Alaska Archives Item 5: Harvest is the Season to Behold

Alaska Archives will chronicle a spring spent ski touring out of an RV around south central Alaska.

Item 1: Arrival and Thompson Pass     Item 2: Gone Skiing     Item 3: A Full RV   Item 4: Alyeska Bound

Words and photos courtesy of Zach Paley. See more on his blog.

As temperatures warm, the inevitable approach of summer becomes more and more apparent. Before summer’s grasp consumes the snow and turns it to mank, one last hurrah, corn skiing becomes available. It’s not powder skiing by a long shot, but I think corn can still be pretty rewarding due to its elusive and fickle nature. Skiing something too early means the turns will be crusty and skiing something too late can result in punchy, unstable snow that is equally unpleasant. Corn skiing takes timing, patience, and sometimes a bit of luck.

Miles left on the 26 in the fashion he arrived: skiing Thursday at Alyeska, red eye to Tahoe, skiing Friday at Squaw. This left Will Lee and I to explore Turnagain Pass for the rest of April. Working a zone we dubbed ‘The Corn Factory’, it’s no surprise the corn skiing here was some of the best we ended up with all trip.