http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvfrBJ_bq3o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rv57_xO6rs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bs80qUvJTLM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mg2uCFDptQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT_HjwA-YNQ
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Alaska,March 07
I spent my St. Patty's day in this badboy.
I call window seat.
My guide-Jim Conway,aka "Sarge." He's a legend to the biz. He helped bring the heli scene to AK with Doug Coombs. The dude has been in tons of movies and is TGR's go to go guy when they come to Alaska to shoot. He has a great eye for finding powder,which we sorta needed on day two. Its awesome to be sitting in the back of a chopper with Jim Conway up in front with pencil in hand,pointing out any line he wants to hit. We ended up baggin 20,400 feet of vertical the first day and another 20k the second. We did two laps(same run) on the 2nd day that were 4400 vert. each.
Not a bad spot for lunch.
We rode the big bulge in the middle.A fun,aesthetic line with a classic AK rollover at the top. And again--alot longer than it looks. This photo was taken before we hit it. Fresh!
We ate lunch down there. Chili and cornbread. It was real good.
Our pilot landed here on our third run. It was a tiny landing zone with a huge dropoff on one side.It was SOO cool to watch him bring us down all the way up here. It was definitely not for those afraid of heights...or helicopters.
By far the best snow of the two days was found here--on that broad face in the center of the shot. Best runs of my life. Untracked,Heli-supported,treeless,LONG,DEEP powder runs the whole way down.
"Sarge" Conway and pro-skier/guide/crazy rockclimber and all around loudmouth Joe Vallone,planning our angle of attack.
I'm officially hooked. This sight never gets old. The bird literally flys right up to you. You duck your head cause of the rotor wash and when you look up theres a heli in your face,sideways of course--its awesome!!
We rode this terrain on our 3rd and 4th runs. We rode the giant bulge in the middle,below the rockband. And dropped in lookers left in the giant Y shaped drainage. Its so much bigger than it looks.
The beginning of my happy day. This is the Aurora lounge,in the Alyeska Prince Hotel, where we held our safety meeting in the morning. And the tramway where we load to go to the pad.
This is the town of Whittier. Very strange. A really Russian vibe to it. What you see is what you get. Theres a couple hundred people that live here. All in that strange Soviet style tower. Pretty much the only occupied building there. You access it thru the longest tunnel in N. America. 2.5 miles one way. You have to take turns and wait for your scheduled release to the other side. I hear its surrounded by waterfalls in the summertime. I like waterfalls...and Russians.
You share the tunnel with a train....not at the same time though,duh. See the tracks? Lovely.
Bard Peak and Portage glacier.
Seward,AK. Its said to be one of the most scenic towns in America. If ya count AK as America. It may be true. I could live in that house all day.
The Northern Lights!!!! Always a goal of mine to see and i finally did. This was the 2nd night we headed north to see em. The 1st night they were way more active and danced all over the sky in all shapes. But i was dumb and couldn't figure out my camera. Finally got it figured out on night 2,thanks to some fairly basic help from my dad. These are best viewed if its dark in your room. Real dark. I'll post more in the future.
Sea lions in Seward. There was a sea otter about 20yds away too. He liked to rub his belly and stare at us. Who doesn't?
What are you lookin at,moose?
The museum. Lots of cool stuff in there. Wicked Ivory pipes too.
I love this piece. A glacier scene.
Sunset on Turnagain.
Anchorage just falls off into Cook inlet. Very cool. And the town is not crowded at all,at least in winter. No evidence of the 275,000 people that live there. Anchorage is also the town of unnecessarily long stoplights.
This was pretty funny. Dogs dont ride up there,woman!!
Anchorage. This building survived their 9.0 earthquake in the sixties,although the streets around it collapsed in 10-20ft. In Girdwood,about 30miles away,the ground actually collapsed about 12ft,allowing the tide to rush in and swamp the town. Girdwood was later relocated about two miles inland.Bet ya didn't know that?
