TR: Thompson Pass, Valdez, AK

[Solesides]

The Chugach, in April, under blue skies with a fresh coat of paint..been dreaming of catching Thompson Pass like that for years. Pretty wild scene – sledder gypsies from all over North America camped out for months, wood fired hot tubs scattered about on the Tsaina River, people coming from around the world to chase ski dreams, mostly by way of helicopter, but some, the minority, walking around the Chugach ever so slowly under their own power. Still hard to imagine that prior to Doug Coombs first guiding these mountains in the early 1990s, hardly anyone had ever skied them aside from a group of locals quietly putting in the work.

[Vt-Freeheel]

Looks terrible, tracks everywhere

[Foggy_Goggles]

Awesome! Thanks for taking the time. It is TRs like this that help me keep the faith that there is still a life time of incredible skiing our there for regular works getting after it.

[nortonwhis]

All time!
How many days was that?

[HotSchmoo]

Tits Mcgee.

[Solesides]

Awesome! Thanks for taking the time. It is TRs like this that help me keep the faith that there is still a life time of incredible skiing our there for regular works getting after it.

Appreciate that! Ski days are way more scarce now than they used to be. That's the beauty of Valdez. Just show up whenever and do what you can with the time that you have.

All time!
How many days was that?

This was six ski days total, part of an eight day trip including driving to and from the Yukon (12 hours each way).

[el hefe]

Very nice!

[LeeLau]

well i hopes that kind of makes up for that thin YK season./ Looks great

[danmelon]

Great shots! And timely as I’m just finishing up Cocuzzo’s book!

[m37418]

I was just in Thompson pass last weekend. It’s such an incredible place! I can’t wait to get back there

[Solesides]

well i hopes that kind of makes up for that thin YK season./ Looks great

It was pretty average here this year, which yes, means thin. Not totally abysmal though. Early and late season were pretty good.

Great shots! And timely as I’m just finishing up Cocuzzo’s book!

It's a good read - add Escape from Lucania to the list for a good rounding out of awesome Valdez/St. Elias history.

[MTslackcountry]

Awesome report!

[marxgucci]

yeah this is ccrazy

[Dervan]

That's one incredible playground!

[snoqpass]

I was skiing in that area last March, my first time in AK and it is a pretty fucking awesome place

[statesidepl]

inspirational - wow

thanks for the detailed TR

[SILENCER]

Top shelf man, awesome.