Early Retirement ;) Our Spring Skiing Spines in Alaska

We left our home in Golden BC on April 1st, with a few stops (including Liard hot springs - a total must!) and after 46 hours of driving, we arrived at Thompson Pass, Alaska on April 6th. We arrived in the dark to heavy winds, -10 degrees celsius and snow banks 14 feet high. The morning was a different story, we woke to the sound of a man stumbling out of his tent, sounding a bit hungover and yelling “Code blue!” So with over 13 hours of daylight and pretty bomber avalanche conditions we were very ready to get on the sleds. We spent the next 3 and half weeks in a high pressure system, exploring huge glaciers on our snowmobiles, skiing and powder and sometimes less than powder, hoping for a weather day to rest our tired legs.

The skiing was a mix of chill powder runs with unreal vistas, and bulletproof 45 degree slopes above open serac fall that had us puckered. It’s so rare to see a ski line, then have conditions so perfect to ski it that day. One day that comes to mind is when I saw what looked to be a cool sled ski lap, checked it out on Fatmaps, sledded across a massive glacier, and we were skiing it in less than 2 hours. Typically for sporty lines at home we would see it one day, then wait weeks for weather and snow conditions to align before we were comfortable enough to ski it. Thank you coastal snowpack!

After 3 weeks in Thompson pass the weather was getting warmer and the days were so long the snow was no longer freezing at night, we went from powder to the corn harvest of a lifetime to a fully isothermic snowpack in about 3 days. We packed up and headed further northwest to Turnagain Pass where we ski toured and got mostly skunked, likely due to being too coastal and low.! But we were lucky enough to get passes for Alyeska’s slush cup, good thing we brought a full bin of costumes ‘just in case’. What a fun day! And what a weird beverage a “Fizz” is? Some secret recipe at the lodge at the top of the resort, it's creamy, slushy, fizzy and spiced. I still don’t know if any of us liked it or not.

The next day we headed for Hatcher pass. Unfortunately the melting situation there was worse than Turnagain and we finally felt like we got skunked. But then some friendly Alaskans showed up to ski tour and we could hear them on the slope behind the camper having the best time. We decided it was our attitude that was the problem, not the conditions. We ski toured the following two days and had so much fun!

When the weather finally rolled in we headed to Talkeetna which would be our Northernmost part of the trip. We had lofty plans of base camping in Denali National Park but there were no weather windows in the 10 day or 3 week forecast. We did get to spend an evening at the Denali Brewing Company where mojitos are on tap, then the Talkeetna Inn for open mic night. They serve gin out of a paint thinner type tin, and it decididly also tasted like paint thinner. We finally decided that our time skiing in Alaska was probably up, and we started making our way back to Canada, for the second half of the trip. Mountain biking!

All of the animals we saw driving!! Moose, caribou, sheep, deer, bison and on our way home sooo many bears! We also got bougie and heli skied one day! Big Duff (our guide) took us and 2 of our friends on some cruisy sun/wind/temperature crust ski runs which left us disappointed, only to be followed by a fabulous nose feature. And then let us ski with other Golden friends and our two groups skied a line called “New World”. We went from FGP to ultra gnar/no fall zone with little heads up. But we all quite enjoyed ourselves and were taken back to the lodge after for waffle fries and a beer. We can confirm heli skiing in Alaska doesn’t disappoint!

There’s no outhouses open in the winter at Thompson pass and our camper doesn’t have a bathroom, so we had to use a bucket in the parking lot. It wasn’t glorious but it did the trick. We even built a little shelter in the snow bank and a privacy wall which worked shockingly well! Until it got warm and we had to wear a rain jacket to use it because it seemed to be the first place in the parking lot the sun would hit causing heavy melt onto the user..

We both primarily wore our GFT’s on this trip, they’re the most comfortable/versatile inner boots to use in both our sled boots and ski touring boots. They were the obvious choice for exploration days when we weren’t sure how much skiing vs boot packing vs sled skiing we would be doing. On the sled ski only days (meaning no touring and no boot packing) I opted for my freerides because I prefer how they stiffen my soft touring shell. This year I also tried out the new leather Zipfit footbeds, historically I’ve used custom footbeds over drop ins and I have to say I was impressed. They were new so didn’t have the pungent odor my old ones did, but even after many long and hot spring days they still smelled like fresh leather. I also found them easier to slide my foot into vs fabric topped ones. They were supportive but not too aggressive on the lateral aspects of my foot to cause cramping because I am regretfully not someone with arch support in many of my shoes, too much support can be uncomfortable. James also used some prototype liners for lots of the trip so I don’t think you can talk about those yet.