Luckily, early April brought much needed relief from nearly four weeks of no snow.  A two day low slammed the Talkeetna’s dumping over a foot of new snow and providing that annual spring extension of riding we all crave.  There’s no denying it. the snowpack is deteriorating, hanging on by a threat  But thanks to the most recent storm, north aspects are going to be holding for quite some time.  Maybe it won’t be pow, but it’ll be skiing, and yes, it will be rad.

The warm temps weren’t a real problem until the last few days when clouds moved in.  Combine 45 degree temps at ridgelines with high clouds and you have the recipe for a cooked snowpack.  Luckily, the clouds moved on and the snow was able to get a nice hard freeze again.  Funny thing is, it’s not just the snowpack getting cooked. Looking around town, at work, school, wherever you go, you can tell the skiers and riders from your average alaskan.  Tanned face and arms, chapped lips and ear to ear perma-grins.  This is the best time to be a skier in Alaska.  if you know someone who’s still looking rather pasty, tell em to get off their ass and get into the hills.  There is no more weekend warrior.  The sunlight is blasting the ridges until at least 9pm, the temps are warm, downright tropical for some  thicker blooded locals. The snow is great and there’s no excuse to not be enjoying the mountains.

Brian Vaughan has been back in AK and was able to score the caretaker position at the HP Visitor center.  Lucky him, and lucky us!  We’ve been touring and skiing the area, utilizing the visitor center as a basecamp. I can only imagine what it must have been like to actually live here year round.  Kathy Wells, Hap, Tom Murphy and Nancy Pfeiffer had it right.  Plain and simple, they were and still are badasses.  In life, you have so few moments you know are hard to top, and just getting a taste of living at Independence has been one of those.  It’s going to be hard to beat the spring of 2012, especially March/April 2012.  I hope everyone has had as amazing a season as the HYT crew.

Maybe we didn’t update much this season, but we sure as hell were out there riding….and, apparently so were you.  Great riding and sharing stories with everyone this year.  On that note, I’d like to give a shout out to all the locals who help make Hatcher Pass the close knit, low key ski community we love.  This year has been amazing, and sharing the mountains with you keeps it that way. John and Tricia, Jared and Bro, Erin K, Erin J, Jeff Kase, Logan B, Ralph, Nancy, Dori, Willie and Mimi, The Basherdy’s, Trav Spaulding, Steve Reed, Gary W, Ray and Hannah, Rachel and Justin, Josh B, Max, Jerry, and of course Jim Helling and Howie Powder. Keep up the stoke and for all those I forgot…SEE YA IN THE MOUNTAINS!

All this skiing and getting after it had me a little down when I returned from the lower 48.  It took me a few days to find some untracked blower.  All good things come in time. I had to respect our mountains and wait for them to deliver when ready.  We’ve been exploring some new drainages the last week or two, and besides the amazing north facing snow, the adventure and unknown has added another level of excitement.  We’re all skiing things we’ve only dreamed of riding.  You know, those kind of lines where year after year you sit and think…”if only that had three more feet of snow” or “Shit, if that ever went, that line would be ALL TIME!”  Well friends….There’s three ft of snow and then some and YES….all those lines GO.  The goods are still out there, you just have to look a little bit harder and, yeah, it doesn’t hurt to have a friend with a snowmachine.

As we move on in to our annual transitional period, it’s worth mentioning that when it snows again in the Talkeetnas, it’s going to be scary for a bit.  It’s still pretty consistently cold in the mountains, with temps not moving more than 10 degrees up or down most days.  This is good for continued stability and keeping the snow cold and dry, but it also means persistent crusts on the sun baked faces and continued near surface faceting in shaded areas.

Home is where the pow is. Welcome back Brian.

As a jaded local, it’s rad to see all the lines ticked off at the pass, but I also have to chuckle inside at the folks who came up to Hatcher because the front range sucked or Turny developed some major crust issues.  Either you took this month for what it was…a stellar nearly once in a lifetime window of epicness at Hatcher, or you have now heavily skewed your perceptions of Hatcher Pass.  Hatcher is still that rocky, bare bones, ptex eating, facet farming, variable snowpack monster us locals have come to love.  But hey…it’s our place, and we love it.  We’re glad to share it, even if it’s an anomaly. 

