Hunter snapped the photo above Saturday. I really like how Tin Can looks like a complete zoo with all the tracks and the people along the ridge. The skier in the slide is the one who triggered it and is in the process of squirming his way out in the photo. You can see what the next skier down kicked off here. It’s snowing hard in Anchorage, long may it continue.
Jeff got a little bit crazy at the hardware store attempting to make a ski pole flask. He did a short infomercial for me at the peak 3 parking lot on Thursday. And yes, it is snowing, I’m quite pleased about it too.
Graham, Jeff and I skied Ptarmigan this afternoon. They both had class this morning, so I lounged around in bed for a while looking at the blue sky out my window. Our first choice was to ski Big League this afternoon, but the weather was deteriorating quickly down south, and with sunshine in Anchorage we decided to head to the front range and hit Ptarmigan. The weather was typical of how its been this last week; fast moving clouds, with flurries and sunshine at the same time. We skied the obvious chute that starts to the right of the summit which made for a great little afternoon tour. I even tripped and somersaulted without consequences which got everyone laughing. Lets hope the weather improves. Looking at the Tordrillos (pictured bellow) while getting ready really wet my appetite for skiing some new stuff.
Anyway, now that Dave has coined the term “mind skiing” in the comments I’ll pass along the mind skiing and other things I’ve read in the office the last couple days.
I’ve been a sack of shit since Wolverine and haven’t done anything productive by spending too much time at work. It’s gotten a lot warmer around here (high twenties) and I’ really don’t know how the snow is currently skiing down south. With both those things in mind Hunter and I went up to Arctic Valley for a short tour this afternoon to see how the snow was. Despite my expectations the snow was actually pretty good up there. The more I go to Arctic Valley the more I enjoy the place. For those of you from out of town imagine a low grade ski area in Michigan (dilapidated lifts, no grooming, single pitch) where the landfill it’s built upon is so high it rises above tree line with a few boulders scattered around. Since the snow wasn’t too deep I decided to try out the suction cup mount for my camera and stuck it to my ski just in front of my boot. Here are the results…
So, as mentioned earlier Graham, Jimmy, Charlie and I skied the south face of Wolverine yesterday. It was a first for each of us, and a line I’d wanted to do for as long as I’ve lived here. To top the whole thing off we did it in typical Dongshow style with a late start, minimal food or water (I went all day on 20oz of coffee, a bite of Grahams chocolate and some Jubelale!), forgotten equipment and wet boots. We hadn’t really planned to ski Wolverine either, and I was sure we were going to be forced to turn around until we reached the top.
Our late start was due to our lack of a clue as to what the weather was going to do. After a round of 7:30 phone calls we decided to meet at Carrs around 9; once there we resolved to decide what to ski on the drive down south, and at Tesoro we made the call to give Wolverine a try. We parked at the Eddies lot and went up half way before taking off our skins and skiing off the north side to towards the Sharks fin and across the ravine. (Charlie realized he’d forgotten his beacon and pushed on anyway) We had our skins back on around 12:30 and skinned up the valley, past the south face of Wolverine and up the back towards the east ridge. Going around the back made gaining the ridge surprisingly painless, with a short skin through a small flattish chute and up through a mellow bowl with some amazing mini golf. But we didn’t have time to look around too much, as the good light is obviously fleeting this time of year.
At the time the ridge walk to the summit had me freaked; I was thirsty, tired and I hardly took any pictures as I was genuinely scared. Both the potential long tumble over sharp rocks to my right and large cornices above a steep exposed face to left were hard to ignore. At one point as I made my way up a steep section (second photo from the top) Jimmy broke off a large cornice with a light tap from his pole. I saw nothing as I was climbing, all I heard was the sound of it releasing and a Charley scream. Luckily Jimmy was standing on rocks and the incident passed as a stern warning. The route required a couple down climbs which made me nervous, (descending steps kicked in rime above corniced ridge lines never thrills me), but in the end I can’t complain as it left us at the exact point from which we were hoping to ski from.(the top right in the picture above.)
The line skied fantastic, very steep with soft snow and minimal sluffing. The snow was a little harder in the lower chute, but by the time I got there (I went last) it was covered in enough sluff to be easy smooth skiing. I was shocked to see hardly any snow rumble down hill when Jimmy put in his initial turn / ski cut, but it was just that kind of day where things continued to turn for the best. Also worth mentioning is that the apron on Wolverine was deceptively large, I came out of the lower chute with a huge smile thinking it was over but it seemed to go on forever. After a couple of beers at the base we skied back to the Eddies lot, which passed without any surprises and we arrived just before dark. Charlie has to be thanked for documenting everything, he took a pile of pictures and got a little video as well. I’ve attached that to the video of Graham’s run. The attentive viewer will get an excellent view of the pole flask he’s constructed.
