Twin Peaks trailhead for ~2.6 miles to a wooden bench in the alpine where the doubletrack ends.  From here, take the rough singletrack left and down to the creek.  Cross the creek and either follow a rough trail along the creek to Twin Pass, or another faint trail with a more northerly trajectory towards the saddle east of East Twin Peak.  Gain the ridge and head west towards East Twin Peak.  At ~5000' the ridge will get more serious.  Here the routefinding begins; it is beyond concise explanation.  Pick your way around and through gendarmes and overly steep and exposed sections, at times on the north and other times on the south side, of the ridge.  For the last few hundred feet to the summit, the north side offers gentler terrain.  This route is more convoluted than the south gully, but with good route finding the climbing actually seems less intimidating.  That said, pay close attention to your routefinding and don't get sucked into an overly dangerous spot! 

  This route is likely harder and more dangerous with snow; there is a lot of steep snow climbing with avalanche hazard along an exposed knife-edge ridge.  Checkanchorageavalanchecenter.org as a resource on snow conditions.

East Ridge

South Gully

Take the Twin Peaks trail to the alpine where the doubletrack ends at a wooden park bench (~2.6 miles).  Take the rough singletrack to the left and down to the creek.  Cross the creek and head up the south slopes of East Twin trending towards the obvious south gully.  There is a prominent knoll with rocks just right of the gully proper at ~4000', and this is a good place to enter the gully.  Once in, or near, the gully proper climb steep and loose class 3 scree in the gully (generally more solid and stable on the flanks and the rock walls on the sides can provide hand holds) through several more vertical class 4 rock steps (that are generally solid but be mindful of choss and loose gravel).  Alternatively, there are steeper but more solid options just outside the gully meandering through cliff bands on the sides.  In the upper reaches of the south gully it will fork.  Take the right fork.  There is some likely unavoidable class 4 here through a rock-choked constriction.  After negotiating this obstacle follow steep scree up a narrow chute that constricts to a thin slot before opening up on the summit ridge just east of the summit.  From here climb west to the summit on the north side of the mountain.  This route is probably easiest in the spring (late March to early May) when the gully is filled with snow and a simple ice axe and crampons can be used.  However, there will be a serious avalanche hazard to contend with.  Checkanchorageavalanchecenter.org as a resource on conditions.

#47 of 120 Chugach State Park peaks.  East Twin is one of the gnarlier peaks of the Western Chugach that can be seen driving the Glenn Hwy between Anchorage and Palmer.  The peak is generally climbed without technical rock gear via class 3-4 routes that are likely easiest in the spring with snow (albeit with the added dimension of avalanche hazard) using crampons and a simple ice axe.  In the dry months of summer there is a lot of steep loose scree, choss, and several steep rock steps or cliff bands with exposure to navigate.  The mountain also has a lot of potential for ski mountaineering objectives, with the NW couloir being the most obvious.

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in East Twin Peak