Valdez (yes...AGAIN!)

Hi Boys-

Well, I got one more trip to Thompson Pass in before we leave this beautiful state. That's 3 trips in 1 year, which is pretty good. Seth had to work on his thesis, =c( so this trip was unfortunately without him.

Skiing up to the top of the first run, Gully 1, Thompson Pass.

Our friend Craig from Colorado, me and our friend Katie from Anchorage. Her fiance, taking the picture, is Darren Ireland, Colby class of 2000. Small world!

Me making some cruisin' turns down the first section.

Down the section part, with a good looking moutain in the background.

(This one is for TK...)
"Skiing Pow, F*ck Yeah!"

(yep, that's the Air Ski)

Anyways, just wanted to share my trip with you guys. We are super excited about seeing you guys soon, and being closer to everyone next year.

See you in OR!

-Hils

The Great Canadian Corn Harvest

This is just a teaser...many more pictures to come. We shot over 1000 images on 4 cameras with some really nice ski shots included. When we get all of the images compiled, i'll put up another post. Here's just a few shots to get your imaginations running. Sufice it to say, the Chic Chocs are SICK.

Mt. Albert, See any lines?

Heading out on Hogs Back with Albert looming in the distance. Note the T-Shirts.

Looking at the "Fingers" on Hogs Back. Yeah, real sketch on the day this picture was taken, but 24 hours later, when we droped into the lookers right finger (of the three obvious fingers) we were greeted with boot deep corn and a perfect 1200 foot decent.

More to Come...stay tuned.

Trying to do face shots justice with words

This was written by a friend of mine who shared in the goodness last Sunday. Between last Friday and Sunday, we received over 36 inches, the last 12 of which were super light pow.

Bald Hill, 3/18

i'm hanging them up.
i'm done. i don't ever
have to ski again
after the fifth and final
sprayfest: standing
in the tailing-filled
arcs woven through
hardwoods, muttering
incoherently, hoarse
and speechless,
slack-jaw dropping,
babbling, drool hanging
from the corners
of my mouth, heart
pounding like a caged
rottweiler sees a cat,
eyes popped wide,
ice-cream headache
from choking on snow,
nostrils filled and flared,
sensitive tooth tingling,
breathing fresh, oh
my, oh my, oh my...
i believe, i believe.


the day. the day. the day. yeah, john says it's a matter of
perspective, and i reckon he's right. but i can't bring to mind a better
day of skiing in vermont. (some that approach it, maybe...)

we hit it early, and we'd lapped 3 frontside (maximizing skintrack,
minimizing slog) and another off the back before we even saw another...tip of the ice berg hoardes arriving in ones, twos, and fours.

put it this way: punk kid told me friday: "yeah, sunday's going to be the day." i thought, yeah right, punk kid, yeah right. well dammit, he was. sat. was heavy and slow (and excellent, no doubt), but cap that off with another 16" of the phinest phluphph, and goddam, you've got sheets of snow piling over your face. and it snowed all morning. it wasn't face-shots; it was one big, continuous shot. it was light, lifted at the slightest touch. had to stop several times to breathe. you could ski anything and everything. holy, holy sheit.

or this way: valentine's day was said to be a 12 on a scale of 1-10. yesterday topped it, doubtless. (in my mind, imho, and also based on where and how i was skiing... many factors, none less than stellar... not that one needs compare...).

i know my penchant for hyperbole, but this is not. i've given the first ever double gold star. it's the standard now by which i'll have to measure all future runs...

on the highway-trail, we emerged from the woods, googly-eyed. one guy in a pack of four asked, "where'd you come off?" before i could think about it, i blurted out, "in my pants, i think" and skied away.

my face hurts from grinning.

Snow Worshiper's Anonymous Meeting

Ladies and Gents ( i use the term loosely)
Just throwing an idea out on the table. Anybody interested for next year to get a Balls Deep group trip together...say a hut tour in a place like CO, MT or WY? It's a little early to plan something like this, but it would at least give us an idea of who would be interested. My job next year will have flexible holiday weeks. Quinn, I'm guessing you should have, uhhh no job next winter. TG, Jon, & TK, not sure what your plans for next winter are looking like but you probably wouldn't have to travel too far at least. Balzbaugh, you should be in. Seth & Hilz, I'm guessing you might be in the lower 48/back on the radar next winter. Pierre? you still with us, or have you switched to a biking blog?
Thoughts, suggestions?

