Over the four days of March 27-30, 2019 I went on a ski-peakbagging bender in the Valdez to Thompson Pass corridor of the Central Chugach Mountains.  I summited six peaks (five with significant prominence), with each route including descents to 55*.  It is possible that a couple of these summits may have never experienced a human’s touch before.  In doing so, I experienced some of the greatest ecstasy of my life.  Ecstasy beyond the most intense orgasm.  Ecstasy beyond the loving comfort of a mother-child embrace.  Ecstasy with the characteristic oneness that only Mother Nature induced satori can provide.

It’s the kind of ecstasy that instills the deepest Love, and righteous indignation when confronted with crimes against our collective Mother (crimes that hurt All of Us), like that of the Exxon Valdez oil spill.  The week of my ski-peakbagging bender was the week of the 30th “anniversary” of the that oil spill.  Writing this, I’m pissed off and seething.  Fight the power.  Hopefully my pen (or keyboard), can be mightier than a sword (or whatever else one might use to slaughter Mammon and monkey wrench the machine for its crimes against Life, which so often go unpunished). I wish the sort of Earth-ecstasy inducing benders I regularly go on were the the sort of benders more members of our society were hopelessly addicted to, rather than the alcoholic and narcotic binges so many indulge in – like oil worker Joseph Hazelwood.  Captain Joseph Hazelwood was intoxicated on March 24, 1989 when the Exxon Valdez oil tanker crashed into a reef in Prince William Sound just outside the Port of Valdez.  The crash released 11 million gallons of oil, toxified over 1000 miles of majestic Prince William Sound coastline, killed hundreds of thousands of animals, and generally wrought ecological catastrophe in what was once one of the most beautiful and pristine ecosystems on the planet.

Much of the area remains polluted and toxic to this day, despite visible evidence of the oil spill at the surface being mostly gone.  Only an estimated 14% of the oil was actually cleaned up, and Mother Nature was left to deal with at least 86% of it on her own.  Imagine being forced to take your mom to a blood bank (a non-sterile, illegitimate one), watching her blood get extracted by an un-registered nurse (after many failed attempts at striking a vein), and after having her blood extracted into an improperly sealed and inadequate container the incompetent nurse spills it all over her.  The nurse then gives you a moist towelette, and leaves you to clean up the mess yourself.

Our government (and the capitalist elite that run it) may #NeverForget the attacks of 9/11/01.  After all, we’re still mired down in imperial wars spawned from this disaster (including the longest running war in our nation’s history) with no end in sight.  Many in the current administration running Washington would like to start another, this time with a more formidable foe: Iran.  Meanwhile, our supposed “allies” in the Middle East (namely, Israel and Saudi Arabia) commit some of the most grotesque crimes against humanity of contemporary times (i.e. what’s going down in Palestine and Yemen).

It’s unfortunate that our government so easily forgets disasters like Exxon Valdez, and allows them to keep happening.  As I write this (4/12/19), our government confirmed a former oil industry and agribusiness lobbyist as Secretary of the Interior yesterday – effectively putting him in charge of our nation’s public lands.  He was, undoubtedly, a favorite candidate of Exxon Mobil and Monsanto.  Considering my doubts about the official 9/11 story, it’s my opinion that this is the equivalent of putting Osama Bin Laden in charge of our military.  What the FUCK!

The oil industry is, in my opinion and quite arguably, the most evil industry on the planet.  The evil nexus of inaction it has created (as it dominates the politics and society of the most powerful nation this world has ever known) in regard to climate change, global warming, and impending ecological collapse on Planet Earth (our one and only home, wake the fuck up and realize there is no Planet B, nor the technology and resources to get us there if there was, and please listen to the wisdom of ATCQ via the video below) is the greatest threat to organized human life (i.e. civilization) we have ever faced and is more broadly crippling our species’ chances of long term survival.

I think so many of us are unhappy with Life because of what we’re doing with our lives.  The system, the Mammon-worshipping capitalist machine that is hell bent on destroying our biosphere, forces most of us to live so many of the waking hours of our lives working jobs that we hate.  Jobs that many don’t consciously realize are contributing to the destruction of our biosphere…but their subconscious knows.  That’s why so many in such situations drink excessively, use hard drugs to get comfortably numb, and is perhaps why so many veterans commit suicide.  While I love the United States with all my heart (and my love for the US is a primary reason I make these impassioned pleas) and can’t rid myself of American exceptionalism in that I think this great Nation is the world’s greatest hope…it’s also the world’s greatest threat.  This sentiment seems an accurate reflection of dualistic reality: two sides of the same coin.

