Winter ski mountaineering in Southeast Alaska and the Juneau Icefield presents significant challenges including severe avalanche hazards, unfrozen fjords, short daylight hours, and Pacific storms.
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Questions people asked
What are the environmental and logistical challenges of winter ski mountaineering and icefield traverses in Southeast Alaska, and how do they compare to late spring conditions?
Bears, mostly yes. Coastal brown bears den from roughly November to April. But SE Alaska winters are mild, so some den late or wake up during warm spells. Mostly sleeping, then, not guaranteed.
"Just stay out of avalanche areas" is the funny part. Fjord walls, icefield margins and every valley between them are avalanche terrain, and the snowpack there is wet, heavy and gets dumped on constantly. The icefield tops are fairly safe. Getting up to them and back down is where it gets dangerous.
The big problem is the fjords. They're salt water, so they don't freeze over. That means packrafting Tracy Arm or Endicott Arm in winter, in near-freezing water, with ice floating in it. Add about 6 hours of daylight in December and back-to-back Pacific storms.
The usual compromise is late spring, around April or May. The days are long, the snow has settled, the glaciers are well covered and the bears are only just waking up. That's when people normally do Juneau Icefield traverses.