Powerline again

I went skiing at Powerline Pass again yesterday.  Brandon Brewster was headed out skiing the same time as me. We had a nice little workout.

Crust Skiing closer to town

If you get in a car and drive 15 minutes east from the UAA campus, you can go skiing at Powerline Pass. The crust was perfect there yesterday.

Portage Pass

Lasse, Marine, Erik Bjornsen, Etienne and I jumped in Lasse's Ford Explorer for one more road trip  before he sells it and moves to Copenhagen.  Our destination:  Portage Lake and Portage Pass.

On the road: Lasse, Erik, Marine, Etienne

A short road construction delay along Turnagain Arm

Portage Lake

Portage Glacier

Our destination: Portage Pass in the left background

Climbing the pass

That's Portage Glacier in the background

Passage Canal and Prince William Sound behind Lasse and Erik

Les Francophones et Baird Peak

Heading back home

 

Portage Glacier

Final exams are over, which makes it easy to relax in the warm sun after skiing.  No need to rush home to schoolwork.

 

Turnagain Recon

We went to Turnagain Pass looking for skate skiing, but we found out it's still a little too early in the season for the crust at 1,000 feet.  Good thing we brought our alpine touring skis. The snow may have been a little soft for skating, but there was nothing wrong with the weather, the view, or the powder.

Hillside Nordic Trails - May 1, 2013

Patricia and Lasse invited me along to check on the status of the trails.
Things were in good shape:

 

About halfway through our ski, the groomer came out and smoothed things out for us with the Pisten Bully:

 

 

 

Skookum Skiing

There was nothing wrong with the ski conditions over the weekend in Skookum Valley:

Krusty

 

There didn't seem to be much going on in Anchorage today so we grabbed our skis, piled in the van and road-tripped it an hour down the road to Portage Valley to see if we could rustle up some fun...

Viktor doesn't seem too optimistic.

If you click on this picture, it gets bigger and better. Our destination is Burns Glacier, in the center of the picture in the distance.

Portage Glacier - a short stop for a few pictures

Me.

 

Viktor, Erik Bjornsen, Lucky, Davis, and Pati.

Davis, Pati and Marine.

Andrew at the foot of Burns Glacier.

The group.

 

Marine and Pati on Burns Glacier, with Portage Glacier in the background.

Marine and Pati.

Lukas and Davis.

 

Lukas and Viktor.

Near the top of the glacier, it started getting a little soft...

...and windy. Here's Viktor trying to keep himself from being pushed over the top of the pass and into Blackstone Bay by the strong tailwind funneling through the pass. For a few moments, we thought we might lose Bente The Dog into Prince William Sound. We didn't stick around up there for long.  I don't think anyone said a word.  We looked around for a few seconds, tried to keep from getting blown over the edge, and got back down out of the wind ASAP.

 

Blackstone Bay in Prince William Sound.

 

On our way back across Portage Lake as it started to get cloudy.

Back at the car; a satisfied Coach K.

And a satisfied Lukas Ebner, too.  He must have set a personal record for least equipment broken during a ski outing - only one broken pole?! It doesn't seem possible!