Can I ski with you?

[carpathian]

Here is the POV from the day. Caught stealing indeed!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NimVqDG3Rc

All the new snow from the last week has been quickly baked in to the beginning of a sweet corn cycle, on south slopes at least.

Vesna and I went for an evening hike up Sunburst




Vesna getting her shred on




Getting speed to go huge!


The take off...


Flight!


Stomp!

[carpathian]

Trisomy 18 sucks.

[garyfromterrace]

Healing vibes to you and Vessie, Jake. My thoughts are with you - you have a great gal there buddy, and you're a hell of a guy. Your goodness will get you both through this. Take care man.

[carpathian]

Thanks Gary, were getting through it.

There is a cave nearby. When you go into this cave you go back and it curves and on the left is a map of the universe all lined out in the quartz crystals in the rock. And behind the mural is a woman positioned facing to the right. You go back past her and there is a spring coming up that you drink from and when you do it aligns your frequency with that of the universe, the cave.

And you go back to the map and the woman behind it is now facing to the left and a portal opens up and you go into it and there is the Old Man, the man from Orion. And he shows you the prism and he aligns it and the beam of light shines out of the mountain and points right to the middle star in Orion's belt.

And outside, white wolves with black eyes and black wolves with white eyes circle the entrance to the cave. I have never been there but I know someone who knows someone who has.

[doughboyshredder]

I feel like anything I say will not be enough to convey my feelings for you on this one. Sending you all the positive vibes I can.

[Chugachjed]

Oh man Jake I'm so sorry. Not that there's much I could do but if there's something you need or need help give me a shout.

[carpathian]

Berm reconstruction



Thom and truck and trail



Blazing new trails across the mountain side



1st 20 seconds of the season on bike, testing first of many jumps to be built

[Mathematics]

Nice! Between aly puttin in trails & the new single trank going in south anc I'm stoked for riding the bike this summer.

so its already may, aly's shutting down...maybe we do a june/july AK mag get together / summit? I say again - I'll bring the beer.

[Chugachjed]

I've got my bike pass all worked out looks like you are doing the hard part. I can't wait, rode the lower couple miles of Pioneer last weekend and the weekend before just up to the first picnic table. Slick mud above that. The Anchorage trails are prime low vegetation status and dry. Bird poach in the near future.

[carpathian]

Thom set this shot up with a 4 minute self timer. Pretty good timing if you ask me and the berm does not look so bad either.

We have been running two machines full time trying to link up two corridors for our opening on June 23. Bermuda to Race Trail will be real sweet. On the other side of the gorge we finally pushed the mini excavator up the steepest pitches leaving an 8 foot wide 'enduro BMX' trail in the wake.

I can't really put really believe how awesome these trails are gonna be...

[Chugachjed]

can't wait... one more week

[carpathian]

Me and my domain



Putting the machines to work



The Kubota climbing 45 degree face



A little back breaking labor never hurt anyone



Getting her done



Time to shred





Field of green, trail to be



Put those bike chairs on there asap!




Trying to squeeze in some fishing in the meanwhile



Lone sea rat- er sea otter



I call this, 'Sea Gulls on Beach'



Rosie does not like the fishing
"Why is momma trying to fish?!"

[carpathian]

We have pushed through a lot of trails in the last 7 weeks

Hacking through the jungle to complete 'Rock Monster'





The air is fresh up in the alpine



We need to dig in a quad access road into Silvertip, it might as well be a bike trail to, eh?



Stunning views to say the least



The most beautiful sight ever... and the waterfalls look nice too.



"Now I am going that way!"



Quad friendly

[Chugachjed]

Too bad I broke my ass on thursday. It'll be at least another week before my wrist and shoulder can handle the bike. I blew up right above 6. It was pretty gnarly.

[carpathian]

Jed we raked those rocks hope you're feeling better!

Where shall be build trail today?



We finally got to really test ride The Fridays.



Left turns





Right turns







Slashing with all the room in the world!





Jeramy build this entire trail turn for turn in three days with the mini excavator.
Reaping the rewards



Stamp of approval!



I know, I know, for as stunning as the view may be the people want jumps, jumps, JUMPS!

While Jeramy has been soaking the view up in the alpine I have been slaving on the other machine in the sweltering alder jungle of lower Tanaka to bring you jumps.

Here is a soon to be landing for the 10th of ten jumps that will be ready for testing next week!

[carpathian]

Bump for heavy precip. Trails are getting worked over... in a good way.

[carpathian]

We have about 12.25 miles of dh trails at Alyeska now with about 9.5 built this year.

Berms




This guys wants to hit it

[carpathian]

Hey Boat Floaters! We had a nice adventure floating down 20 Mile River here in Alaska last week...

Started the day at 9am by driving south down the highway about 10 miles for the truck drop. Notice the exceptionally high tide:



Met up with Dearnly and Thom and split up the beer rations accordingly



Left the house at 10:30 on foot. Cracked first beer as seen here at noon



We had to walk for about 6 hours to the put in at the westernmost headwaters of 20 Mile. Cool waterfall.



Looking back to the backside of Alyeska Mountain. We started on the frontside and and came up the long valley



Finally reached Blueberry Pass



Thom says "that way". He has done this trip a few times and it is a first for Dearnly and I



Gotta get to the river!



