Rainbow Peak

rainbow Peak - 3543' - SE ridge class 3
june 2015

Chris and I for an evening hike went out for Rainbow Peak, which rises directly above the Turnagain Arm. We drove up a gravel road through the trees to a trailhead for the old seward highway trail, which also used to be the route for the Iditarod. We followed the trail which paralled the highway a few hundred feet above for a mile or so, then found a steep boot path heading right up the southeast ridge of Rainbow Peak. Jayme and Lynne continued along the trail and traversed below the peak while Chris and I went to the summit, incorporating a nice class 3 scramble directly up the ridge and we topped out, 3000 feet above the car in about an hour and 45 minutes. The sun was still up at 10pm when we started hiking down the normal route, which bypasses the class 3 section on the ridge itself. By sunset we were back in Anchorage.