Macks Peak

This was to be our last Denali training hike before our trip. I wouldn't say it was a particularly good candidate for Denali training, as it didn't allow us to bring heavy packs and really pound out the miles. What it did allow us to do, though, was bag another unique peak. Which is always great. The drive out to Macks is actually kind of long, since you need to drive all the way out to Lee Canyon and then spend another 30 minutes or so on a dirt road to get into Macks Canyon. The payoff, though, is experiencing a rarely visited canyon. We found Macks Canyon surprisingly beautiful. I wasn't concerned about any part of the hike, except for the "chute". All the descriptions I found referenced a chute at the end that was steep and loose. I figured, "eh, no big deal, it's probably just a longer version of the Mummy chute". As it turns out, the chute in question isn't really a huge deal, unless you enlarge your definition of "chute" and include the ledge that leads to the steep chute. Without a doubt, the hairiest part of the route is the narrow ledge that traverses across a 20-ish foot drop. The ledge is littered with loose bits of limestone (go figure, it's typical of this area) and is just awkward and creepy. Once past this ledge, the chute itself is steep but is mostly covered in a thick layer of dirt. It even has some helpful trees for handholds. Grey clouds loomed ominously much of the day, so we decided not to linger on the small summit. We quickly descended the chute, carefully inched across the ledge (worse going down than up), and then made quick work of the rest of the short route. Stats: roughly 2000 vertical, 4 miles, 4.5 hours