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Scramble up Homicide Peak
by Neil O'Donnell, Scree
Seven MCA members (Marcia Bandy, Barbara Gustafson, Don Hansen, Neil O'Donnell, Margaret Stock, Breck Tostevin and Jim Wright) left the Glen Alps parking lot at 9:00 am on Saturday, July 8th, to mountain-bike up Powerline Pass and then climb Homicide Peak (4660'). Gene Klymko joined us for the ride to the pass. We left our bikes just below the Anchorage side of the pass and continued along the trail. There was only a small strip of snow, about 25 yards wide at the of the pass, and we continued down the east side along the trail until we came to its intersection with the southeast shoulder of Homicide. We then cut across the south side of the mountain until we found a major gully which looked promising. This gully led to a promontory from which we could see the summit a quarter mile west along a wide ridge.
Clear blue skies, temperatures in the upper 70's and no wind made summit lounging the main focus of our afternoon. Our stay intruded upon the rock ptarmigan nesting on the summit, and we could see several sheep wandering through Powerline Pass below. According to the summit register, the last visitors had been to Homicide in July 1988.
As the afternoon progressed the merciless sun forced our retreat. Instead of retracing our steps, we descended a wide, rock-strewn slope on the southern side the peak, slightly to the west of our ascent gully. We headed up the small valley on the west side of the peak, past the small alpine lake and over the 4000-foot pass on the northwest ridge of Homicide. Much of this route crossed talus, prompting completely unfounded criticism of your faithful servant and trip leader.
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