Valdezeased

[buckethead]

systemadvresblows has been here longer than you.

He generally means well, but can come across as a prick.

I am stoked that this TR is here now. It's awesome to say the least, and I love the climbing pics. I have no problem picturing myself riding this terrain. Climbing it is a whole other story for me.

my bad - didn't realize SOB was advres.

[stalefish3169]

my bad - didn't realize SOB was advres.

Better get your gameface on buckethead!

Sent from my DROIDX using TGR Forums

[neck beard]

Better Bagyour40oz as well.

[gimpy]

sooo, because his name is advres he gets to act like a fucking prick?? or was advres?? get a fucking backbone people. "he is ok but he just comes across as a prick".

i had alredy seen this stuff on splitboard.com but glad its here as well. some quality stuff there

[buckethead]

sooo, because his name is advres he gets to act like a fucking prick?? or was advres?? get a fucking backbone people. "he is ok but he just comes across as a prick".

i had alredy seen this stuff on splitboard.com but glad its here as well. some quality stuff there

systemadvresblows has been here longer than you.

He generally means well, but can come across as a prick.

I am stoked that this TR is here now. It's awesome to say the least, and I love the climbing pics. I have no problem picturing myself riding this terrain. Climbing it is a whole other story for me.

FWIW 'my bad' referred to my mistaking SOB for a JONG given his posted 2010 join date.
still think dude needs his meds

[DasBlunt]

Amazing TR. Truly smile-inducing bliss.

How was Meteorite to ride? Seems so sick.....and perfect!

[akdusty]

Meteorite IS sick.....and perfect! But MY favorite run was on The Tusk. I need to explain why though, because each of these mountains were extraordinary to me...

As wcf3 mentioned earlier, I was solo and ended up with different groups on each trip. Thompson Pass is a fairly easy place to go to solo for there are many many snow enthusiasts of all sorts out there, and therefore lots of eyes on you at all times. The Tusk is quite a ways away from the road and all the action though. I sledded out there to just "check it out" you know. I thought I'd ride the "Tusk Warm-up" but it was all tracked out by Heli-skiers. Entering into The Tusk Bowl area is a little tricky and not normally something I'd do on my own. But there was a snowmachine track in there already and I figured "what the hell". I kept motoring. When I got into the bowl, near the base of The Tusk, I saw 10 snowmachines. 10!!! and a helicopter up on the shoulder. I pulled up to the large group of snowmachiners/skiers to see what they were up to. They had just rode a ramp on the lookers left wall, S facing?, and had barely scratched the surface. Seriously, I could only see their top 2 to 3 turns. Sun Crust! I mentioned that that was S facing and that the opposite wall, N facing, should be bomber POW! They said they were shooting for The Tusk Proper which made me both elated and sad at the same time. YES Partners! But 10? I said that I was shooting for The Tusk myself and that we better make it quick because I'm sure that that Helicopter on the N ramps is just checking out snow conditions before it heads up The Tusk as well. (Heli's in Valdez are cool in that if they see someone hiking a line they will not drop in on top of you.) I took off for the bottom of The Tusk to get started, and to my surprise only 2 from the group of 10 followed. 3 others went to the lookers right shoulder then around the back of the horn and climbed the actual peak.

snowMOWER, I'm not claiming anything here! just posting a report of a good time. Pete Lowney, and Josh Varney ARE claiming the first human powered ascent of The Tusk Proper though. Kudos to you two!!!

So now I'm climbing The Tusk in a group of 3, Perfect!!! There is no existing bootpack, thank you very much, so we leap frog up to the top rock band where the other two stop and drop. I feel too close to the top to stop and keep pushing on. That's where the mountain gets drastically steep, or maybe it was the fact that I was solo once again. Spin drift was blowing down on me and felt like little avalanches. The powder was knee to mid-thigh deep with what felt like a hollow crust underneath. It was just a little un-nerving. My left "vert" kept coming off at this point too. I ended up climbing the last bit with a vert on one foot and just my boot the other. Not Fun! There is no shoulder on top to gear up on like I thought there would be, so I dug out a small perch. By the time I was ready to drop, my perch was filled in with spindrift. It was blowing hard and coming down fast! Well, one of the two ahead/below me had double ejected and was not faring well. I now had to hang out on my diminishing perch to let the fellow below me gather himself and get out of the way. I feel as though it's bad form to drop in on top of someone else and sluff them out. I waited.
He climbed, he picked up his ski, he through it down the mountain!, then he slid on his butt after it. I could wait no longer. I did my best to stay to one side of him and not on top of him, I tried to stay light and make as little sluff as possible. It was light knee deep effortless POW! When I reached him and asked if he had broke his ski. He said No, he blew his knee. I picked up his skis for him and took them to the bottom, I then pointed him a safe route over the bergschrund sliding on his butt. While he made his way to the bottom I motored to where his partners were and let them know that they had a problem. As they dealt with said problem, I motored home for the sun was setting and I had a long ways to go.

I can't even tell you how good the beer was when I got back to the road! and honestly I didn't need a beer or anything else for I was SO HIGH on adrenaline.

To Be Continued...

[PNWbrit]

Thanks AKD.