I’ve heard of ski bum shacks but this is ridiculous?

There’s still tons of skiing to do.  With all the snow sitting in Hatcher, the Front Range and Turny, it’s looks like we’ll be shredding until June or later.  What a year.  Praise Ullr and here’s to seeing all your smiling faces and rippin turns out in the hills!

February; You could have fooled me.  It’s only the start of the month, but we’ve begun with moderate temps, a strong chinook, surprise snowfall and great skiing.  Yes…mid winter epicness in the Talkeetnas.  I know. It’s crazy. The usual weekend crew rolled up to the valley and we had two great days of skiing following last week’s storm and warm event.  A lot of south faces had been worked by the wind and the return of radiant warm solar presence in the sky. What a difference a month makes. For the first time in two months, I’ve been able to session, tour, relax, and fully enjoy the mountains.  No frozen fingers, wooden club toes, or the fear that slowing down will cost you the thinnest sliver of light..any light.  Our margins are increasing, we’re coming into the best time of the year to be in the mountains.

As great as the weekend skiing was, especially Sunday with it’s surprise bluebird sky, it was Monday and Tuesday that really made my week.  As a general rule, I don’t have much to complain about. I’m skiing a lot.  I may not be hoarding away the bucks for my retirement right now, but screw it.  Life is so damn good in the mountains.  Erin and I were able to ski solo (solo…as in a spousal pair) for the first time in a few weeks, and we made our way up to nosebleed.  As Erin was preparing to drop in, I was below her on the ridge lining up my photos and safety zones.  Just before she pushed over the edge, a single raven, soaring on a thermal updraft,  flew around the south face of microdot.  There was no indication of where the bird came from, or why it was taking this strange route across the mountain peaks, just a single bird gliding in complete silence.   Just as the raptor crossed above the upper granite slabs of Nosebleed and on into Sydney Creek Drainage, another flew around the peak, gliding gently along the same draft. The second of the pair  followed it’s comrade into the upper reaches of Archangel Valley.  I wasn’t quick enough to capture this on my camera, but it was a humbling experience.  As Erin pointed out just before she slipped her edges off the cornice…”Those are the souls of people who’ve passed to the other side.”  Knowing that we are those same type of people, traveling in that same terrain, on this quiet, empty Monday at Hatcher Pass, well it was enough to make you stop and think. We let the birds pass, dropped in, and thanked the mountains for the often forgotten prospect that…out here, you don’t mean shit.

Getting lost the right way

I followed up the Monday session with an invite to a few Girdwood friends. I had my eye on a few lines I scouted the previous day.  The snow was right, the temps were perfect, and the lighting was as good as it gets.  Brian and Zack bit.  They took the chance on Hatcher, on what everyone else was telling them would be shit, and were happily rewarded.  What an amazing day of skiing at the pass.  One things for sure; Maybe I won’t be rolling in dough, but I’ll have a hell of a lot of amazing memories when I’m old, gray and out of the game. Lots of memories; right before I take that last flight over the Microdot peak.

Check HPAC for snow and weather condition updates.  See you in the mountains!

Large Slab Material across from Motherlode & Wooded Pow by J. Phelps

I knew that Turnagain was going off this weekend, and has been for a while now, but I just couldn’t afford to make the drive…too many good things going on in the valley.  Friday night the Matsu Ski Club was showing the Winter Wildlands Alliance Backcountry Film fest, and it was topped off with Sweetgrass Productions’ new flick, “Solitaire.”  It was an amazing story told through inventive and unique cinematography.  The skiing wasn’t even always that great (well, the “skiing was, but not the conditions).  I like that take it or leave it mentality.  The folks at sweetgrass spent two years searching for something unique and different.  They found it.  The story told by “Solitaire” is a must see.  Thanks Matsu Ski Club.  Great event. Definitely motivated me to go out and explore my backyard more.

In times like these, when no matter how hard you search you don’t find decent snow (unless you drive 100 miles south on the Seward), it means a chance for exploration.  What do you have to lose? You could score, or worst case, you end up skiing shitty snow somewhere else.  It’s a win win, or is that a lose lose?  It’s important to remember how spoiled we are in Alaska.  We literally have easy to access, huge, gnarly mountains, right out our doors, in almost every direction.  This weekend Jared, Rob and I headed to a spot that begged for exploration. She’d failed me before, okay, maybe not so much failed, but didn’t deliver.  Like I said, I often go to these places when I have nothing to lose.  I’ll let you decide if we scored or not, but all in all, it was an amazing day of exploration and skiing new, very different terrain.

