Since I’d never gotten around to making it up to this peak before, I decided to subject my friends to this very wind-blown ridge on this rather windy day. We started a bit after 9:00, and skied up behind a pair of snowshoers. The snowshoers turned around at Zupjok, presumably on account of the wind.
We, however, were not as given to following common sense and continued on, reaching the summit of Alpaca about 14:30. On the way back, the song in my head was “This is the song that never ends”, replacing “song” with “ridge” and “singing” with “skiing”. We got back to the parking lot around 18:30.
Alpaca’s south ridge in all its windy glory
Apart from the weather, the conditions we’re pretty good for skiing. Everything is pretty well covered. With the long hours of daylight, now is a great time to go bag this peak.