# Why Climb a Mountain?? Because it's there,....



## Alaska Boss (Oct 8, 2005)

Well, my plowing season is winding down, as it always does at this time of year,.... and with long days, mild temps & great snow conditions still left, this is the time of year to go places that one can't get to at any other time (without great effort). And so, with Alaska having tens of thousands of mountains, covered with snow most of the year, they just become a natural draw,... wondering what's on the other side of that one, etc.


----------



## Alaska Boss (Oct 8, 2005)

But once in a while, a mountain has a special feature,..maybe a shape, maybe because it's composed of an unusual type of rock,.... or maybe it's just a formation that seems to defy natural explanations,... and there's a mountain like that right along one of the main highways here,... called "Gunsight Mountain", located approx 120 miles northeast of Anchorage. One look at it would show you how it got it's name. I have driven past this mountain all my life, but have never climbed it, nor do I know anyone personally that has,... and so today,... I decided it was time to have a closer look,...


----------



## Alaska Boss (Oct 8, 2005)

Gunsight Mountain got it's name from the sharp square-shaped cut-out located right on the top, and in the middle of the saddle,... making it look just like a huge "gun sight". What would have caused this?? I have no idea. It almost appears man-made, but I know it's not. And also knowing that things many times appear much different close up than they do from far away,... I decided to see how close I could get my snowmachine to the top of this mountain,... (this is as close as I could zoom in with my camera from the road) :bluebounc


----------



## Alaska Boss (Oct 8, 2005)

So, I loaded up one of my machines, and drove about 2 hours to the closest spot to go climb up on this thing,.... I parked in a small gravel pit, and started heading up the base of the mountain,... this is looking back toward my truck and the road, from where I started,...


----------



## Alaska Boss (Oct 8, 2005)

Lots of other people/machines have been playing & climbing around on the foothills of Gunsight,... but the farther & higher I climbed, the fewer other tracks I saw,.. until finally I no longer saw any other tracks, old or fresh,... (other than a few fox tracks). One photo looking back down from where I came,... the other looking up to where I'm going,.... :bluebounc


----------



## Alaska Boss (Oct 8, 2005)

I almost always modify my machines quite a bit, so they will perform much better than in stock form,.... and usually, as you climb up a mountain, the snow gets harder & harder,... so a person has to be careful, because some of these mountain machines will keep climbing so steep until they literally can flip over backwards. You also must be very aware of the snow conditions, so that you don't end up starting your own avalanche,... every year people get killed on mountains when they trigger an avalanche themselves, and are buried,...


----------



## Alaska Boss (Oct 8, 2005)

Finally, I was getting seriously close to the top.... and so I stopped now to examine & test the snow conditions,... and try to determine if it was worth trying to go a little farther up... clearly,one could not approach the "notch" from below it,... the only possible way was to follow right along the ridge on the left side,... right on top of the mountain,...xysport


----------



## Alaska Boss (Oct 8, 2005)

I went a little farther,... but now the snow was getting so hard, and so steep, that, even tho I could still keep climbing ok, I knew that I might not be able to stop,... and for sure I couldn't side-hill,... so it was either go straight up and hope that I won't have to stop or turn, or stop at this point, and don't risk it,.... I decided that living to plow another year required the right choice,... so I stopped, & decided to hike up from this point,...


----------



## Mick (May 19, 2001)

Great pictures, Boss. So what was on the other side?


----------



## Alaska Boss (Oct 8, 2005)

After turning my machine off,.... I took a few pictures of the valleys to both sides of me,... and saw an airplane flying on both sides,... and realized I was looking DOWN on both of them,....  (you can't really see them, but both these pics have an airplane in them)


----------



## Alaska Boss (Oct 8, 2005)

Mick;776474 said:


> Great pictures, Boss. So what was on the other side?


More mountains,...


----------



## Alaska Boss (Oct 8, 2005)

So, I left my machine & started up on foot,.... and soon realized that this wasn't going to be too easy,.... it was very easy to lose your footing & slide down because the snow & drifts were rock-hard under a few inches of softer snow,... plus a few rocks were exposed up this high as well....


----------



## Alaska Boss (Oct 8, 2005)

It was very slow going,... and it's always farther than it looks,... it was steep enough that a few small snow slides had occured earlier at this elevation,...


----------



## Alaska Boss (Oct 8, 2005)

But, I kept trudging on,.... and looking back down,... my snowmachine was looking like a black speck,... I thought I was closer than this,....


----------



## Alaska Boss (Oct 8, 2005)

But then suddenly, I came to an impass,... it suddenly went almost vertical for a short ways,.... and there was no going around and/or down to the left or right,... I was sooo close,... but without much greater risk to life & limb, it was just foolish to try and continue,... so I took a few last photos before starting my decent,... I was just above and just to the left of the "notch",... maybe in the summer when most of this snow is gone one could climb around this & make it,.. but not now,.... :realmad:


----------



## Alaska Boss (Oct 8, 2005)

From my farthest/highest point, I couldn't actually see the notch, since I was directly to the left of it,... but it's right there between the solid snow-covered face & the bare rock wall just behind it,.... I had to go back down a ways to get better pitcures of it,...


