When I woke up in the morning, it looked a little hazy, but with the possibility of burning off. I had more or less committed to staying at the hotel and getting some work done, but then it started getting more and more blue as the sun rose. I rushed to grab my stuff at the last minute, and by the time we got to the heliport, the sun was out and the helicopters were ready to fly. We looked at the groupings, and it was just 2 in our Long Ranger piloted by George, and 4 in the A Star. Once again we had Stefan with us, with Virgil as our guide, and the other group had Darryl and Wes as the guide. Avalanche conditions were much better, as a bunch of stuff had already slid, but the danger was still very much there with so much snow. The last day ended up being the day, and we went pretty big. Unfortunately there were a bunch of peaks that we couldn’t get the heli down on, so and we ended up having to search around – the snow was just too deep. We decided to bail on the area we were in, and we ended up out on the glacier for a while while we shuttled. It was amazing how fast it got super cold when the sun went behind a cloud for a bit, and then warmed back up when it came out. Even at a low aspect, it still makes a huge difference.

Wes directed us to an area he had ridden with some private groups, and we started out on pretty steep stuff and ended up on extremely steep stuff. The first run took us down a face, and then across an area that was sluffing off, and then down through the avalanche debris to the bottom. A couple more runs in the area, getting bigger and bigger, until we got to Run 213, which was just one giant face with a cliff on the other side. A ton of vertical, and everyone had a great run down it – the best run I’ve taken. The video makes it look flatter than it was, due to the wide angle, but even it can’t make it look not steep.

The post Day 35: Valdez, AK (heli) appeared first on Justin Silver.

We finally got a break in the snow and were able to fly again, so Steve and I jumped on it, but were a little bummed to find out that we weren’t going to be riding with Stefan, who was paired with the French group. We were with Scott, who was a nice guy, but didn’t have much powder experience. According to our guide Virgil, it didn’t matter much anyway since we had received over a meter of new snow, and avalanche danger was pretty high. It did make sens though, we had come on the Costco deal, so we got to ride with the newbie. Again, no complaints at a day heliboarding, but it would have been nice to go bigger, although say what you want, Mother Nature doesn’t always have what you want in mind. We still got to hit some pretty long runs, and even though it wasn’t that extreme, who can complain about untracked pitches with tons of fresh snow?

We were in Brown’s Canyon again, but we got to hit some of the stuff that we hadn’t the first day on the helicopter, and though the pitches weren’t steep, we still got in a decent number of runs. At dinner we recapped the day with Stefan, and put in the word that we wanted to ride together if we ended up flying. That said, the weather looked like it was blowing in that evening, so there wasn’t a whole lot of optimism for getting another day, and I resigned myself to getting some work done from the hotel.

The post Day 34: Valdez, AK (heli) appeared first on Justin Silver.

Sure enough the weather didn’t blow out, and it kept dumping snow all day. We opted in to the cat skiing once again, and did have a little bit better visibility at times to hit some pretty fun stuff about mid way up. Again we got to ski family style, and by now the snow had gotten pretty deep, well over 2 feet. Justin and I rode together a good amount again, and got to jump around in the trees (I stuck with the Malolo for a second day). I had a couple decent wipe outs going off cliffs, cornices, whatever, and was starting to think that there were no downhill landings in Alaska. I finally spotted a good drop from the bottom of the run, and Justin and I asked to do it again, and Rhett obliged. True to form, I came at it pretty fast and hear the beep-beep-beep of the helmet cam indicating that the battery has died about 10m short of the drop – which I then went off of pretty big, landed it and went tearing down the mountain. Of course, none of it was recorded, so…. I tried again and wasn’t able to land it the second time, since fog must have blown in and I didn’t even see it coming before I fell off. C’est la vie.

The post Day 33: Valdez, AK (cat) appeared first on Justin Silver.

We woke up Saturday morning to a full on blizzard, but decided to head out to the helipad anyway and get in some cat skiing – we were in Alaska after all, and who were we to complain about a powder day, albeit one with pretty limited visibility. The day started a little rough, but once we went lower and got into the trees, it was actually pretty fun. We got to ride together in a group as the avalanche danger was less on the lower aspects, and the trees made it even safer. I took out the Burton Malolo 158, and it proved to be pretty fun and easy to navigate in the trees. We had to weigh in for the heli, so I know I was carrying 45lbs of gear, and the heavy snow did get a bit tiring, especially after hitting it decently hard the day before. I met a guy from Anchorage who’s name was also Justin, and he was on a Fish X, which also seemed to be pretty fun as the snow got deeper. I know I was bailed out more than once by the nose. We did about 11,000 feet of vert, and only got charged for 10k, so it wasn’t such a bad day when all was said and done.

