Backcountry Skiing..Your Winter Window Into The Chugach.
Personal views, written public comments on a variety of local environmental issues.
January 18, 2017 To : Candice Snow – DNR From : Matt Kinney – Valdez Resident Subject : LAS 27925 – (Tailgate) I am opposed to this permit. Since Tailgate arrived on Thompson Pass, the concerns over land-use conflicts are secondary to the safety issues in allowing the event to exist at its current or future level of participation. Without […]
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Tahoe-based Tailgate Alaska recently had their permit renewed to continue there presence in Thompson Pass. I refer to the event as Carbongate, Rotorgate or Motorgate, as it seems odd to name a ski event after tailgating, a social phenomenom with it’s roots in college football. Besides, it has little redeeming economic value to our community based 30 miles away. It’s […]
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…Mountains have heights and they are plentiful, vast, beautiful, graceful, bright and fragrant. These mountains are what my Beloved is to me. Lonely valleys are quiet, pleasant, cool, shady and flowing with fresh water; in the variety of their groves and in the sweet song of the birds, they afford abundant recreation and delight to the senses, and in their […]
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Two years ago, Tabitha and I trekked from Jiri to Everest Base Camp on a month-long journey through the Himalayan Range. We took the long way, hiking through dozens of Sherpa and other ethnic villages along the way, experiencing and seeing the living conditions common in rural Nepal away from the rush to Everest. This part of Nepal is missed by […]
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Like having reasonable alcohol rules, marijuana will now becomes legal in Alaska 90 days after Tuesday’s elections. Skiers and yes, summer tourist will find Alaska just as they always have, but without the draconian laws against a natural herb that has little more impact than a 6-pack of beer or two shots of whiskey, no matter how much you use. […]
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The Alaska Dispatch reported today that the company Alaska Helisking is being sued by the family of a client who died skiing outside Haines, Alaska. This comes on top of the State of Alaska’s recent hearing before the Occupational Health and Safety Department about bringing some needed improvement in how the heliski industry operates in Alaska. I participated in […]
Read moreI avoid politics on my Home Page like the plague. But not today. Not today of all days. I’m not sure if anyone gets it. I drive through Thompson Pass and check out dozens of mechanized skiers who are burning fuel as if there had never been an oil spill that devastated this region. Back then global warming wasn’t even […]
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