The Crusher Traverse - Anchorage to Valdez for a Beer

The name "Crusher Traverse" doesn't conjure images of eating roasted duck and sipping red wine while going from lavish hut to hut in the Alps. No, it brings to mind the last time I ran the Pikes Peak Marathon - that was a crusher, as well as another story.

Last spring Andrew Wexler and Joe Stock struck out on a 175 mile traverse of the Chugach Range in Alaska. It's a funny phenomenon in the world of outdoor athletes. They will push themselves to the brink, swear they'll never ever punish themselves in this fashion again and then remarkably be it two weeks, two months, two years later they find themselves once again on the verge of a sufferfest, or in this case a crusher. All in the name of fun and adventure.

After recalling the last sufferfest that he endured with Joe, Alex recounted the start of the Crusher Traverse:

This time Joe wanted to start skiing from his front door in Anchorage and keep going until the Chugach Mountains were behind him and The Pipeline Bar in Valdez finally blocked his way.

We skied out of Anchorage on April 10, 2005 with empty packs. We covered 28 miles that day after 13 hours on the move and arrived at the first of three caches. If I had known then that this would be the second easiest day of the traverse, I swear I'’d have pulled the pin right there and skied out to Girdwood.

Read the entire story and check out the photos!

0 comments