There are so many places in the world to go skiing, how do you pick where to go? I am not a pro skier but I have skied all over the world and hands down VALDEZ ALASKA IS THE COOLEST PLACE EVER!!!! Not only does it have stupendous views of glaciers and rugged peaks, the snow quality is unreal. Since we did this trip in the spring we didn't get the typical steep and deep skiing that most people get, but we still had fun! Also I just have to say that if you do go here the heli skiing would be unreal. Being a broke collage student though I could not afford that. If you are young and fit though you can hike and access all the heli terrain from the pass, so cowboy up and get hiking!
Odyssey Ridge RunDay one in Valdez was a little interesting! To start off we spent the night at the harbor because when we got into Valdez at 11 o'clock are check engine light came on. We were planning to sleep in and go to a mechanic at 9 in town and unfortunately not go skiing, but when you have to drive another 300 miles back home you might want your car to work. Long story short we YOLO'D, I checked the oil and coolant, decided thats all we needed so we took off for the pass! We where not able to leave the trailhead until 11, this would be unheard of in colorado! We decided that it was to hot and late in the day to ski anything big so we decided to play around on little Odyssey and Odyssey. LESSON ONE: Anything below 5,000ft in this area is corning up big time. LIFE LESSON: In Alaska you can ski perfect corn on north facing slopes at 5:30 PM anytime before that they are ice! |
Iguana backs
Hands down the coolest place I have ever skied and the coolest mountains I have ever played on! This area is normally crowed by the heli's, however heli season was over so we had the Iguana backs to ourselves! The approach in the spring to this area is a HUGE PAIN!!! Just some of the things you might encounter are creek crossing, bushwhacking, post holing, bullet proof ice, and switch backs for days! If you can survive all of that then it is an awesome place to play around in! We learned are lesson the day before about timing the corn right so we had a relaxful morning, left the trailhead around 11, enjoyed the struggle session to get up to 5,000 ft, had some cheese and salami, and got the best corn skiing I have ever had at 530PM. We got back to the car at 7 and enjoyed the sunshine till 1030PM! This place in unreal and to top it off we had a big full moon to take pictures of as well. |
Loveland / DOT GLacier
Exhausted from the previews days we decided to do a short hike for our last ski......... little longer then we thought. This is an awesome place to go play if the snowmobilers have not ripped it up yet or have them buzzing past you. We lucked out again with not having that problem. There is mellow terrain below the glacier that is fun to play on. It is all under or around 30 degrees with lots of natural terrain features. Up high on the glacier you can get into some really fun steep skiing, we got up to 6,000ft and found the cold smoke baby!!!!!! |