P-Town Beat-Down (Palmer, AK)

Submitted by pbakwin on Fri, 09/06/2019 - 01:35pm
Description

Josh Hejl submitted the route, which climbs 3 prominent peaks in the Palmer area:  Government Peak (4781'), Pioneer Peak (South summit, 6280'), and Matanuska Peak (6100').  The "Beat Down" requires cycling between the trailheads, which is indicated here under "multisport", but you can do it also by driving between the trailheads.  Note that the higher North summit of Pioneer is not required, as it is a technical, off-trail ascent.  All 3 of these peaks have races on them (see https://www.alaskamountainrunners.org/calendar.htm)

Episode 50: Luke Nelson - What's so special about the WURL?

Luke has FKTs on the Idaho 12ers (9 summits over 12,000'), and the Utah 13ers (17 over 13,000').  A few weeks ago he did the Wasatch Ultimate Ridge Linkup, a gnarly but entirely logical Jared Campbell route ringing Little Cottonwood Canyon, starting directly above Salt Lake City.  

"The WURL is a fascinating route; it took several years for me to feel ready to even try it. I wanted to be able to move not only quickly through this terrain, but safely at the same time."

Luke is very conscious of the “Kilian Effect”: