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Thread: TR: Girls Gone Wild AK Style
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05-04-2014, 02:51 PM #1
TR: Girls Gone Wild AK Style
Friends have been talking about Alaska for years. The land of perfect, stable, bootable snow that sticks to everything. Massive unridden spine walls, endless couloirs, huge alpine faces and large glaciers running from the sea to giant serac'd capped peaks. It snows at night and is bluebird in the morning. There are wild but friendly unicorns and rainbows atop every spine line. The climate heals any weak layers in the snowpack. It's not that dark in the winter. Ok, the unicorn part may be a tall tale but everything else is absolute fact.
The past five years I've saved all my pennies to get to Chamonix and going to Alaska just seemed out of the question. I always thought, "Alaska couldn't be much radder than the Alps could it? A girl just can't have it all." I tried to remain content with staying in the Alps, which I totally was... BUT this year I got lucky and decided to go find out for myself what the BFD was with AK. And boy oh boy Alaska did NOT fail to deliver.
We flew into Anchorage, and Emily from Silvertip Aviation, www.silvertipaviation.com picked us up and her lovely fiancé, Matt flew us out to the Tordrillos. I'd highly recommend Silvertip, they fly out of Wasilla to the Chugach, Talkeetna, Tordrillo and Alaska ranges. Super nice couple, great service and solid pilots.
Alaska had a pretty bad season this year, low snow and a gnarly persistent layer I kept hearing about which made me kind of nervous to be 100 miles out on a glacier in the middle of now where with help far, far away. A little different than being in Chamonix with a free heli evac service just a phone call away. It's also different than Cham because you don't have a bunch of D bags dropping in on your head or racing you up to a classic line that's in condition... they also aren't around to open up a big line for you in sketchy conditions (the only time they're appreciated).
We set up camp then went for a little evening sesh on some west facing glowing slopes near our tents. The new snow that had fallen in the last 2 days was kind of baked with a nasty sugary layer underneath. I made some sweet fast turns then got up onto a spine to let my slough pass through the choke at the bottom. After it passed I pointed it over the shrund and out onto the glacier. SO FUN! It took us a couple days to figure out the snowpack, the weather and where the good snow would be then we crushed for the following 8 days.
We got up at about 3:45am almost every morning after that and hit the northeast aspects, where the snow was blower, that had light on them at sunrise. We'd come home after an 8 or 9 hour sesh, eat whiskey snickers pancakes, nap, drink some pabst then go back out for an evening sesh when the light was on the northwest aspects.
Caroline getting some sunrise turns in. Absolute gorge.
Me in my tent on one of two down days.
Carolina in the pink light! This morning there were windslabs everywhere from a storm that deposited about a foot of fresh overnight. We stayed on smaller lines with good run-outs. I cracked a few small ones off. It was a good lesson in risk management and hazard evaluation.
Jay Beyer and JT Thompson going to crushtown in a crevasse.
Here's a silly movie I made, entitled Men at Work, about how hard it is to be a photographer/filmer.
Megalaspine zone miles from camp.
One afternoon we were tired from endless spines and powder, soon we got bored and we decided to make a music video.
We called this zone Cham, because it looks like Mont Blanc and the Tacul. Want.
Overall Alaska was an AMAZING experience and now I'm begrudged to make it happen every year. Oh dang. I'd really recommend camping out on the glacier for an extended period to get to know your zone and maximize shredding potential. I taught a splitboard course in the rain at Mt. Baker in a white out yesterday, dreaming of being back in AK.www.lizdaley.us
@liz_daley
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05-04-2014, 05:16 PM #2
Nice pics, sounds like an awesome trip.
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05-04-2014, 05:22 PM #3Registered User
- Join Date
- Nov 2004
- Location
- Too far from the snow
- Posts
- 503
Good job not putting that "music video" pic first. I'd have never seen the rest!
