In April of 1996, the late Ron Gregg, the late Carl Skoog, Bill Hartlieb and I had a grand adventure in the Canadian St. Elias mountains. The goal was to ski from the summits of several peaks on the upper Anderson Glacier, which we were fortune enough to complete. Carl, Bill and I worked at Ron’s company, Outdoor Research, and we had talked Ron into partially funding this trip as a testing outing for the gear we helped to design, build, market and sell. The previous year , Bill and I had been together on a trip one glacier drainage over, where we had climbed and skied other remote and obscure peaks in the Brabazon Glacier area. This was part of what I called (not so seriously) my “march to the sea.” In 1991, I had skied on the flanks of the massive volcano in the Wrangells, Mount Sanford. Looking at the maps on that trip, I became interested in other peaks in the range. In 1993, my friend, the late Doug Barlow and I skied Mounts Bear and Bona, from where I saw more big, remote, mostly unexplored peaks gleaming in the sunshine - the Brabazon and Anderson mountains. It was a fantastic series of ski mountaineering outings that I look back on with a smile on my face.
Recently, Outdoor Research has produced a film about Ron Gregg called Any Fool Knows https://youtu.be/qjeJU1pk1X8?si=9IMrDif95zeowNn8. It’s very good and does an excellent job of capturing the Ron that I knew in those years. A few of my photos of Ron from that ‘96 trip show up in the film, so I thought I’d share a few more here, some of which I’ve only recently scanned.
Paul Claus, our pilot and owner of Ultima Thule Lodge, departs the Anderson Glacier after our drop-off
The tent on the right was an OR prototype that we were testing. In the middle ground is Mount Strickland, which Bill and I climbed the previous year
Bill Hartlieb and Carl Skoog on the descent from high camp between SE Macaulay and Slaggard
Bill on the lower section of SE Macaulay
Our second camp with Mount Wood behind
Ace photographer, Carl Skoog
The next stop on the march to the sea, Mount Lucania
Carl and Bill on Macaulay with SE Macaulay, Steele and Lucania in the distance
Carl, Ron and Bill during the descent of Macaulay
Ron Gregg setting up the OR prototype tent
Ron Gregg, Bill Hartlieb and pilot Paul Claus of Ultima Thule Lodge
Carl and Ron (carrying “the refrigerator” pack)
Carl and Bill watching Ron ski on a rest day
Ron on the summit of SE Macaulay with Mount Wood in the distance
