Tag Archive for 'Alaska'

Wilderness Ski Week – Wrangell-St.Elias Mtns

Published on November 2, 2011 in Announcements. 5 Comments Tags: .

Without a doubt, Alaska is my all time favorite place to ski as it has it all – huge terrain, the longest skiable lines on earth, three different snowpacks, massive glaciers and everything in between.  Within Alaska, the Wrangell-St.Elias (WSE) National Park & Preserve tops the list of best-of-the-best and is one of those places that is hard to put into words as nothing really compares to it.  If you have been heli skiing in the Valdez area, multiply that by 1,000, double (or even triple) the size of the peaks, erase all of the roads, eliminate 99% of the people and double down on the sense of commitment.  As far as AK experiences go, it’s the real deal.

The downside of the WSE is that it is difficult to access, to say the least.  There may be a few places where you can do day trips, but for the most part it is Expedition Central and to get anywhere beyond the fringes  often involves winter camping, sled hauling and lots of shivering. With this in mind, I’ve teamed up with Wild Alpine and the Ultima Thule Lodge  to put together the inaugural “Wilderness Ski Week” from April 1-7, 2012.  This will be my forth time up to the Ultima Thule lodge and I’m sure it will be the highlight of the 2012 ski season. Continue reading ‘Wilderness Ski Week – Wrangell-St.Elias Mtns’

Revelation Mountains – Alaska

Published on June 30, 2010 in Trip Reports. 9 Comments Tags: .

This trip began two years ago as a brain-child of Noah Howell. Noah had heard vague rumors of a remote, rugged mountain range called the Revelations and had tried to fly in there from Talkeetna but was thwarted by the weather.  In the big AK picture, the Revelations are about 140 miles west/northwest of Anchorage and form an almost perfect equidistant triangle between them, Talkeetna and Anchorage.  You can fly there from either Talkeetna or Anchorage, although Anchorage has more planes to choose from, better weather and better down-time distractions. Continue reading ‘Revelation Mountains – Alaska’

Ultima Thule 2010 Trip Report

Published on June 29, 2010 in Trip Reports. 1 Comment Tags: .

Well, okay, it is really more of a photo gallery with captions, but it hits the highlights of the trip.

This was my third trip to the Ultima Thule Lodge in the Wrangell-St. Elias Mountains and I was there with Eli Potter, Aria, Hombi, Reto and the Claus family to do some skiing and discuss the 2011 Wrangell Ski Week.  The conditions were about as good as Alaska gets with only one true down day out of the entire outing.

This area had a bit of a low snow year, and between that and being there towards the end of April, there wasn’t much snow at the lodge, although there was plenty of snow up higher in the mountains.

Click here for the Ultima Thule Lodge 2010 trip report.

Backcountry Wedding

Published on June 23, 2010 in Announcements. 3 Comments Tags: .

I’ve never gotten bored with skiing as it seems like some new twist on the theme always shows up and keeps my interest alive (that plus it is just fun).  But, I don’t think I ever would have anticipated our trip to Iceberg Lake in the Wrangell-St.Elias Mountains to turn out quite the way it did.

We were out for a Claus “family day” of skiing, which involves loading ten or so people into a million-dollar bush plane and flying around until we found the tastiest looking place to ski, then setting down and doing a few laps.  In this case, we ended up at Iceberg Lake, the name of which later became apparent. Continue reading ‘Backcountry Wedding’

Solidarity Peak Video

Published on June 15, 2010 in Trip Reports. 6 Comments Tags: .

Two videos in two days?  Yes, that’s what living in the shadow of the Sundance Film Festival will do for you.

This one is a video of a single run, Peak Solidarity, in the Wrangell-St.Elias Mountains.  Before skiing this peak I happened to see it in a photo book and of the entire book, this is the one that really stood out as it is such a beautiful, classic pyramid peak.  It has a 5,000′ plus ridgeline that snakes all the way up it, but aside from that, it is steep and intimidating all around. Continue reading ‘Solidarity Peak Video’

Revelations Video

Published on June 14, 2010 in Trip Reports. 0 Comments Tags: .

A little video from the Revelations… Continue reading ‘Revelations Video’

Wrangell-Saint Elias & Revelations

Published on April 15, 2010 in Trip Reports. 12 Comments Tags: .

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’

Wrangell-Saint Elias Steep Camp

Published on March 15, 2010 in Announcements. 18 Comments Tags: .

UPDATE!  Due to the short notice on this trip, the price has been reduced to $6,750.  The dates are April 19-25th.

This sounds too good to be true – a week long steep skiing camp in the greatest mountains on earth, the Wrangell-Saint Elias range.  This is being put together by Eli Potter of Alaska Wild Alpine and will be based out of the Ultima Thule Lodge where we will be flying with Paul Claus in his Turbine Otter. In conjunction with Eli and the Ultima Thule crew, I’ll be guiding for the entire outing and space is limited to a small group. Continue reading ‘Wrangell-Saint Elias Steep Camp’

Back from Alaska

Published on October 27, 2009 in Commentary. 5 Comments Tags: .

I made it back from a quick trip to Alaska where, once again, I had a great time. I love that state.  Thanks to Joe Stock and all of the Friends of the Chugach National Forest Avalanche Information Center, the slideshow on skiing the AK Family was a success and raised a sizeable whack of cash for the avalanche center.  Many people take their local avalanche centers for granted, but having worked at one for a season, their very existence is always tenuous.  If they do too good a job and nobody gets hurt, they are one of the first to get chopped for state funding, so they often have to rely on outside funding (such as Friends groups), to supplement their annual expenses.  Nobody is getting rich off of avalanche forecasting and it is a labor of love for almost everyone involved in it.

Continue reading ‘Back from Alaska’

Alaska Range Fly Over

Published on July 9, 2009 in Trip Reports. 2 Comments Tags: .

Bush pilots might get use to it, but the thrill of flying over wild, mountainous terrain in a small plane is one of my favorite parts of going to places like Alaska. The video below captures a bit of what it is all about.

This flight took place on the way out from the Kahiltna Glacier back to the town of Talkeetna.  Our pilot, Tyler from TAT, was mildly disappointed when he showed up and found out that the Swinging Sultanas (our official team name) was four stinky guys, not a group of girls.  Fred Marmsater asked if we could fly back via the famous “One Shot” gap, but Tyler said, “We could… but I know an even better way.”   He wasn’t kidding – I have no idea where we were or the names of the peaks, but they were mighty cool and beautiful. At about the 20 second mark, a random point release avalanche cuts loose from near the top of a peak.

On the flight in, we flew in TAT‘s Turbine Otter, (aka “Precious”), but on the flight out, we were in a classic old Beaver, complete with Jonny Cash in the headphones, wood dashboards and the throaty, roaring engine.

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