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05-04-2014, 07:36 PM #4
RAD! Thanks for sharing your stoke!
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05-04-2014, 07:39 PM #5
Great TR as usual...
And that video may just make up for the missing "Thatcherettes"Screw the net, Surf the backcountry!
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05-04-2014, 07:48 PM #6
Go grrl.
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05-04-2014, 08:00 PM #7
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05-04-2014, 08:09 PM #8
I usually try not to make every post about myself. However since this post involves scantily clad hot women, modeling, BFD ,Alaska and the Tordillos. If your research happened to include Rodman Wilson's book on the history of climbing in the Tordillos I am the centerfold.
Glad you made the journey and found AK worthy.off your knees Louie
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05-04-2014, 08:58 PM #9
stellar. thanks for sharing
"fuck off you asshat gaper shit for brains fucktard wanker." - Jesus Christ
"She was tossing her bean salad with the vigor of a Drunken Pop princess so I walked out of the corner and said.... "need a hand?"" - Odin
"everybody's got their hooks into you, fuck em....forge on motherfuckers, drag all those bitches across the goal line with you." - (not so) ill-advised strategy
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05-04-2014, 10:25 PM #10
Think of what its like not in the worse snow year anyone can remember!
Its not that I suck at spelling, its that I just don't care
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05-04-2014, 10:42 PM #11www.lizdaley.us
@liz_daley
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05-05-2014, 05:11 AM #12
Beautiful. Again. Awesome
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05-05-2014, 05:19 AM #13
"Don't know much about dancin'
That's why I got this song
One of my legs is shorter than the other
'N' both my feet's too long
'Course now right along with 'em
I got no natural rhythm
But I go dancin' every night
Hopin' one day I might get it right
I'm a dancin'fool, I'm a
Dancin' fool"
BettyDee Deliverswww.apriliaforum.com
"If the road You followed brought you to this,of what use was the road"?
"I have no idea what I am talking about but would be happy to share my biased opinions as fact on the matter. "
Ottime
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05-05-2014, 07:07 AM #14
Killer!
Sent from my SCH-I535 using TGR ForumsThe Passion is in the Risk
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05-05-2014, 11:48 AM #15
I just know any TR put up by BettyDee is going to be stellar, and this one did not disappoint.
Thanks, as always for great TRs.
I agree it is a constitutional right for Americans to be assholes...its just too bad that so many take the opportunity...iscariot
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05-05-2014, 01:26 PM #16
Great stuff! I like how you just sneak the killer video in there on us
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05-05-2014, 01:33 PM #17
SCORE!!!!!!!!!!
"up in the ski resorts, up in hills they move ki's and had skis making drops on snowmobiles"- GZA
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05-05-2014, 05:47 PM #18
Yo keep em coming BettyDee, you have a loyal fan base here.
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05-05-2014, 07:10 PM #19
Looks like you all had some good weather. Makes the trip for sure. Video was awesome!
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05-06-2014, 01:00 AM #20
Ah jeeze, love you guys!
www.lizdaley.us
@liz_daley
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05-06-2014, 10:25 AM #21Registered User
- Join Date
- May 2009
- Location
- june
- Posts
- 126
Video was hilarious. Good job.
I'll be the hyena, you'll see.
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05-06-2014, 10:40 AM #22
great job , keep on dancing and skiing great TR thanks for sharing
always forward but never straight
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05-07-2014, 08:31 AM #23
That was great. Love the fringe day light.
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05-07-2014, 09:07 AM #24
getin er dun there; that's like a real adventure!
ski paintingshttp://michael-cuozzo.fineartamerica.com" horror has a face; you must make a friend of horror...horror and moral terror.. are your friends...if not, they are enemies to be feared...the horror"....col Kurtz
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05-07-2014, 09:14 AM #25Registered User
- Join Date
- Aug 2013
- Location
- shadow of HS butte
- Posts
- 6,442
These, these are the goods.
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