ryanl Posted January 22, 2008 Share Posted January 22, 2008 (edited) Trip: Alaska Mountain - Southeast Face Date: 1/20/2008 Trip Report: After I got my first glimpse of the gold up Gold Creek last weekend I decided I had to head back. A few pictures, some sandbagged time predictions, and a promising forecast lured my buddy Mark Simon to the 65th street carpark for an early morning rendezvous, along with my brother and sister-in-law who'd come up from Portland for the weekend. Here's the motivating glimpse of Alaska I had last weekend. We skied from the high point, straight down to the skier's right of the main gully that splits the face: The beat down from the week before was a distant memory as the four of us skinned away from the car a little after 6 on Sunday morning. The snow down in the valley was incredible. Super light, mid shin deep powder at 2800’. In Washington. Mind boggling. Erica with early smiles: Mark making a highway: Our excitement clouded the reality of breaking trail for 7 hours. For such a little mountain, Alaska sure felt big. Our only moment of hesitation came above Alaska lake when we used our axes to climb through steep trees, deep powder, and occasional ice (except Mark, who cowboyed up old school style carrying a ski in each hand.) Mike and Erica on the summit ridge: The ski down was very good, but a little less perfect than we’d imagined. The top 500 feet was silky smooth on top of hard pack. Fast and fun. The next 1000’ brought powder, and the occasional face shot, but the residue of last week’s massive avalanches made itself felt every now and again. The final 500’ was butter. (I might be wrong about the vertical- I never really checked) We pitched out the top 800 feet, since we were releasing surface slabs quite frequently, but we skied the final (approx) 1200’ one at a time, top to bottom. Good fun. Edited January 23, 2008 by ryanl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NateF Posted January 22, 2008 Share Posted January 22, 2008 Looks pretty sweet, thanks for posting TR! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
111 Posted January 22, 2008 Share Posted January 22, 2008 that looks like heaven! I = So Jealous Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
denalidave Posted January 22, 2008 Share Posted January 22, 2008 NICE! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skykilo Posted January 22, 2008 Share Posted January 22, 2008 Glad you got it. Love that line. Post your zoom shot of the slab in your Alaska photo! I know you have it. And you skied the Southeast Face. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanl Posted January 23, 2008 Author Share Posted January 23, 2008 And you skied the Southeast Face. Details, details. I guess that would explain why early in the tour I started to head towards the car without realizing that I was going in the wrong direction. here are those close ups- too bad the super zoom came out blurry. Still looks massive. [/img] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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