Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2007 4:45 am Post subject: Alaska: we're fans - a TR by demand!! (so its long)
Alaska. The last frontier. Secretary of State Seward paid 17 million for every acre of that wild land. We too came in under budget, and for us too, Alaska delivered, as it has for so many. There's nothing too unique or gnarly that we did. There were four of us old friends from Boulder, one of whom, a lurker named Barfing Dog, had moved to the town of Eagle River, just north of Anchorage, where 500 feet of elevation brings you to the rocky terrain of, well, the hot tubbed mountains.
what is special about this TR, was that Stupendous Man, Danno, Josh and Barfing Dog did everything just about right. we worked together, and we traveled efficiently and without worries. everyone chipped in and everybody was in top form.
Well, not at the beginning. The threat of major snowstorm on the front range turned DIA into the biggest zoo I ever seen - nearly an hour in security, our flight was delayed, and then they lost both danno and my ski bags. Our ski bags!!
Danno's came in time. But the next day, when we checked out Aleyska Resort, it was the Rossignol Edge 170s for me.
(that's not my jacket either.) Aleyska was nice corn, though the north face was closed. we even found a taste of powder on a north facing aspect. we were encouraged, because, as you know, we had all purchased a day of cat skiing and a day of heli skiing with chugach powder guides for the next two days.
BUT FIRST! There was beer to be had.
we had a great old fashioned meet up with fellow ttippettes Taiya and Laura, a few other ladies, you know how we roll, and get the down low on the last frontier. its backpacker pizza.
the next day brought clear skies in eagle river, but rain in Girdwood.
RAIN!
luckily, it was snow at about 1000 feet. we skied up to about 3000.
trees on the ridge
josh enjoying the northeast aspect
barfing dog
we were happy.
but enough of all this. you know what you came here for:
the next day we were scheduled to ride for all of our first times in a helicopter, and have that helicopter take us up to copious amounts of unbelievable powder in unreachable locations, for a percentage of our salaries.
you know, like they do in the movies.
the weather, however, was not cooperating. 10 am became 12 became 2, and we went and sought accommodations. which, in the off-season of Girdwood, Alaska, looked as tasty as this:
BUT WAIT, we get the call at 1:30. Get down here we're trying!! Oh yes, we are in the air!
this man is excited to be in a helicopter. my parents told me it was my first word. plus, I was excited for powder! As was danno:
But it was all the slow tease of that which is to good to happen to you. after one 2500 ft run the day was cancelled. so, despite some sweet consolation flying through a tight river valley (video available!), we were back down eating at Jack Sprat - great yam fries. We were living well, having already consumed Ron's flash frozen Alaskan Salmon. the next morning the clear evening had turned to cloud.
Still, the word from CPG was ten. And as ten came, and we were the first to take off, we had the Glacier Creek and Winner Creek valleys, a zealous heli pilot, and for the first major time of the trip, the unimaginable vastness that is the Chugach Mountains.
and then you're on top of 3000 vertical feet of untouched glacial powder. and you're ripping it.
we were in heaven. one of our TR goals - the point:
getting ready for the heli. you can see the paint where Don painted an X for the nose of the heli. It landed literally next to you, while we held our stuff against the rotor wash.
I mean literally!!
Successful, and wiped from 35,000 vertical in four days, where our rest day was the one with only one helicopter run. We packed Amber Fire and headed over Turnagain Pass to Seward, where we gawked as the Kenai Mountains dwarfed us all the way to the sea.
we holed up at a Murphey's, a nice motel, and Ray's, where the mango crusted halibut rocked and danno loved the shrimp. we were feeling good, toasting to evil, excited for what we did and the next phase- water! We rented sea kayaks and paddled out to Caines Head and stayed at a public use cabin in Derby Cove.
It was nice to sun ourselves on the beach. The paddle out was chock full of wildlife. Seals swam with us and came within feet of our boats, river otters jostled in the water, and twice, about a mile across the same choppy water we paddled, we watched a whale breach twice. not national geographic, but pretty damn sweet.
above our beach perched two bald eagles...
seals out front:
Light rain fell all night and then later in the morning on our paddle back, which was all right with us. the cabin had a wood stove and once the rain forest wood dried out, it was great. It was also light unitl about 9:45 at this point.
danno's not afraid to express himself
Ok, back to the program. Sea kayaking was good to us. Having been treated so well, at this point in the trip everything could have hit the fan and we'd be ok. But everything did not hit the fan. It was time for a road trip - six hours and change across the Chugach, over down and through them to the port town of Valdez.
this place does not quit. on the way up thompson pass
Valdez Telehead wrote the book. He is a wise man, and a handy man. We stayed at his hand built Thompson Pass Mountain Chalet, he showed us his mountains, and we recommend every ttipster stop to say hi when you're passing through.
the first day on thompson pass, valdez telehead and his friend steve went with us to a place they mysteriously named...loveland.
here's a view of it from across the road...
valdez telehead
as we skinned up a northwest facing valley 3500 feet, a few wispy clouds were in the air, but life was hot and sweaty in AK
we climbed just below the small peak on the left side of this photo. but when we got to the top, we saw a storm coming right toward us, and in five minutes our corn day turned to this:
we found creamy powder up high, like when we were cat skiing, but below 'rockline', it quickly turned to breakable frozen death crust. we survived. and we headed to check out town, eat some halibut. then go back to the cabin and cook, you guessed it, more halibut. why? I think you know.
the crew
valdez. is. ridiculous.
The next day was bright and sunny, again, and so we went back to thompson pass and selected the other side of the street, the school bus run, so we could better see the clouds coming.
we skinned up,
and found consolidated maritime powder on one aspect, and rock hard death crust on a slightly different aspect. We chose the former, and for 2000 feet we ended our AK skiin with...
SOME FRIGGEN STOKE
apparently most of that is on video.
But I can tell you that we invited taiya to join us as we toasted the sweetness that was this trip.
thanks alaska!
Last edited by stupendous man on Fri Apr 27, 2007 3:13 pm; edited 1 time in total
Joined: 25 Apr 2005 Posts: 362 Location: big wild city in the great land
Posted: Fri Apr 27, 2007 6:16 am Post subject:
met you at th cpg liftsite at aly. nice to see u had fun. good tr too. hope the anti-heli ppl dont see this cool tr- theylle be hatin and jealous. glad u had fun in the ak. _________________ ---corelation does not mean causation---
Wow - looks like a great trip. To have bluebird on Thompson's Pass - is that rare? Or is it more common in winter/spring than in summer? That is one beautiful area.
I did a bike tour through there and we had a clear-ish day through the pass and were told that we were lucky. They showed us pictures of what it usually looked like....cloudy/rainy...
That cabin looked cool too. _________________ Arm The Deer
Excellent TR. I am glad you had too much fun, enjoyed the food, beer and hospitality. Good Stuff. Your pics and travels bring back huge and vivid memories. Planning the next trip yet? _________________ "You have brains in your head, you have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose." Dr. Seuss
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