The Silvis Traverse, the trail grandaddy on rugged Revillagigedo Island, is a ridge link-up of two separate trails. One heads straight up Deer Mountain from the heart of downtown Ketchikan, and is popular with seasonal workers and adventurous cruise ship passengers in the summer. The other begins at the southern terminus of the Ketchikan road system and skirts Lower and Upper Silvis lakes for a few miles before rising into the subalpine. When the traverse is free of snow, a hiker can expect to walk for 13.75 miles from one end to the other. During corn season on a sunny day, the 13.75 miles stretches into as many laps as the legs will carry.
For as long as I’ve been in Ketchikan, I’ve wanted to ski the clean horizon, hovering over town, brilliantly white until late spring. It’s incredibly accessible, but it teases. Eager skiers must wait for a rare and uncertain weather window to line up with good snow conditions.
Shawn, Quentin, Jared and I made good use of one such window this week. We began from the Deer Mountain trailhead and climbed 2,000 feet before seeing any snow. From the summit of Deer, the chain of peaks ahead marked our route like cairns; Roy Jones, Northbird, Mahoney. We peeled off the ridge to ski sticky runs into lake basins or gullies, popping back up further along the trail. By the last run of the day, I was drooping from the effects of unlimited sun on my body. It’s a notable feeling in a rainforest.
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| Ketchikan, Alaska |
