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Day 7 – Snowmaching

We took all the skills we learned the previous day and put them them to work on the snowmachine. 3 sleds 6 people. We went up to the area we skinned up to (the snowkiting mecca) and then we went a bunch further. Lots of time getting stuck and digging them out.

We made it up on the bench and sledded all around. We had brought up a bunch of kiting and skiing gear and were looking for wind. We found wind. Just did a bit of kiting. Then we got socked in as the weather got snowy and foggy. We had a long slow ride back as we waited out the weather.

Road run on the way to get to where we were going to snowmachine

The sled that Kurt and I were riding.

Kristen waiting for us. We got the sled stuck again.

Made it way back the books. Kristen and Vern were about to go skinning up. Mike and I were getting ride to kite.

Powder

Getting socked in

Kristen just did some hill climbing back by the car

Bubba

Kurt and Mike back at the car

Met up with the kiters at magpies. They had a projecter set up outside showing kiting videos. Mike had a valiant attempt at a shotgunning beer contest...

magpies

Day 6

Minnesota: Snowmobile

Alaska: Snowmachine

At some point in transit between Thief River, mn and Valdez, AK. The arctic cats snowmobiles turn into snowmachines. It goes beyond a mere change of words. The snowmachines get longer and the tracks get much bigger so they can bite into and ride the powder. The way you ride changes also. The person on the sled does more then sitting on the front and steering with the handlebars. Most of the time is spent standing and throwing your body from one side to another to get it to steer the in the powder. There are many times you could see a person holding on one side of the handlebars with both hands and both feet on one side leaning way out trying to get the sled to tip enough to get it to turn quickly. These techniques were some of the first things we learned on our practice driving Verne’s snowmachine in some flat powder. We all got some practice riding in… and we each of us got practice digging it out when we got it stuck in the powder.
After that funness, we noticed that wind was picking up a bit. We got our first session in kiting at thompson pass. Not enough wind to do much climbing up the mountain, but I had a good session on my 16m old cabrinha and Mike was cruising on this 14m ozone frenzy.

Digging out Mike's first digger into the powder

Mike jumping a bump in the snow

Mikey

Leaning into a turn

Me jumping

Verne checking out his sled

Verne jumping

Mike leaning into a turn

Trying two people on a sled

Mike and I got it stuck in a tree hole

Paraglider playing by thompson pass

Me Jumping

Old Grey Cabrinha

A bit of wind

Mike spinning

More spin

Day 4 and 5

Day 4

I’m a little behind. Haven’t been about to get a good internet connection and have been busy!

There ended up not being too much wind at thompson pass so we headed down to town to check out valdez a little more. On the way down we checked out a few kiting spots Mike and Seth had kited last year… This year was all rocks… a testament to the lack of snow they have had this year. I have heard several times that all the brush and rocks that are sticking up above the snow are normally completly covered in an additional couple feet of snow.

We got in ate at The Harbor Cafe. Awesome restaurant. I ate some amazing fish tacos and Mike had some fish and chips, both of which was their special for the day. I also heard that they are the best food in town!

After food we stocked up on some grocerys at a small expensive safeway. Stuff was about 2x more expensive then up at Anchorage. I suppose that is what you get when your the only show in town and your food delivarys probably come from 5 hours away or by boat.

Next we refilled the water and headed back up to tailgate alaska and ABA, after checking thompson pass for wind (It was about dead calm), and picked up Kristen. Then headed to a few more miles away to Rendezvous. Rendezvous is another heliski outfit that has all inclusive stays there… as well as has some good food. We got some dessert and some drinks. When we were there we were lucky enough to have a guy ring a big bell right by the bar… that meant the next round was on him! I guess he had a good day skiing and was just spreading it around!

Day 5

Checked for wind. No wind. So we had the next thing to try out. Skinning up to the Books with our kites. Now this area on a good day can clearly been seen on the road that winds around up to thompson pass. Actually it is the area behind me on the previous post. As you can see, it is a large expanse of the snow with no trees and rolling terrain. In other words… a kiting mecca!

We had to park quite aways down near the lowe river, and we started to skin. The first problem we had was we decided to veer through the alders and pines to get to where we wanted to go. As soon as we started getting in the woods.. the snow was much deeper and there were holes all over were you would sink in to up to your waist. We weren’t the only ones with slow going in there. We came across some moose tracks in the deep snow. The moose’s foot looked like it postholed all the way down, not touching ground and finally stopped sinking when he got to his waist. You could just see the way the moose must have slowly waded through the snow.

