Skiing Volcanic Ash

Mount Redoubt erupted. And erupted again, and again and again, so many times that I lost count. It's like trying to count the number of times the wind blew. With so much erupting, Redoubt's grey-brown ash eventually made it to our ski hills.

Like a heavy layer of dust, the ash was buried beneath 5" of fresh snow at Alyeska. Other than the very strange appearance, it had neglible effects on off-trail skiing.

The US alpine skiing championships are being held at Alyeska, and the ash seemed to have little effect on the slalom today. The weather hasn't cooperated for the races - too much snow. And now the Redoubt fallout. How do you wax for ash?

The upper-most Chair 6 closed at 1:40 p.m. today. The resort reported high wind was the reason for the closure; the peak gust recorded so far today was 39 mph according to the weather station at the top of the quad. Tanaka had untracked snow near the southern boundary, so we played there for several short runs after Chair 6 closed.

Fresh Four

Last week's chinook was replaced with spring snow; about four fresh inches accumulated on the Anchorage Hillside. After sending off our pride and joy, our uber kid, the perfect child back to college this morning, then some heartbroken moping, and with volcanic ash from Mt. Redoubt blowing elsewhere, skiing Near Point's fresh four was necessary.

Near Point, in the background above the homestead, looked whiter than it really is. The upper 500 feet were extremely boney, not worth returning. Near Point alpine was generally difficult, either rocks or sastrugi lurked beneath the four fresh. Below the brush line skied OK with mashed potato-like glop on southern aspects, and soft powder on western aspects. The Near Point tilted terraine has been better, but Near Point Trail presently has exceptional touring conditions. North-facing aspects are still great above 1500 ft, and slightly crunchy beneath the fresh 4" at lower elevations.

South facing slope

West facing slopes had good snow, but north facing slopes are the best.

Near Point Trail

Stuckagain Skiing

After a marvelous run of sunny days with cold nights and great snow, we awoke to 6" fresh at Stuckagain! While a couple of feet has fallen in small amounts, this is the largest snowfall since our big meltdown in January. This called for Front Range foray.




Backdoor Trail












Breaking trail became a chore above timberline on Wolverine with the trail sinking knee deep. Perhaps it was 5 straight days of touring on the rugged touring set up, which compared to downhill or AT, demands a little more from those little muscles in the feet and a lot more from the big core muscles. In any case, I feel it, and it hurts so good.


Wolverine Trail












Had to return to the line I tried a couple of days ago. I found the descent this time. It's not so much the line, but the snow quality on the line; I found the good snow. But, I struggled to find the gap in the alders to cross the ravine and reach the north ridge of Wolverine. After a little searching I found it - it's easy to see from a distance as shown below.













After catching the Alyeska and Arctic Valley snow reports, I wondered if hanging around Stuckagain was the best place to be. And it turned out that the snow quality here is very, very good - no face shots, but worthy of the effort and time.