May 30, 2009
Jeff and Max caught a King while working at the port the other day. They claim it weighed in around 30 pounds. I didn’t get to eat any of this beast, but I’ve heard it was quite tasty. Hopefully more fresh fish soon, as I think Jeff and I may be going to Chitna next weekend. In the meantime, enjoy these Chamonix shots I’ve been drooling over all month.
May 20, 2009
The sunshine and heat has continued for another week, which allowed for some flying with Max the last couple days. Friday night Max flew Jeffe and I around Turnagain Arm for a while and sunday afternoon Max and I flew out to the big Su to check out a potential fishing hole we’d spotted last summer. Max was able to put the plane (which is still on wheels) down on a couple of small islands, eventually finding a spot where we could land the plane, step out the door and fish from the bank, directly above the hole we had hoped to find. The kings still haven’t arrived though, so no fishing took place. Anyway, I’ve got some video of one of the many landings, it’s nothing special, we’re still trying to figure out how to capture some of the flying Max does on camera.
Our plan for the coming weekend is to the penninsula and hopefully catch some kings on either the Anchor or Kasilor rivers. Were expecting this month of beautiful weatherto break this weekend, just in time, camping on the beach in the rain should be interesting. Hopefully we’ll return with some pictures of large fish, until then enjoy this picture of the current snow level in the pass.
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May 13, 2009
Max flew up to Crosswinds last weekend and managed to put his plane down on the ice, and snapped a couple of pictures, which was especially nice, as it’s been over 70 degrees and I’ve done very little. It seems that summer is here for good, so get used to this style of update and hopefully some pictures of large fish.
May 7, 2009
If anyone is wondering what we’ve been up lately the answer is pretty simple, nothing. Max has been flying his plane, while I’ve lounged in the sunshine writing e-mails in search of employment. Anyway, hopefully a little video of Seany B’s car getting shot up will keep all of you from harassing me about my lack of posts, especially of the gun shooting variety.
In other news that may or may not be of interest to anyone, the excellent Piste Hors has recently been writing articles memorializing the Alouette III helicopters, which I’ve always had a soft spot for too. After spending my first year in Alaska sipping whiskey and discussing helicopters with the Pete, I knew all about the Alouette with it’s incredible performance and low price tag (you can get one here for only 300,000), and while spending that winter in France, the constant site of that helicopter buzzing around the valley, looking giant mosquito, always brought a smile to my face. So, with those memories in mind, I was sad to here that they were decommissioned for use by the PGHM this spring, after more then 40 years of service. At least it got a better send off then Seany B’s car though, and who knows, maybe this will lead to the price falling even further and we’ll have one of our own soon. Until next time….
Update: I forgot to mention you can track Matt the Cook’s progress up Denali at his website as well.
April 20, 2009
As regular readers will know, I’ve let most of the past couple weeks pass without comment around these parts as I’ve been occupied by Wilson’s and Mania’s most recent visit. This is now Mania’s second and Wilson’s fifth spring visiting Alaska hoping to ski, and I’d dare to say they got better skiing on this trip then in any of their previous visits. Where as the weather made last year’s trip seemed like some nightmarish restaurant where we were stuck waiting for a meal that never came, this trip was like bingeing at an incredible buffet. Each day taking a trip in Wilson’s rental car to fill our plates with runs in Turnagain, Valdez, Girdwood and Hatcher Pass, barely leaving enough time to digest between courses.
That’s not to say we didn’t have our share of the usual issues. I crashed my snowmachine into a tree in Hope, Mania forgot non-critical pieces of his equipment 60 percent of the time and Tim got hit with a 300 dollar speeding ticket in Eureka. We kicked of avalanches in Hope, cut slabs on Tin Can, and got clouded out in Valdez. Except this time, despite the usual helping of adversity, we went out into the field for all but 4 days, and always came home with proud lines under each arm.