Currently, the United States is manifesting as the world’s greatest threat.  Politically, and considering the social consequences of those politics, we’re turning into more of a beacon of despair than hope.  We are mired down in imperial wars.  We can’t provide our Citizens healthcare and education like all other, much less rich, industrialized nations do.  We can’t provide social services to the poor and needy, but shower the rich with corporate welfare.  We can’t afford to fight poverty but have more than enough money to renew a useless nuclear arsenal that, if ever used, would undoubtedly expedite our species’ impending extinction.  Maybe this is why so many veterans commit suicide?  What are they fighting for?  What happened to America: the beacon of Hope?

Maybe this is why so many working jobs they hate (that offer no reward other than the almighty dollar), such as oil workers, live hopeless lives addicted to the bottle and narcotic substances.  Why has this capitalist society sanctioned the blunting bottle and numbing prescription painkillers, while the government agencies most committed to maintaining empire (i.e. the CIA) facilitate the trans-global trade in illegal drugs like heroin, but fought relentlessly against natural and non-toxic psychedelic substances?

Perhaps because the former dulls consciousness, while the latter expands it.  Greater consciousness is a threat to the machine.  Mammon wants us dumb and dull.  Nevertheless, things that can be hidden from the conscious mind can’t be hidden from the subconscious mind.  And, whether or not we’re conscious of it, the despair and hopelessness will manifest – hence the substance abuse problems and suicide.

So, if we were binging on and addicted to ecstatic experiences in Nature rather than toxic substances, would we be working jobs that we hate?  Would we be willingly participating in the destruction of our biosphere for a pittance meant to provide enough to keep us comfortably numb and “entertained” while the powerful capitalist masters enrich themselves beyond imagination but effectively contribute nothing of real value to human society?

I hope that I’ve fed you some wholesome food for thought!  On with the trip report…

I’ve climbed and skied several prominent coastal Alaskan peaks around Seward, Portage, Whittier, and Valdez over the years.  No other has provided as much awe as Peak 5128 (aka 1563 and 5110).  Being the highest and most prominent peak on the south side of the Port of Valdez range formed by Solomon Gulch and Jack Bay, the ocean and mountain views are the sweetest eye candy (and it’s absolutely enraging to imagine that beauty tainted by an oil spill).  Big Chugach peaks, spackled in snow from sea level, rise out of the ocean with extreme relief.  The sea of mountains seems as endless as the sea itself (with northern Prince William Sound in clear view).

Peakbagger turned me on to this one, as I was inputting other Valdez-Thompson Pass area peaks into its database.  5128 had already been submitted, likely due to its 2000’+ prominence.  Having been in the Allison Lake zone in January of 2019 to climb and ski Snow Dome, I realized that it would be a realistically attainable daytrip summit given the right conditions.

Late March of 2019 provided ideal conditions, at least from a ski-peakbagger’s perspective.  Rain to about 4000′ had refrozen and stabilized the snowpack into what seemed to be about 30′ of concrete.  Travel was fast and efficient; avalanche danger was low (especially given that several days of intense sunshine and melt-freeze prior had the snow in a highly processed state).  The rockfall and wet avalanche cycle had already gone through several iterations and, with slightly cooler weather on the day I went for 5128, wasn’t an issue.  I didn’t notice any wet avalanches (even wet loose) the day I was out, and only a couple minor chunks of rock that fell (and this over a journey that stretched several miles one way).

A view of the Port of Valdez and its oil terminal (a precarious bank of blood extracted from the veins of the Earth):

The frozen southern shore of Allison Lake:

Base of the Chugach cement covered glacier below Mt. Kate and surrounding peaks:

The SE facing couloir NE of Peak 5128 that I used to access the glacier below 5128 that drains to Jack Bay (I descended the steeper, skinnier more easterly couloir climber’s left for my exit):

View east from the top of the the ascent couloir:

Looking up at Peak 5128 (the descent from the summit was along rock band):

Mind blowing summit views:

Looking back up at 5128 after the descent:

View east from the big funnel top of the descent couloir:

Looking back up at the crux of the descent couloir (while the top was nice and soft this section was boilerplate, steep-skinny-exposed, slide-for-life that mandated drawing the ice axe for side-slipping):

Video:

This very prominent peak does not yet have a name.  I propose “Randoist Mountain,” in honor of the Gospel of Randoism being proclaimed here.  One Love.