On a brisk day near winter solstice (the actual solstice falls on the following day) I joined Dan, Ed, Ann, and Heather for a day ski on the Compeau trail in the Chena River SRA. I had biked part of the Compeau trail in the summer, but had never skied it, and approached the outing with a bit of trepidation as the only person I had talked to about skiing it had said it was nearly impossible. I should not have worried however, as it turned out to be a quite a fun ski, with only a handful of terrifyingly steep sections. We skied out to Colorado Creek cabin first, which was still warm from the previous tenants, had a short snack, then headed up the Compeau to the top of the ridge. The initial climb was very pleasant, with lots of switchbacks and hardly any steep sections. Once we reached the top of the ridge we then followed a old dozer line to a fire break installed in the summer of 2004. There were a handful of fairly steep climbs and descents but everything was manageable on skis. I had a number of crashes ( I think four total – I led the crash count by a wide margin) but nothing too tremendous. Eventually we rejoined the Compeau trail and were treated too a 10 mile decent to the Chena Hotsprings winter trail that was quite pleasant and very fun. Once at the bottom we followed the Chena Hotsprings winter trail back to Colorado Creek trail parking lot, and we where finished, only 26 miles later. This loop evolved lots and lots of climbing and was quite a workout. This is a fantastic day trip, and highly recommended! The Compeau trail is very skiable, with wide switchbacks on the downhills. The new reroute on the beginning of the Colorado Creek trail is a wonderful addition that cuts out the heavily rutted sections, which is a great improvement.
The following photos are complements of Ed, as I forgot my camera in the car, alas.
The views from the trail along the ridges was fantastic.
The lower sections of trail wind though black spruce forest and is quite scenic. 
The Alaska range was back lit by the low angle solstice sun for most of the day, and was extremely beautiful.
Tags: chena_rec_area, colorado creek, compeau, day trip, skiing, stiles