"Shushanna" Chisana...

The world is changing and has been changing for a long time.  

Accesible only by air, private and remote, here, at Pioneer Outfitters in Chisana, especially those that have been here for a long time know that not everything changes and we would like to share that with you.  Pioneer Outfitters has made it’s living  as horse- outfitters from its’ birth.  We use those generations of living in this enormous wilderness and use it to show you all there is to be seen and to help you safely experience all the wonders it has to offer.

“No hour of life is wasted that is spent in the saddle.” 

~ Winston Churchill

We offer extended Summer Horse Pack Trips, Fall Photo Safaris, Winter Excursions, Spiritual Retreats, Boot Camp, Survival and Guide Training, Trapping Excursions, Bird Hunting and Big Game Hunting.

Chisana is located in the remote South Wrangell St. Elias National Park / Preserve.  This is some of the most beautiful and majestic scenery anywhere in Alaska. For someone who wants to get off the beaten path and away from the mainstream of tourism, this is the place for you.  Our facilities are located on 80 acres of private land and are totally surrounded by magnificent wilderness on all sides.  There are no roads into Chisana at all.  The only way in is to fly in. We are truly one of the most remote and scenic areas in Alaska.  You will be right in the middle of it.  Although secluded, as we are, the facilities here at Pioneer Outfitters are very comfortable, clean and with a kicked back atmosphere.  Pioneer Outfitters has been owned and operated by the same management for over five decades.  We treat you like family here because when you are with Pioneer Outfitters, you are family.

My ranch is located in the middle of the Wrangell St. Elias National Park / Preserve, which was rated as the most scenic and majestic Park in the world.  We are one of the full time concessionaires that operate year round in this Park.  The only access into our ranch is by air.  We can show you Alaska, the way Alaska was meant to be seen.  Wild. Raw. 

The Wrangell St. Elias National Park & Preserve hosts thousands of tourists and visitors each year, who come to see this magnificently beautiful National Park.  However, the vast majority of all the visitors and adventurers see only the south-west side of this awesomely vast Park. The tourist facilities that are available as well as the road system in much of that area make access so easy.  Very few tourists or adventurers ever get to see or experience the north-east side of the glacial divide that separates the south-west Wrangell’s from the north-east Wrangell’s and the incredible Nutzotin Mountains that extend all the way to the Canadian border. This is Pioneer Outfitter’s country.  We would like to invite you to come share and experience the wilds of Alaska with us.  Take a horse pack trip through the wilderness and across tundra in Alaska’s most beautiful and America’s  largest National Park.  The Wrangell St. Elias National Park and Preserve.

We will take you and show you the remains of the last gold rush, teach you to pan for gold, lead you across magnificent glaciers, take you to peaks above the clouds and get you closer to the great mountain animals than you have ever dreamed.  The Dall sheep, Mountain caribou, the  giant Alaska-Yukon moose, Interior Mountain Grizzly and black bears all roam freely to be seen, appreciated, admired, photographed and experienced.  Our trips vary in length and with your interests in mind when you are our guest.  This is a wild untouched place.

Breathtaking. The Wrangell St. Elias National Park is not just another Park; it is the real Alaska.  Unlike most Parks, where there are roads, tour buses, and picnic tables and where the animals stand and pose for pictures and eat out of your hand, the animals here are free and wild, just like the country they live in.  This is Alaska, The Great Land. Come and Experience it with us.

Our trips are designed with the client’s capabilities and wishes in mind.  From day trips to gentle pack trips to glacier walks and cross country roving pack trips…and everything in between.  Here, at home in Chisana, you are treated like part of the family, delicious home cooked meals, warm cabins and hot showers, every satellite TV station you can imagine and hundreds of movies on the shelves, and wireless internet are available. When you are on your trip and away from home we have long established camps to stay at. Waking in the morning and stepping outside to see the morning light on the glacier or watching the sun hit the snow peaked mountains in the evening light. Whichever trip you choose will be etched in your mind and being forever.  We are in the memory business, let us be part of one of yours.

An Insight….Master Guide Terry Overly, “The Youngest Old Timer in Alaska”, takes Alaska, Chisana, Pioneer Outfitters, family and his clients to heart.  It has been a steadfast basis for us all (his guides), being a pack trip guide isn’t just about riding a horse around, being a hunting guide isn’t just about killing…it is the entire trip that counts…the fickle finger of fate and all that.  Summer Trips are photo safaris and hunting is a recipe, with luck, chance and some experience and knowledge mixed in with the spice that comes from pairing the client to the guide; the result is a perfect memory in the making. 

 Pioneer Outfitters’ guides train and become guides, learning the ways of the past while learning rivers, mountains, horses, Alaska’s predictably- unpredictable weather, and when they are guides, they stay, with Pioneer Outfitters…anywhere else ends up being less. Terry Overly’s guides are known for their experience and commitment to preserving a way of life that does still hold strong in some parts of our world. 

“There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man.”  ~Winston Churchill