Record heat, No wind, No AC, and relentless bugs stirred up an impromptu surf session at campbell creek. The bystanders – a creek resident and two little native boys named Oat and Boss were mildly impressed. I believe peter has melted in Cordova with temps approaching 90F.
June 18, 2013
Urban creek surfing
Posted by maxvockner under Uncategorized | Tags: record heat wave anchorage alaska campbell creek surfing |Leave a Comment
May 29, 2013
Memorial day weekend
Posted by maxvockner under Uncategorized | Tags: Bering Sea Gold musk ox oxen qivuit nome alaska anvil mountain garbage tundra dongshow |1 Comment
stay classy nome
I couldnt resist posting this picture from my beautiful memorial weekend in Nome, AK. My classy Nome neighborhood.
April 19, 2013
My Classy Ex-Neighborhood: Direct from the Source
Posted by dongshow under Uncategorized | Tags: Anchorage, classy folks, designer drugs, edm, kandi kids, moose petting |Leave a Comment
—Designer drug users have become more prevalent in Downtown Anchorage than chronic inebriates, according to the security director for the Anchorage Downtown Partnership.
April 19, 2013
Perfect Alaskan Spring Skiing
Posted by dongshow under Skiing | Tags: wart face, wolverine ridge |1 Comment
The horror of January and early February is no longer bothering me as the skiing has been consistently good for long enough that I’ve completely lost track of time. Weeks and months are all mixed together as days relate to each other more by the similarities of snow conditions and what was skied rather then their postion on a calender. Yesterday will stand out in my memory for some time though, as it was the real life version of the stereotypical ‘epic April day in AK’, the type of day I missed out on of last season and which I managed to completely forget was coming in my rainy mid winter thin snowpack depression. Its extremely reassuring to know days like yesterday can not only happen but sew themselves so seamlessly into everyday life that they don’t really feel significant at the time.
I walked home from work yesterday afternoon, changed clothes, and walked out the door with my skis and boots on my shoulder. After about 20 minutes walking down the road I switched over to skis and skins. I had skied the shoulder of Eccles the day prior and was pretty confident in the conditions and had planned on skiing Wart Face down to the lake (my lines the top picture). The approach was uneventful, skinning in a t-shirt while listening to BBC podcasts I found myself up top sooner then expected. From above the center of the roll over into the face looked a little cross loaded, so I skied along the skiers right of the face, with the idea of being able to bail to the ridge, before cutting into the center. The snow was perfect Alaskan velvet, and sluffed from every turn for some extra fun and a nice cloud of snow in the corner of my eye as I hit the apron. I’ve got a huge smile on my face just thinking about it. From there I skinned back up and, bumped into the Mike Records crew (who has some tasty TT43 pics)on top, then hit the mellower bowl in the far left of the top picture for more perfect snow. Fantastic day, hopefully more like it to come.
April 13, 2013
A Solid Month of Skiing
Posted by dongshow under backcountry, Skiing | Tags: broken bike, heney, mt eyak, spring skiing |Leave a Comment
The last month has been fantastic. Equal parts snow and sunshine with manageable avalanche conditions. April has thus far been significantly colder then January, so the snow quality has been above average, and the extended day light allows turns till about 930 now.
Checked off a couple lines on my regional hit list, including the north couloir of Heney (pictured top), and gave a new line off Murchinson an attempt this afternoon, but mostly have just been lapping sunny powder with no one around.
Today was the last official day for Mt. Eyak, despite still having tons of snow and great coverage, but I’m told they still be offering occasional bumps to shorten the trip up the ridge. The closing day bbq brought out what looked to my eyes to be the years biggest crowd, and the free burgers were fantastic. Really everything is perfect except for the state of my bike (pictured bellow), which got run over by some slednecks and is mangled beyond repair.
March 18, 2013
Skiing has been fantastic recently. Colder temps, with occaisonal night time flurries with either high clouds or sunny skies during the day for the last week.
Skied the center chute on Mt. Eccles (pictured above) yesterday, and have been making a habit out of closing days spent skiing elsewhere with late afternoon trips up Mt. Eyak for evening laps into Hippie Cove (pictured bellow). Hopefully the wonderful conditions continue through spring.
March 13, 2013
Wart Face Before the Snow Arrives
Posted by dongshow under backcountry, Skiing | Tags: cordova, wart face |Leave a Comment
Sunshine and fresh snow while being stuck working in the liquor store the past two afternoons had me feeling extremely antsy to get out this morning before the predicted storm rolled in this afternoon. I’d had the rib pictured above in my mind for some time and figured today was the opportunity to give it a go. A couple of turns on stiff windboard up high before the snow turned to alaskan velvet a quarter of the way down. Its like a different world from the bullshit weather of January and February. The last couple of weeks the skiing has been fantastic around here, and with fat flakes falling outside the bar it seems set to continue.