Motivation for exploration…

Of course, what kind of a local pusher of ski community would I be without mentioning the showing of “License to Thrill” at the bike and ski shop Saturday night.  Not too many folks showed up, but it was just an excuse to dress out in your raddest 80′s gear and watch a sick 1988 ski flick.  Check HPAC for condition updates and seriously…pray for snow.  Maybe burn a few skis?  See you in the mountains!

Fast Times at Backcountry Bike and Ski 2012

The first few days of the course were spent at the Hatcher Pass Lodge Visitor center, with groups fanning out into the bowl to conduct full pit data analysis of the Talkeetna snowpack.  It was heartbreaking to watch our beautiful snowpack being literally destroyed by 30mph+ winds on Friday and Saturday. While the skiing and touring was horribly cold, it was cool to watch the snowpack change before our eyes.  As always, everyone without the consistent local knowledge of the Talkeetnas and Hatcher Pass simply writes off our area as nothing but shit skiing and thin snow.  Good.  As always, if you don’t know, you don’t go.  Thanks to the lack of beta about Hatcher Pass, an increasingly frequent but inconsistent Avalanche Forecast, and an always thinner snowpack than the Kenai mountains, Hatcher Pass remains our diamond in the rough.  A place where a busy day means at most 30-40 people touring in the entire area, craggy misleading peaks that give many weekend warriors a case of the brown shorts, and a weakly enforced, misunderstood boundary between non-motorized and motorized terrain.  The common reaction to Hatcher Pass’ weather and snow was no different during our two days of AVY2 class.  The instructors knew better, but they simply kept it to themselves.

As we headed south, taking the course to the Turnagin area, a new round of snow finally hit the Southcentral Area.  Nearly 50cm+ (that’s about 20″ for Americans) of new snow fell the two days we were there, which made it especially difficult to leave girdwood each morning as we watched the ridiculously low density snow pile up outside.  I won’t go into too much more detail about the course, but I’ll say it was well worth my four days.  Having the mountains as a classroom is never a bad thing, and I honestly have no complaints.  A lot of folks have been skiing safely a long time, and a lot of them have never taken an avalanche course.  Hell, I would agree with most of them that, no, they might not get a lot out of an Avy 1 course.  While it may be basic, a friend, who is also a guide and instructor recently gave me an interesting way of looking at the importance of these courses. In any profession or area of technical expertise you are either required or suggested to partake in continuing education and in-service training (and yes, managing avalanche danger in the mountains is technical).  The arena of avalanche and snow interpretation is no different.  I’m a wildland firefighter, and used to be a lifeguard for quite a while.  Without continued training and practice, there’s no way I could have done my job effectively.  Now…take a minute and really think about it.  When is the last time you did a full group beacon check?  Buried a beacon and found it?  Buried two?  How about actually understood what an ECT or CT test is telling you about the snow, and I mean really understood, not just provide you with a quantitative asset.  Finally and most importantly, when is the last time you gathered together with 15 people and just talked snow, terrain management, and snow travel for three straight days? I’m not trying to sound pretentious or elitist. My point is…these classes are worth their weight in snow.  Deep, blower, over the head kind of snow!

It’s looking like our weather will be getting more cloudy, precipitous, and consistent again. It’s been between flurrying and snowing in Ptown since early this morning, but nothing significant to report.  The cold weather will also be hanging around, but the forecast looks like a weather pattern similar to the latter half of December, with clouds, slight clearing at times, and consistent yet low snow amounts.  Of course, this is always subject to change as the lows shift and move about the north pacific and bering sea. In fact, as of last night, NOAA still seemed unsure of the track of the upper level low pressure systems, only providing forecasts until thursday PM (see image at right).  As always, check HPAC for updates on snow conditions.  See you in the mountains!

