Powder Baskets

The easter bunny greeted the day with baskets filled with powder, a whippet, and Utica Club.

Not to mention an early morning run to Hatcher Pass before brunch.  B-real and I toured up into the Rae-Wallace bowl, looking left and right, debating on what to ski.  To the right was a nice north-facing chute from atop Fish Peak (or Marmot or the Rae-Wallace Headwall depending on nomenclature).  To the left was my all-time favorite run off the north side of Microdot - Nosebleed.  This is a top contender for always holding good snow.  We decided to ski Nosebleed and were pleasantly rewarded with soft powder in April!

B-real makes his way out of the Rock Garden.  Sorry I don't have any good ski pics - we were doomed by flat light.

 Lobita shakes it off....aint' nuthin' but a thang.

In other news, some folks have been getting after it - skiing Mount Bold.  It seems that this is the time of year when people start slaying big Western Chugach peaks.  I've heard that Mount Rumble and Yukla also got tagged.  Others have slogged it out to ski Bench Peak in the Kenai's....very nice and worth the powder preservation. 

And you can tell its that time of year.  Roman and Timmy J made the first run down Six Mile.  This always happens....the skiing is so good that I dont want to give it up; but boating season is upon us!

The Girl...

Meg and I in a recent trip to Hawaii.  She's the better looking one...

Yep, the two most important girls in my life....Meg and Lobita.  But recently, it seems that La Nina (or The Girl in spanish) has been at the forefront of conversations in South Central Alaska.  The forecast for the next week is clear, sun and cold.  Not very favorable if you're planning a ski trip to Prince William Sound.

I checked out the anti-tracks with locals Matt and Agnes from Hagephoto.  We headed up Tincan for a "one run and done" - and to see what the wind left us with.  Not much...

 Matt and Agnes survey the landscape and try to find a place to ski.  It actually wasn't that bad, we found some decent carveable turns in the protected trees.  Define Powder?  As Rick Vance (February 2011, Backcountry) states, "skiing today was like pornography: great to look at, but a poor substitute for the real thing."

 Me and one of my favorite girls.

Matt Hage took this photo.  It's pretty sweet, and you can find it on his Facebook page.  I heart Utica Club.  Fun facts about "UC" (or Uncle Charlie's as we call it):

1. First beer sold in the United States after prohibition.

2. Only sold and distributed within 90 miles of Utica, New York.

You know you're an Alaskan powder enthusiast when... a Backcountry Ski Magazine is on your dashboard at the trailhead, and your windshield is splattered with State Parks passes.

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?

Pete's North and Glacier Creek

Another year older...

I celebrated my 32nd birthday this past week.  What a better way to ring it in than with an outdoor backcountry adventure.  I got this hairy idea to ski-raft-bike all in one day.  What the heck...lets do it!!

I convinced my buddy Marc to join me.  He just returned from 6 weeks in the lower 48, and was jones'ing for an outing.  The plan was to ski this couloir in TPass off of Pete's North, packraft Glacier Creek, and mountain bike back to the truck.

Phase I: Backcountry Skiing

We headed down to the pass with a truck full of gear to find dismal weather.  Typical Western Prince William Sound weather - windy, rainy, and snowy.

Marc making the best out of a difficult situation - skiing in a ping pong ball...

We never reached our destination.  We lived to ski another day, and skied the mellower aspect down to Pete's Creek.  The pass received about 6-8" of fresh heavy snow, so we saw a lot of wet snow slides.

Marc workin' it.

Marc hucking his meat.

Marc enjoying the heavy wet stuff.  But its fresh, so that's why he's in the back seat...

This is what May skiing is all about.

Instead of going back the way we came (good idea), we headed down Pete's Creek (not so good idea, but interesting and fun).

We made it back to the 'Delta Tango', and were headed to the next destination.  Damn that's a lot of gear.

The finer things in life.  Utica Club and Dynafit's.  Phase I complete.

Phase II: Packraft

We headed back to Girdwood and dropped our bikes at the bridge near Chair 5 and headed to the Crow Creek Mine.  Our objective was to float Glacier Creek, but the lack of a recon would prove to be a terrain mistake.

I did see a pretty neat vehicle though.  This is a vintage 'Deuce and a half' with the US Army Alaska shoulder sleeve insignia.  We call it the "Binky Bear".

We rapped down to Crow Creek and inflated the boats.  Marc making his way to the put-in.

And the parting shot.

At this juncture, I am unable to give details about the final leg (ie. Phase III) of our trip.  You'll have to ask Marc or I for further details.  All I can say is that it involved a situation that would require problem solving and both of us swimming.  Nuff said.

We were successful in our triple header, finally navigating lower Crow Creek to Glacier Creek.  We made it back to the bikes in wet gear, and pedaled the ~4 miles back to the trailhead.

As one of my skiing buddies say, "Backcountry adventures make you late for dinner."