Alaska 2014-2015 Conditions & Stoke Thread

[ak_powder_monkey]

well it looks like the first storm of the season is about to hit girdwood

[Mike_Records]

Hi guys, rad pics. We want to come ski your pow. Me and a buddy are about to pull the trigger for a last minute trip up Thurs-Tues. Good call or bad call? We're sick of waiting for winter to arrive in Tahoe and looks like you guys may have the only good winter snow in north america right now.

Plan is to grab an RV bring our touring gear and hope for the best. Seems like we should have a good shot at some good snow. Stability seems to be better closer to the coast? How limiting is the low elevation low tide if we're shooting for terrain off of Turnagain, Hatcher or Thompson? Any beta is gratefully appreciated!

Also, if we wanted to see about a guide for a day and get after some big terrain anyone have any recs? We're both strong skiers and experienced backcountry travelers, but willing to spend a little $$ in foreign terrain and snowpack (and cravasses) in hopes of getting safely puckered, and fired up.

Hey there jrf, excited for you that you are trying to make AK happen. A few thoughts for you, some of which may be obvious, in which case please disregard. Also, I can only speak for Southcentral, Z would be the person to ask about Haines. First off, coming up here for such a short period is really not stacking the cards in your favor in terms of actually getting out to ski.

Second, long term weather forecasts are pointing towards wave after wave of moisture coming towards the coastal mountains later this week and this weekend. Obviously its a long way out, but there has been a fair amount of consistency over the last few models runs pointing to this. This forecast has a couple significant things for you: 1) it means you will likely be limited to skiing more interior zones in the Talkeetnas, which are still awesome. 2) Warm storms like these usually produce rain at sea level, and that is what has been happening all winter, this means that Alyeska has a very marginal conditions and limited terrain openings and this will continue. 3) Turnagain and Thompson Pass are almost exclusively alpine terrain, so if its snowing you are very limited. Turnagain Pass has one tree skiing zone, its fun, but mellow, its not worth spending more a day there.

Stability: Turnagain is going to have stability issues for awhile because there was a highly developed faceted layer sitting on top before the snow started falling yesterday. Stability at Hatcher/Talkeetnas is actually really good. Valdez/Thompson pass should be ok stability wise if the winds don't ramp up this week, which they might.

What else, being flexible and having an RV will be huge in terms of hitting what is out there.

I'll be out in the bush for work, but if you guys decide to come up here,. I'll definitely try to point you in the right direction once you are here to make the most of your trip.

[Mike_Records]

Also, if we wanted to see about a guide for a day and get after some big terrain anyone have any recs? We're both strong skiers and experienced backcountry travelers, but willing to spend a little $$ in foreign terrain and snowpack (and cravasses) in hopes of getting safely puckered, and fired up.

Try to get Joe Stock, he is the man. Probably booked up, but worth trying and he can point you towards other good people.
http://www.stockalpine.com/

[Goniff]

Try to get Joe Stock, he is the man. Probably booked up, but worth trying and he can point you towards other good people.
http://www.stockalpine.com/

If Joe is unavailable, he may refer you to his partner, Nick D'Alessio. http://www.alaskaalpineadventures.co...res/our-guides

See my post above regarding my two days touring with Nick two weeks ago. Be aware that he is conservative and may not guide you to any pucker producing terrain if the avi danger is moderate or above. See: http://www.cnfaic.org/advisories/current.php for current advisories.

[Goniff]

Some stoke from last week skiing with Points North Heli in Cordova:

[Mike_Records]

Some stoke from last week skiing with Points North Heli in Cordova:

Looks awesome! When I lived in Cordova we used to sled out and ski the heli zones. Incredible, deep, and big back there. I miss that!

[Mike_Records]

In an effort to escape the wind slabs and deep instabilities of Hatcher we went farther east in the Talkeetnas. Wind was howling out in the open and still significant deep within the couloir. Shallow but stable snowpack, can't wait to get back there once there's a refresh and a wind free period.

Trip report from last week in Chickaloon.

[Goniff]

Looks awesome! When I lived in Cordova we used to sled out and ski the heli zones. Incredible, deep, and big back there. I miss that!

