Girdwood Glacier Skiing

In early May 2010 guided the Marshall family for a week of Girdwood Heli Drop skiing. The Marshall family comes from Laramie, Wyoming. Kent has been backcountry skiing forever, from Canada to France, and is all about visiting his daughter Cassady who is project manager for the cleanup at the former Chevron refinery in Kenai. Kent's son Brooks also joined us from Logan, Utah. Brooks is about to start a Ph.D program in chemistry at Bozeman. Good luck Brooks! No distractions in Bozeman. Ha!

Laramie people are a hardy bunch. Their local hill is Snowy Range Ski Area and chickens fall over when the wind stops blowing. To welcome the Marshalls to the Chugach I mustered a windstorm on the first night of our four-day trip. Then we had endless skiing in blistering sunshine.

Kent saying later to Alpine Air who lifted us from Girdwood to the Sparrow Glacier in 15 minutes. The weather clagged in soon after allowing us to focus on avalanche rescue, crevasse rescue, then building massive snow block walls for the windstorm.

Cassady cutting dry snow on our first run of the trip. To check snow stability before the run, Brooks gave me a counter balance belay over the ridge. I found a weak layer from seven days earlier that failed on CT24 Q2 at 25 cm. Since we saw no other red flags or positive results from slope tests, we skied this slope one at a time, traversing skiers left above the 'schrund.

 

Day two. We hit seven passes with piles of turns in between. Here we're skinning above the Pipet Glacier with pass four below us and pass three on the sun/shadow line on the ridge behind. 

Kent reeeeely likes to ski. If Kent's this stoked at 60, how stoked was he at 30?

Our basecamp high above the Girdwood Valley.

Kent, Cassady and Brooks above the Swallow Glacier minutes before skiing down to catch our flight back to Girdwood for lunch at Chair Five. Thanks for an incredible trip Kent, Cassady and Brooks! I can't wait for Little Switzerland with you in 2011!

Valdez w/ Dan & Nik

The only thing better than Thompson Pass in April would be Thompson Pass in April with a carbon dioxide ban. Dan Oberlatz (owner of Alaska Alpine Adventures), Nik Koblov a long-time friend of Dan's from Brooklyn and I roadied to Valdez for a few days of touring. Our timing was perfect--splitter weather, stable conditions, Tailgate Alaska had just finished and the Mountain Man Hill Climb hadn't started.

Dan Oberlatz and Nik Koblov have been on many crazy Alaska adventures together. In 2008 Nik, Dan and I skied in the Neacola Mountains.

Skinning Crud Busters to log 5,500 vertical on our first day.  

Day 2. Here's a video from Dan of Nik and I skiing from the top of the Worthington down into the Hoodoo Glacier. Earlier that morning the icefall ripped loose and from a 4.8 earthquake and obliterated our run with ice.

My photography slacks when guiding, but Dan was pounding his SLR trigger. See Dan's photos and my photos of Dan taken on his camera here.

Dan flossing up with his Camp XLH 95 ski touring harness. Dan is lucky he didn't fall in a crevasse since he forgot his tweezers.

Nik and his new, super-fatty DPS Lotus 120 carbon fiber skis.

After sampling the finer-dining establishements in Valdez - Fu Kung, Ernesto-less Ernestos, The Bistro - we voted the Best Western our favorite.

Proper-style Valdez rig. Mullet required.

Nik dropping into upper Key-to-Lisa, our last run of the trip as we headed out of town. 

Ortler Traverse w/ SMG

Maybe it was the incredible skiing and the luxury huts. I'm sure the Northwest connection helped. But the fact is, this crew loves to ski and is serious fun. During the last week of March I had an absolute blast skiing with the Richards and Scissors families in the Ortler Mountains. We logged piles of vertical, consumed gallons of wine and mountains of food and laughed like old friends the whole way. Thanks for an incredible trip you guys! And thanks Howie for organizing a great trip!

We skied lifts and trams in Sulden on our first day. Ben Scissors stacking an off-piste chute on our third run together.

The first climb of the tour: 50 meters of uphill from the Sulden lifts to Passo Madriccio.

The posse on Passo Madriccio: Kyle Richards, Ben Scissors, Sam Richards, Adam Richards and Ken Scissors. Sam and Ken met in Ashton, Idaho where the practiced medicine and cut their telemarking teeth on Yostmark skis. They lost contact for years, randomly met again and have been tight ever since through the ups and downs of life.

Clear and powdery on day two. Adam peeling skins near the summit of Cima Cevadale (3,757). The high point of Cevadale had 50 summit-frenzied Germans perched on top like vultures.

1,057 meters of untracked powder from the summit of Cevedale down to the Rifugio Pizzini for midday cappuccino and pasta.

Ken perusing the deserts at Rifugio Branca where we stayed for three nights. He went for the strudel.

Mauro Compagnoni coined the term "molto bene" right there at the Rifugio Pizzini.

Some aspects of Tirol we never understood. Like this mineral water that's good for Sikh babies and weight-conscious hermaphrodites in diapers.

Touring up the Grand Zebru Glacier for pow turns above the Rifugio Pizzini.

 Ben Scissors.

Kyle Richards ripping his new G3 Tonics! Yeah Kyle!