L'Aventurier Alpin
Wednesday, February 9, 2011 at 9:56AM I spent much of April 2010 on an Alaska roady with a Quebecois TV show called L'Aventurier Alpin. On previous L'Aventurier Alpin trips Simon St-Arnaud - a heavy in the Quebec ski media - has covered trips to the Chamonix to Zermatt Haute Route, Argentina, and ski touring in Norway and Sweden. On this trip we skied at Turnagain Pass, Thompson Pass near Valdez, Hatcher Pass and Little Switzerland in the Alaska Range. Joining Simon was a well-travelled cameraman named Michel Valiquett; Olivier Brongniart and Jerome Grec who are friends from Switzerland; and Mathieu Leblanc who runs La Sandwicherie Café in Mont-Tremblant, Quebec. This crew loves to ski and is comfortable in front of, or behind, the camera. I was hired for backcountry guiding and logistics. The end result was five one-hour shows run in Quebec.
We spent our first couple days at Turnagain Pass in the Kenai Mountains. Despite stormy weather we found great skiing before heading to Valdez.
We parked and slept anywhere. Here on the Richardson highway below Mount Wrangell on our way to ski Valdez.
Olivier gave his skis the all-American sofa, beer and pizza treatment.
The geology around Valdez is tipped on end making couloirs stacked like a bookstore.
Heliski Valdez.
Mathieu dropping into the Cleave Creek Glacier with Michel filming in the shadows from halfway down.
Jerome Grec making the grim realization that heli skiing isn't always cutting edge and we should be....
...earning our turns in Valdez! A happier Jerome on a Crud Busters sunset tour.
Next stop: Hatcher Pass. Simon interviewing the legendary Hap at the Hatcher Pass Lodge.
Little Switzerland was our grand finale. Paul Roderick, owner of Talkeetna Air Taxi, cools down his DeHavilland Turbo Otter on the Pika Glacier in the Alaska Range. Waist-deep snow is stacked on the wheel skis.
Chef Mathieu adding honey to another gormet meal.
3,000 feet of untracked steepness below. Too bad it ended in deep crevasses.
Little Switzerland!
Little Switzerland is the ultimate Alaska Range playground: skiing, ice cragging, rock cragging, long rock routes, mountaineering and all just a short distance from base camp.