TR - Alaska: a sampler

[stupendous man]

Myself, Danno and two non-mag friends of ours recently returned from ten days in alaska. I'm pooped, but I wanted to add the link here and I'll put up a better tr here later.

let's just say that it was an adventure for us, and we pushed it hard - skiing 6 days and sea kayaking two.

http://telemarktalk.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=34760

Have a gander!

[HotCarl]

Looks a lot like my TR. Except my heli days were bluebird

I saw Mike Welch was your cat guide. He was a super nice guy,very cool. Wish more guides had his attitude. Besides Sarge of course.

I rode that same chute that you show in a couple of the pictures,the picture beneath "danno with the helicopter." Had to do it twice cause one jong from Amsterdam lost his videocamera out the bottom of his jacket. The same jong that was too busy videotaping the bird flying up and didn't bother holding down all the gear from the rotor wash. My backpack went flying down the runway thanks to that ass.Anyways,brings back a lot of memories,even though i was only there last month. Its fuckin cool flying up that valley above the river and treetops,isn't it??

Oh and if you haven't already you should check out the Valdez and THompson pass guidebook. Lots of good info on all the places you toured. I had my eyes on Loveland,and its cool to see that big,gnarly fuckin chasm.

Good game.

[Danno]

What more can I say? As stupendous man pointed out, the trip was pulled off without a hitch, everything went perfectly, no major disagreements even considering 4 people in close quarters, everyone pulled their weight, and everything was magic. We kick ass. 8)

I'll throw up some more pics.

The heli boys:


Props to our guides: Mike and Jesse for the cat day, Kent for the one run of heli (who got Glenn, the pilot, to give us an exciting ride), and Don for our full day. Don was a beast, the guy would casually ski all the way to the bottom of something that would have my thighs burning a third of the way down. And his pack was probably close to 50 pounds. Those guides are top-notch.

sweet sweet heli skiing with the obligatory point:


the boys (note glacial ice behind us):


The top of Hendrix. Are you experienced?


Do you think we had fun here?


I'm not excited at all:


Off to Seward. Murphy's Motel was the bargain of the trip, $45 for 2 queen beds in a nice room. Oh, and do you think our motel had decent views (to the north and east)?



The sea kayaking was a great change of pace. And I survived, even though I am not much of a water person. Things are still melting out there:


Some cool pics from around the cabin:




On the way to Valdez, the views were just silly. I have heard it said that if it's worth taking a picture of something, it's worth getting out of the car to do so. So, what, are you supposed to get out of the car every 15 seconds? :lol: We did stop a few times, but I was snapping shots the whole way.

stupendous man


Oh, yeah, just a wee little glacier:


Valdez Telehead's chalet was sweet. Here's the view from just outside the driveway:


The chair was pretty comfy:


Would just like to thank Valdez Telehead for writing the book and skiing with us. It was a blast to meet and ski with such a TTips "legend".

skintrack stoke:


Valdez is not the ugliest place I've ever been.


The artsy shot:


I'll take their word about the fishing.


This is School Bus. In the center of this photo are our tracks. It was spectacular.


Here's a few videos of our run on School Bus:
http://bagwhan.smugmug.com/gallery/2753895
http://bagwhan.smugmug.com/gallery/2753916
http://bagwhan.smugmug.com/gallery/2746206#146393711


Stupendous man was pretty tired.


So, Dan, what did you think of Alaska?
http://bagwhan.smugmug.com/gallery/2746206#146395322

[Danno]

Oh and if you haven't already you should check out the Valdez and THompson pass guidebook. Lots of good info on all the places you toured. I had my eyes on Loveland,and its cool to see that big,gnarly fuckin chasm.

We skied with the author ("Valdez Telehead" on TTips). Great guy, great guide book. Loveland would have been sweet if the clouds hadn't rolled in and dropped the temp 10 or 15 degrees.

[yodaottis]

Awesome TR. Makes me want to put some of this year's pay aside!
I love this pic:

I like what I see on that desk

[HotCarl]

We skied with the author ("Valdez Telehead" on TTips). Great guy, great guide book. Loveland would have been sweet if the clouds hadn't rolled in and dropped the temp 10 or 15 degrees.

Nice,i just realized that after reading your post. I shoulda known Valdez telehead was that dude. That woulda been kool.

[Rontele]

Awesome, fellas, but I have one problem.

There is no picture of Laura for me (did you at least profess my eLove of her?)

[stupendous man]

Elove duly noted. Laura is a lovely lady.

[Danno]

DIA was insane, craziest I have ever seen it. Both security mazes were full, and the lines of each extended out to the east or west sides of baggage claim, then halfway down the baggage claim on that side. It was INSANE. We got to the airport with almost an hour and a half to spare, all checked in already, and checked our bags within 5 minutes. And still came reasonably close to missing our flight. And our skis didn't make it.

As to the bags, we checked them in at the exact same time, each having one ski bag and one other bag. The other bag arrived for both of us. My skis went to Seattle, then came up the next morning (and were delivered before we headed off to Alyeska). Stupendous man's skis went to San Francisco for a little sight-seeing, then headed BACK to Denver, and came up to Anchorage on the same flight as Josh the following night.

But we were both smart enough to have our boots and ski clothes in our carry on. Thanks Yossarian, for the excellent travel tips thread.

[Kya]

Mmmmm, Alaska looks freaking cool.......all the time!

[Danno]

yeah, that WAS fun.