Photos by koecher

Brian mountain biking away after a successful summit of both of the Suicide Peaks in the Chugach Range. What a great day!

Kegger hanging his feet off the summit of North Suicide in 2005.

The false peak of Big O'Malley is in the distance on the left side of this photo. Joe Rozak can be seen on Little O's ridge above the little cornice (right side of photo). We hiked up and Snowboarded down on 1 March 2005.

Here's a photo showing the deep pow as you progressed farther into the Gully. Notice Brian (left) deep in powder and Matt (right) yet to post-hole. It made for fun glissading on the way back down!

Photo of the "right" gully going up Big O'Malley. Kegger is in the center of the photo starting the ascent.

This is at the end of the Bird Ridge hike looking back toward the Turnagain Arm. I called it a summit because it's the highest point of the hike, although I don't think it's an actual peak. Taken in 2004

The Summit of Avalanche Peak is the focal point of this photo. This pic was taken from a false peak in the summer of 2004. There was a summit register at the actual summit. Note: if you yell toward the lake below, the echo is amazing!

Here is Matt Auberger going for gold off the saddle between Little O'Malley and Big O'Malley. We spent about an hour jumping off this "cornice" and glissading about a hundred feet and running back up...just like little kids. Chugach - The Adult Playground. Ptarmigan Peak's North Couloir and West-Northwest face are in the background.

This was one of the Very Few spots to take a break and get a quick pic on the West-Northwest face of Ptarmigan. This route should be attempted by experienced mountaineers only. (which is most of the people who view this site) Little O'Malley is in the middle of the pic...and you can barely see the top of Wolverine over O'Malley's ridge toward the right side of the pic.

There's me at the bottom on my way toward O'Malley Peak's scree slope. This hike was in mid-May and was my first ascent up the mtn. Six of us made the climb. Fun Times!

Make sure you're "bear ready" should you decide to hike up Mchugh Peak. A couple trail runners were killed here a few years ago and bear/moose sitings are common. Bring bells/whistles/spray or whatever you need to alert them of your presence and keep yourself safe. However, don't worry about them so much you don't enjoy yourself. There's so much beauty to soak up; including the critters. This picture was taken by Joe Rozak on June 4th, 2004 during his ascent of Mchugh Peak with fellow Chugach enthusiast Paul Koecher.

This panoramic shot was taken at the summit of Avalanche Peak (also known as Powerline Pass Peak) at 5,050ft. The ever popular Flattop Mountain skirts the right edge of the photo. Moving down the ridge you can see Ptarmigan Peak, the Suicide Peaks and Homicide Peak. The middle of the photo is graced by Indianhouse Mtn, the Turnagain Arm, and Bird Ridge. This leads to the left side of the picture which looks North/Northeasterly toward the giants that dominate the beginning of the South Fork of Eagle River and beyond. The photo, which is actually several photos pieced together, was taken by Joe Rozak on June 18th, 2004 on his summit of Avalanche with Paul Koecher.