akMountain

Mt. Philo

wfinley@akmountain.com (William Finley) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 13:00:00 GMT

Better pix after the jump.

Climbing in Red Rock Canyon, Nevada

wfinley@akmountain.com (William Finley) — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 13:00:00 GMT

A fall, sprain and fractures in the tibia and talus meant I spent most of September and October on the couch watching bad Netflix, [reading] [a few] [good] [books] and learning how to code jquery mobile. No late summer / fall rock climbing trip for me. After the doctor said I wasn't going anywhere tickets were cancelled and the news was broken to my climbing partner who was pretty bummed that he wouldn't get the chance to drag me up Sierra granite. Alas.

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Chugach State Park Management Plan

wfinley@akmountain.com (William Finley) — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 13:00:00 GMT

The comment deadline is October 31st. You have just over 2 weeks. But what's in the plan and what are you going to say?

First when it comes to sending letters one should note that volume does not matter - however the salience of the comments does. In other words... don't expect results by getting your friends to send hundreds of letters. It's better off to choose key issues and write about them. That said below I've outlined a number of key issues that you can base your comments off of.

' I'm rather discouraged by the lack of discourse we're seeing for this plan. Anchorage is home to almost 300,000 people and Chugach State Park is the crown jewel of our community yet few groups are getting involved. '

Following my notes I have summarized comments from two commentary pieces and two environmental groups. I'm rather discouraged by the lack of discourse we're seeing for this plan. Anchorage is home to almost 300,000 people and Chugach State Park is the crown jewel of our community yet few groups are getting involved. Where are public comments the Alaska Conservation Alliance, Conservation Foundation, Wilderness Society, Wildlife Alliance? All of these groups have websites, blogs, Twitter feeds and Facebook pages yet none of them have so much as mentioned the management plan. I imagine (and hope) that many of these groups have already formally submitted comments but their lack of transparency and communication with Anchorage residents is disheartening.

That said... Kudos to Alaska Center for the Environment and Alaska Quiet Rights Coalition for addressing the plan and posting comments and guidelines on their site. Likewise thanks to Bill Sherwonit and Barbara Winkley for their commentaries in ADN and the Dispatch. You can learn more about the comments from the groups / people below.

As for the plan itself... To begin there are overall issues with the tone of the plan (see my note's from ACE's comments below for more on this). Throughout the document two important elements are lacking: priorities and data. A guiding document that lacks these key elements falls short of being a guiding document and the public should make note of that.

Beyond the tone the document there are three key issues that one should make a note of: (1) a reduction in wilderness, (2) development of facilities and approval of commercial uses, and (3) a multi-million dollar plan to build a new road within the park.

With that said... on to my notes. Please take these for what they are... notes. If you have questions contact the environmental groups you usually correspond and work with. Get them involved and make them comment. You have two weeks.

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Chugach State Park Proposes Anchor Ban

wfinley@akmountain.com (William Finley) — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 13:00:00 GMT

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Fall

wfinley@akmountain.com (William Finley) — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 13:00:00 GMT

No not the pretty colors and crisp cool nights. Fall where you're plummeting through the air and a world of pain is inevitably in your near future.

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Toto and Zulu Warrior

wfinley@akmountain.com (William Finley) — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 13:00:00 GMT

Former Anchorite Austin Thayer was visiting and the weather forecast looked halfway decent so we met up early and drove up to Hatcher in the hopes of getting in some climbing before the rains came back. Ignoring the puddles we pushed up Archangel road and were roped up and starting up the first pitch of Toto by 10am. Swinging leads we jogged up the route and topped out on the top of pitch 5 two and a-half hours later...

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Lower Spire - West Ridge

wfinley@akmountain.com (William Finley) — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 13:00:00 GMT

Jake rapping down the "Moss Clods Slab" pitch. Oh yes - this is a classic pitch.

A guide to a route that should get done more often but doesn't.

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Ptarmigan Peak

wfinley@akmountain.com (William Finley) — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 13:00:00 GMT

Another absolutely stellar day in South Central Alaska.

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Talachulitna River

wfinley@akmountain.com (William Finley) — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 13:00:00 GMT

In July I spent a week floating the Talachulitna River in Western Cook Inlet with my father-in-law, Alain Lamoureux. We took our time and enjoyed the fishing - spending around 10 hours a day on the water and fishing continuously for trout, dollies, grayling and kings.

We saw Belted Kingfishers, Rusty Blackbirds, Bonaparte's Gull as well as all the usual suspects like Golden Crown Sparrows, Juncos, Chickadees, Gray Jays and Stellar Jays. We saw lots of moose - but only one bear; a young brown bear that on the second day wandered into our fishing hole and stood his ground as we yelled, screamed and held our bear spray at the ready. Thankfully he wandered off without incident but it was enough to make us hyper-bear-aware for the remainder of the trip.

The river had it all: A fun narrow log chocked creek at the start where we were forced to drag, push and pull our raft. 20 miles of flat water teaming with rolling kings, fat rainbows and hungry grayling. A beautiful Class IV rapid, "Hell's Gate" that I opted to portage after an hour of internal debate. Below Hell's Gate there is a 15 mile canyon with Class III drops into deep dark pools, all capped by a slow float to the mouth through deep green pools teaming with kings.

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Aurora Slabialous and Yellow Brick Road

wfinley@akmountain.com (William Finley) — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 13:00:00 GMT

Pix from a day at Hatcher on two stellar routes.

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