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Alaska Heli Trip 2017

8K views 69 replies 19 participants last post by  neni 
#1 ·
After a great - tho wet, lol - stay in PNW getting lots of verts into our legs we now arrived in the promised land of steep n deep.



However, the bad gut feel after frequent checks of weather forcast the last weeks came true. "Worst conditions in the Chugachs in 20y operating". Two weeks of 60mph wind and bluebird has stripped all snow off the mtns. Hip-high castrugis and boilerplates are to be expected. Oh man... we'll face some "technical" riding, lol.

Well, the wind has stopped yesterday and some clouds are rolling in... Pray for snow!
 
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#4 · (Edited)
It started to snow! Yeeha! Keep on dancing!



Stoke is high, 30 guys n 2 gals staring out of the window with big smiles like children when they see the first snowflakes, hoping for it to not end any time soon :laugh:

Edit: wooohoo! Now it's dumping! More heavy every odd minute! Huge thanks to the snowgods!
 
#7 ·
It's been nuking all day :yahoo: Fun to see the relief in the faces if the guides that weather has finally changed. Stoked about the first down day :).


Avy danger will ve the prominent problem tho... we won't be able to ride any steeps n spines any time soon; the old weak layer will be slippery as hell. But we'llsee how things change in days to come. As we've two weeks uo here, we're - ATM - pretty relaxed and take whatever comes. Well, today this meant to earn the turns :) Time to hike Mt. Eyak and get some turns in fresh pow and from there directly into the bar since there's snow on sea level this year :)


BTW: it's still nuking!
 
#8 · (Edited)
2nd down day. Been snowing all night, yay! Patchy clouds in the morning soon followed by more snowfall.

The local lift opened today so we were doing laps in shin to knee deep pow on Mt. Eyak on the oldest single chairlift in the US, offering an awesome view over mountains and sea.

Snow quality was very good; one doesn't feel the crusts beneath anymore. Was a very fun day, followed by tasty beers in the local bar and many laughs playing a hilariously mean card game "Cards Against Humanity", lol. Happy that we've a great crew of funny guys! Everybodie's stoke is high after the dumps.









View out of the local bar:

 
#12 ·
@neni & Mr. neni,...! ;) :laugh:

Soooo stoked to see you're finally getting some proper Alaskan snow for this leg of your trip. :grin:

You two are always so upbeat & positive even when conditions are less than perfect. and it makes your stoke all the more contagious!!!

I'm happy for you,... and yet jealous as hell all at the same time! ;) :laugh: >:)
 
#13 ·
Yeeehaaa! 1st day flying into the zone! Woohoo! Pow!
Only mellow pitch due to the avy danger... but still... awesome day riding! Stoke is high :=)
The sound of the choppers never gets old!









 
#16 ·
We've done 8 today, between 10am and 4pm, and IIRC, that was ~ the average on our last srays as well.
 
#18 ·
Awesome pics!!! :grin:
@neni looks sooo incredibly happy in that pic,.. I immediately flashed on this.....

:laugh:
 

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#21 ·
I'm glad you guys are getting some laps in - it's fucking dicey out there right now.

I know you're with guides and I'm sure you're careful, but I have to emphasize how important it is to be on guard right now. If the conditions over there are anything like they've been a little farther East in the Haines Pass and the White Pass, it's all on a hair trigger. We remotely triggered a slide on a low angle slope from an adjacent ridge on Sunday in the White Pass, and there was wide-spread avalanche activity on every aspect. Even in mellow trees, the whumphs were plentiful and thunderous. The crown on the slide we set off was about 3 1/2 feet in height - scared the shit out of me. Everything seems to be failing on that same layer, and some shit is stepping down to ground.
 
#22 ·
I'm glad you guys are getting some laps in - it's fucking dicey out there right now.

I know you're with guides and I'm sure you're careful, but I have to emphasize how important it is to be on guard right now.
Thanks for the heads up. Yeah... the guides here are very aware of the special situation. They dug several pits yesterday and yeah, the layers found are scary. Stayed in very low angle terrain, glacier runs, or, if tad steeper, than only on very short slopes with smooth runout and all the connected safety measures.

We've already sort of accepted that we won't ride anything "interesting" this year due to the current situation. No long steep pitch, no couloirs. We're here for another 8 days, I've my fingers crossed that the layer may bold but won't be surprised if we keep riding mellow pitch till the end. We've already transformed out expectation from "yeah, AK steeps" to "yeah, ride some fluff in flats, enjoy heli sightseeing n grab a good beer" :)
 
#24 ·

Another down day... but spirits are high cos tomorrow's gonna be flight weather - hopefully :). We've a lot of fun with the guys here, I'm already sad they'll leave on Sat.

Been out to the glacier... it's breathtaking everytime. So love all those shades of blue!





 
#27 ·
Wooohooo! Bluebird pow flight day No2!

Still on the catious side, but we're having loads of fun with a great crew!
Window shopping for the next line

Nice mellow glacier run

"Lift line"

Guys checking out a drop-in


Ladies choice ;=)

Sweet pow


The beauty here is endless...

 
#29 · (Edited)
The downside... been crossing the "Red Light District", an area where there would be amazig runs in the chutes... we've done two brilliant runs there in '15 which I hardly even recognized looking at the mtn now:

This year? None of these chutes are rideable. So many other cool runs are not rideable ATM; hardly snow in chutes, no spines covering rock ridges, drop-ins are rock or solid ice shields, uncovered cravasses blocking runs... whatever name of a run I ask the guide? The answer is: not skiable :dry:

The guides mentioned that we're lookig at 40% of the usual snowcover depth and really to their best to find options, search to open completely new runs to keep ppl happy.

However... A big storm is rolling in. Forecast mentions snowfall from Sunday on w/o an end in sight. So... fingers crossed that we'll get a clear day to ride those goods next week :hope:
 
#30 ·
However... A big storm is rolling in. Forecast mentions snowfall from Sunday on w/o an end in sight. So... fingers crossed that we'll get a clear day to ride those goods next week :hope:
Yeah, the storm coming on Sunday should be a good one! It will be interesting to see what happens when all that snow loads the reactive facet / surface hoar layer in the top metre of the snowpack. I'm glad you're with guides.

We need a natural avy cycle to reset things right now anyway. It's looking like another weekend of low-angle, trees, and that's less than ideal.
 
#31 ·
Woooohoooo! Steeps! Totally stocked abt the runs we did today! Pics will follow... just... yeaaaaah! Man, what a day! Our guide rocks! So happy we had a great crew with very good skiers and the snow got stable!
:grin::grin::grin:
 
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