AK Deeper, Down Days

Our crew endured some serious weather in our month on the ice.  Down days were not that hard.  We had blower powder right out our door .  A combination of chess, cards, books, snow-caves, journals, and storm riding kept us busy.  In many ways it was easier to be in the mountains and not town during the storms.

Below is a journal entry describing one of many afternoon storm sessions.

4/14  Standing on top of a 400 ft steep sled hill with Travis Rice to my left and Tom Burt to my right, I am giddy with excitement and fear.  The look on there faces tell me they are equally gripped. This is because of what is below our feat; a Turkish “Las Board,” a No-Board and a splitboard in ski mode. Moments before I pushed my snowboard-turned-ski’s over the blind rollover into the white abyss. The consequences of a lost board made the seconds stand still, as I waited for my ski to reappear from the blind roll.

Now it is the moment of truth.  Am I tripping to think I can ride Alaska on a glorified toboggan?  I press on my front foot and let myself pick up speed over the blind roll and I begin to fly.  I feel solid as a rock and lay into a couple of big turns that cause me to get engulfed by the deep, blower snow.  I ride up to my ski’s and fall over with gut busting laughter.  This is repeated run after run by all of us as we trade out tools.

By switching our tools, we turned this small glacier roll into a memorable session.  There is over 50 years of snowboard experience between the three of us and we are as stoked as ever.  It shows the power of the turn.  We have been feeling it on new tools and it is taking us back to our youth when we freaked out on our local sled hills.

**The cover to my journal. Updating the journal is a key downtime activity in these mountains.**

**Travis and I would have to shovel every few hours to keep from losing the tent. We saw ove 20 ft. of snow fall on this trip.**

**The big tent was our living room and kitchen. We could all fit in here no problem. Tom and Gary play cards while Rice watches.**

**Navigating through the glacier in a white out was a good challenge. Tom Leads the way while Travis and myself follow.**

**Tom and Travis moments from dropping into the unknown. Turkey Board and Split board on tap**

**Tom Burt catches a break on our "Town Hill" and sends it on the "Las Board." We averaged about four dark and deep face shots a run. Those go a long way when waiting out a storm.**

**Travis Rice enjoying the fruits of his labor. I was stuck in town for the 10 day storm. While I was gone Travis and Jonaven had  dug the biggest sbow cave I have ever seen.**

**Travis's energy and stoke level remained sky high through the storms.**