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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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“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

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