This weekend saw some amazing skiing. For me it was all about eating a hue grease breakfast, and then soaking up as much sun and snow as I could.  The pass was about the busiest it’s been all season.  Sleds, boarders, skiers, snowshoers…you name it, they were out there.  Lots of big lines were skied in many locations, including some I haven’t seen ridden in a few years thanks to our meter and a half snowpack.

I’ll keep the poetic prose on this update to a minimum.  Without further adieu, I present the first HYT edit of the new year.  Here’s to 2012 skiers and riders!  We’re glad to share the mountain life with you!

And they think tele skiers are vegetarians

I want to thank my buddy Adam for coming out and riding the Talkeetnas on MLK Day.  Adam charged our line today and I was honestly reminded that I don’t get to ski with him enough.  I’ve posted some of his video work on HYT in the past, but it case you missed it…here’s the link.  We’re all trying to figure out how to keep this life going….Support local folks trying to make fun art.

In social event news, don’t forget about the 80′s ski movie/gathering at Backcountry Bike and Ski on the 28th of January. I’ve posted the flyer below…but in case you missed it, You HAVE TO DRESS IN 80′s ski gear. $2 bucks at the door to cover having the event. Things could get heavy, so bring your North Face One Piece and be ready to break it down.

As always…check HPAC for snow and condition updates.  This high pressure looks to hold on for a while.  The wind is already howling at my place, and moving tons of snow around. When that next storm comes, make sure you know what kind of snow you’re working with.

Jared finds the light to open’er up on Presidents

Secondly, my other ventures include starting up a business with my friend B Vaughan.  Our company’s name is Ptarmigan Ptrails, and we hope to be bringing some amazing mountain biking and hiking trails to the region over the next few years.  In conjunction with PTrails; myself and a working group in Palmer has been feverishly slaving away to get funding and construction of a Palmer Bike Park under way in summer 2012!  So, why am I telling you all this?  Does it really matter whether I update or not, or what I do?  Well, to me it does, and I don’t want to let down the people that actively visit the site.  So with that said, bare with me, enjoy the photos in this update and keep checking back for more!  I promise we won’t disappoint.

Steeze-Master 5000                                        Rolling over the blower

After coming off a four day trip on Resurrection Pass (brutal), I gave my toes a few days to recover and was getting antsy to make some turns in the high country.  There’s a rag-tag crew of the usual folks hanging around during the holidays, and we managed to put together a pretty fun pickup crew of ski partners three days in a row.  I always sound off on here about how much I love Hatcher, how great the community is, and so on and so on, but the past few days have been downright epic.  Mitch came up from Anchorage for the first time in month, and along with Jared, Logan and Jon, we headed up to ski Microdot.  The south face was looking less than appealing, so we dropped in to deep deep Nosebleed, finding untracked snow, and blower, although grabby, pow!  The light was in and out, but the best part of the day was trading off hooting sessions with Jeff Kase and his bud Mark, who were yo-yoing runs with us all afternoon.  What a great place to live, where you can head up in to the mountains, ski with new partners, see two cars in the lot, and have a great comraderie with everyone you see in the pass.  That’s what I’m all about, that’s the reason I started HatchYourTrax.  I love seeing people hoot and holler for each other, especially from across the valley or watching from the skin track.

Friday, Jeff, Jared, Mark and I toured up President’s…what has seemingly become our new holdover. President’s, no, all of Marmot Mt, has taken on a new face this year.  We’re exploring new zones, finding stashes of spines, drops and ridges we’d never even thought to explore. I’m truly in ski bum heaven; wait…did I pay my mortgage? Yeah…ok back to it.  We lapped up the SE face of president’s and were treated to ever improving light.  Besides the cold weather, we couldn’t have asked for a better session.  We just keep lucking out on these holes in the fog layer.

The same goes for today….Erin, Jared, Nick and I pulled it together for what we thought would be a mundane morning of tree skiing in low angle meadows, but as we drove higher up the pass, the layer of clouds began to, not necessarily burn off, but, simply end.  The clouds just sat between an upper atmosphere inversion and the shit-soup that has socked in Ptown for the past two days.  We opted to ditch the meadow plan and toured up Marmot proper, bypassing the decent light on the main gut of the peak and dropping first tracks into Rae Wallace.  Erin’s been craving a line in Rae Wallace all season, and she got first turns.  What a morning.  we capped it off with a hot chocolate and warm toes inside the A-Frame.  I’m sorry, but you just can’t beat that and no…I’m not driving to Turnagin.

