Portage Glacier Visitor Center to Whittier
by Joe Anders, Scree 5/97

On March 28, our family did the Portage-Whittier traverse.  I thought I'd write it up for others to keep in mind for a nice winter trip.

We left a car at the Portage train station then drove to the Visitor Center.  The weather was perfect - cloudless sky, temperature in the 40's and no wind.  We skied across the lake with Leslie dropping Easter eggs every 100 yards or so.  That gave the kids plenty of incentive to keep going.  Note that the USGS map is way out of date - the glacier has receded several miles away from the mountain where you get off the lake.  Aim for the first big rock pile past the mountain.  The trail over the pass was well packed, so we took our ski's off and hiked up to the pass.  At the top, we slid down several snow gully's, staying to the left, aiming for the tank farm.  At the bottom, the kids hopped into sleds and we pulled them along the train tracks to the train station.  We caught the 5:10 train back to Portage.  7 hours one way.

The 2 very proud kids who did the entire trip without any help were Leo (5) and Lisa (7).  Total distance is 6-7 miles with 700' elevation gain.  Be careful around the ice burgs in the lake - I'm told they occasionally cut loose and rotate in the lake ice.