Endless Winter or Never Summer

We are still in the accumulation mode. 6 inches at the trailhead lot near where this picture was taken, and it was all powder. So is summer going to come? Or are we going to ski up until next season :)

Crust Skiing

Some of the best skiing in Anchorage is in the spring when a crust forms and you can skate for great distances out in the backcountry. A guy can easily cover some distance quickly. Its a great way to end a ski season.

We headed up to Williwaw today under clear skies, a bit of wind making things cold but it was great snow and a wonderful day. Hopefully we'll have another month of this.

The Hat Trick

Three Day weekends are always great to have off in the winter time. time for skiing in the mountains and enjoying powder. its a great way to have fun and spend time with friends.






























Everybody had fun, even Ganik.

Valley Happy Girl

Who wouldn't be happy on a day like today? Clear, Crisp and Sunny with 6 inches of fresh dry powder to ski and run in.

Hot Damn! Pegging the fun-o-meter in Thompson Pass

We spent our 3 day presidents day holiday near Thompson Pass camped between Icy Stair Step and Python Peak. Even though the first couple of days were windy and snowy, the company of the Valdezeans and a great camping situation pegged the fun-o-meter. Its amazing how much laughing a guy can have inside a megamid. What an enjoyable group of folks who I met on the telemarktips discussion forums.

Despite the socked in weather we were still able to get some turns in every day. And when the bluebird landed on our door step, we were ready for even more fun.

can you spot the other dog in the 2nd picture?

Touring out Center Ridge makes for some great scenery and a good workout to get to any tele-terrain. We hit the peak at the end of Center Ridge today after breaking trail from the weather station. A good six inches of powder on a a nice base. A long day for both Ganik and I, but that's what we are built for....slogging!

Day 25

A couple of scenes from ski day number 25 on Manitoba Mountain.
First me skinning up the hill before a slide down.


Now after the skins come off, a little treat for the dogs before we drive the bus down. Gotta refuel! Every malamute is interested in food after slogging up!

Photos by Pete Smith!

This was my first day on the Glittertinds with Excursion boots. Glittertinds are narrow skis, 50 something underfoot. With the excursions, and leaning into the backseat, they steered fine in the powder of the day. Steve Barnet was right!

More Fun...

nothing is more enjoyable for the dogs than getting out and having fun....here's a shot of them chasing after us as we slide down the hill.

Here's Ganik taking a break with Ptarmigan Peak behind him...

and if you are in need of a good laugh or are really freakin' bored...view this windows media file.
The Biteneckers 1

Happy Girl

When Babe(Jago) came into our home she was scared. So scared she remained hidden in her dog house until we extracted her by pulling her out by brute force. The sound of footsteps from walking in the snow scared her. Countless times we were jerked off our feet by somebody in the vicinity way out of touching range. With alot of patience, keeping her below her threshhold, having another dog around for companionship and to see how good life can get, giving her a spot she could feel unthreatened in and setting up a routine. She now has flourished into a dog who talks constantly, wags her tail anytime she sees us, loves to sit with me and get petted, allows strangers to pet her when they have food, pushes up against me when I sit on the floor and loves to sit in the kitchen and beg.

Two pictures from this weekend:



















Enjoy!

Happy WooHoo-lidays

visiting the dark slide

We try to get out skijoring after work as much as we can. This time of year its dark dark dark. But we still go and have a great time, you can tell by the looks on our faces to the left. We carry headlamps in case we need them, like when we run into Bullwinkle. But we prefer navigating by star.

Moonlight skiing

As far as skiing goes, not much is more enjoyable than skiing on a full moon lit night. Tonight we were out with friends and 5 rescued malamutes and husky up at glen alps. 8 inches of 18 degree powder, not a cloud in the sky and the full moon. You couldn't get a better evening to cross country ski.

telemark skiing

I like to ski, what can I say? I've been cross country skiing now for 32 years. Taken up skijoring as well, and that's fun too. Now for 4 years I been telemark skiing by skinning up the hill, and sliding down every Saturday almost, from October to May. I probably telemark skied 40 full days last year. What can I say? I like to hike up and ski down, what could be funner?

HEY! I see my turkey and its running away!!!

Its our 28th annual ski and eat for Thanksgiving. This morning we broke trail in 12 inches or so of powder. Ganik was out front taking the brunt of trail breaking which made things easier on me. About 3 miles out we suprised a moose in the trail which jumped up like a jack in the box, Boing! Babe(Jago) particularly went nuts and so did the moose around her 12 in close vicinity were running away while she screamed "HEY I see my turkey and its running away!". Nicki of course went down luckily I stayed up .


Getting the turkey in the oven is next!

gettin' out again

Yesterday I skijored Ganik up to the base of Manitoba. With my busted up rib it helped! Once we started climbing it was a different story. He ended up wallowing in some deep powder when the trail breaker headed up the middle of a shallow gully instead of a ridgeline.

Skin tracks are hard enough on a dog but in deep powder they are hell. All the dogs were having problems and had we known the powder was this deep would have left the dogs at home.

It was mashed potato down low, a nice ankle biting crust from about 1600 feet to 2300 feet. A break able crust for another couple hundred feet then it was powder. Great snow for turning but the wind kicked up and covered our up track between runs. Thankfully it was shallow slope so we felt the avi danger was down.

Ouch! That Hurts!

Started out skijoring when we hit some rock hidden by snow. Not a big surprised since we don't have alot of snow, but still, my feet came to a standstill and my chest thumped the ground pretty good. Knocked the wind out of me. Later I realized my thumb was sprained and for a bit thought a rib was busted. Thank goodness not only bruised. but it busted the LCD display on the camera :( Here's a pic from out on the trail.

Season Opener

Today was our season opener skiing. A little tour for turns down in Turnagain Pass. Last year we got 80 days in, and today we started towards that goal. We skied that little ridge to the above and right of Valley's ear in the shadows in the foreground of Kickstep mtn and below the bowl to the left of kickstep. Kickstep is the peak to the right, Sure feels good to get the skis on again and get out.

Crusty down below 1600 feet, nice powder above that. Surface hoar everywhere. I hope something comes in wet to take that away or we are in big trouble this ski season.

Portals of Love

When you build something yourself you can take the time to build in stuff you'd like to have to make life easier. So I added Portals to the deck railing so the dogs could look out and see what's going on outside their yard. Here's Ganik looking out one of the portals.






this is one of the portals looking towards Flattop in Chugach State Park.

















And the actual portal Ganik was looking out when I took the picture.

every dog I know that has lived in porcupine country encounters them sometime in their career as a dog. Some are worse than others. Here's Valley's encounter with the bristley beasts. Ha! 3 quills. Not too bad. I've had to pull hundreds out of dogs before. Lucky us. Ganik ignored the thing and Babe(jago) trotted way out of her way to avoid the thing.

This weekend marks our 4th anniversary with Babe(Jago). No other dog has changed our life as much as she has. To live with her we saw that we needed to change the way we lived with dogs, particularly a shy dog. From a malamute who stayed in her dog house for a year, she's now falling asleep on our thighs and chest. From a dog who blew our her adrenal gland in fear, she now leads runs around confident and happy. Thanks Babe for all the positive things you brought to us!