Jeff killin it – slashing curtains at the White House!

Before I go, in rad, hot style, I wanted to let everyone know that HYT and Backcountry Bike and Ski will be showing one of Greg Stump’s classic ski films on Saturday January 28th, at the shop in downtown Palmer.  This event is just for fun and for folks to come hang out, so don’t expect a movie screening/premier type of atmosphere.  The cost is $2 at the door, and you have to dress in some type of 80′s ski gear.  Don’t be a gaper, you know, too cool to get into the hot style of the 80′s.  It’s all in fun. Show up in your North Face one-sy, Rear Entry boots, Ray Ban’s, Vaurnet Goggles, and bring your 210′s!

What: 80′s Ski Movie Night

Where: Backcountry Bike & Ski

When: Saturday, January 28th…7pm

Cost: $2 at the door

Erin and I head to Florida for 10 days, so, ski some deep, look for that break in the clouds, and enjoy the best Talkeetna Winter in years!

Archangel Road…President’s Day Run and Lookers right gully

As I drove up the road, the evidence of strong, gusty winds and heavy wet snow was immediately apparent.  Leeward slopes were fat and loaded with new snow, while windward ridges were exposed from snow transport, wind loading, and showed recent avalanche activity.  A couple of DOT employees were sitting at the hairpin by the motherlode, and the road to the top was closed.  DOT was removing avy debris from somewhere around mile 17….that’s all the info they had.  Besides the usual culprits creating avy’s that cross the road, literally every drainage and gully on SE facing Presidents Ridge (or Marmot Mountain, whatever you call it) had natural avalanche activity.   Some slides were new snow failing in soft slabs, while others ripped out to the ground.  Even lower angle slopes in the lower sections of the drainages slid. As stable as our snow was, it was comprised almost entirely of light density fluff and faceting snow.  This storm came in hot, heavy and wet…could be good for our snowpack in the long run. Let’s see what this avy cycle flushes out. Be careful out there, and check the Hatcher Pass Avy Center for more detailed info.  The link is in the right hand sidebar under Snow Observations (HPAC).

Marmot Peak is the black & white shot on the right

According to the NWS, our weather pattern is holding strong, with a day or so of clear weather and another round of triple point lows slamming into the region.  Praise Ullr and get some!  The next storm will be warmer than today, but nowhere near as balmy as this weekend’s event.  The consistent pattern of snow and blow looks to continue for Anchorage and Turnagin Arm as the Talkeetnas set up for a decent storm and slightly lower temps.  Check the marmot cam and Independence Snotel as the storm develops.

December 7th, 2011 – A day of infamy…and heavy, DUMPING SNOW!

In other news…super huge thanks to everyone who came out to watch Attack of La Nina! Rob delivered on the suds, MSP delivered on the sick skiing, and valley skiers showed up to support the local scene!  We had a blast and hope you all did too!  Keep checking back for more updates and info on our show in January!

  
Clenching for Quarters!  Those stickers were worth it right?

I’ve been skiing with a lot of different people lately.  And, while it’s actually been quite fun and energizing, keeping the dedicated Hatcher crew has been difficult.  It’s windy, the snow is thin, there’s minimal storm skiing (that you know of)  and well, people have jobs.  I guess that’s the difference between skiing professionally, and being a professional that skis.  For most of us, skiing isn’t the sweet life portrayed in lifestyle shots and endless sections of ski porn and patagucci ads.  The reality is a lot different, and for those of you reading this, I probably don’t need to write it, because you know.  Being a professional that skis (the only kind of pro skiers that I know) means accepting shitty light and thin snow, understanding that some skiing is better than no skiing, and waking your happy ass up at 6:30 AM to get out and beat all the other warriors to the leftover fresh from the mid week storm.  These are good ski partners…don’t take them for granted.  I skied 4 0f the 5 last days, everyday with different partners.  Today held good snow with horrible light and I actually began bitching about it.  Shame on me. SHAME.  Here’s to the professional working skiers, and to me keeping my spoiled rotten, powder filled, ski bum mouth shut.  Here’s to skiing!

