Alaska Mountain Wilderness Ski Classic

Crossing Ernie Pass and the Arctic Divide

Gates of the Arctic National Park

The annual Alaska Mountain Wilderness Ski Classic (AMWSC) is a quintessential ski adventure requiring an unsupported multi-day mountain traverse of a large roadless wilderness. The annual event has three simple covenants: no motors, no roads, and self-sufficiency.

This year the AMWSC began on April 1^st on the North Slope of the Brooks Range at Galbraith Lake and ended at the historic miming town of Wiseman with a mid-way checkpoint at an Inupiat Eskimo village on Anaktuvuk Pass. The 200+ mile course crossed the Central Brooks Range through Gates of the Arctic National Park.

First place finishers, Luc Mehl and John Pekar, set a new course record by completing it in under four days. Twelve hours later Derek Collins, Andrew Cyr, and I arrived in Wiseman and claimed second place.