Arrigetch Peaks & Alatna River Packraft

Gates of the Arctic National Park, Brooks Range, Alaska · United States

Expedition Grade10 daysNorth America~£6,800 est.

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Overview

The Arrigetch — "fingers of the outstretched hand" in Iñupiaq — are the Brooks Range at its most improbable: granite spires like Shot Tower and Caliban erupting from arctic tundra, six hundred miles from the nearest traffic light. A floatplane out of Bettles drops you at Circle Lake, then two days of hauling packs up the Arrigetch Creek valley bring you to basecamp beneath towers that see a few dozen visitors a year. Then the trip inverts: back at the Alatna River you inflate packrafts and ride a clear Class I-II current south for days, camping on gravel bars, watching grizzlies mousing on the banks and caribou swimming the channels. Take-out is Takahula Lake, where the floatplane finds you again. Late August stains the tundra crimson and switches the night lights on. This is Gates of the Arctic National Park: no trails, no signage, no rescue on tap — parties must be genuinely self-sufficient, and most go guided (around £6,800, 10 days, from Fairbanks via Bettles). The variable is rain: the Alatna can rise fast, and the tussock-and-boulder walk to the peaks is slow, wet work that laughs at your mileage plans. Book the bush plane early; August seats go first.