Monthly Archive for April, 2010

Wrangell-Saint Elias & Revelations

Trip updates are at the bottom of the page.

Alaska is one of my favorite places to ski as it has so much variety and such wild terrain. It has three different snowpacks, high peaks, rugged mountains, huge ice fields, traverses, rivers, wildlife and everything in-between.  I go there for the skiing, but often times the actual turns are secondary to the sense of exploration and adventure that Alaska provides.  Good skiing conditions are just icing on the cake. Continue reading ‘Wrangell-Saint Elias & Revelations’

Bolted Rap Anchors for Skiing

Establishing rappel anchors on a ski descent is a labor of love and an art form.  On a first descent, you may have no idea what the route will require, so you bring along a selection of nuts, slings, cams & pitons and hope for the best.  Most skiing lines which require a rappel aren’t worth repeating, but occasionally a few of them become classics and see a lot of traffic.  When this happens, the original half-assed anchors are often added to in an attempt to beef them up which eventually leads to the Ski Mountaineering version of a Super Fund site – a pile of unsafe garbage that nobody really wants to clean up. Continue reading ‘Bolted Rap Anchors for Skiing’