Pioneer Ridge and Pioneer Peak: One of the biggest day hikes in Southcentral Alaska

The stunning, challenging trek up to Pioneer Ridge — and onward to the peak, if you like — is, hands down, one of the biggest goal hikes in Southcentral Alaska. And while it’s absolutely worth doing, it’s also worth taking seriously: You’ll put in 5,300 feet of steady elevation gain to reach the start of the summit ridge, which is where most scrambling-averse hikers will turn around.

This is hike 23 in my guidebook Day Hiking Southcentral Alaska.

Hiking Pioneer Ridge

Like many steep hikes in Alaska, the trail up Pioneer Ridge heads uphill, straight out of the gate. It’s punctuated by brown posts along its length, counting off your progress in feet. (A mile is 5,280 feet, so if you round down to 5,000 feet per mile you’ll still be in the neighborhood.)

The first part of the trail is the wettest, with a number of small rivulets flowing across the trail, but you don’t need to worry about serious stream crossings: They’re either bridged by short boardwalks or small enough to step across.

By 1.8 miles from the trailhead the trail enters a series of switchbacks, and you’ll see the first of three picnic tables that make good markers for your progress. You’ll also start to catch sight of the Knik Glacier in the distance.

You’ll pass the second picnic table at 2.2 miles from the trailhead; ignore a right fork just past the table and continue straight ahead instead. At about 2.6 miles from the trailhead you’ll exit brushline, and soon after the trail levels off enough so that you can see more of the landscape around you, as opposed to the slope in front of you.

The mountain you’re hiking on is, quite simply, enormous; see the pictures below for an idea of how it dwarfs hikers. I wouldn’t want to be here in foul weather — something to keep in mind, as you’ll easily spend a full day in the process of a round-trip hike.

The broken remains of the third picnic table — squashed by accumulated snow — sit about 4.5 miles from the trailhead, at 5,300 feet of elevation. There’s a stupendous, and obvious, viewpoint just 0.1 mile to the south(ish) from here.

For many hikers, this is the logical turnaround point; the “Pioneer Ridge” moniker refers to the broad ridge you walked up until this point, not to the summit ridge in front of you. Continuing on requires another 1.5 miles of increasingly strenuous scrambling over notoriously loose, fragile rock.

If you do choose to continue make sure you leave yourself plenty of time to make the return trip, and keep in mind that when scrambling in rough terrain, going down is usually much slower, more difficult, and dangerous than going up.

Two Peaks and Multiple Approaches

There are multiple approaches toward Pioneer Peak, but the only one that’s not a technical climb is the approach toward the southeast ridge. If you hear someone talking about going up the north face of Pioneer Peak, they’re talking about a technical route that’s also used for ice climbing in winter.

In a similar vein, there are actually two summits on Pioneer Peak. When people talk about hiking to the summit they are almost always talking about the 6,398-foot south summit. Most hikers consider the transition from south summit to north summit — which is at practically the same elevation — to be far outside their comfort zone — with good reason, as it is very exposed.

Pictures From Hiking Pioneer Ridge