[TR] Powder Monkey Ops: ABA- Chugach 2010
Powder Monkey Ops: ABA- Chugach 2010
note: this is a ground assault TR- for Powder Monkey Air Force ops, check out Gerome or Dheli’s TRs. Thanks to Skier666 & crew for TR layout
This Trip did not Suck. Money/ Action Shots start about halfway through the TR. Beginning is mostly set-up & scenics. A Sneak Peak of how things turned out:
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m...0/Imz_DoMe.jpg
with Special Bonus insert: The Legend of Tommy Hawk Sneak Peak:
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m...10/Tommy_6.jpg
Back to the Story:
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m...antry_flat.png
Date: March 12-22nd, 2010
Coordinates: Parking lot, AK-4, Mile Marker 29.5, Chugach Range, AK
Troops:ABA Posse (Happy, Badger, Paul, Chris, and J Dub) Imz & Dr. Phil (aka Tommy)
Special Guest Photographer: Court Leve
Music: Coldcut f/ Roots Manuva- True Skool
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_R63UMQN08"]YouTube- Coldcut ft. Roots Manuva - True Skool[/ame]
Synopsis:
After a slow start to my season & some issues with my girl I had an epiphany: It occurred to me it was winter, I had money in the bank, and fuck this work shit.
Most of the posse had spent their ski funds for the season having an epic time, so it was my fault for dragging my feet. I called my ace in the hole- Dr. Phil, we locked in a 10 day window with ABA, and I headed up to Tahoe to stay with Gerome for 2 and a half weeks to rip it up before my trip.
Weather:
On my way to the airport, I get a post from Happy- things are looking good- If the birds can fly, they've put down 9 feet in the past storm cycle.
The Russians from our front door:
So on the drive to Valdez from anchorage, we realized Sarah Palin just across our front doorstep…
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m...1_wassilla.jpg
Which meant we of course had to salute her expertise, commitment to the people of Alaska, and awesome capabilities to bring us all together as a people:
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m...arahSalute.jpg
I digress- the rest of the drive was awesome:
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m...y1_driveup.jpg
The Waiting Game:
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m...Aba_1_camp.jpg
Arriving in the parking lot at the crack of dawn, things were not looking so good… light snow, no vis, temps in the low 20°s.
There were a couple of housekeeping things to take care of which ate up 45 minutes (safety talk, weigh-in) but quickly we were left to our own devices to amuse ourselves…Time to fire up some tunes on the iPhone, recline the seats, and be glad for our coffee.
Dr. Phil recommended an iPhone game called dear hunter; which turned out to be quite entertaining.
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m...erscreen_2.jpg
Time Passes…:
After 4 hours kicking it in the Exploder, numerous games of Deer Hunter (winter scene, of course), and wishing I’d updated the few playlists I have on my phone, it started to get a little brighter…
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m...2_clearing.jpg
This was enough for us to get a little stoked. After talking to a couple of the guides, it began to sound like a late afternoon mission was within the realm of possibility.
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m..._3_waiting.jpg
Seven hours later (2:30pm):
Everyone is stoked to get out, Mike the pilot sees some holes, and we fire out to Python Ridge; it’s a great place to fly to in soupy conditions, as we can always ski out to the highway & get a van pickup if the sky closes in…
After one return to base, we get dropped, and manage to bag out 3 awesome runs in mixed light conditions. A couple cool things about ABA: whenever it got a little too flat to see well, the guides all chilled out and said “let’s just wait for things to improve” rather than pushing it, and we’d boogie during breaks in the cloud cover.
We saw another outfit operating a few peaks away who was dropping their customers below the summit, and picking them up higher (cutting their vertical by about half) in what looked like a panic to pad everyone’s run count. Not cool in my book.
No pics (as it was whacky light). Shout-out to Badger, for directing me out onto a sick fin of snow for a line I’ll never forget, while getting everyone else down out of sight from me. It was looking like it was going to be an awesome trip.
The Next Morning:
Dawns bright and beautiful. We grab our shit as fast as we can, coffee (of course) and blast to ABA.
Happy say’s we’re with him. We’ll be first chopper out, and let’s get ready to fly.
Scouting Acapulco:
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m..._1_chopper.jpg
We ended up hitting the jackpot on weather- A bunch of the LZs we hit hadn’t been opened up this season, which meant a little shovel work, and a lot of untracked lines.
Happy rockin out on Rippin Ridge:
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m..._1b_rippin.jpg
Our First Bluebird day was a blur; we took a lot of video, not to many pictures, but we did start scoping many of the lines we’d hit over the week… I’m pretty sure I’ve got the lines straight, but don’t hate me if I misname something.
Do me, Do it, Do it Again, and Mondo:
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m...d_thedoits.jpg
Acapulco (peak on the left):
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m...e_aculpoco.jpg
A little section of the Hoodoo Cirque:
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m...odoocirque.jpg
The steep pitches were dope with up to a foot of fresh, as we got lower the run-outs were great- we hadn't got into the rhythm of taking action shots yet...
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m...1g_runouts.jpg
Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure
After an awesome shakedown day, we were stoked to get after it. As we arrived at ABA, the sun was just coming out to play, and Happy said we’d be riding with him again.
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m..._2_sunrise.jpg
Later in the week we had opportunities to see our tracks as we skied other peaks. I’ve added them where it makes sense.
The views were above average
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m...Day_2_view.jpg
Upper Bunny -first run of the morning, a single stop to make sure everyone dropped in ok, then just continuous turns:
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m...upperbunny.jpg
Snow was fast and pristine. Do it Again:
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m...Day_3Doits.jpg
I’ve flown with other outfits (CMH) who farm their shit out. This is ABA farming; two lift groups of four had this line to themselves.
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m...its_farmed.jpg
Frank’s Tavern (Some of the best, fastest, funnest turns of my life) Again, the scale is tough to get a sense of, but that’s prolly 3000 feet or so.
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m...anksTavern.jpg
Breath.
Downwind Couloir LZ (Happy can dig this one- I’m bushed):
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m...DownwindLz.jpg
Happy Slots in.
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m...nwindHappy.jpg
And let it Rip.
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m..._2Downwind.jpg
Everything is going exactly the way we want it. Perfect snow, fun people, gorgeous weather… days blur together.
Some highlights:
Bro Bowl first run in the morning:
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m...y_3BroBowl.jpg
Dave’s Wave (tough to get a sense of what it felt like to roll in):
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m...3DavesWave.jpg
Frank’s Tavern to the left, Franks Back Door (Super sweet)- one of the fluted ramps to the right. Hit them one after the other...
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m...ay_3Franks.jpg
Frank’s Tavern was so good, we asked to run it a second time; this time we skied it top to bottom, no stops…
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m...anks2ndrun.jpg
New World:
We were definitely getting more dialed with our routine by this point; the last line I’ll show in detail (other than the Legend of Tommy Hawk) but some neat shots… I marked the LZ for this run in the shot below… probably something like 4500 vertical feet.
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m...5NewWorld2.jpg
End of the First Pitch.
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m...5NewWorld3.jpg
Middle Pitch:
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m...NewWorld08.jpg
Chute:
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m...NewWorld10.jpg