Denali!! The highest point in N. America,20,320ft. That is not a small number. Its one of the coveted Seven Summits. It was in the clouds when we got into town.Luckily the clouds lifted and Denali(aka McKinley)would show us her....rock. This was taken on a hill right outside of Talkeetna. The hill itself,however, was a disappointment.
Summit picture. Stupid treetops ruining my mountain scene. Denali is still over a hundred miles away from where i took this.
Mountain High pizza in Talkeetna.
Talkeetna is a town of about 850.Like most places in Alaska in winter,except urban Anchorage,its pretty empty. The way we prefered it. It sits outside of Denali(Mt. McKinley) and is a pretty popular beginning point for Denali hikers in summer. Excellent lil pizza place there. Super cold out! And i just learned that Talkeetna was the inspiration for the tv series Northern Exposure. Everyone likes useless trivia.
I call window seat.
My guide-Jim Conway,aka "Sarge." He's a legend to the biz. He helped bring the heli scene to AK with Doug Coombs. The dude has been in tons of movies and is TGR's go to go guy when they come to Alaska to shoot. He has a great eye for finding powder,which we sorta needed on day two. Its awesome to be sitting in the back of a chopper with Jim Conway up in front with pencil in hand,pointing out any line he wants to hit. We ended up baggin 20,400 feet of vertical the first day and another 20k the second. We did two laps(same run) on the 2nd day that were 4400 vert. each.
Not a bad spot for lunch.
We rode the big bulge in the middle.A fun,aesthetic line with a classic AK rollover at the top. And again--alot longer than it looks. This photo was taken before we hit it. Fresh!
We ate lunch down there. Chili and cornbread. It was real good.
Our pilot landed here on our third run. It was a tiny landing zone with a huge dropoff on one side.It was SOO cool to watch him bring us down all the way up here. It was definitely not for those afraid of heights...or helicopters.
By far the best snow of the two days was found here--on that broad face in the center of the shot. Best runs of my life. Untracked,Heli-supported,treeless,LONG,DEEP powder runs the whole way down.
"Sarge" Conway and pro-skier/guide/crazy rockclimber and all around loudmouth Joe Vallone,planning our angle of attack.
I'm officially hooked. This sight never gets old. The bird literally flys right up to you. You duck your head cause of the rotor wash and when you look up theres a heli in your face,sideways of course--its awesome!!
We rode this terrain on our 3rd and 4th runs. We rode the giant bulge in the middle,below the rockband. And dropped in lookers left in the giant Y shaped drainage. Its so much bigger than it looks.
The beginning of my happy day. This is the Aurora lounge,in the Alyeska Prince Hotel, where we held our safety meeting in the morning. And the tramway where we load to go to the pad.
This is the town of Whittier. Very strange. A really Russian vibe to it. What you see is what you get. Theres a couple hundred people that live here. All in that strange Soviet style tower. Pretty much the only occupied building there. You access it thru the longest tunnel in N. America. 2.5 miles one way. You have to take turns and wait for your scheduled release to the other side. I hear its surrounded by waterfalls in the summertime. I like waterfalls...and Russians.
You share the tunnel with a train....not at the same time though,duh. See the tracks? Lovely.
Bard Peak and Portage glacier.
Seward,AK. Its said to be one of the most scenic towns in America. If ya count AK as America. It may be true. I could live in that house all day.
The Northern Lights!!!! Always a goal of mine to see and i finally did. This was the 2nd night we headed north to see em. The 1st night they were way more active and danced all over the sky in all shapes. But i was dumb and couldn't figure out my camera. Finally got it figured out on night 2,thanks to some fairly basic help from my dad. These are best viewed if its dark in your room. Real dark. I'll post more in the future.
Sea lions in Seward. There was a sea otter about 20yds away too. He liked to rub his belly and stare at us. Who doesn't?
