Kodiak. Crevasse Rescue. The Alaska Range!

Spring work this year for Remarkable Adventures consisted of a trip to Kodiak Island and a one day custom Crevasse Rescue Course. After that it was into the Alaska Range to teach a course for the Alaska Mountaineering School.

In May I went for a quick weekend trip to Kodiak to work with the KISAR team (Kodiak Island Search and Rescue). Here we got a heli bump right up to the new cabin KISAR built for their training missions.

This picture does not show how strong the winds were. Here we circled up real quick, shouting over the wind to make a group decision on what our plan was, where and how we were going to get there. Higher up the wind flapping on my jacket hood was so loud I wished I had ear plugs in. A funny thing about Kodiak is, to the locals, this was a really nice day to be out in the mountains. The weather is notoriously gnarly!

It's always a good time working with my friend and work partner Joe Stock of Stock Alpine, LLC. Joe and I keep in contact to discuss our businesses and learn from each other. As the only certified guides living and working in the Anchorage and Girdwood area we exclusively share our guest inquiries if we are already booked up. For larger groups we always hope to be able to work them together. 

Good times hiking through the woods with ski boots and skis on your pack. It is always (most times) worth a little mud and bushwhacking to end a good skiing trip.  photo by - Steve Weilebski.

Right after Kodiak I was back home to teach a one day crevasse rescue course to a local Girdwood group - father, son and their friend. It's always great to work with Alaskans. We started our day learning and practicing our rope ascension, a vital skill to know how to get yourself out of a crevasse. Tree limbs work great to sling a rope over and learn your ascension system.

We chose Tincan in Turnagain Pass as our location for the day to be able to easily access the late May snow in order to maximize learning and minimize the time it would have taken to reach a glacier. We found a perfect safe spot to work on crevasse rescue skills. 

Hauling with a basic 3:1 "Z-pully" system. We later went over having the ability to be able to rappel to your victim, help them, ascend out and then haul them up with a dropped loop 2:1 or 6:1. This is what every glacier travel partner should be able to quickly and competently do. It was a really nice spring day on the snow!

My final spring work was teaching a Denali Prep course for the Alaska Mountaineering School. These three photos are from our camp at the Kahiltna Base Camp. Stunning views of the big three peaks of the Alaska Range: Mt Hunter, Mt Foraker and Denali. We had two really nice days of weather to start the course and were able to cover the necessary skills to be able to move and progress through the rest of the week...

...Then we woke at 3am to go for a peak ascent of Radio Control Tower. We woke to full-on whiteout conditions and it stayed like that for 5 days. This is an odd photo to post but that was our view for 5 days, our neighbors tent is not far away in this photo.

You just can't go out safely wandering around on a glacier in these conditions with hundreds of crevasses around you. I've had the motto of using whiteout navigation skills only to get you back home to safety, not to head out from safety, I will continue to try and live by this motto. Instead of our climbing ambitions we went over classes, re-practiced our crevasse rescue and worked a lot on patience waiting for the weather to change. Patience can be a really important skill to have for trips to Alaska. Most of the time the weather and conditions are good but sometimes you just have to sit there. 

The Alaska Range is a special place. The grandeur of the mountains and glaciers cannot be explained, it must be witnessed in person. This trip logs my 30th expedition into the Alaska Range, it never gets old and I look forward to more. I also look forward to more return visits into the Wrangell-St. Elias, the inner Chugach, the Tordrillo Mountains and the Neacola's among the lifetimes of other places I've never been to in this great land of Alaska.

AK Winter to New Zealand Winter

Summer has gone full-swing here in Alaska, the warm sunny days are very enjoyable. I'm trying to make the best of my short summer here biking, hiking, maybe a little packrafting and relaxing. Next up is New Zealand! Southern Hemisphere, back to winter... Before I'm off here's a recap and photos from the second half of the 2016 AK winter ski season.

Of all the many places to ski around here, the days I get to go right in my backyard above Girdwood are often some of the best, most memorable days of the year. Goat Mountain looms above the start of this superb run on Ragged Top in the Chugach Mountains.

The Girdwood valley lies below with the North Face of Alyeska Ski Resort on the right, you can even see the tram's top terminal. The mountains go on forever here in Alaska.

I had a great opportunity to travel down to Juneau to teach an Avalanche level 1 course for the Alaska Avalanche School. I've always wanted to check out our states capitol city, it's a neat place. Perhaps the most beautiful capital in our country. We are hoping to be able to offer more courses in the Juneau / Eagle Crest ski area next year, stay tuned SE Alaska.

My good buddy, ski partner and colleague Adam and I set out to go for a casual ski somewhere in Turnagain Pass, we had no plan. Driving through the pass we couldn't come to a conclusion so we pulled over. Dead ahead of us was Twin Peaks, we both looked at it for awhile in silence, then at the same time looked at each other and said, "you ever do that?" It was an awesome day! 

Twin Peaks skied really well... a steep top pitch then 3,000 feet of nice consistent skiing, just right, turn after turn.

Here I enjoy the world famous Alaskan Velvet Snow on Twin Peaks. Amazing what the iPhone camera can capture these days, along with a little editing.  - Photo by: Adam Smith.

I truly enjoy taking people out into the mountains for their first time backcountry skiing or snowboarding. One week I had a fellow from Connecticut, a family from Canada and a couple from Minnesota. I enjoy these days just as much as I enjoyed the week before when I guided heli-skiing and spent a day guiding a different Canadian group who probably had more collective time spent ski touring than I have in my life.

The mountains are seemingly endless here in AK. There are lifetimes of possibilities to link ski tours together.

A snippet of one of our many zones for heli-skiing with Chugach Powder Guides. This was a good day, good snow, good weather and good people.

Which one is your favorite powder shot?

If you have never been heli-skiing, it is a really good time, a must do for any serious skier or boarder. See what Alaska has to offer. Come ski with Remarkable Adventures. Inquire here to book your next ski trip for mechanized and/or human powered skiing.