Front Range Adventures

After the "Thanksgiving Hurricane", we finally got some fresh snow in the Anchorage Bowl.  By the snotel counts, about 11 inches fell on the Hillside, and about 6 inches up our way in Eagle River.

We got a late start after the feast on Thursday, and headed local up to Hiland Road.  I had thoughts of hitting up the standard run to North Bowl, but it was nice to get some turns in the sunlight.  We headed up Harp just in time for sunset.

Marc laboring away at the essence of this blog.....The Uptrack.

Gayle was nice enough to be the "Pro-Pho" and graciously took some pictures of our descent.  This is one of my favorite runs on this side of the road.  Not too steep, but protected from the wind and usually holds good cold smoke.

Both Marc and I had our virgin run with our new ski setup's.  Here is Marc cashing in his hard work with the Icelantic Nomad's. 

I got a killer deal on the K2 Coomback's (thanks Luc and www.telemarkdown.com).  And I loved every turn...

After a resort day on Saturday with Meg, where I skied with every snowboarder from Anchorage on the "East Coast Ice", Tyler (AKA. B-real) and I headed out for some turns on the front side.

Big mistake.

I thought the 11 inches of snow, and the recent 5 inches of snow would have helped.  We found some windswept snow up high on Peak 3, and nothing but rocks underneath.  Needless to say, we trashed our new boards.  Now the brand new Coomback's are in desperate need of some shop time with the base welder.

We linked about 10 turns, and then lots o' rocks.  Not to include the frustrating climb and descent through the Alders.  I don't recall Peak 3 being so hard to get in/out of.....

Tyler making his way through the shooting gallery on his new setup of Icelantic Nomad's.  Copy Cat...

The skiers reward.  Specially imported Utica Club brewski's.  Nothing goes better with skiing than an "Uncle Charlie's".

LB is on the injured reserve today.  She got pretty scraped up on the breakable rain crust, as did all the dogs I saw out skiing on Friday.

Where's my Dad?

The Reward

On a solo patrol today, I was slogging up to North Bowl and was thinking about why I like backcountry skiing.  Its a lot of work, its windy, snowy, bad visibility, changing variable snow conditions, and on and on.  And i'm thinking...what's not to like?!?!

But then I rationalized the good.  Exercise - burning about 600 calories per hour on the Uptrack.  Personal time with man's best friend - Lobita.  Being outside in our wonderful state.  And not having to wait in lift lines for tracked up snow and moguls.

My favorite backcountry experience is that moment when you are at the top of your run after a long and ardous hike, and you scope out your turns in the untracked blanket of powder that lies below you.

In other news, in my first two outings i've had two people ask me about updates to the blog.  Sorry, i'm back.  I'll keep posting relevant ski conditions, outings, and other cool stuff.

Looking towards the bowl proper with Mount Gordon Lyon in the distance, and The Great One in the far distance.  The mountains on the right in basked in Alpenglow are the Talkeetna's.

I saw a total of 7 skiers today, and I knew 5 of them.  Its a small backcountry world out there.

Packrafting season is officially done.  Me and LB are friends now.