After a couple weeks of clouds, rain and snow, we finally had a clear, cold, sunny weekend. On Saturday Hillary and I went heli skiing with Sam Roche through the local heli ski guides, Alaska Powder Descents (Kevin Krein). While the snow was not blower powder we still had a great day up on the icefield skiing some of the local peaks (McGinnis, Wrather, behind Stroller White). The views were incredible!
See
enlarged video at youtube. (Up to 1080p HD)
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| The run we just skied is in the background, far right. Waiting for a pickup. |
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| Looking out across the Mendenhall Glacier with Wrather Peak (right) and the Towers (Left) in the background |
Sunday ...
We hiked up to Spaulding Meadows to do some backcountry skate skiing. The best thing about a good rain on the snow then a deep freeze, followed by thick frost hoar is that the skate skiing turns incredible up there. It is about an hour walk up a snowmobile trail to the meadows, and they extend for miles with views of the glacier, mtns and the ocean. It was a perfect sunny, windless day to spend up there. The snow surface was perfect for skate skiing anywhere you wanted.
A picture from backcountry skiing last weekend. The snow wasn't bad, but there were some underlying instabilities that caused us to take it easy and ski some mellow lines.
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| Inside a snow shelter I dug out for a lunch break while skiing Fish Creek Knob up by Eaglecrest |
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| Stripping down up in Spaulding Meadows Sunday midday |
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| Stout and the pack |
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| Views from the meadow |
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| Throwing in some tele turns in the skate skis |
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| Extreme nordic skiing |
Really enjoyed the "pecker cam" on the video. Looks like one hell of a day!
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