Granite Creek sparkled beneath Granite Glacier and meandered into swamps and forests until it joined into the MatSu River far from our destination of Talkeetna.
Instead of inflating our boats, we had bushwhacked away from Granite Creek’s tempting river valley towards the Kanikula Glacier in hopes of packrafting 80 miles to Talkeetna. We had hiked and climbed for fourteen hours that day and made it a mere seven miles, yet I was happy. I didn’t have my watercolors—I had left them behind to save weight—but that evening I pretended I was painting, moving my gaze across the horizon, mixing colors in my brain, soaking up the view with my eyes.
Ben wrote an amazing in-depth trip report—so you can look up everything we learned if you’re into down climbing questionable passes and rerouting from your backup route. I won’t go into depth here, but I will say that the exit from Pika Glacier and back to Talkeetna is the hardest and most favorite short trip I’ve done, and I had so much fun diving back into the memories of the place with this piece.
Giclee print paper by Raven Ink in Anchorage, Alaska is 18x8" on thick, rag, beautifully textured paper and comes packaged with foam board and in a clear sleeve.
Acrylic print is 30x14" with mounting on back.