Our most plentiful take came on a wednsday afternoon in Valdez, strangely in the middle of a cycle of excellent skiing in Turnagain Pass. After a couple of decent days we stepped up to a line on the north side of Eddie’s Wilson and I had eyed a year earlier on his visit, and I’d been hoping to ski ever since. We got a bit of a late start as Seany B, who’d long wanted to ski the line as well, was applying for a job and couldn’t leave till noon. Despite the late start, we didn’t see a soul on the voyage, the sun was out, the snow was velvet, all four of us skied it in a single pitch, and we avoided all the ravines out the way out. That night we celebrated excessively and planned on sleeping in, but the next morning Wilson and Mania woke me up, asking if I thought they should go to Valdez. Our good friend Karitas had called while I was sleeping, and offered them the chance to go Heli Skiing with him at H20. Wilson mulled over the possibilities on the toilet before deciding to go for it, Mania was enthusiastic and I reluctantly went along thinking I would be needed as some kind of chaperone or could go for a solo ski tour in Valdez while the two of them were flying. Wilson had already been ticketed so we didn’t make it wasn’t until 1:30 that we met Karitas and the helicopter in Valdez. I thought I’d be dropping Mania and Wilson off before looking for a place to skin, but Karitas quickly made it clear that I was needed, they had a private helicopter and only himself, Wilson and Mania were going, when there was room for 5. I took my skins out of my bag, and put a harness on. We were in the air by 3, and by 3:30 Karitas was delivering the goods (pictured above and bellow).
We started off on Wally’s World for our first run (a second descent), then moved on to Upper 49ers (top video) looking to refresh our palates on some lighter fare, before trying Once Ridden Twice Shy. From there we had to wait a bit, we passed the time by playing jokes on Dean, calling on the radio to ask if we could borrow the helicopter for some late evening laps on Crudbusters. Once we got picked up we moved on to a mellower line on Callahan’s before getting a first descent on what would become known as Island Time. Everything went smooth, and without problems, until our final run, when Mania managed to get his pants stuck on the basket of the helicopter and get hung upside down. Luckily he lived and the helicopter flew away safely. We were back at the car around 9, everyone sporting massive smiles and content from an all time epic day.
Since then we’ve been all over the map. We spent a weekend skiing from Seany B’s cabin in Hope, skied a couple of days in Turnagain, went sledding, and hit up some great north facing lines in Hatcher Pass. The skiing has been good, Mania went back tired, and Wilson is claiming he’ll be moving here for next winter. We shall see, we shall see, but first I’ve got to finish off this winter before I worry about the next one.
April 13, 2009
If you were expecting the much belated Valdez update you’ll have to wait a day or two longer; our conditions have slid into the unsafe territory and provided me with stories, video and pictures of a more fleeting value, basically I have a couple of slides to discuss. Kyle kicked off a small slide in Hope Friday evening. After Jason had skied a chute, which Wilson later reported they’d been skeptical off. Kyle set off, skiing to the right of the chute and as he ventured away from the high point near the chute the whole slide broke off, about 6 inches too 1.5 feet deep. Kyle retreated to the safety of the ridge and finished his run in the safety of the chute. Today, with the sun poking through the large holes between the clouds, Jason, Wilson and I set off for the pass with a couple of things in mind. The site of large, fresh, natural slides on a lot of northern aspects had us looking for cover, and adopting our plans to a more mellow day. On top of Tin Can, with the winds howling out of the east, we decided to ski cut some of the loaded chutes near the top. Our first attempt proved successful, Wilson managed to get a chute near the top of the skin track to break about 2 feet deep (pictured above) and run to the valley floor. Two slides in the last couple days and massive signs of instability have clouded the plans for the next couple days, everything is currently on hold. As usual the better version of Kyle’s Hope video bellow is here, enjoy.
Update: Also, good friend of the site and member of the Hope crew, Nappi was involved in a scary ice climbing accident near Eklutna.
