{"id":5769,"date":"2021-07-01T22:59:24","date_gmt":"2021-07-01T14:59:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.huangyizhou.com\/?p=5769"},"modified":"2021-12-31T07:36:30","modified_gmt":"2021-12-30T23:36:30","slug":"20210701matanuska","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.huangyizhou.com\/index.php\/2021\/07\/01\/20210701matanuska\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 1 of 2021 Alaska Trip, Matanuska Peak, Manifestation of Mental Perseverance"},"content":{"rendered":"

First day of my 2021 Alaska trip, I would be climbing Matanuska Peak outside the city of Palmer, a grueling day hike that tested both my physical and mental capabilities.<\/p>\n

\"Trail<\/a>

<\/br>Trail to Matanuska Peak<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

I spent the final day of last year\u2019s Alaska trip hiking Lazy Mountain, which was a small hill outside the city of Palmer but nonetheless challenging. From the top of Lazy Mountain, Matanuska Peak was like the bigger brother that shielded off much of the howling wind, that its magnificent presence had been a glamor throughout the entire hike. So this year, I decided to make Matanuska Peak my first stop on my revisit to Alaska.<\/p>\n

\nActually, I was rather tempted to try on Matanuska Peak last year. Yet I had an evening flight to catch so I had to settle for Lazy Mountain, which was like a mini version of Matanuska Peak. After today\u2019s strenuous excursion, I was glad that I made the right call and stayed off Matanuska last year.
\nIn addition, I was planning on using Matanuska Peak as a warmup for the nearby South Pioneer Peak, which I planned to summit the next day if everything worked out fine. Unfortunately, today\u2019s hike took too much of a toll on me that I had to take most of the following day off resting. Nonetheless, 3 days later I successfully summitted South Pioneer Peak. With this, I had to say I didn\u2019t seem to have much good luck when it comes to warmup hikes, as I recalled my last year\u2019s Idaho trip when I used Hyndman Peak as warmup for Borah Peak.\n<\/div>\n

A brief description about the trail to Matanuska Peak. It’s a 15.9km out-and-back trail with 1701m elevation gain. It started out as a steady climb, then leveled off onto a meadow field, before quickly picking up steep elevation gain on the final leg before the summit. The final (horizontal) 1.1km before the summit had 600m of elevation gain, most of which on talus field involving YDS class 2 scrambling. It’s the tallest mountain among its neighbors so views on top were stunning.<\/p>\n

After waking up on the morning of July 1, I grabbed a rental car in downtown Anchorage, checked out of the hotel and started to make my way to Palmer. During my visit which spanned July 4, the entire state of Alaska was completely booked out of rental cars, which threatened to derail this much anticipated trip. Fortunately, I planned early enough and played some tricks, which was a long story in its own but ended up in a confirmed rental car reservation.<\/span> White catkins were flying in the air as I drove through their enchanting dances in the wind, a magical presence as if snow in July. After picking up some supplies at a Walmart, I arrived at the trailhead at about 11:10am. Matanuska Peak wasn’t a very popular trail, so the small trailhead parking lot, which held about 5 cars, was sufficient. After gearing myself up, I started my hike at 11:23am. <\/p>\n

Here’s GPS tracking:
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