HEADLAMP: Ski Delia Peak

Hatcher Pass hides her best ski lines from view. Some are easy to access, like Rae Wallace and Lost Couloir, while others are miles away. Delia Peak and her environs are in between, distance wise--a mile and a half skin up Gold Mint valley, then another mile or so back toward the peak. With such a reasonable approach, there’s plenty of time to skin back and ski several lines in a day.

From the Matanuska Valley, Delia Peak is unassuming. It appears to be just a small rise among others like it on the ridgeline between Arkose and Stairstep. Seen from the north, however, Delia and her neighbors are steep and imposing. Laced with steep chutes and couloirs, they offer numerous ski lines that weave between cliff bands. The narrowest skiable chute snakes down from Delia’s ridgeline between steep cliffs before finally reaching the valley below.

To ascend Delia, it is possible to skin and boot up one of these steeper approaches, but there's an easier route up: Skin to the ridgeline at the saddle, then hang a left and follow the mellow ridge up to Delia’s summit. From here, you can ski the wide open west-facing bowl back down to the valley floor. Alternatively, continue down the north ridge for a few dozen yards to enter Delia’s steep, serpentine couloir that threads it's way down between rock walls and cliff bands.

There is another, equally aesthetic couloir further down Delia’s northwest ridge, and you'll certainly see it on your approach to the mountain. This line has easy access from the valley floor below Delia’s summit, just a five hundred foot or so skin up a mellow slope to the top of the line.

The unnamed summit west of Delia has an even more appealing north-facing line. To access it, climb to the same ridgeline as for Delia and skin up the gentle ridge to the unnamed peak’s summit. There are several steep couloirs that start near here, but the one that is visible from Delia faces north, and has a steep rollover at the entrance. With less solar exposure than Delia’s west facing bowl, snow here may stay soft longer, particularly in the incised guy of the couloir.

There are many more ski lines in valleys to the east and west of Delia. If you've gotten an early enough start, it's tempting to ski some of them. One option is some very steep, tight lines just over a small saddle to the west, in the Delia Creek watershed. The subordinate ridges that connect to the Arkose/Delia/Stairstep ridgeline have some surprisingly incised, steep lines.

Wherever you end up in the area, it's a fairly quick mellow run back down the valley to the Gold Mint trail. Though it seems flat, the trail has just enough slope to glide on back to the trailhead without putting skins back on. With relatively easy access and incredible north-facing lines, Delia should be a mandatory destination for Hatcher Pass skiers in good snow years.