April Fools Update

March skiing sucked in Alaska....April Fools!

Just the opposite, as an east coaster would say "it was wicked pissah".

Dang, i've got a lot of updating to do.  I apologize, to be quite honest, for being down right lazy.  I've been getting after that March powder, visits to the cabin, the Last Great Race, and celebrating.

As part of the Iditarod weekend, we all met in Hatcher Pass for some skiing on Saturday.  I made the reverse commute from Talkeetna and met the crew.  We headed up Pk 4068 and skied a lap in Wimp Bowl, and then skied Lodge Run (north face of 4068).  Here are some pics of those powder pursuits:

Its all about the Uptrack.

Seff enjoys the slash fest.

The CD killin' it with the DPS's!

Gnarly Gnicki proves there are no wimps in Wimp Bowl.  Notice the contrails 3 turns back. #maching

Picture of the Year!

Heading home.

Lodge Run.....check.

Yours truly and LB - needing a chiropractor after wrecking that spine :)

We all retired to the cabin where the festivities commenced.  What would an apres ski be without the shot ski?!?!

(L to R): Birdcage, The Shrink, HD, Seff

$10 gets you a musher.  If your musher comes in first, you win the pot.  We picked from the favorites: Meg had a repeat of last year with Aliy Zirkle, and I had veteran Martin Buser.  Things looked good.

The group is stoked.  Bring on the Harlem Shake.

The ladies enjoying the Vitamin D (L to R): Em, HD, The Shrink, Dirty Diana, C-Lo, Gnarly Gnicki.

The Shrink gives well wishes and a high-five to Aliy Zirkle....second place two years in a row.

In mid-March I decided to go off the beaten path and ski the Willow side of Hatcher Pass.  Seff rallied and we enjoyed the sun, views, wind hammered alpine, and creamy tree skiing.  Meanwhile everything that was white got skied in Southcentral Alaska.  Wolverine, Big Chief, Captains Chair, SOD, Carpathian (NF), Silvertip, Twin Peaks...and the list goes on.

And I even got credit for a first descent!  First turns on "LB's Run" in Talkeetna. Yes it counts as a ski day.

Meesh and I met the HYT crew at Porcupine Meadows for some storm skiing.  HP reportedly received 23" fresh that day.  We skied about a foot.

Anchorage was also greeted with a late March refresh with as much as 15" in town, and 18" on the Hillside.  We skied the trees in the South Fork.  Mr. Cody chases Meesh's shadow.

Bout the only other news is that the CrossFit Open is almost done - featuring a fierce competition between me and my brother-in-law.  I'm 11 points in the lead going into the final workout (13.5).  And Syracuse (my alma mater) made the Final Four.  Go 'Cuse!

"March in Alaska is the reward for December in Alaska" --SF

Mad Pow Disease

It's been nearly two months since an update.  The only two planking i've done typically involves a #8d nail and a two-buh-fower.  The best news that I have is that the cabin is complete.  We had an absolute epic New Years Eve bash with about 16 of our closest friends splayed out across the loft.  We partied until 0430, something I haven't done since college - Cla$$ick!  Complete with tons of food, more than $500 worth of fireworks and stack cup.  My Dad's Bloody Mary recipe was crucial the next morning.

So now I can ski.  Too bad I have to work this weekend.  So next weekend will be my first time on the snow this season.  Its great that we have tons of snow in Turnagain Pass - nearly 10 feet of snow since December 22nd.  Too bad its sitting on ball bearings.  There have been some pretty substantial and scary avalanches as of late - one on Tincan and the other on the uptrack to what I call the Avalanche Laboratory (motorized side of TPass).

Not much to speak of in the South Fork.  The pack resembles what you'd find in early October.  Even the Telemark Tips forum was renamed the "Facet Epicness Thread".  There's a time to go big, but not this year.  And it might not get much better for SCAK.  The National Weather Service is forecasting an "atmospheric river" this weekend.  Thanks Hawaii, but we'd rather visit you - the Pineapple Express is getting a little old.

Speaking of going big, what contributed to all of these facets also contributed to some amazing mountain views.  Like this one:  Sunset on the Great One.

And the weather geeks may know the above clould to be a Lenticular.  Very commonly seen on Denali.

I know this blog needs a stoke bump, but it just wouldn't be right without some pics of the finished product.  All were taken with my GoPro to appreciate the big picture of our small cabin.

Just like The Shrink said today, we are thankful for all of the hard work by friends, family and co-workers - we couldn't have done it without you!  To think that we went from here:

To here in just 6 months is amazing.  Every weekend and lots of time off.

Special thanks to Lee Snowberger of North Ridge Rustics for his fantastic log work, attention to detail and excellent craftsmanship.