[akdusty]

...continued

After climbing and riding a mountain, any mountain, one must hydrate! I chose The Tsaina Lodge as my watering hole. While "hydrating" at the bar I learned that it was a ValdezHeliSkiGuides ship that we ran off of the Tusk. They made their way back to "The Wall" as a consolation, so they weren't too disappointed. We then talked about where we were thinking of heading the next day, them in a heli and me hiking. I mentioned I wanted to hike Diamond and they said they wanted the Gun Barrels as well... So the race was on!
As I said earlier, a heli will not land on top of a run with a hiker on it.
Well, I got a little too hydrated and they won the race. So I just watched their show through some binoculars down in the parking lot. Let me tell you, it was a show! They took forever to get down that mountain. Lost ski and stuff like that, it's in wcf3's TR "3 days..." It looked scary. So back at the bar later that day/night I picked their brains on Diamond's snow conditions. They said it was negotiable, or something like that. Nothing to deter me, so the next day I motored up to some friends camp at the base of Diamond to see if I could rally any of them up the Gun Barrels. Only 1 out of the 6 bit, the rest skied some shorter Stairway couloirs.
The first obstacle Eric and I were confronted with on the way up was a large, very large, bergschrund. I found a bridge to cross, but there was a vertical wall on the other side. I chipped and hacked and cut away some stairs in the ice to climb this wall and I was ready to be on my way. Eric on the other hand, punched through the snow bridge and was left with a leg hanging in the blackness of the gaping crevasse. Oh yeh, He thought it would be a good idea to leave his harness back at my sled. Oops! Our 2 friends below, who decided to come up as well, through Eric a rope and some webbing to make a swami belt. Eric, now tied in, rolled out of his hole and off of the bridge. He then tried his luck again and successfully crossed the bridge and climbed the ice stairs to me. Our other 2 friends who followed us to this point turned around. I mean, who could blame them?
From here it was up up up under some massive cornices to our right and sun baking rocks on our left. We kept in a position where we felt that if a cornice did break it would miss us, narrowly. But this put us in the line of fire of small rocks and ice being pried off of the mountain by the sun. Eric would "run" up the couloir while I watched for incoming debris, and then I would "run" while Eric returned the favor. When shrapnel did come my way I just put my nose to the ground and my snowboard protected me. Incoming debris would bounce off of the tip of my board protruding above me and connected to my back, "turtleing" I call it. We leap froged like this for 3 hours non-stop for fear of stopping and being pommeled while resting. Up on the peak we rested and celebrated being on top and out of dangers way, for the time being. We figured that the lookers right ramp would be the most shaded by rock and therefore holding some powder. We were wrong!
The top bowl entering into the couloir was holding boot buckle deep pow, "the call of the Sirens". Eric dropped first, down to a safe spot overlooking the rest of the run. I dropped next and made my way into the couloir proper. This shit was near bullet proof! I made turns 'til my legs and lungs gave out forcing me to rest and gather myself. Then Eric dropped, gathered speed, and tomahawked. Oh shit! Somehow or another he self arrested and stopped a short ways from where he started, AND his skies were both sticking out of the ground/snow/ice above him. He hiked up, retrieved them, and skied down to me. Holy shit that was close/lucky. I let him ski on, over the bergschrund, and down to the bottom. Then it was my turn again. I'm not gonna lie, I was gripped. It wasn't too steep or gnarly, but it was ice, over a gaping crevasse. I was scared of losing an edge and falling into oblivion. I gathered my courage, I breathed, and I slid my way over the hole. Then I made my way to a beer waiting for me on the back of my sled. Laughing and screaming. Giddy to say the least and happy, ecstatic even, to be alive! Once again HIGH AS A KITE on adrenaline.

To be continued...

[BFD]

Dimond looks like you got some nice lines in Valdez.

[SB]

Sweet stoke, got some homebrew for ya is you can swing thrugh WV.

[wolfelot]

I liked those pictures.

[akdusty]

Thanks Scotty, I'd love some homebrew next time I'm down there!

...on with the long-winded short story...

That night I went to The Rendezvous Lodge to hydrate some more and find some partners to hike Meteorite. I didn't find any hiking partners, but I did hear of another heli company flying to Meteorite the next day. So I got up early the next morning and made my way to the Alaska Snowboard Guides office to sign up. Then it was "hurry up and wait" for enough people to gather to make it worth ASGs time to fly to Meteorite. We finally got up enough people to fly 2 or 3 heli-loads an hour or two later, I don't know. So we flew up to Meteorite, we rode it, and we drove home. That was it. No feeling of elated bliss, no need for a celebratory beer, and a lot of time left in the day. That's why I liked The Tusk the best, Deep Pow and a feeling of accomplishment as opposed to the emptiness that came with flying for me.

So that's my short story made long. If you have the time, Go to Valdez! and hike... it's way more rewarding, and cheaper, than flying IMO

signed,

JANG

[powdork]

awesome writing

[Loon]

This puppy is not falling off the first page on my watch... to the top

[akdusty]

Shameless self/Alaska promoting bump in lieu of TGR's "Dreamfactory", which outta be Awesome!..

click on photo if you'd like to see what H2O does in -29 temps


(yeh yeh yeh, I'm an idiot. Computer idiot that is) ...SoSuMe!

[Tye 1on]

AK on the mind...

[Karl Stall]

well played AK adventure! I love that place and all those lines!! Can't wait to be back some time soon. thank you for sharing your experience!

[RockinB]

Not sure how I missed this the first time around! That's a trip done right!