I loved Cordova. It seems like a great place to live. Some more ski pics and some Cordova shots as well:

[maskinut]

Lots of questions on the outside re: conditions as the heli season gets moving. Cordova looked rough when we showed up and a few days of rain slowed us down. But today we got up there and it was good. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_N_...ature=youtu.be

[FormerKnuckleDragger]

Green. Green with envy. We flew 5 days out of 7, but it was mostly adventure skiing on breakable crust over bottomless. Seeing your video makes me want to get up there and get it again though...

[Mike_Records]

Skied Common Bowl, Hippy Bowl, and Proper today. Strong winds out of the south all day. Obvious and significant wind loading on N faces and all sorts of cracking associated with it. 6 - 8 inches new snow up high, three lower down.

Tincan Proper blog post. Its been good out there, I'm falling behind on blogging

[Thatguysaccount]

Theres still a few good spots in the shadows out there.

[Mike_Records]

Theres still a few good spots in the shadows out there.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$


On a side note, has anyone on here skied around Cantwell recently, or at all for that matter?

[Thatguysaccount]

Word on the street was Cantwell was "all time" last weekend. That was from a guy i didn't know but he did have gray hair so he may of had wisdom. But on another side note close to home is still good.

[ak_powder_monkey]

every time I've driven through cantwell its been wind hammered.

[Mike_Records]

Looks like you guys had a good time at Tincan, awesome!

[Mike_Records]

On a side note, has anyone on here skied around Cantwell recently, or at all for that matter?

Three reasons I'm interested in Cantwell:

[Mike_Records]

Skied Fairangel yesterday. The chutes were good, but the aprons had mostly slid. Where they hadn't was a mix of pow, wind board, hollow windslab, breakable crust, or sun crust. Some 1 meter+ crowns back there. Fast sloughs on the smooth bed surface.

[gnarbro365]

I know this is a long shot, but does anyone have any information on how the snowpack in the Wrangells/Chugach (Bagley ice field up to Bona) fared this winter? I didn't pay close enough attention to the weather in that region. Thanks!

[Mike_Records]

Got out for a quick lap at Turnagain this morning. So damn good and even more stable. Melt crust goes up pretty high and couldn't quite ski back to the road. Wondering if I should take the rest of the week off.

[Alaskan Rover]

Three reasons I'm interested in Cantwell:

Some nice possibilities on the right side of the 2nd photo. The third photo is all crazy baller stuff best contemplated from the bar side of the Cantwell Lodge! Heh heh. I don't know the present pack. What's the approach on the second photo from the right side of image? Have you scouted it?

[Mike_Records]

Some nice possibilities on the right side of the 2nd photo. The third photo is all crazy baller stuff best contemplated from the bar side of the Cantwell Lodge! Heh heh. I don't know the present pack. What's the approach on the second photo from the right side of image? Have you scouted it?

The approach is 3-4 miles from the highway, I'd try to do all/most of it on a sled. I've only scouted it from the air; at least so far

[Mike_Records]

Skied several SW facing chutes at the top of Goodwill Creek today. Cold and awesome. Dug an extended column pit to the ground and stopped banging on it when we got bored well after 30 taps without any failure. Almost no sloughing, produced a few cracks on complex windloaded west facing terrain.

Make that Goodhope Creek, check out the blog post for it.

Dug a pit on the north side of peak 3 yesterday. Column test failed in the storm snow at 12. Up in Falls Creek today on a west aspect at the bottom of the couloirs ECTP5 for the storm snow and ECTP8 for 1.5 feet down: windslab on facets.

Heading to the Pika tomorrow. Fingers crossed!

[Mike_Records]

Got back on Tuesday from 10 days on the Pika. During which 9 feet of snow fell. 4 days of stable bluebird, and lots of shoveling. Pretty surreal to sit in the tent and hear avalanches coming down around us day and night. The Otter got stuck on the glacier for an hour when we tried to leave; then caught up with a Beaver that couldn't make it through the walls of heavy snow and had to turn back and spend the night on the Ruth. Should be a very entertaining TR coming out of this one

[skiingislife]

Jeeze Mike, that last shot is amazing.