Beat Down served on La PLata (14,336)

The day started with the screeching of the alarm clock, 2:30AM, time to go and get my ass kicked on a fourteener after arriving from sea level only a day before. The day began well enough, we were on the trail by around 6, but unfortunately, we missed the turnoff for the 14er trail, and added about 5 miles to our day, putting the peak out of reach, as we had to be back in Boulder by 7 that evening, and the warm weather made us weary of wet slides in the afternoon. Adding to our troubles, the skin up the Northwest ridge was through some horrible conditions: an inch or two of crust on top of over a foot of rotten snow, slowing us down even more. Given the conditions we instead decided to skin up to above treeline, chill a bit and ski back down. I can't figure out how to order the pics without going crazy so here they are.

Weekend

Two words for skiing sunday...fuck yeah!!
An epic day all in all. It all started at midnight, Sunday morning in Boston Harbor, at a bar post Jon Engel/Jen Bubrick's wedding. Stumbled back to my hotel at 2:00 am. Awake at 5:30 to a crying baby who I consoled and hung out with for the next hour and a half. By 7:00 I was situated over the toilet bowl chanting the ever familiar "I will never drink again" hung-over slogan.
On the road back to Vermont by 11:00 when the room stopped spinning. Picked up the dog, grabbed my sticks and was hiking my favorite bc woods shot in Merck Forest by 4:30. Conditions were incredible, despite its low elevation and despite the 60 degree temps and rainstorm we received last week, there was still an 18" firm base. Add an extra 15" of fluff on top of that (10" of moist snow from friday night and 5" of blower from saturday night) and the settings were perfect for a some of the best turns of the year.
The woods in certain sections of Merck are situated on slate rock, which for some reason doesn't support an understory. Therefore there are just canopy trees with a low sapling count and no shrubs. Unfortunately because of low elevation and the fact that it's west of the Greens, it commonly has subpar snow accumulations. Pretty psyched to finally be able to get out and ski the hills. Got two runs in before the dinner bell started to ring and the sun dipped over the horizon. Both runs, I couldn't help but give battle cry whoops several times.
All I can say is that damn it feels good to finally over a month of excellent powder skiing. More snow in the forecast tonight!!
Hope ya'll are doing well.

Alaska Ski Train

The local nordic ski club in Anchorage puts on this event called the ski train each winter. The club rents out the train that takes tourists to Denali or Seward in the summer to take about 300 people to either Grandview Pass south of Girdwood (a pristine Turagain Pass-like backcountry spot with no road, only train tracks) or Curry which is 150 miles north near Denali. Curry has a series of ridges with only about 1500' of vert and a typically rotten snowpack, but a very beuatiful spot, nonetheless. This year, they unfortunately cancelled the train to Grandview and it went to Curry where there is little good bc skiing. Hilary and I went on the ski train this Saturday and it was a blast. Most everyone had given up the idea of great skiing, so a festive attitude and expectations of a booze cruise with a stellar view were had by all. Here are some pics from the mostly debaucherous day:

The polka band makes its way through the train cars. I was particularly impressed by the coronet playe in the foreground playing with one hand and drinking a Guiness.

The train unloading at Curry preparing for a tour in the boreal forest about 60 miles from the Denali Park entrance.
Hilary setting the tone for the ride back!


The Alaska Range looking brilliant in the distance across the Susitna River from the train car.


The train party rolls back towards Anchorage.

Powder day in AK and beyond...

I promised some recent photos from Hil and I skiing in AK and elsewhere, so here you go...enjoy!

Hilary preparing for a face full of powder on the North Face of Alyeska. Weekday skiing with 2'+ of fresh!
View of Raggedtop Mtn from Alyeska.

A big brown visitor to our back yard last week.
View from the top of Snowbird, UT last week the day after a good storm.
Me catching a little air at Alyeska on Thursday.
Hilary making it past the crux of Christmas Chute at Alyeska
Looking down Christmas Chute at Alyeska...Paddy Sullivan getting ready for more face shots.
Snow has finally come back to AK, I hope everyone's getting theirs too.

Greetings from AK

It's been a while since there's been work from AK, so here's the skinny. The 5 week snow drought we had been enduring (1/26-3/7) finally ended on Wednesday with over 2' of fresh at Alyeska. My brother arrived for a visit on Wed. afternoon, just in time for a day of powder in Girdwood. One of the best of the season with nearly 3' blown in on the North Face and bluebird skies by the day's end. I'll post some pics of the day later today or tomorrow.
Hil and I had a pretty good week of skiing before that in Utah. I was in Flagstaff, AZ and SLC, UT for phD program interviews. Never thought I'd ski in AZ, but got in a few hours of free skiing (I guess they don't check tickets at the AZ Snowbowl). After a day and a half of interviews in Flagstaff headed up to SLC, where it proceeded to snow 12" overnight with bluebird skies by 10AM. Hil arrived the next morning and we skied the next three days with our friend Stacey (some of you may know her) at Park City, Snowbird and Solitude. Felt a little taken advantage of by the $77 lift ticket price at Park City (fortunately we only had to buy one), but they aren't kidding when they say "The greatest snow on Earth" Pretty fluffy!
Now I'm back in AK working hard on my Master's thesis. We haven't quite made the decision yet, but it is looking like Hil and I will be hailing from either Flagstaff, AZ or SLC, UT for the next several years.
I know tales of skiing are a little lame without pics, but that's all for now. Be back with pics tomorrow.