April 12, 2009
We spent the weekend in Hope, which is my excuse if anyone is wondering why there hasn’t been anything new around here. We skied Friday (Kyle set off a small slide) but less then ideal weather encouraged us to spend our time relaxing around the cabin and firing over 200 rounds at Seany B’s Subaru. It looks as if the weather will be improving, so there should be some new stuff soon, and I still have last weeks events to discuss as well.
April 9, 2009
Things have gotten pretty out of hand here. I’ve been skiing 12 of the last 14 days. Both Mania and Wilson are here. It’s sunny, and the snow has been just about perfect. More updates will be coming real quick, but we’ll start with a little POV footage from Corn Biscuit on Monday. A higher quality version can be found right here, more coming soon.
April 8, 2009
Mania, Wilson, Seany B and I skied this line of the north facing side of Eddie’s today. I was quite excited, the slope rolled over to a nice slope slanting slightly to the skier’s left, before dropping into a large chute that ran steeply to the valley floor. It was quite nice to ski a large line with Wilson again. Last time I’d skied something similar it’d been a far shorter line off the north side of the Shark Fin where he’d dropped a small rock and straight run towards the valley. Today Wilson too the first tracks, and disappeared beneith a rollover, only to appear 3 minutes later nuking his way towards the valley floor. Sorry, I’m a bit drunk, and a little too celebratory about skiing a massive line on a sunny Tuesday. Bring on the rest of the week, it has started well, I can say that much.
April 6, 2009
As usual with this group the Valdez trip was a bust. Clouds and wind kept us from skiing, other then a Saturday afternoon lap on Odyssey. I realized halfway through the trip that the only times I’ve been in Valdez when the sun wasn’t shinning were with Mania and Wilson, and so figured that I was pretty much screwed. Anyway, we raced back to the western Chugach for some sun shine and powder. I Spent the day skiing Corn Biscuit (pictured above) with Mania and Wilson; we found that typically Alaskan 9″ of effortless skiing powder. Skinning around in a t-shirt, and with the sun now shinning until nine it’s hard contemplating that winter was only a few months ago. Oh well, as long as the skiing stays good we’ll be happy.
April 3, 2009
Seeing as I’d forgotten my skis in the front yard the previous evening I had to walk outside to clean up my mess first thing this morning once I’d climbed out of bed. I noticed it was a blue bird morning, and picked up the paper to read that Ted Stevens was free. Normally I’d be excited by the former, and casually amused by the later, but seeing as Seany B stole us a fabulous Free Ted sign a few months ago which has been giving me daily laughs daily, I was doubly psyched for the day to come. After a small breakfast at Judy’s Jason and I met with Graham and were on our way. We set off up Corn Biscuit, the light deteriorating as the day progressed. Luckily we got our selves into a little bit of an exciting boot pack to keep things interesting, on a dat that otherwise would have been of a bust. Anyway, Wilson has just arrived, and it looks like were going to be going to Valdez this weekend, Mt Redoubt has disrupted so many flights that the Heli-Ski Companies have found themselves without clients and are shutting down for the season Monday. So until I return you’ll have to make due with a little video of our recent troubles in 20 mile. As always a higher quality version can be found here.
April 1, 2009
After a massive dump, followed by a light ash fall we received 20 inches of light powder which has made for some excellent skiing the last two days. I skied Tin Can after the storm broke in random holes of brilliant sunshine and snow that surprised us with how deep and light it was. Jason (pictured above) arrived monday night and has tallied two good days enjoying the new snow on both Skookum and Sunburst. Skookum was empty, as usual, while Sunburst had plenty of people out enjoying the light. It’s strange to be skinning in a t-shirt when I think of this winter, when we’d be forced to drink our beers on the way up as they’d begin to freeze. Kim joined us for the Skookum trip, showing some impressive scandinavian snowmachine skills. Tim has been killing it, giving us all the solid photos around these parts lately. The weather is contributing as well, which is nice, as it was looking grim before I left for the Islands. I should have some video soon, I don’t know what’s taking me so long to get it all together. Until then…
