February 8, 2010
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.
January 15, 2010
I really love slow winter days up here. I spent the morning lounging around watching the African Cup of Nations, ate some bacon, then drove down to Turnagain through thick soft falling flakes without anyone on the road other then a couple of semis. Then late in the afternoon, the sun peaked out between two horizontal bands of clouds (I saw my shadow for the first time in maybe a month) and we got to enjoy 10″ of light snow in sunset conditions. Who know’s whats to come, the snow is definitely funky with the rain crust and it seems like were due a massive avalanche cycle. Things will probably get much worse before it gets better, but when it does…
December 24, 2009
I’m back home in Michigan enjoying all the nice stouts and porter I haven’t got much to share, but luckily my mom has come through and sent me a gem from last year’s Teddy Knape Film Festival, and although it didn’t win any awards, I’m still convinced it should have.
And I’ve also got a little helmet cam footage from last Saturday on Tin Can. Enjoy
December 13, 2009
So yesterday while skiing Twin Peaks we found that the higher elevations held firm snow, while the lower protected slopes were still soft. It was as if enough surface hoar had grown on the lower slopes during the week long inversion and ice fog cycle to make for some great skiing. Today, Hunter, Keith and I set out to see if that theory would hold up on the south side of Tin Can. We found a rolling line without any tracks with a couple inches of hoar frost for some smooth skiing. Who knew snow could grow? I am looking forward to more, it’s been sunny the last two days, which seems twice as nice after sitting in the thick Anchorage ice fog. Anyway here is a little shot of Hunter at the bottom of our run.
November 29, 2009
I skied Tin Can today, and although it cleared briefly late this afternoon it continued snowing most of the day. Super Typhoon Nida continues to spit storms our way and the forecasts are calling for continued snow fall. I don’t know if this snowy cycle will reach last years 108 inches, this has made for some memorable storm skiing. I don’t know what it is about thanksgiving up here, but it seems to bring the snow.
Today on Tin Can (like yesterday in Summit Lake) it was almost too deep to ski. The snow was a little wetter, and I didn’t notice as many slides, but it still hadn’t settled and skied really deep. People were getting stuck everywhere you looked. Dogs refused to leave the skin track. While removing my skins I stepped off my skis and sunk up to my armpits before catching myself and climbing back to the surface. Feels good to have all those things back, skiing powder doesn’t ever get old, even when its slow and low angle like today. Anyway, all these pictures are Grahams from yesterday in Summit Lake, and underneath is Wooly with the goggle-less front flip.
November 27, 2009
Instead of eating turkey and watching the lions lose Hunter and I headed for Turnagain this morning to enjoy some of the 4 feet we’ve recieved in the last couple days. While there we (along with 15 or so others) took advantage of a large and long lasting sucker hole. It was windy up top, and a couple small windcrusts were cracking in poping all over the place, but that didn’t really trouble us on the way down, although we had to wait a couple of times for Walter (Hunter’s dog) who was finding it too deep. I should have some of Hunter’s helmut camera footage later, but no promises on when, I’m too exicted about skiing the next 3-4 days to get much done. In the meantime enjoy what might be the worlds oldest ski video, from Norway with plenty of big flakes and some sweet jump footage near the end. Impressive for 1906.
November 17, 2009
These are from Sunburst on Saturday, courtesy of Max. As you can see we haven’t gotten much snow yet and everything is rocky, lots of chocolate chips.
It’s also been cold (around 10) and windy, which makes Sue more impatient then usual. The snow varied from crust to ice, with the occasional soft styrofoam for a rest. Who knows when it’ll snow and improve things, I’m not expecting much with the cold clear nights. Hopefully some pictures or video of some actuall turns will happen soon
Also, check out this 1980s 84 day Alaska range ski traverse. It has some of the best photos I’ve seen in a long time. And this amazing video of a descent of the north side of Foraker.
November 14, 2009
I’ve been out the last 2 days. After Monday’s gorgeous sunshine the weather reverted to the usual abrasiveness you’d expect this time of year. We got up early and skied Tin Can (pictured above) for Veterans Day and found supportable crust and aggressive winds. Yesterday Hunter, Kieth and I left town a little after 1, and made it up Sunburst before the sun set. The wind was stronger then the previous day and had stripped the ridge bare in spots. The snow was super variable, changing from easy turning cream to sustrugi without warning. As you can guess I’m extremely happy winter is back with its skiing and long colorful sunsets. Oh and Max has started posting pictures as well. He took both of these.
UPDATE:
Hunter rigged up a helmut camera on Thursday, so I can provide you a little sample of the conditions. It really is amazing how excited we get for so little at the start of the year. The parking lots have been packed too, Tin Can has had over 10 cars all week.