And now I promise to bring back the stoke.  The title track to "Superheroes of Stoke" will get the blood flowing:


Superheroes of Stoke Trailer from MSP Films on Vimeo.

Carpintero

Spanish for carpenter...

This past weekend I made good progress on the plumbing side of things.  My good friend and plomero (spanish for plumber) made a day trip and got the domestic water system up and running.  Above you see a 42 gallon pressure tank (left), an on-demand hot water heater (middle - Rinnai RL75i), and a pex manifold (right - 14 port by Viega "Manabloc").  We were able to hook everything up to the 3/4" soft drawn copper from the well and get it pressure tested. We also hooked up the black iron pipe to the propane tank.  This weekend we might even have hot water!

One Man's Wilderness

This is usually the time of the year when i'm chasing the last patch of snow before it melts, and when all of that melt water flows down the creeks and rivers of Southcentral Alaska.

This year, it's a bit different.  Meg and I have transitioned to cabin building.  After purchasing a nice plot of land last year near Talkeetna, I got a driveway in and cleared it prior to the snow flakes of early fall.

After 8 months of planning, estimating and designing we are finally at the construction phase.  I used two well known contractors for the "dirt work" and well installation - Roland Borge (a local from Talkeetna) and Penn Jersey Drilling (a family owned business from Wasilla).

Drill here, drill often...

 Excavation for the building pad and water line.

I'm glad I decided to subcontract out the site civil work, as R&J Enterprises made quick work finishing the install of the septic tank and the foundation excavation.

Uniquely Alaskan, we hired a local log home builder - Lee Snowberger, from North Ridge Rustics.  Building the log shell only, Lee began work on our logs just before Memorial Day.  The style of log home is called a "fully chinked" log home.  The gap in the logs are called chinks, which is an Old English word (having a "chink in your armor" was not a good thing for a medieval knight).  The material used to fill the gaps is called chinking - which is a synthetic caulk mixed with sand.

As a woodworker myself, I can truly appreciate the handcraft workmanship of Lee and the hard work he's put into our log home.  Below are a series of pictures that take you through the stages of log construction.

Laying out the plate logs.  Our cabin is 24'x24', with a 10' prow.

This bearing log supports the half loft.  Notice the "cat's face"; which is a deformity that is sought after for log and furniture building.

 Cabin at loft height.

The prow front will have storefront glass from floor to ceiling, maximizing our view of the Alaska Range.

 Starting the log trusses and structure above the loft.

In nearly five weeks, Lee will have completed the log shell package.  What's next?  After drilling all of the electrical chases, he will unstack the logs in reverse order, put them on a flatbed trailer, and prepare for stacking back on my foundation in the second week of July.

Speaking of the foundation.  I used a system called Quadlock, which is an Insulated Concrete Foundation.  The styrofoam "lego's" are assembled with plastic ties and the concrete is placed inside the forms - with no need for interior or exterior insulation.

LB decides to help out with the formwork.

All the men doing man's work.  Me, Mark, Olan, Seff, Scott (L to R).

Even the Shrink helps with tying rebar.

The finished product.  Nearly 30 hours of labor and we're ready for concrete.

The following weekend proved beautiful for a concrete placement.  I worked solo until about midnight getting the final details squared away.  The sun sets behind Foraker, Hunter and Denali.

Jim from McKinley Concrete Pumping helped me out with getting the concrete from the truck and into the forms.  Too bad that concrete was an hour late.  A pump truck is pretty expensive when it sits in your driveway at $175 per hour.

 A hot days work is always better with a jump in the lake.

Our reward was a burger called "Sewards Folly" at the West Rib Cafe, which was featured on Man vs. Food.  Three of us didn't even put a dent in it. But we did crush two orders of parmesan cheese fries.  A couple pints of the "Ice Axe Ale" and we were ready for bed.

So that pretty much brings us up to speed.  The highlight of cabin construction will begin on Wednesday, July 4th when the real craftsmen arrive - Pat, Aimee and Lucas.  Best friend Pat and family will be here for a month to help out.  I expect we'll go like gangbusters and I hope to get the cabin weathered in!

One Man's Wilderness is a story about Richard Proenneke who moved to Alaska to "do a thing to completion".  He moved to Twin Lakes in Lake Clark National Park and built a cabin by hand and to live alone in the wilderness.

As much fun and hard work as building a cabin is, I can't do it alone.  Many thanks to the following crew: Meg (AKA. "The Shrink"), Mark, Marc, B-real, Mitch, Scott, Seff, Olan, Aaroncito, Rodney, Bill, Aaron, LB and Lee.

My next update will be in late July/early August.  I am also taking time lapse photos of the entire construction of the cabin.  It'll make a pretty sweet seggie when its all said and done.

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.