General Observations

We sledded in from the Richardson Monument towards the Gulkana Glacier.  Our goal was to snowmachine to the toe then ski up to the USGS hut, but we ran out of snow halfway between the suspension bridge and the glacier.  We skinned up the glacier about a mile short of the USGS hut then ran out of daylight and had to turn around.  There was poor snow coverage from the Richardson to the glacier (2′ towards the highway decreasing to 1′ near the suspension bridge) but it got much better as we skiied up the glacier.  The glacier had several feet of snow with a variable crust ~ 6″ down.  No recent avys, whumphing or shooting cracks noted.  Obvious wind-loading on SW slopes and north-facing slopes were wind scoured