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 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…
February 12, 2009
It’s been stormy the last couple of days so Max and I have kept the skiing mellow. We’ve also taken Sue (the dog) with us the last two days. Yesterday we went up Tin Can in light blowing snow and took our time, drinking a Rainer before each run. Today Graham joined us for a late start. It looked cloudy in Turnagain so we decided to stick to the front range ski the chute off the front of Flat Top. The hike up was the worst of the season, booting through sugary snow on top of breakable crust on top of more sugar above another breakable crust. The skiing down was easy with a good amount of light unconsolidated snow untouched by the wind, on top of a solid rock free base. We expected to hit a lot of rocks on the way out, but other then a random patch of gravel I hit our trail home was clean and my skis looked no worse then they would of after any day in the Wasatch.
Anyway we can share Comrade Kyle’s video of the Hope office working hard.
February 2, 2009
Tuesday, after skiing Tin Can Proper, while Graham and I were sitting around drinking beer, someone mentioned how it was nice that a storm was coming, as it’d give us a couple of days off. Everything was skiing really well at the time, and I was a little afraid another storm would mess everything up; but I was exhausted and some rest did sound really nice. Well the storm came, and I took two days off. I watched a bunch of soccer, and ate a lot of bacon, things were good. The initial reports were that the mountains had received a mere three inches, nonetheless I was anxious to get out and see how things were doing. And now I’m looking back fondly on those couple of down days, as after the last 3 days I’m again exhausted.
Hunter and I took the dogs up Tin Can Friday afternoon, once Hunter returned from a job interview. We saw the cars of both Graham and the Hope crew in the parking lot, but didn’t see anyone we recognized on the way up. The dogs are both getting a lot better at skiing, and Hunter, while skiing with Walter, is a mustache away from being Scott Kennett. We found a lot more than 3 inches, up top the wind had wiped some of it into deep drifts, but generally things were covered by about a foot of featherweight snow.
Saturday I woke up to the sound of my phone ringing, eventually I got my act together and began stumbling around my room looking for it. At least half an hour passed before I found it with a text message from Graham saying “Get Up, It’s Sunny!” I thought about that for a moment, then looked out the window and realized that it was, in fact, sunny. I’m still adjusting to waking up after dawn. By the time I called Graham he was already on his way to Hatcher Pass, so I woke Hunter (who was sleeping on the couch) and soon the two of us were on our way towards Turnagain. It was bright and sunny along the arm, but climbing the pass we were met by light fog. We skinned up Magnum, emerging from beneath the fog as we gained the ridge, and slowly made our way towards our lines, soaking in the afternoon sunshine. No one had put a track down what we wanted to ski, a pleasant change from last weekend. I was shocked by how deep the snow was when I dropped in, the cold had kept it from consolidating, which allowed me a couple face shots along the run. I filmed Hunter’s turns, my hands burning from the cold, I really need to learn to work a video camera with gloves on. We didn’t stick around long, Hunter’s skins were failing in the cold, we’d attached them with zip ties from the start, and as we began to feel the winter chill of inactivity we weaved or way through powder and alders to the car and headed home. A phone call with Graham on the drive set my plans for both the night and the next day. We decided to take advantage of the conditions, get up early the next morning, and head for Eddies ridge.
Things didn’t follow my plans for an easy night, getting to bed early. Kim came over and I was again unable to resist drinking beers and playing PES for hours, but when my alarm went off the next morning at seven, I felt fine, the whole hiding out in my room while trying not to wake anyone routine was reminiscent of my working days. As Graham and I drove along the highway near Bird I remembered that it was Super Bowl Sunday, which was the day last year when we skied Proper on a crowd-free sunny day, and I began hoping for a repeat event. Again we found the pass to be pretty deserted. I’m pretty surprised about the depth football love felt by the AK ski community.
The approach went really well as I couldn’t get us lost in the Eddies woods, with the skin track so established from the crowds it resembled an arboreal highway. We were forced to drink out beers on the upper ridge as it was so cold they were starting to freeze in our packs. They made for a nice treat as we traversed the Eddies ridge, which is very wide and flat and makes for a great ridge walk. After 45 minutes or so we reached to a rock we couldn’t down climb, and in the process of finding a way around it, Graham kicked off a shallow windslab. Our proximity to two tasty spines, combined with the other events, convinced us it was time to descend. I went first, made my way down the bed surface of Graham’s slab, and found my was into the bowl, before cutting over (photo bellow) to my chosen spine. The snow was light bottomless powder, sluffing lightly in the gullies on either side. The apron was covered with half buried debris from the last storm cycle, but that was only a minor inconvenience. I slid to a halt, sat on my skis, began fiddling with the camera, and waiting for Graham’s run. Graham sped along his spine before slamming into an alder at the bottom that didn’t slow his progress. After a couple rounds of pictures we got started on the slow walk home. We were back at the car around 4, so we took about 6 hours round trip. Another good day completed, but it’s only a beginning, we’ll see what this next storm does to us and get back at is as usual.
Interesting stuff on my down day
|
Subscribe to Dongshow Max’s Photos
