Goose Bay and Culross Island

The newly constructed Goose Bay Forest Service Cabin.

I just returned from spending five days skiing in Prince William Sound out of the Forest Service cabin at Goose Bay.  It was constructed last May after the South Culross cabin was demolished.  Besides Matt Murphy and his cabin crew from Girdwood, we were the first official skiers to visit the cabin.

Cap'n Mike Bender from Lazy Otter Charters did a great job on the water taxi.  Although Goose Bay was partly frozen, we got off about 250 yards from the cabin.  This, however, required a two hour movement over the sea ice and steep banks of the bay.  Lets just say the return trip was  a lot easier to navigate.

The snow conditions were no surprise to anyone.  After the horrific wind in Southcentral, combined with no new snow in the last 3 weeks, conditions were dismal.  But you've heard me say it before, "skiing is skiing".  If it weren't for ski crampons, we wouldn't have been able to navigate to the terrain we skied otherwise.

In a total of 3 full days and 2 half days of skiing, we bagged nearly 11,500 vertical feet.  I am going to return to Culross Island when we have  powder.  The ski access directly from the front door of the cabin gives way to phenomenal tree skiing - something an east-coaster takes a particular liking to...

We took it upon ourselves to name all of the runs that we skied.  So if you hear something in this blog, it has been aptly named by yours truly.

Tyler descends the Dogface in the soft afternoon corn.

Marc harvesting the goods.

B-real contemplates the boilerplate.

On Day 2, we toured for nearly 7 hours and finally summitted Goose Peak.  This was our favorite run of the trip, named Sound of Sunshine.  It was a beautiful south facing shot that ran cleanly all the way down to the water.

On the way to recovery.  Where recovery is measured in vertical feet.

Marc working on his tan.

After five full days of turns, I had a tired pup on my hands.  When we took a break, she took a break.

Splitter weather gave way to cold and clear nights.  With no propane in the two 50 gallon tanks, we had to improvise with our own stash of fuel and below zero down sleeping bags.  This is the second cabin trip in a row that was bingo on propane.

The northern lights were out and amazing.  I was surprised to see them so well this far to the south.

I also experimented with the illumination of the moon and some other constellations.

Cabin life.  I made B-real run back and forth with a flashlight to make this shot.  After cleaning this up, I did notice the Aurora in the background.

On the second to last day we got the Tsunami Advisory over our VHF radio.  Pretty crazy considering we were about five feet above sea level at the time.

Check out this video of our trip.



If you've never skied in the Sound, make it a future destination on your backcountry bucket list.  You won't be disappointed.

Pigot Bay, Prince William Sound

Sam C and I have been planning a ski trip to PWS for a while now.

We reserved a USFS cabin in Pigot Bay, and skied for 4 days in and around the cabin and surrounding drainages.  I took some good advice from friends who had done a similar trip last winter, and brought along a 14' Zodiac and 15hp motor.  And it paid dividends...

Sam, Justin and I landed on the beach to find bluebird skies and lots of snow.  Estimated snowpack depth was about 12-15 feet!

Preparations started early.  I brought the Zodiac, Sam brought the kitchen sink.

We got a water taxi from Cap'n Mike Bender at Lazy Otter Charters.  His boat, The Explorer, devoured all of our gear.

The shooting gallery.

Yes we have a maritime snowpack.  Heavy and wet gives way to cold smoke.

After setting up camp and downloading gear, we headed out for a maiden voyage of the Zodiac to ski from the USCG Communications Tower.  Enroute to our objective.

Lots of up and down, bushwhacking, deep snow, trailbreaking.....and sunshine.

Lobita enjoying the cold smoke April powder.

A look at our tracks just left of center below the tower.  Beautiful steep tree skiing.  Reminds me of glade skiing on the east coast.

Out of our front door on Saturday morning.  Its gonna be a good day...

A rare view.  Skis on a boat?  Putting a new meaning to "sea to summit".

Just about the only wildlife we saw.

We climbed in the sun and gained the ridgeline.  Justin drops over the north side to find more April powder shots into Pirate Cove.

Another run of the goodness.  We actually wanted to ski the couloir in the background, but were thwarted by cliffs/nogo terrain, and tidal flats.

Dogface got quite the workout.  I've never seen her do this before.  She made a bed and took a power nap, like a sled dog.

Literally skiing to the ocean, from summit to sea.

Cabin life.  The PB cabin was really nice.  It got an upgrade recently, and has a nice propane heater and some new furniture and woodwork.  Thanks CNF!!

Sunday was a bit of a touring day.  We were headed for the backside of the cabin, but Jack got quilled by a Porcupine.  We returned to the cabin for first aid, he wasn't having it.  We headed out again in the Zod, and were turned around after a puking snow storm, bad vis, and one hell of a bushwhack.

The staples of a skiing trip.  Summer Ale, pontoons, and a PFD.  Glad we had them.  We received about 12" of fresh the morning we left.  We ate like Kings.  Sam C grilling steaks from Mike's Meats in Eagle River.

Storm skiing in the P-dub!  Justin contemplating the drop in.

All in a days work.  The Cap'n and his second mate (Meg would be the first) headed back to the beach.

Not sure exactly of the totals, but somewhere in the neighborhood of 7000 vertical feet skied.  Here is a map of our climbing (red) and ski descents (blue).

This type of trip is certainly on the agenda for each spring, and to explore what else PWS has to offer.