Here we are, need more water. I feel like we are being watched. Deep in griz country



Had to get across this little side channel to main current. Dearnly's feet were already wet so he went for the wade. Thom and I had rubber boots on so we decide to juke upstream into the the alder thicket to navigate across the alder strainers and keep dry feet. About 150 in, as we struggled for a clean line, Thom say's "Did you hear that?!" I say "No" then a second later I hear distinct WUUFFF! over the rushing river noise from very close proximity. Could be nothing other then giant brown bear, at least based on deep gut reaction the sound had on me.



We said fuck it and darted back to where Dearnly had crossed as he called to use.
I got across the stream and on to the open sand bar and looked back upstream to where a large mama bear and THREE large juveniles were ambling out way.

So much for another beer as we very quickly filled our rafts up with air and nervously watched the family move our direction



Fuck you bears! we are out of here 4:20 on the dot



100 yards later a walk around



We've had some major precip events with like 6-8 inches of rain in 48 hours in the last week. The river was low again but it was like the main channels had been blown out and we had a fair amount of shallows to deal with.





Is it just me or are we in the middle of nowhere and it is getting dark?



Why yes, it is getting dark. And no, no one has a headlamp



8pm



When is iPhone going to come out with an outboard app?



Remember that high tide way back 12 hours earlier? Well, we were hoping to have navigated the upper river faster then we did and hit the highway before the tide affected the current 2MILES upstream from ocean. It actually kind of fucking sucked.

The air temp was hovering around 40 and and if you stopped you got cold and the tide was so high that it over flowed the banks into the alders anyway. No beaches, no light, no reprieve from incoming current except by staying right next to shore an using tiny strip of dead water. By this time the the river is about 50 feet deep and a couple hundred yards wide, littered with huge logs going this way and that. The last faint sliver of silver finally faded to pitch black as we JUST KEPT PADDLING. I would stop on occasion and listen for Dearnly bringing up the rear. We were in no way able to respond to a capsize if we even knew it happened. I could here the highway in the distance so we knew were were close, but what is close if you are moving forward 1/4 mile and hour while paddling as hard as you could for the last 3 hours?

Anyway, we eventually saw the parking lot light and felt a burst of energy but it still took another half hour to the truck. At the pull out both Thom and I could not even get up out of our boats and I literally crawled up the bank and scared the shit out of a trucker having a smoke break.

Is it ski season yet?

[carpathian]

Oh look, another ski season begins! How many are we looking at now, 15-16? I figure I'll just keep archiving TRs in this thread because it turns out to be kind of handy for cross referencing things later. Enjoy!

Got out on the ol skis yesterday. Might as well get the season going on the right foot
Going up there



An hour later popped out into winter wonder land. Aiming for main peak across glacier. Ended up climbing main ridge coming down on lookers right and skiied line hidden from view



Brian with Ragged Top in background, if you remember my other TRs



Cross glacier



Steep ass bootpack



Approaching ridge



Abe, you look tired? Girdwood in background. I can see my house!



Gnar for the future, The Diamond



Gabe watching specks



Skiied lookers left steep bulge through cracks.



Made second run cruiser down middle of glacier. Great way to start the season!

[carpathian]

Long time no post.

Done some skiing, Sean loving pow





We have had consistent snow storms moving though every other day or so. Got about a foot up high the other day so rolled out solo to check it out.

High winds out of the south



Same mountain from other side



There have been a ton of these slides releasing to the ground. This one looks like it broke off on new layer then stepped down to second layer.



Got some sweet turns in and my picture taken by a group of lovely ladies



Came back with Joshua the next day (today) to get some more turns in. Aiming for broad saddle and then peak up on the right.



Up the ridge now. Encountered nasty winds and flailed around on the frozen scree in alpine boots, but survived



Another party in the area



Dropping off south side of peak into steep, peppery gnar, sprinkled with wind slab. Hope that helmet has chin straps!



We jumped through the gap between the con ices onto the spine thingy. I skied the lookers right chute and you can see Joshua coming out the bottom of the one on the left. Flat as flat light could be but solid knee deep!



We waited at the bottom for the other guys to go but got cold so decided to skin up the adjacent ridge line. Looking back to our lines. None of them dropped in and they retreated back down the scree ridge! Come on now, it wasn't too bad!



Warming the dog's tootsies before dropping into next chute. Windy and dark at 1:20pm



Skied this, it was pretty sweet. Better light along rocky edge of chute.



One more hike up to next ridge and prepped for finisher to the car. Pretty good day.

[carpathian]

A day at the local safari drive thru



Look at this little guy!







Bears not hibernating





What you looking at?

[carpathian]

Sun rise behind Carpathian



On tail end of 6 week Snowmaking push, where I managed to delay getting a real job...



Long days, hard work





Herbie in the manhole



Playing God





Life at the end of the rainbow



Good job team!

[Chugachjed]

A real job??? Say it aint so. I managed to make it down for powder thursday last week. Got finals this week then a month off I'll be trying to talk you into skiing. BTW That Carpathian pic is sweet.

[userA]

jed be sure to call if you ever come back to the south pnw, it will snow again soon.

[garyfromterrace]

Top o the season Carp! Hope you and yours a having a great winter so far, Shames is doing good, the lifts are turning and the snow is sweet. Say hi to Vessie for me. All the best man!