Backcountry Skiing..Your Winter Window Into The Chugach.
Bradford Washburn opened his first photo business in Valdez in 1936. It was from the tidal mudflats near town where he took his camera to the sky over mountains for the first time and framed glaciers and mountains, including the Shoup. The rest is history as far as his glacier photography and of course his mountaineering. I get plenty of […]
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One more time as I survived my 37th winter wanderings with the Valde-zease. It ends in nice fashion with JP2 along. Loveland Basin looks good, but will require a 1/2 hour approach if your still looking to get your ski de-rusted. Here’s a nice video with natural sounds followed by a few pics. Off the top…. One last round of […]
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NOAA just released it’s 2016 mid-annual climate report for the United States and Alaska. Some stark red flags appear as the earth continues to warm at anticipated rates based on global warming models. The arctic regions are warming at a much faster rate than other places. Our glaciers are dramatically melting, obvious to most of us who spend time in […]
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It ain’t over til it’s over and the effort continued today, June 8th, in Thompson Pass, AK. First time this year not skiing directly from the car door, but a cold stream crossing and some thickets did little to dissuade JP2 and I as we toured to the top of School Bus for 2700′ of slushy corn and some other […]
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Nice hike up to the Solomon Lake last night. The trail/road is in good shape. Looks like a great place to a take a pack-raft and paddle south into Chugach National Forest. At the end of the lake, some remains of a copper mining operation might still be found. At one point a tram ran from the present location of the […]
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Very nice nice snow on northerly like aspects above 3000′. Some hiking (10-15 minutes) to snow in Loveland plus a minor stream crossing to get at Schoolbus, which look real sweet above mid-mountain. I toured to do the nose of Little Odessey for simplicity enjoying corning sun cups top to bottom. Soloing some Chugach June sweetness.
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By getting and early start, like at 8am, great corn skiing is happening on most aspect and elevations above 2500′. Good corn skiing remains all day on higher shaded aspects with some mid-day stickiness and rotting on the lower elevations. Toured up to Loveland Basin with JP2 and skied the north shore. School Bus along with Little Odessey should remain quite […]
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