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Seasonal work in Alaska, looking for advice

Original Post
Sam Cannon · · Salt Lake City, UT · Joined May 2012 · Points: 924

I've worked as a waiter for a long time now, mainly because of the schedule it gives me to pursue other things. I'm looking at doing some seasonal work for Princess Cruises in Alaska on either the railway (as a server) or at one of the resorts in Denali.

Is it far fetched to think I could get climbing in while I'm out there? A friend's brother I know did tons of backpacking while doing the same gig, but I'm unsure what the climbing/mountaineering seasons are. Furthermore, I know very little about Alaska and how it's laid out geographically. Can anyone help me out?

It's last minute, just saw the advert asking for applicants so I haven't had time to do the legwork myself. Any advice would be very much appreciated.

Thanks dudes.

Tim G. · · Salt Lake City, UT · Joined Sep 2011 · Points: 78

I worked for Princess in the summer of 2009 April-October at their McKinley Princess Lodge which is about 2 hours south of Denali NP pretty close to Talkeetna. This was before I started climbing, but I do remember seeing a lot of rock around the hatcher pass area. I spent a good amount of time hiking and backpacking that area. I worked 6 days a week which was the norm at the Princess Lodges and finding additional days off was not easy. I was the lone IT/network guy at the hotel which made leaving hard. Servers might have an easier time getting time off.

The biggest problem I see you running into is weather. It rains A LOT in AK. The summer I was there I lucked out and had lots of sunny days from mid April through May. In early June though it started raining usually 4-5 days a week until I left in October. It's not downpours, just constant drizzle throughout the day. And the days that it doesn't rain, it's usually still over cast or misty, so it's not like you would have the sun out drying off the rock. As soon as the rain showed up, the mosquitos did as well. I have never experienced mosquitos in those numbers anywhere else in my life, and I grew up near the water on the east coast and spent lots of time in Florida. They are absolutely terrible. Be ready to cover every inch of exposed skin in bug spray or get one of those goofy looking mosquito net hats. And good luck if you have to pee outside on a hike or something.....not fun. You do have plenty of daylight though so you can get outside throughout the night in June if you want. It's kind of strange hiking till 2am without a flashlight.

Having said all that, AK is an amazing place and I would do another summer there in a heartbeat. Working 60-70 hours a week kind of sucked, but I still got to go on lots of adventures and see some amazing sights. If you just want to rock climb though, you would be better off sticking to CO, UT, CA, etc.

jacob m s · · Provo, Utah · Joined Apr 2011 · Points: 135

so, i doubt the money is as good as you are thinking. I did the alaska tour guide gig. (i was in Juneau for the record) Unless you are a bus driver that is good at tips, you probably won't be making a ton of money. I can't say about working on the railway though that might do well as well. Denali is close to nothing, the princess lodge is outside of the park, and it takes all day to drive to the mountain. Their are two trains so i don't know which one you would be working on but i'm guessing it would be the train from anchorage to fairbanks, the other is a small in in skagway. The train is really pretty cool, i have ridden the princess ones. Fairbanks is flat, and without ice they might have a climbing gym. denali has nothing but the park and its a long ways for anything other then a hike as far as i know( you would need a car to do much climbing) Anchorage could have some really cool mountineering options, maybe some ice climbing, but it is southeast alaska and you can count on rain 6 out of every 7 days most years.

I would be happy to tell you more about it if you want to pm me, but i need to go take my last finale of the year.

Andrew Morrison · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Oct 2014 · Points: 30

I was a driver for Princess for 3 summers in Denali and Skagway. Unfortunately, there's not a whole lot of *climbing* in Denali, though there are endless miles of hikes. As mentioned, Fairbanks is kind of flat too. Good luck trying to find something worth while. The scenery is amazing though.

sarcasm · · Unknown Hometown · Joined May 2010 · Points: 445

Anchorage would be the place to be if you want to do a lot of climbing. Also, the Seward highway isn't ALL CHOSS like has been reported, and frankly for someone working a lot of hours it's a nice place to quickly get in some sport climbing based on it's accessibility.

All of the less then mediocre comments about time, weather, availability, access and quality of rock though should not be taken lightly. This isn't really THE place for a climber to live.

Most of me and my friends (who all live in Alaska) work A LOT over the summer, climbing as much as we can intermittently just so we can then take A LOT of time off and travel south in the fall. Head home for ice season and skiing and then travel back down south in the spring for one more rock fix before the crazy summer season begins again.

sarcasm · · Unknown Hometown · Joined May 2010 · Points: 445

Would have liked to watch all of that Falling Forward video but that song playing was so fucking bad I threw my laptop across the room.
Nice photography and I wish I could have heard the rest of the interviews, but jesus christ man...that song made me angry.

L. Von Dommelheimer · · Anchorage · Joined Nov 2010 · Points: 2,835
Jared LaVacque wrote:Hello, Plus a word of advice.....unless you are on a few select routes on the "Seward Highway", don't even bother looking at that choss. Jared
Come on Jared... Lots of great routes on the highway, many with spectacular views...Whales, bears, moose, boretides, dall sheep. The Seward Highway has lots of special attributes nowhere else has! Also we're going through an rebolting the really good routes. Mountain Project has realistic and up to date info on most of the highway, including some excellent new routes from 5.6 to 5.12.
Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

Northern Utah & Idaho
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