Alaska Archives Item 6: Early May, Orange Sherbet

By Matt Harvey | June 14, 2012 11:12 am ET

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 Item 5: Harvest is the Season to Behold Alaska Archives RV Living Part 1: Staying Warm Alaska Archives RV Living Part 2: Downtime Alaska Archives RV Living Part 3: Food

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

As May flowers sprouted, the sun stayed out longer and longer. It had taken all winter to get used to the sun setting early behind the mountains in Hakuba, now the sun was setting at 10 PM. Late day sun meant we could take our time getting to north and west aspects, ski fantastically long corn runs until late, and still have hours of daylight to dry gear, grill, and relax.

Will hiking near Summit Lake

Good turns despite clouds

It was around this time we ran into a gentleman from Montana we had met at Thompson Pass. David Johnson, a.k.a. Gomez, is the owner and operator of Casa Tours. He celebrated his 40th birthday recently, and is showing no signs of slowing down. It didn’t matter if he was slogging up a bootpack or making perfect turns, Gomez always had a smile on his face.

A smiling Señor Gomez on the boot pack

You wouldn’t believe it, but he’s from Connecticut

It was also around this time the amazing weather we’d had during April eased up and forced us to make the most of the ski days we got. Skiing hard all day is the easy part in in Alaska.

Lee hard at work in the fields

Enjoying the grains of spring

One of the best harvest days we had on the trip started out inauspiciously. In standard Alaska fashion we were too early to our line at 3 PM, and had to wait around for over an hour for things to soften up. When they did, it was well worth the wait. We went for seconds, then up a new route. Morale fell with false summits but persistence paid off and we topped out at 830 PM. The “orange sherbet” color and texture of the snow, and skiing a long run so late in the day makes it one that won’t be forgotten.