A snow fueled buzz has been growing all season in Alaska. Record snowfalls have piled up, and operators from all over the state are consistently sharing “best run/day of my life” reports from each new group of visitors that pass through. As part of Points North Heli-Adventures ski touring program, Jeff Dostie and myself have spent the last two weeks building camp on the side of a mountain in the middle of the Chugach, enjoying unlimited AK powder.
Our base camp, seen above, is situated a short skin from a non-motorized USFS boundary line that allows access to a wealth of any type of AK riding one is looking for. Here, between our Arctic Ovens, you can make out the top half of an area known as Dano’s.
Although a closeup does this particular terrain more justice.
Establishing camp and sampling our new immediate terrain with local chargers Corey and Wes focused efforts during week one. Skinning out from “Home Base”,
and laying into some truly perfect snow was a great way to balance the process of dialing camp in.
This past week we had a great visiting group from Chicago and Colorado. The crew hit it pretty good with five bottomless powder day in a row. Their goal was to track up as much fresh as possible before heading home so we made sure to do just that. Having several perfectly pitched north-facing powder runs a quick 45 minute skin from camp certainly helps the cause,
especially when a group wants to punch a skin track in the zone and farm it out as much as possible.
Of course Jeff,
and myself,
have been fired up to enjoy the perfect conditions as well. Clearing afternoon weather and longer days have been a great excuse for a quick skin back to the ridge just before dark for one last run to Home Base.
It’s been an unreal past two weeks in the Chugach. Posting up on the side of a mountain in this range is a special experience as having access to whatever type of Alaskan terrain you want on any given day is priceless. The pattern of waking, skinning, skiing, and sleeping from our location has been beyond a dream. Thus far our visitors have seemed to think the same thing, which has really been the best part about our scene, and we’ve barely scratched the surface of the lifetimes worth of terrain right out our front door.