April 5-Day One in the Chugach

I cannot say enough about being in the presence of great mountain ranges. The Chugach opens up to endless possibilities. I can't say I was freaked out but I was overwhelmed. The safety training, the protocol around the heli, and the seriousness of the terrain, not to mention the partying the night before with the guys and the guides. Now we have a private heli and our group is Brad Gramble, Pete Stackpole, Todd, Benny Wilson, Dave the Wave, Lisa Reamer, and Jeff Ledger, and me. There was absolutely no competion between our group and the other two helis because they didn't even think of skiing what we did. We started in on the old classic Crudbusters and finished up with one off the Ladies Tee, used for the women's extreme competions. And then our last run of the day was off the men's extreme competion  site. Remember there are no "runs" just snow rock and ice.  The quality of snow was a denser powder than I expected. But then again it held on really steep angles so we could really shred it up. Mix in a little magic volcano dust and it was a super first day.

April 4

I woke up to pitch blackness at the Tate's in SLC. I drove to the airport. The travel to AK was like clockwork. Three planes. I met Jamie Burge in the airport in Anchorage. She and her photographer were on their way to PN in Cordova.  They were so Squaw Valley ie. Californiated.

When we got to Valdez a lot of baggage was left in Anchorage becase of weight on the plane. So, no skis, no underwear. Can you ski the Chugach in jeans? We were able to convince the crew that we needed our gear and they got someone in Anchorage to drive our gear to Valdez by morning. We heard that the driver was a stripper named Willow but who knows. Well it was great seeing my old friend Jeff Zell. We had so many great ski experiences in JH back in the eighties. He took us over to Eric Henderson's house and we hung out with Jed and Doug Workman, Eric and Jeff. It was really fun. As we headed home to the Best Western, Jeff looked at me and said, "You made it to the Super Bowl." 

April 3rd

Well, once again we woke up to a foot of fresh. What's going on here? Les and I headed out for a great Alta morning.  Two Gunsights.  The first Leslie broke trail and cut the traverse and hike. We got first tracks in Gunsight. Then it was one on the Backside and Greely Hill. I was in my touring gear trying to save strength for AK but the skis were too narrow. Yes I needed some reverse cambers or rockers for this heavier pow. We shredded two Baldy shoulders and called it a morning. Lots of work but lots of fun.  I made a big pasta dinner for everyone and we all went to sleep early

Thursday April 2nd

I spent the night at the Tate's in SLC. When I woke up I was so beat, I crawled up the stairs. Leslie allowed me a rest day and I got to see Charlie and Margeritte's school which was really nice. It was a regrouping day. I even got a haircut. Ahhh rest does the body good. I got to spend the afternoon in Mike's shop. He designs skis for Voile and he was doing "glue ups" of the wood cores. I helped him with some glue ups. I was wearing a one piece blue jumpsuit with safety glasses. There were wood chips and glue  everywhere. It was a great experience. Mike is a super engineer, designer, and he really knows his stuff. I'm glad i got to spend the afternoon with him.

April FOOLS

So I was supposed to go down to Deer Valley and ski with my folks for the afternoon. Well, that didn't happen. The foot of fresh made the roads impossible so I had to ski one more day, or at least one more morning to ski the fresh. Dave decided to take a day off and we made third tram.  We skied RendezVous Bowl in creamy powder, hopped into No No Chuter and dowen Bernies. We had our touring gear just in case we were going to go out the gAte. Up the Sublette quad we didn't see any boot tracks on the hike we were planning to Granite Canyon. As we took the traaverse over the Cirque someone had just started hiking up and kicking in steps. We were in a perfect position to hike up. We quietly decided to ski Mile Long Couloir. As people passed us on the way to Endless Couloir, a guy called out as Dave ducked a rope, "Nice choice, damn." We were the first ones in. Can I say sublime? Dave gave me honors and I floated through waist deep pow untracked, pristine. We had such a nice line, such an aesthetic flow, were were literally flying through the pow. That was my first time in Mile Long and I got first tracks. That was truly special. When we got back to the village I said goodbye to Dave and still made it to dinner witht the folks at Stein's Lodge in Deer Valley. But my exit was not so clean. In the upper parking lot I turned tightly around the first orange cone but straddled the second and had to get two guys to help me lift the car and pull out the cone. Maybe they shouldn't charge 12 bucks for parking. Well, I left a little mark at JH in the form of a mangled orange cone and almost didn't get out.

March 31

Today, my last day. Dave went to work on the 4 million dollar home he is building. Oh the new JH. Brad and I skied calmly and toured the mountain. I got to Aprez Vous where I spent so much time pacesetting for Nastar when I worked for the ski school. Back when I was was pacesetting, I remember Benny Wilson, Jon Hunt and Doug Coombs making the trek over to try and beat me on the Nastar course. They never did.  A few of those times I would join them for a few runs if I didn't have to go to line up at the ski school. Then Coombs would beat me on the way down flashing his big smile everytime he looked back and saw me right on his tail. I love Aprez Vous. It's like a New England ski area with only one lift. I was thoroughly disappointed with the bulldozing of Teewinot Gully. It used to be so much fun in this natural half pipe. I loved launching off the walls and doing airplane turns. Now there are no walls to launch off of. For our last run I wanted to show Brad the line Dave showed me on the Cirque the day before. As we were traversing out I let some yahoos go first for fear that they would follow us. They dropped in too early. I saw ski schoolers approaching and I said to Brad let's get farther out on the Cirque before the ski schoolers get here. Well, they followed us to my line. And who was it? It was the old timers I had hung out with at Stiegler's on Saturday night. There was Rich Lee, Renny Burke, Ernie Anderson and Vern all skiing together. Now you don't want to add up their ages because it would put us into the next millenium. It was fun skiing this line with my old time supervisors in the ski school. They still got it and it was inspiring and super spontaneous. I stopped by Dave's worksite to see his fine ccraftsmanship after work, and was ready to say good bye to the Hole. However, a storm was brewing . . . 

March 30

Dave took me on a fantastic tour to Four Swans. Early in the morning I woke up and saw four swans honking and flying by. They were really geese but the imagery was there for our tour to the Teton Pass Backcountry. We hiked up the long boot pack up Glory Bowl off the north side of the Pass. I hiked Glory so many times while I lived in JH that I remebered only three benches. Well, now there are about seven. As I approached the summit of Glory I remembered that the three benches I remembered were really the two stops I made on the way up. We could hike it in 45 minutes no problem. Well it took a little longer this time around. Dave led me past Glory heading North to The Great White Hump. We skied it untracked and it was fabulous. We put our skins on and climbed a little to Four Swans. The snowmobile crowd of couples skiing was new to me. We dropped down Four Swans and then toured back to my car which we left at the bottom of Philips Canyon on the Pass. A successful tour for sure. ANd all new to me. Thanks Dave. Then Dave rallys and invites my closest JH friends over for a bbq. Jamie and family, Doug Doyle and family, Brad, JuneBug, Crawdad, and Deerslayer all came, Lexy couldn't make it but I saw her the next day. Brad brought over five classic electric guitars and we jammed like the old days in the Rendez-Vous room. We stayed up late and it was a blast.