What are you lookin at,moose?
The museum. Lots of cool stuff in there. Wicked Ivory pipes too.
I love this piece. A glacier scene.
Sunset on Turnagain.
Anchorage just falls off into Cook inlet. Very cool. And the town is not crowded at all,at least in winter. No evidence of the 275,000 people that live there. Anchorage is also the town of unnecessarily long stoplights.
This was pretty funny. Dogs dont ride up there,woman!!
Anchorage. This building survived their 9.0 earthquake in the sixties,although the streets around it collapsed in 10-20ft. In Girdwood,about 30miles away,the ground actually collapsed about 12ft,allowing the tide to rush in and swamp the town. Girdwood was later relocated about two miles inland.Bet ya didn't know that?
Denali!! The highest point in N. America,20,320ft. That is not a small number. Its one of the coveted Seven Summits. It was in the clouds when we got into town.Luckily the clouds lifted and Denali(aka McKinley)would show us her....rock. This was taken on a hill right outside of Talkeetna. The hill itself,however, was a disappointment.
Summit picture. Stupid treetops ruining my mountain scene. Denali is still over a hundred miles away from where i took this.
Mountain High pizza in Talkeetna.
Talkeetna is a town of about 850.Like most places in Alaska in winter,except urban Anchorage,its pretty empty. The way we prefered it. It sits outside of Denali(Mt. McKinley) and is a pretty popular beginning point for Denali hikers in summer. Excellent lil pizza place there. Super cold out! And i just learned that Talkeetna was the inspiration for the tv series Northern Exposure. Everyone likes useless trivia.
Bard Peak and Portage Glacier
Our awful rental....worst gas mileage ever.
This is Cook Inlet on the Turnagain Arm. That frozen chunk of water is moving too,pretty cool.
Turnagain Arm drive. Moving ice.
This a great restaurant in Girdwood,looking up at Alyeska. Really good food and the nicest drunks.Every skier thats been to Alyeska has probably ate here.
Our awful rental....worst gas mileage ever.
This is Cook Inlet on the Turnagain Arm. That frozen chunk of water is moving too,pretty cool.
Turnagain Arm drive. Moving ice.
This a great restaurant in Girdwood,looking up at Alyeska. Really good food and the nicest drunks.Every skier thats been to Alyeska has probably ate here.Anybody that takes their skiing(boarding) seriously dreams about going to Alaska. And when most skiers think of AK they think of heli-skiing. So when the opportunity presented itself i had to take advantage. I was definitely rewarded. It was the trip of a lifetime and my first day in the bird was probably my best day skiing ever. Anyone thats familiar with the heli game in Alaska knows its a crap shoot. A lot of the times the weather can shut you down,or you may get stuck with a weak group,Avy danger could be too high,etc.. Somehow everything came together for me those two days in the bird. It hadn't snowed in the Chugach area for almost two flippin weeks!! It doesn't matter though,thats why we were playin with helicopters. But i also wanted to experience Alaska outside of the heli scene. Sondra and I got to go as far North as Talkeetna,and as far south as Seward. We got to experience the Northern Lights for two nights,which has always been a goal of mine,and also got lucky enough to see Denali,which is usually socked in. We pretty much fulfilled every goal of ours on the trip. I even got to eat some super expensive Alaskan King Salmon. We went to as many restaraunts as possible,the food was great. We also went to the Alaskan Museum,and i got to purchase lots of native artwork throughout the week,against Sondra's wishes. Mostly Tlingit work. Sondra got to experience winter since she's been in London for the last six months,and was only back in Colorado for two days prior to leaving again. And AK is extremely cold. Their cold is way more bitter than ours. This March was on track to be the coldest on record for AK. The highs were usually in the teens and twenties. It was hard to take pictures of the Northern lights in negative temps. It was all worth it though. It makes ya respect those Iditarod racers even more,those dudes,and select females,are TOUGH.
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