Alaska Backcountry Adventures

The day got started off with a hearty breakfast and some buzz around the thought that this could be the first fly day...depending on the weather. The winds were still nuking this morning down in Valdez so we assumed that up on the pass they would be a little worse, and our trusty contact Dave at ABA told us to hang tight.

We tinkered around town and did some gear shopping for the boys who forgot face masks and decided to head up to the pass to get our safety stuff out of the way, regardless of whether or not we would fly. They run you through a small set of avalanch beacon tests and inform you of the dangers of being in the back country as any good outfit should.

The skies parted and things started looking good by about 12:30. by 3:00 we were in the bird and heading up into paradise...

We were able to squeek in two 4,000 vertical foot runs in about an hour and a half and were loving it. Up high the peaks have been scoured by wind and the snow is a hard packed, but off of the peaks we were treated to some serious fluff. The first run was Girl Mountain and the second was Sail Fish or something like that. The landing zone on sail fish was on a peak that was no bigger than a small truck, this got the heart pumping...then I looked down our steep descent and was pumped up. These guys are serious about their terrain and I love it.

Temps today were below zero farenheit and the wind chill brought it to -30...exposed skin was in danger of frostbite, just after the picture above the guide told me to cover my nose at is was starting to freeze...brrr.

Now we just keep our fingers crossed for good weather and look forward to getting deeper in the chugach range, which is filled with the most beautiful mountains I have ever seen.