The snow hadn’t let up when we were having dinner (which was actually really good, and definitely the best I’ve ever had skiing), so we weren’t all that hopeful for a fly day, but went to bed with our fingers crossed.

The post Day 32: Valdez, AK (cat) appeared first on Justin Silver.

“Pack your bags, we’re going to Alaska in 24 hours. Call me back.”

That was the voicemail I got from Steve, of DemoSport fame, and he was serious. With the snow season winding down, and business at the shop with it, Steve was finally about to make some moves and get some turns in of his own. Since I have a reputation for being the guy to call when you need someone to fly half way around the world with you on last minute notice, I got the call, and made the trip.

There really wasn’t much of a decision to make, since we got an incredibly good deal – buddy pass tickets on Alaskan Airlines round trip for $100, and a Costco (of all places) sale for 25,000 vert feet and 3 days hotel and food for $1000. We got 2 of the Costco packages, and 36 hours later (the voicemail ended up being slightly inaccurate), Steve and I were in Valdez, AK via SFO and SEA.

There wasn’t much fresh snow on the ground, but it was sunny out the first day, so we got to go up on the helicopter. The weather was looking unsettled, so it was hard to say how long we were going to get to go out, or if we would get to go out again on the trip. We were partnered up with a guy from Munich named Stefan, riding a Lib Tech 193 Doughboy, which is a very large board. I was just on the Burton Vapor 16, and not even set all the way back, so after adjusting my bindings after the first run, we had a pretty good day. Everyone showed they knew what they were doing, and it would have been nice to push it a bit more, but who’s complaining after a blue bird? We started with a run down a couloir that wasn’t that steep, but did have fun walls to play on, and then a few long runs down the glacier. We hit another Couloir that was much steeper and narrower, and uncovered a few rocks on the way down… at least it was steep enough that Steve was taken out by his own sluffage

The post Day 31: Valdez, AK (heli) appeared first on Justin Silver.

Having dropped Zachary in Anchorage and then making the drive back to Girdwood (a wrong turn almost put me in Wasilla), I was all ready to go on a heli trip with Chugach Powder Guides. The weather had been going back and forth, and when I went to bed it looked like we might have flying weather lined up. I got up at 6:30am to get ready so I could get some food and still be on time for our 7:30 check in, however looking out the window I wasn’t all that optimistic. The sun wouldn’t be rising for several more hours, but I could tell that it was pretty thick out there, and with the clouds it didn’t seem like it was all going to happen. Sure enough, the helicopters were on hold due to weather (the tree line is so low they have to use their own shadow when landing, so no sun = no flying). I was bummed, since I was really looking forward to another heliboarding trip, but Mother Nature had other plans.

The plus side is that when you can’t fly, you can go cat skiing, and the weather means you are more likely to get more fresh. After the sun was up, we seven of us and two guides departed at 10am to get in some turns. The wind had been blowing, which resulted in some pretty buffed snow – soft underneath but with a definite crust on top. I had the Malolo set all the way back in anticipation of steep and deep powder, and the combination of it with the snow caused me to have lots of trouble early in the day. My tail was riding so low I couldn’t keep my speed up, and when I shifted my weight forward, my nose would dive in and down I would go. I was starting to get pretty self conscious about it all, and one run in particular would have been really bad had not both guides and 4 of the other people had “issues” with it as well. We stopped for lunch 4 runs in, and I took the opportunity to move my back foot up a little. Meanwhile, it kept dumping snow.

It could have been changing the binding (it helped). It could have been that the snow got a lot better (it did). It could have been mental (some surely was). It was probably a combination of everything. After lunch, we got in another 6 runs and everyone starting killing it. I got to drop some cornices that had formed on some of the rocks, one of them being about 10 or 12 ft that I actually didn’t see coming, and landed them all – though some were definitely smoother than others. My whole day was made on one run though – Brad went first on skis to put in some cuts and got to follow behind him. The run went left, with the fall line to the right, and as I approached I could see where he had gone off a little drop on to a perfect landing, and if you just stayed with it a little longer the drop got a lot bigger. Having a perfect view of it I came in super fast and launched off the biggest part, easily clearing the wind well underneath and sticking a sweet landing. I didn’t think I was in view of anyone else, and just bombed it the rest of the way to the bottom, where I met Brad. He immediately said “come over here” and the first thing that went through my head was that I had done something stupid and was about to get a reprimand, but the next words were “high five man, you went huge off that”. It was awesome.

