Backcountry Skiing..Your Winter Window Into The Chugach.
…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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Really interesting last weekend on my annual Worthington Glacier Terminus survey. Every fall I walk the terminus of the middle moraine built of ice-slickened rock as the glacier continues it’s unrelenting melt. It’s quite profound loosing a 100 yards a year of ice nearly 3 stories high. I have placed rock tarns marking the retreat over the years on this […]
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A quick glance at my skinning logs show October 15th as the normal first ski day in Thompson Pass. I used to get first tracks(and last!) all the time, but now it’s rare with so many skiers living in and around Valdez. Sometimes it comes earlier, like a memorable day powder skiing on the Loveland on October 4, 2013. As […]
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I now understand why Chuck Comstock raved about the White Mountains which are located northeast of Fairbanks. Comstock and I served in the Coast Guard together in Valdez and after his discharge he wandered off to Fairbanks to get a degree in Geology and a residency at the Sandvik House, the hub of the climbing community in that part of […]
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It’s been a different type of biking this summer for me as I am taking a break from my road bike and time trials that have dominated my last few summers. My mountain bike has been regulated to local transportation during the winter and summer, with occasional rides around town in places like Mineral Creek. Last week I rode all […]
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Seems like there is renewed interest in Valdez peak bagging this summer. Though many of the summits around Valdez were first climbed in the early 80’s by the aggressive “Peak-a-Week Club”, winter interest soon left the peaks a paradise for winter ascents and ski descents. Of course the main reason we don’t see many summer summits is access. Lack of […]
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The Department of Natural Resources has denied two(2) Land Use Permit applications by Black Ops submitted last spring One permit would have allowed Black Ops use of a portion of the old Valdez Heli-Camp site at Mile 18. In the decision the Department noted potential conflicts with Alaska Snowboard Guides who have a permit for the site issued in 2014. […]
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