alaska ice/rock

planning an adventure rock/ice/work contract trip to Alaska! does anybody have any personal experiences as to time of year, location etc

I am willing to lend advice but you need to offer up more specifics.

The rock is less than inspiring,

If you are around Anchorage you will have tons of options. Sport climbing and bouldering abound. There is a rock gym and lots of friendly locals to meet. Hatcher pass is the all around gettup for rock. Good trad, some sport and endless boulders. Wiener lake is one of the better sport venues.
If you get there early enough you can find ok ice along ptarmagine arm or head out to Valdez for the good stuff. The mountains are right above town and there are tons of exploratory options along the Glen highway.
The Alaska Range is only a few hours drive north and offers a couple decent expo climbs.
Just be prepared to drive and hike and explore. Over all the rock in Alaska is crap but psyche amongst locals runs high after the snow melts. Good luck and maybe I will run into you.
Tom

Thomas pretty much gave the low down on all the specifics. "The mountains are right above town" is key. Adding to that:

All of the rock crags around Anchorage are pretty lame, as far as actual climbing is concerned. That being said, there is quite a bit close to anchorage and the setting for most of it can't be beat imo.

Low commitment water ice around Anchorage usually stays in until late march/ into april. There is a lot of easily accessible water ice close to Anchorage. Valdezsteaz's pictures are from valdez. Famous water ice.

Look on this site! Mostly all of the local crags (rock and ice) are on here. There might not be that much info on them, but enough to get an idea.

There are lifetimes worth of ice in SC AK
alaskaiceclimbing.com/south…

Spring alpine season just starts to kick off in April right around the time the WI starts to disappear. There are plenty of fun objectives within an hour or two of Anchorage, and of course all the other ranges. Sigh, sometimes I miss The Great Land :-(

You might also try alaskamountainforum.com/forum/
For partners and some general beta.
There is absolutely no shortage of good stuff, you just need time off and some gumption to go do it.

There is tons of sport-ish climbing to be had just south of Anchorage, none of it overly inspiring (rock quality is kind of sketchy), but you can climb all night if you want given the daylight. Hatcher Pass (near Palmer, AK) has high quality alpine granite but the season is short, but it's an incredible place to climb when it's on.