----------



## Alaska Boss (Oct 8, 2005)

A couple more shots of it as I went back down,.... I still have no idea what would cause this notch to form right at the top of this mountain like this,...


----------



## Alaska Boss (Oct 8, 2005)

On my way back down to my machine,... it was easier to just sit & slide in places,... but I had to watch for rocks,... or I might have ripped a new one,.....


----------



## Alaska Boss (Oct 8, 2005)

And so I got down to my machine & rode back down the mountain,... and so ended another little mountain climbing adventure,... with a final parting photo looking back up at where I had just been,... to the top of Gunsight Mountain,... just because it's there,....... :waving::waving:


----------



## jayman3 (Jan 18, 2006)

Alaska Boss;776486 said:


> And so I got down to my machine & rode back down the mountain,... and so ended another little mountain climbing adventure,... with a final parting photo looking back up at where I had just been,... to the top of Gunsight Mountain,... just because it's there,....... :waving::waving:


Great pic's Boss:salute: I wish I could find places like that closer to do the same with my sled,only got out twice this season.


----------



## DeVries (Nov 27, 2007)

Thanks for the pics again. Looks like you had a lot of fun.


----------



## 6.5LTDFisher (Dec 13, 2007)

amazing pictures! I wonder if it was weak rock in the gun sight spot? and maybe over the years began to fall apart... i wanna come to Alaska and climb ... also wanna do Everest....


----------



## Mick (May 19, 2001)

My guess on the formation of the Gunsight would be that two mountains were formed and got pushed upward, then settled away from each other, forming the notch. Over the years, deposits from erosion formed between the two, creating the base.


----------



## stroker79 (Dec 2, 2006)

Beautiful pics. Makes me really miss my alpine backpacking days. I was going to climb everest but ran out of money.

It is so beautiful where you are though, amazing!

My only thought about gunsight mountain, are you sure its not an old volcano? Thats what it looks like with the way the top is formed and all.


----------



## affekonig (Aug 5, 2008)

I actually turned down a heli hiking trip in Alaska a few years ago. Oops.


----------



## Mark Oomkes (Dec 10, 2000)

Awesome as always.

I think there are quite a few of us living vicariously through you AB.


----------



## Kevin Kendrick (May 3, 2007)

Breathtaking!! That about sums it up. Makes me want to take a trip to Alaska!! Your narations are always awesome too.


----------



## albhb3 (Dec 18, 2007)

I bet slednecks would of shot that gap lol


----------



## snow problem (Mar 19, 2007)

Wow, Great pitcures as always, how high were you and how long did it take to get up there. What an great place to live. Thanks for the look into your world.


----------



## nicksplowing (Oct 5, 2005)

*great pics as usual AB *


----------



## iceyman (Mar 1, 2007)

sweetness


----------



## Western1 (Dec 4, 2008)

Thanks for the pics! Beautiful! Its nice to see some real country!


----------



## tls22 (Sep 30, 2007)

You always have the best threads and a great way to describe them....nice work boss


----------



## DareDog (Oct 22, 2007)

Great Pics 

Looks like you need a summit now wesport Ha... :bluebounc


----------



## Alaska Boss (Oct 8, 2005)

stroker79;776517 said:


> Beautiful pics. Makes me really miss my alpine backpacking days. I was going to climb everest but ran out of money.
> 
> It is so beautiful where you are though, amazing!
> 
> My only thought about gunsight mountain, are you sure its not an old volcano? Thats what it looks like with the way the top is formed and all.


You know, that's exactly what I would think too,... it looks like the upper/mid-section of it was just blown away,... but from what I've been told, there's no pumice-lava type rock anywhere to be found,.. no ash deposits etc,... the best guess theory I've heard is that when this mountain was first formed, and being buckled up from continental plate activity, that maybe a "void" had formed below that area, and before the whole mountain had solidified into rock, that the upper portion there had partially collapsed back down into the void area,... and with a concentrated erosion effect happening within this "bowl" area, it took on the shape we now see. Who knows for sure,...



snow problem;776550 said:


> Wow, Great pitcures as always, how high were you and how long did it take to get up there. What an great place to live. Thanks for the look into your world.


I don't have a topo map of that exact area, so I'm not sure what the elevation is at the top,... the highway right in that area is around 2500 ft or so I think. It seemed like I was getting tired faster than I should have when I started hiking uphill,... but that may a sign of something other than thin air,..  It only took maybe an hour and a half to get to where I started hiking,... and probably that long or longer on foot,... so, it wasn't all that long,.. but I spent the better part of a day there,... it's always great going into new places & country,... I can see and understand what drove the early explorers to see what's at the end of the earth,... I think a person can get hooked on that sort of thing,... prsport



DareDog;776764 said:


> Great Pics
> 
> Looks like you need a summit now Ha...


I have one,... and the newest machines almost make doing things like this too easy,... and since I knew that the snow conditions would be pretty good,... it's sometimes more fun taking an older machine and having to work at it to get it to the top of places like this,... 30-40 years ago, no one could have done a climb like this,... the machines just couldn't do it.

Thanks all for the comments,... another trip is planned,... if this current storm doesn't ruin everything,.... :waving:


----------

