Most of the trail was clear until about mile 4.5, then we were pushing it...
Postholing in April up Bold Peak Valley trail sucks, so we turned around
Lunch
Storm brewing off the cook inlet
It's the time of year again, put on your Saturdays best (or funkiest) and make the pilgrimage to Hatchers Pass, hang a right at the mine, and follow the uptrack to Rae Wallace bowl, vicinity Microdot south.
Wearing the traditional family tie.
Lobita waiting for crumbs to fall from the table made of snow
Jack aka "Scarface", aka "1 Quill"
Time for some skiing
Conditions were pretty touchy in Hatchers this week
So we grabbed a couple low angle turns on micro bump, then headed back to the party
Meanwhile, back at the party
I'll keep working on a better map for where we actually skied, but basically did two days south of the Pigot Bay, one day north of Pigot Bay shooting aspects into Pirate Cove, and one day, uhm, busk whacking and playing with porcupines...
Dogs, beer, and ski's; what more do you need?
Heading up for our first afternoon of skiing, shortly after being dropped off by Lazy Otter Charters.
Ok, so these photo's still jump around a bit, but stay tuned for an awesome video experience from the trip.
Justin enjoying said "cold smoke".
How many place can you ski amazing Alaskan cold pow from summit to sea level (literally)?
Matt getting after it
Self Portrait, Pigot Bay in the background
Husky's on a Zodiac? Not so much, it took Jasper four days the nerve to "get on the boat".
Lobita and Captain Matt all about the Zo-dizzle-iac.
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.
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!!!!!
Interesting ice crystals as the frozen shore deteriorates