April 12

Our forces are smaller now. Benny Dave, Lisa, and Jeff are at ABA. We skied 6 runs on Crudbusters. A bit of a let down without the core of the JHAF. Jessica is excellent. Todd and I played with our Sam Southwick pole plant from "Ski the Outer Limits".  Great film! It's nice being in the mountains and not in the town of Valdez. A good change of scenery. These mountains are HUGE!

April 11

Last day with VHSG and we didn't fly. We tried many times, boots on, boots off, boots on, boots off, harnesses on, harnesses off, lunch, card counting ski areas, safety meeting, done. What a great dinner and party with the AirForce. VHSG bought us a great dinner at THC (the harbor cafe).

Here are the guides ski run logs for our week . . . yes there are some gaps

April 10

Well it was a milky day. We got one run in the morning and flying was called off by 2pm. All ten of us went back up to Stairway to Heaven and we worked on the Cairn for Coombs. K's group skied off first. Dave the Wave had a big moment up there. We're all part of a huge a spiritual ski chain. It's hard to explain. When I skied down the couloir, I said a little prayer for Doug at the same spot where I dropped a shoe earlier in the week. Safety meeting under an overhang at the bottom of the couloir and we all skied back to the Tsaina lodge. One run and done. Late in the day, Ledger almost got kicked out of the motel but the Valdez Heli Ski Guide Underground Railroad kicked into action and hid him all over town. Problem solved.

April 9 Down Day

So after four exceptional days we had a no fly day today. We hung out with the chambermaids in the morning. They even had to hide in Dave and Lisa's JHAF central bathroom when they thought their boss was at the door. But it was Pete hobbling up on his crutches. Hilarious comedy. We went to the THC for a great lunch-grilled halibut on a caesar salad-excellente! I did some souvenir shopping after that, laundry, mail, a huge nap. And then the Valdez HeliSkiGuides bought us drinks and apps in the bar and we hung out until midnight. Lots of fun.

April 8

After Meteroite the day before and Pete's accident. We had to rebalance the heli's weight and reconfigure the groups. I was selected to ski with Benny, Dave the Wave, Jeff Leger, and JZ guiding us. Kirsten's group opted for some "casual" martini skiing. We all flew way out to the Shoup Glacier and our group hit Stonehenge and some other newly named areas by Zell. It was a really new area for most everyone. Our steep descents were really open, exposed but beautiful. All of us had lunch together on the glacier. It was another very intense and fantastic day. I'm learning a lot up here.

April 7

Beyond words. Many discussions took place during the early morning. Are we really going to ski Meteorite? Yes, no. Dave the Wave and Brad discussed it at length and from what I gathered the consensus was no. Wavey did it 11 year ago with Doug and as he describes it Doug had his nervous twitch going before he went. You know that little foot shuffle and pole twitch he used to do. So he looks up at Wavey and says, "What do I do?" Dave the Wave says , "just go".

Well, that first turn is the hardest. We all skied it. It was calling to Brad and he made the decision, little did I know when we boarded the heli. But as it loomed larger I knew where we were headed. I studied that line as best I could from the heli. Whatever happened to a first run warm-up. Well this was it. Remember, we are in a private ship with carte blanche. It's very different than coming up here and skiing with the public.

Here's a heli shot to hold you over. I'm still so focused. As the say in Bikram Yoga "tremendous focus and concentration". I also sing Echo and the Bunnymen in my head, "Do it Clean. You know what I mean." Just that one line over and over. Also turn, pause turn, pause. So much focus! Unfortunately on our last run on The Wall, Lisa got snagged by a bergshrund and had to climb out. It must have been super scary- an abyss to nowhere. Then Pete followed her tracks saw the Bergshrund, tried to jump it at high speed, and he landed on the uphill side with a double heel release. He had to go to the clinic the next day and he had broken his leg. The break was the fibula-six to eight weeks to heal. That really sucks. 

April 6

It's 10 pm do you know where your kids are? I sure don't. Just got back to the motel. It's 2am east coast time. I'm so beat. We waited around all day. One group went out and got whited out. Someone in the group tweked a knee. We sat, played disc, I went for a tour of Kristens' bus, and we grilled burgers, well the guides did that. Then at about 3:30 when we all took off our boots, it cleared just a little. We had a code blue for some close stuff. We warmed up on a sweet short couloir about 47-48 degrees. It was a great feeling managing my slough for the first time. Next up we landed on Stairway to Heaven. All of eight of us got to be on top to ski together. We built a spontaneous Cairn for Coombs which was really something else and emotional. We skied off one at a time. About halfway down I augered into a slough pile. I was thrown forward and my heal pre-released. Yes the din must be much higher than normal up here. I flipped over and self arrested before ragdolling down this 48 degree pitch. I only lost about 20 feet. The turn radius of my skis is 25meters so I didn't even lose a turn. I radioed up to Kirsten and Zell that my ski was 20 feet above me. It was really deep for hiking and I knew I had backup. Kirsten came down grabbed the ski that was sticking straight down tip first. Did I mention it was steep? She gave me the ski and said,  " Nice, you didn't miss the shot at all."  I skied down with a new respect for the Chugach . Also, since these last two runs were variable conditions and not the perfect pow you see in the films it was much trickier and demanded a higher level of concentration. I know now that my mind was so overwhelmed by the whole experience that I wasn't concentrating hard enough about each turn. "in the perfect moment . . . all one can think about is turning." (Benedetto from Steep). Final run of the day- Diamond Pillow off of Diamond Peak. We shot this couloir all together again, eight of us.  A great ski. A very techincal coulor with varied conditions much like the Left Gully in Tuckerman's. MANAGING SLOUGH IS A full time job! So it's too late to think. I need rest. Every day seems to get bigger. And I must ski a bit slower. This is no place for just letting them go.