Thompson Pass - Cracked Ice

DATEs HIKED: 4/9/25

TOTAL MILEAGE: 7 MILES

TOTAL ELEVATION GAIN: 4,900’

Last spring, Alex and I went on a spring ski trip to Valdez/Thompson Pass with our friends Meredith and Adam, and while we had a great time exploring Alaska in the winter with them, we also had less-than-ideal weather conditions while there. We were pretty limited on what tours we could complete due to terrible vis, high winds, and avalanche conditions and ended up leaving the trip feeling like we had unfinished business. Fast forward to this year, and we decided to book another spring trip to Thompson Pass. We invited Adam and Meredith again, and our friends Sander and Dan. Unfortunately, Meredith couldn’t join so it was just me and the guys.

As the trip neared, we checked the forecast and my heart dropped. Every single day looked cloudy and snowy. The ten day forecast was just a line of snowflakes. Upon first look, it appeared we would get a repeat of last year (or even worse), but upon closer inspection, interspersed in the wall of cloud and snow icons were brief one to three hour weather windows where it looked like the clouds should break enough for us to get good views and skiable visibility.

One of those fortuitous weather windows was forecasted about halfway through our trip on Wednesday afternoon, with visibility peaking around 1-1:30PM. We decided to give the Thompson Pass classic, Cracked Ice, a go during this weather window. Timing it so we would descend with the good visibility meant we had to start touring well before the window opened, so at 9:30AM we headed off in into a wall of white and hoped that the forecast would be right.

We completed the first 2,000’ of gain in a snowy ping-pong ball. Past the first 1,000’, there were no trees or brush to give the slopes any contrast, it felt like walking into a void. I think we were all silently contending with the prospect of a completely skunked mission and the prospect of skiing down in a whiteout, at least I know I was. Alex tried to keep the mood positive by individually telling everyone “good job!” I was grateful for this small effort to keep the spirits up because my natural inclination toward pessimism was definitely dragging me down as we continued to skin up.

After about 90 minutes, I noticed the snow was lightening and the clouds seemed to get ever so slightly thinner. The landscape around us was beginning to take shape, but I didn’t dare speak of this shift out loud because I was so nervous speaking of the sun would scare her away, she had been so shy all week.

While we had been following a group of three ahead of us since we left the parking lot, they veered off to the left at 3,800’ while we veered to the right around a large outcropping that split two glaciers. Their route looked doable, but our beta told us to head right and we weren’t even sure what their objective was, they could have been going to ski RFS! But this diversion meant we were now breaking our own trail. We traded off who was breaking trail and navigating, which was exceedingly difficult to do in the flat light. I had no way to tell if the snow in front of me went up or down or flat, so it was slow going.

We made it to the base of the steepest section of the climb just as the views started to open up, which was perfect timing because the extra contrast was helpful on this 700’ push. Sander took over setting the switchbacks up the slope and he made quick vertical work. As we gained elevation, the mountains to the south started to reveal themselves to us. It was just the morale booster we needed.

Once we got to the top of the steeper slope at 4,800’, we could once again see the group of three above us, they were nearing the top of Cracked Ice and had set a lovely skin track. We quickly made our way over to it and relished the easier effort and faster pace. Unfortunately, a cloud was parked on top of Cracked Ice, so as we gained elevation we lost our visibility. We had a few conversations debating whether we were being greedy and if we should go down with the decent visibility we had, or if we should continue up in the hopes the vis would improve even more. It still wasn’t quite 1PM yet (the forecasted time for peak vis) so there was time for the forecasted break in the weather. We continued on.

The group of ahead of us had since reached the top, transitioned, and were on their way down just as we zeroed in on the final hundred feet. The snow looked good as they skied, like really really good. We picked up our pace and made it to the top—well not the top top but close enough for us—and began transitioning. It was Dan’s birthday so I had packed a small piece of cake in my backpack and was sad to see it got a tad smushed on the ascent. We had planned to give it to him at the top, complete with candles, but the wind was whipping near the ridge. There was no way candles would stay lit! And it was obvious no one wanted to linger too long in the wind.

At 1:20PM, as if right on cue, the clouds began to peel back in a fantastic display. The forecasts were bang on, our window had just been flung wide opened. Not wanting to get that window slammed on our fingers before we could crawl out of it, we began to ski down.

Sander went first and within two turns he was whooping with joy. This was going to be worth it. Over the previous couple of days about a foot of fluffy snow had been deposited by intermittent storms, but the vis was too poor for anyone to come out and ski it. We, in our roll of the dice, were the second group down the wide face of Cracked Ice and there was plenty of space for everyone to get their own first tracks. The snow was rippable, I don’t know if I’ve ever skied such fun and fast snow in the backcountry.

We carefully made our way down the steep section at 4,800’ one by one and reconvened at a large flat expanse beneath it. Every single one of us had giggled and whooped our way the 2,000’ down from the summit and were absolutely beaming. The sun had fully emerged and it was the perfect time for some birthday celebrations. I pulled the cake out, we ceremoniously lit the candles, and sang “Happy Birthday” to Dan. After eating the cake, Dan said he wanted to ski some more laps, so we granted the birthday boy his wish and headed back up another beautiful looking slope to harvest a few more turns in fresh snow in good vis.

As we made our way up for a third lap, the sky to the east started growing darker. It seemed our window was going to shut soon. We started to make our way back.

Just as we reached the final 1,000’ slope, the clouds engulfed the sun and we were left skiing flat light to the road. But, we had made the most of that break in the clouds, really milking every last second of the sun.

This run made the entire trip worth it for me. We got to complete one of the tours we had wanted to do last year but couldn’t, we got the classic Thompson Pass views, and we skied incredible snow and got fresh tracks all the way down to boot. It felt like a little bit of a gamble to head out in a whiteout in hopes of a couple hours of clear sky, but it paid off.