Sunburst; after work on a Friday

Thanks to all this new found daylight and longer days we were able to grab Gretchen after work and head to Turnagain Pass with plenty of time for some turns.

Gorgeous partly cloudy sunny day, Tincan illuminated in the distance.
Looking towards tippy top Sunburst.
One problem with skiing late March in the backcountry on south and westerly aspects, SUNCRUST, about has hard as a table top for the first 500ft elevation, then turned to as hard as a pizzabox for the next 1000ft.

Jack gets first turns, always...
Magnum looking loud and proud in the sun
Kurt, back from the great beyond (lower 48) and ready to ski!



Despite C- conditions it's still skiing, and skiing is better than working, any day.

Arctic to Indian XC

What better way to close out the month of March than with a 22 mile ski through the Chugach Mountains.

Sunday morning we left our vehicles at the Arctic Valley trailhead and made our way down the mountain to the valley floor. The trail was very beaten and sun crusted, making it hard on skinny cross country ski's.

After about a 20 minute walk down we slipped on ski's and took off, a pack of 18 total.

Beautiful Temptation Peak with Ship Creek running out of the valley.




This is probably one of the last weekends the traverse is even possible due to warmer day temperatures and melting snow bridges.

After Temptation Peak, gorgeous Tanaina and Koktoyo Peaks were overlooking the trail.







The trail finally starts to open up in nice long rolling sections for several miles.
The only downside to long wide open flat sections of the trail was a nice chilly breeze coming off Turnagain Arm through Indian Pass.



Amazing rainbow orb around the sun over Avalanche Mountain, with The Ramp & The Wedge off to the right (see earlier post from summer 2008).
Approaching Bird Ridge, Bird Peak, and Bird Ridge Overlook handrailing the left hand side of the trail.


Indian house Mountain.



Finally, we saw the ocean.
Dicey 5 mile ski/walk/fall from Indian pass to the final trailhead. Suncrust and Ice made it interesting after 17 miles.



Where's the BEER!!!!!

Where's the BROWNIES!!!!!!!