We finally found the path up. It was a snowmobile path that a few guys had snowmachined on the previous day. It was much easier going in some aspects… but now we had started to climb… and I could feel the weight of the extra kiting gear on my back. After awhile, we broke through the trees, awhile after that we did some steeper climbing where I had to stop every 10 to 20 steps… then awhile after that I started to see the top… then realized it was a false summit and we still had more to go. Finally made it to the top where it plateaud out. We sat down, rested, ate some food, and drank a victory beer. We made it. But… There was not wind at the top… and quickly the weather started to turn south, with some snow and fog. We lost the great view of the valley we had… and we decided after only 15 minutes, we should start to head down again to get some better visibility. The way down was much more fun. We mostly stuck to the path we took up but also got to push around some good powder. Skiing in powder is tiring too… but a much better tiring then skiing up. In no time at all we were at the bottom. From there we skinned another hour or so back to the car. We were both completely exhausted…

Mike and I up at thompson pass

Ice Climb... there is a climber part way up it

zoomed in to the climber

The river where Seth and Mike had snowkited last year. All rocks this year.

Tailgate Alaska

Tailgate Alaska Sign

Rendezvous

Rendezvous

Skinning in the dense woods

Skinning up the slope... we are out of the woods!

Made it to the top! Notice how you can't see much around Mike.

Yup we are getting socked in

Snowboarding and Skiing back down

resting. Look at all the kite gear I brought up but couldn't use

Finally back to the car!

Profile of skinning up.

Where we skinned

Day 2, 3 and morning of 4

Day 2

We drove down to valdez It was like 5 hours and driving around the mountains the whole time. Saw some monster mountains 100 miles away and some huge glaciers that were breaking up over a edge.

We stopped by tailgate alaska and met up with kristen who is working for alaska backcountry adventures that does heliskiing. Walked around and checked up all the RVs, skiers, and snowboards that are staying up here for a few weeks.

By the time it was getting dark, drove though thompson pass (the goto spot for kiting) and headed down to valdez. Met up with Verne who is a electrican working nights and crashed on his couch.

Day 3

Road skiing. We hit up turn around just past thompson pass and skiied down to where the road switchback too. I had to remember how to ski on the bigger stuff because it had been a few years since I have been out. But I had a great time.

Later that day, Mike and I headed back to the same spot and skied/boarded down that hill a bit and set up our kiting stuff. We kited in an area that was almost a large half pipe with some rocks and shrubbery. The snow levels are way below what this area typically has… and there is a lot of exposed area. We dinged up our boards pretty good on some buried rocks but it was worth it. The snow that was there was pretty wet and heavy and was quite a workout to ski in. The view from that area was gorgeous and it overlooked quite a way down the mountain. When we were all tired out, we packed up the kites in our bags and finished the run down to the road. It was a bit harder with the legs tired out from kiting and all the extra weight, but we made it down to the road. We sat down there for quite awhile before we found someone to pick us up. The traffic was pretty light. The 2nd car in our direction had room for Mike and he ran up and got the car and drove it to get me.

Beginning of day 4.

The heli stuff is running this morning. It had been too cloudy the past few days for the helicoper to safely take people up. But as of this morning it has been running pretty much constantly. Kristen’s cabin is right by where the helicopter takes off and you can feel the sound through the floor and see the snow fly around when it is taking off. The helicopter just left again!

We are on our way to thompson pass to check out the wind and hopefully we will get some good stuff!

One of the temporary cabins that are set up in tailgate alaska.

Just after thompson pass looking over to the next mountain

helocopter for ABA

Kristen and Mike cooking up some tacos!

Alaska Day 1

Got into Anchorage after midnight, Mike picked up me and crashed at Adam’s place.

Got up built a loft bed for Mike’s new pickup, we are planning on spending a few nights sleeping in the truck and now it will be sleeping luxury.

Mike, Adam, I and headed to Turnagain pass. We went avalanche safety and did some practice runs burying the beacon in the snow and using the other 2 to find it.

After I was all trained in, we decided to put on the skins and climb up on to Sunburst Mountain. It was my first time using the skins on any kind of vertical incline… I did some sliding backwards a few times and tipping over, but I started to get the hang of it.

The day was awesome with a clear blue sky and warm weather. We all were in tshirts and unzipped snowpants and it was still plently toasty.

I was exhausted by the end. But we made it to the top after a 3 hour climb. Then we took off the skins had a rest and got ready for the big ride back down. It took all of 15 minutes and got it was a blast in the nice powder!