Alaska Anchorage Skating Destinations The Anchorage area has an active wild ice skating community and a hugely diverse range of skating destinations, from quiet alpine tarns to marshes to glacial lakes studded with icebergs. Below is a list of some … Read More
Wild Ice Wild Ice Grading System The skating surface of wild ice is graded from A to F. This grade refers only to the surface quality of the ice–not thickness, safety, aesthetics, or other factors. Wild Ice Grades A Clear, … Read More
Packraft History Current Packraft Companies Below is an alphabetical directory of established companies in the packraft industry. Aire USA Maker of the unique BAKraft packraft line. BAKraft packrafts feature self-bailing cockpits and separate air chambers inside Vectran fabric tubes. aire.com … Read More
Anatomy of a Packraft Packraft Cockpit Configurations The cockpit of a packraft is the area in which a paddler sits. There are three broad categories of packraft cockpits: open boats, decked boats, and self-bailers. No one cockpit type is necessarily … Read More
Skates Skates for Wild Ice First, some good news: all ice skates will work on wild ice! In that sense, every skate can be a “wild ice skate.” However, different types of skates perform very differently on wild ice due … Read More
Repair, Care and Maintenance Packraft Care and Maintenance Packrafts are very low-maintenance watercraft, but following a few simple guidelines will help maximize your packraft’s lifespan and make your boat more enjoyable to use. Cleaning Cleaning packrafts removes contaminants that can … Read More
Packraft History 2002-2018: The Great Blow-Up In the 1980s-90s the sport of packrafting went through a long, quiet incubation period. A few grizzled outdoorspeople bought, repaired, and traded Curtis and Sherpa packrafts, pushing the simple boats to their limits (and … Read More
Anatomy of a Packraft Packraft Gear Storage Gear can either be lashed on top of a packraft’s bow or stored inside the tubes. Internal storage lowers the boat’s center of gravity, improves sightlines over the bow, and keeps gear dry. … Read More
Accessories Packrafting PFDs As with paddles, there really isn’t such a thing as a “packraft PFD,” but some PFDs will tend to work better for packrafting than others. Good options for packrafters include those that are light, built from quality … Read More
Accessories Packrafting Paddles Solo packrafts are almost always paddled with double-bladed kayak-style paddles. Packrafting paddles are characterized by a high degree of packability, light weight, and reliability for paddling in remote locations. The ideal paddle is dependent on packraft type, … Read More