Couple of shots from Tucks

Went up to the ravine to see one Mr Chris Fithian yesterday. Great day, but I'm a shell of a man today, that boy moves quickly!


Chris in his swanky pad



Booting up Right Gully. That's all I got, we were too busy trying to make sure we didn't kill ourselves in sketchy avi conditions and even worse snow (variable is being generous). But all in all, a very fun day.

Snow Reports

Currently really bored sitting at my computer at school "on-duty" for the evening. I was interested to see about current snowfall numbers at resorts around north america, so I decided to share my findings with ya'll

Killington - 168"
Bolton - 224"
Vail - 256"
Loveland - 263"
Jay - 264"
J-hole - 215-291"
Steamboat - 301"
Kirkwood - 233-305"
Alta - 318"
Wolf Creek - 346"
Whistler - 432"
Alyeska - 448-515"

Couldn't get Mt. Baker or Taos, but both had pretty healthy bases though. The east has definitely come a long way since January. Most numbers don't seem to be too far off-their mark for a normal year. The wasatch and tahoe seem to be furthest behind on their numbers though, while whistler and alyeska are riding pretty high.

Too Busy Pimpin Miss Snowflake

Well actually that's not true, I'm actually too busy with 3 jobs plus raising a kid and keeping my wife in the mentally sane side of this world. Luckily all three jobs are pretty fuckin sweet in their own right. Haven't had much time despite all the good snow, to make a lot of turns. The snowpack here is now deep, i haven't seen plowpiles this big in 4 years (2002-2003 season) in NE. While it by no means compares to the 2000-2001 season, the past 6-8 weeks have seen plenty of epic days.
This past Saturday I was patrollin at K-mart, got in a few runs with the posse consisting of PVB, Git er Dun, Pierre's friend Phil and of course Erik B. The first few runs were deep, 20" of Sierra cement were reported the day before with the upper mountain closed. While the winds were strong up high on the ridges, the trails down below were barely touched. My first run down Downdraft proved to be the run of the day. The pitch on the second half of the trail was steep enough for Miss snowflake to provide my mouth with some snowballin action. While soft snow was the prevalent conditions of the day, the 15,000 people that were also on the mountain made quick work of the virgin snowflakes. Nice round, soft, fleshy bumps were just looking to be played with, bouncing up and down in front of your face all day. hmm...probably having too much fun with this
Had a great time skiing with the boys, wish we could do it more often. Now that the snow pack is in place, hopefully this spring the snow sticks around for a while. It sounds like I will putting in my maple taps this weekend, suppose to be in the 40's all next week, first time since MLK day we will top 40 degrees. No pics for you TK, just stories. Oh and what the hell are you doing to that cone, keep it together man!! Does erica know you like sticking inanimate objects up your ass?

Disappointed with Current East Coast Blog Stoke.....

Yeah sure, the turning point of winter has come, it's March. Some of you New Englanders are thinking of golfing, yachting, and evening cocktails to the sound of tree frogs in the backyard. Wrong. It's not time to throw in the towel yet. If you all remember as clearly as I do, March brought some of the best skiing I've seen in New England in 2001. Four foot drifts on RipSaw, Seth huckin' it above the Salsa shack, Greeny skiing trees like he's Ted Ligety on a gate bashing quest for gold, and Grayson, um, where was Grasyson? Anyways, after such a lousy start to the season this year, I'm surprised by the lack of East Coast stoke on the Blog right now. You guys just got a crap load of snow, where's the shit talking and epic pow photos. I'm wondering if I should try and sign off like Greeny due to my overall weak feeling of East Coasters. The only one who has 'kept it real' is Balsbaugh, but he doesn't count because he doesn't have a job. I hope you all ramp it up for the month of March.....I know I will.

When the East gets Deep.....is that a paradox???

Yeah things have really sucked here lately because I've been holed up doing my comprehensive examination for my Masters in Education. But we did get out last Wend. to Berthoud pass with some homies for delicious pillowy pow! Off to Jackson for 4 days on Wend., can you say spring skiing and PBR???












Light was shitty this day cause it was nuking, so my photos didn't come out great. Grayson, all the photos on this website that I put up that aren't of me are shots that I've taken. I need a real SLR digital camera because its becoming an obsession. Gotta go type....doooo!

When the East gets Deep...

...B-Baugh heads West.