When we wrapped up the day we had done 10 runs, and I was dead tired. We went for a few beers at the lodge, and then I made the trek back to Anchorage to sleep and pack for the flight the next day. When I pulled the rental car up in front of the hotel, my left leg was so weak I had to pick it up with my hands and throw it out of the car. I slept well that night.

The post Day 24: Chugach Cat Skiing appeared first on Justin Silver.

Zachary and I woke up around 9 when the sun started coming up, and I have to admit I felt pretty tired. The top of the mountain had gotten more snow, but it was still pretty wet at the bottom, but the good news of the day was that Christmas Chute was open. After doing a warm up on Chair 6, we did the hike back to the chute and dropped in. It gets skied out pretty quick, so conditions weren’t ideal when we did it, but it was still a pretty sick run. Long and steep, it drops out into the Lower North Face, and it plenty of vertical to wear out your legs. We hit it pretty hard and fast, and by the time the snow was starting to get pretty heavy and bumped out, we were pushing 20,000ft of vert anyway. After a beer in the room, we hit the hot tub one more time before I drove Zach back to Anchorage for work. We stopped along the way to take a few pics of Turnagain Arm, and then I stopped again on the way back and took a few long exposures.

Check out my craptastic video editing skillz

Here are some pictures from Turnagain Arm – the ones where it is still light is when I was driving Zach back to Anchorage, and then night ones are my return trip to Girdwood.

The post Day 23: Alyeska – Christmas Chute appeared first on Justin Silver.

Yes, it’s true – I am in Alaska, snowboarding no less. Zachary had to be in Anchorage for work, and when one is traveling so far north in the dead of winter, and have a love of winter sports, how can you not head up early and get some riding in? The only reason I can think of (maybe), is if you have to do it alone, but with me being at the top of the “drop everything and go snowboarding in Alaska” list, here we are.

The worst part of the trip so far was waking up at 6:30am on Valentine’s Day to drive to OAK and catch a 9am flight, but really, not the end of the world. The flight to SEA was pretty easy (I may have even slept part of the way, hard to say, but the trip seemed pretty short), and then the flight from SEA to ANC was pretty easy too, though there was definitely snow gnarly turbulence once we started the decent. It was awesome to look out at the weird land beneath us…. and then realize that it was the ocean, but frozen. Once we actually did get to land, it was still pretty awesome though – everything covered in snow and surrounded by huge mountains. Zach wasn’t on the second flight with me, and I got in early, so while waiting I grabbed a beer and picked up the rental car. The guy at Enterprise would give me an upsell pitch (“Do you want a GPS?”) and then when I said no would come back with a fairly honest answer (“Yeah, you don’t really need it, there’s only one road”). I immediately met Zach at baggage claim, and we headed towards Girdwood, arriving in about 40 minutes. Not too bad, and the drive was pretty awesome along the water.

When we got to the resort, it was 37 degrees and raining at the bottom, which definitely wasn’t a good sign. We lamented a bit about how you just can’t plan a ski vacation that effectively, since it’s so dependant on the weather, but hey, what can you do? We ate dinner, and walked around to check things out, and luckily I noticed that because we are so far north, and it’s winter, the sun doesn’t rise until much later than we are used to, and in fact the lifts don’t start spinning until 10:30am. That being super awesome, we went to bed and….

Woke up to 16″ of fresh at the top, less in the middle, and basically slush at the bottom, which was fine because the top certainly made up for it. The tram didn’t get going until about 11:15 or so due to avalanche control, but once it did we managed to go top to bottom somewhere around 10-12 times, and at 2200ft each – that’s a lot of vertical. The upper North Face wasn’t open, so we couldn’t do Christmas Chute or the High Traverse, but there were still plenty of good to be had, especially in the trees. Hoping that they get the top open tomorrow, how bad ass would it be to get freshies two days in a row? And it hasn’t stopped snowing all day, and in theory will keep it up until tomorrow. With some luck, it will clear up for my heli trip on Wednesday.

The post Day 22: Alyeska, Alaska! appeared first on Justin Silver.