south suicide peak - 5005' - nw slopes - class 2+
may 2016
Sarah and I ended up getting to Anchorage shortly after we hiked Taiya Peak, and we saw the weather forecast for the Alaska Range was looking bad so we decided to delay our flight into base camp until a good weather window appeared. In the meantime, we hiked up South Suicide Peak, a prominent peak in the western Chugach Mountains above Anchorage. It can be seen from the city quite easily. The snow was still lingering, but due to the warm dry spring in southern Alaska, there wasn't much left. The majority of the hike to Rabbit Lake was snow free with even some of the tundra turning green!
We reached the lake, and took a break to eat a quick snack. It was still frozen over though, and we hiked south down the short hill to the smaller McHugh Lake where we found more snow. We passed around its east side and began ascending the north slopes above the lake which leads to the west ridge of South Suicide. These slopes were mostly snow covered but a decent amount of rock was showing making for a fairly quick ascent to the ridge. Once we reached the ridge we saw the Turnagain Arm down the south side and Rainbow Peak came into view, which I had hiked up the previous year. Sarah and I continued scrambling up the ridge which was class 1-2 most of the way except for the very top which had some snow covered class 3 just below the summit. We actually reached the summit just as a couple who came up from Falls Creek, on the southeast side. This route includes 1,700 feet more elevation gain since you's start at sea level along the Turnagain Arm.
We couldn't see too much to the east since clouds shrouded in much of the higher Chugach Mountains, but we had great views of the Anchorage Peninsula and the Chugach Front. We retraced our steps back down to Rabbit Lake and back out to the trailhead. We even got a little bit of snow on the way down.
We reached the lake, and took a break to eat a quick snack. It was still frozen over though, and we hiked south down the short hill to the smaller McHugh Lake where we found more snow. We passed around its east side and began ascending the north slopes above the lake which leads to the west ridge of South Suicide. These slopes were mostly snow covered but a decent amount of rock was showing making for a fairly quick ascent to the ridge. Once we reached the ridge we saw the Turnagain Arm down the south side and Rainbow Peak came into view, which I had hiked up the previous year. Sarah and I continued scrambling up the ridge which was class 1-2 most of the way except for the very top which had some snow covered class 3 just below the summit. We actually reached the summit just as a couple who came up from Falls Creek, on the southeast side. This route includes 1,700 feet more elevation gain since you's start at sea level along the Turnagain Arm.
We couldn't see too much to the east since clouds shrouded in much of the higher Chugach Mountains, but we had great views of the Anchorage Peninsula and the Chugach Front. We retraced our steps back down to Rabbit Lake and back out to the trailhead. We even got a little bit of snow on the way down.
Map of the route we took
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South Suicide Peak from near Rabbit Lake
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Along the west ridge
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