As for snow conditions, there’s a myriad of conditions out there, but decent to excellent skiing as well. Friday we storm skied lower gov and ran into a whole crew of local folks.  It was puking snow, but with temps around 5-10 degrees, the snow density was extremely light.  Saturday and Sunday saw us skiing off the peak of Marmot, down the western gullies above the A Frame.  Great snow.

The windslab is still obvious in many windward locations, but on the west and southwest slopes, there seemed to be significant leeward loading, and the skiing was bottomless and blower (except for a few rocks).  I only dug a small hand pit on saturday morning.  The windslab seems to be bonding pretty well to the layer of lighter snow below it.  It took a lot of strength to get the slab and column to shear off, and when it did, the failure was still of q3 quality. The lingering windslab from last weak is pretty unreactive, but could still be a problem if we get heavier snow.  The snow below the 11/17 windslab is showing signs of faceting, so as the storm snow piles up this week, keep in eye out.

A temperature inversion on Saturday brought calm winds, clear skies above 1000′ and temps in the 10-15 range. No obvious signs of natural avalanches occurring during or after the storm, but there were a few cornice breaks above gullies on the upper western face of marmot (probably my biggest concern). The new snow was extremely light, and considering the rate of precipitation, the snowpack seems to be adjusting well.  There’s a huge storm system moving in from the South and tracking to the west over the next few days.  NWS issued a special weather statement for the South Central Area.  The temps are supposed to rise Wednesday night, but hopefully we stay cold enough to keep it all snow.  Hope everyone had an amazing thanksgiving, and hope to see you at Attack of La Nina this Friday!

Following one of the coldest tours I’ve been on for some time (Friday), we headed out Sunday with no clear objective in mind.  Knowing how tricky reading the snow would be, we opted to head deep into Fishhook valley.  Perhaps the wind hadn’t blasted the upper reaches sheltered by the towering slabs of Granite mountain and Independence Peak.  While there were small pockets of good snow, it was extremely difficult to anticipate where a wind slab and wind buff began.  There was sustrugi pow and sustrugi windslab.  We never found that elusive line holding the pow.  Not on the north, south, east, or west aspects.  Given, some aspects have better conditions than others, but I still wouldn’t call it great skiing. I don’t have the picture of it, but someone literally traversed the entire upper 1/4 of the slope from Hatch Peak down the entire length of Bald Ridge.  Sounds fun!

When mellow turns and a long tour are on tap for the day, I often end up being extremely surprised by how much fun I’m having.  Sometimes you just need to take it all in, to remind yourself that…this place is AMAZING. I mean, truly, it sounds doofy, but no eloquent prose or written form, nor photo or video, can accurately describe the presence, energy, and awesome experience that is touring through Hatcher Pass.  We spent the afternoon eying lines for the future, making mental notes on routes and safety zones, and touring through massive boulder fields sitting below gigantic granite slabs.  While some folks were wallowing in the epic conditions on Marmot, deep in the valley, Erin and I skied a 300′ apron while Jared and Kimbrough attempted to make it to Indy Gap but lost the light and the motivation to go higher. All in all, it was a pretty great little Sunday; a Sunday touring with great friends.  In my eyes, Hatcher totally delivered the goods.

GET LOW!

In weather news, it looks like we’ll be getting a small refresh tonight, but along with that, the valley will be getting winds into the 30mph range.  I’m interested to see how the snow piles up at the pass.  Following the storm it’s supposed to stay cold and breezy. The current snowpack is strong, but with new snow and windloading, our avalanche danger will definitely increase.  In our present case, the top layer of the snowpack ranges from breakable to bomb proof wind slab, to areas of small, albeit deep wind deposited light snow.  Pretty much, there’s no uniformity on top.  Under those slabs, lies less dense and even faceted snow, sitting atop a more uniform layer of consolidated snow,

I’ll try and head up tomorrow afternoon to see what the storm brings and keep everyone posted.  As always, keep checking HPAC for detailed observations and updates.  Turnagin, Kenai and the western sound are in a Blizzard Warning, with gusts up to 65mph near Whitter and a forecasted storm total of 17″ in town.  That opening day at Alyeska could be great (if you have a pass).  It’s about time we finally  get a low that pushed back on the intense high pressure sitting in the interior.

Hap has a crappy view from his windows