Graham, Charlie, Jimmy and I skied Wolverine today, it was awesome, exhausting and scary, and because of those reasons I don’t have time to post much, so enjoy this video of Jimmy in Hatcher last friday and I’ll get after it tomorrow while in the office. Oh and it was really really really good. A demain.
Jimmy crashed on my couch Saturday night, and Sunday the two of us got a very un dongshow like early start by leaving the house a couple hours before the sun was up. Driving along the Seward highway there were bands of high clouds, and with it still being dark we struggled to wrap our heads around what the weather was going to do. While at the Tesoro there was talk of abandoning our plans of skiing Peterson Creek and skiing something mellow in the pass. Luckily we stuck to the plan, as the weather turned out to be perfect. We were a little surprised to find two other cars already parked and departed when we arrived around nine, but it worked out as we didn’t have to cut trail. A few minutes into the valley we came across two of the people ahead of us, it turned out they had just freed their dog from a conibear trap and were turning around, with the poor dog completely spooked after getting caught. Luckily, I’d left both dogs at home and we continued on.
When we climbed out of the valley and were up on the glacier with views of everything it became difficult to decide what to ski, everything looked great, and Peterson Creek has tons of options. Jimmy was in the mood for some high speed turns, so we headed up what I guess is calledd Lactic Acid and skied the glorious open south face (video above). The snow was ripple textured by the wind, but still soft enough that skis cut through it like butter. I couldn’t help but cheering as I cruised across the smooth as glass apron, after skiing in Hatcher all week it was nice to go fast and not even consider the possibility of snagging a rock.
Deciding what to ski for our second run was equally difficult, but Jimmy led the way booting up a chute near the Shoulder of Death and was clearly motivated as he cut trail all the way to the top as I couldn’t catch up with him. When I crawled over the cornice at the top Jimmy was nowhere to be seen, but after some shouting realized that while waiting for me he had picked out a line down the ridge which I couldn’t see. So I dropped in first, back down the chute we’d just crawled up. Again the skiing was fantastic, perfect snow and a beautiful run out that allowed for carrying speed and trying to race my sluff down, really fantastic skiing. Unfortunately I’d run out of batteries (this is sure to be remembered as trait of this season when remembered a few years in the future) so there is no footage of the line. From the bottom I looked around for Jimmy, and watched him absolutely kill the steep rib pictured above. I didn’t really know what his intended route was, and was initially a bit concerned with all the sluff, but Jimmy skied it flawlessly, sticking to the rib till the very end and straight lining out a lower notch I hadn’t noticed. An incredibly impressive run to top off an awesome day.
The skiing has been so good lately I’m really at a loss of words. After spending the week up in Hatcher with some fantastic light powder, I’ve gone down Turnagain the last two days and the weather and snow has been fantastic . Saturday I went up Magnum with Hunter (who took the photo), Sue and Walter. We found some perfect dense powder that didn’t show the faintest trace of wind. I was still a bit shocked at how well the new snow had bonded to the buried crust so didn’t push it to far and settled for skiing from Magnum into Davis Creek where we found the baby beluga untracked.
Graham, Jimmy and I went skied Hatcher Pass today; it was fantastic. Deep, light, stable, snow, not a cloud in sight, and although it was a tad rocky (like always up there, I came home with some fresh core shots) that didn’t hinder the skiing at all. Pictured above is our second run of three, everything we hit today was fantastic, both north and south facing shots had nothing but blower powder. I’m so happy and excited for more I’m going to have trouble sleeping tonight. Anyway, I forgot to charge the battery on the video camera, so you’ll have to settle with for these photos.
I celebrated MLK day with a few too many mid day margaritas trying to put together a frustrating and difficult puzzle; some horrible gloppy painting of a vineyard kept three of us working for hours without any progress. I didn’t even make it home. This morning I woke up with the type of headache only cheap margarita mix and a night of puzzling can provide. Luckily I got a ride downtown, and was able to take the bus back to my house early this morning before the sun came up (I love slow January mornings), allowing me to go to Hatcher with Graham. We skied a line on the left side of the road, on the south side of what I think is April Bowl (I don’t know the names of anything up there), and the snow was fantastic. A little wind effected and rocky towards the top, but 10-12 inches of cold powder the rest of the way. It was a new line for both Graham and I, with quick and easy access. Hatcher is skiing really well right now. Graham and I weren’t alone up there today, but it’d also be a stretch to say there are are a lot of tracks. Anyway, no video today, typically I forgot to clear the card for my camera so got to the top only to learn I couldn’t record anything; but if you want a mediocre idea of what we skied I have a photo of Graham skiing it here.
