Alaska 2011

This year Alaska has been a different experience.  Cold storms early in the year kept snow from sticking to the faces as it typically does.  Combined with high winds that scoured the ranges, left Alaska in a state that has never been seen since helicopter skiing has started there.  Thus many have canceled their trips including film crews.
Filming with TGR in Alaska is a dream come true for any skier in the pro game.  It shows on a year like this one.  As a group we had a spot we planned on going to.  After our guide and Ian MacIntosh flew that zone in a fixed wing flight, it was decided to go else were.  3 more fixed wing flights brought us into Juneau with more options and less traffic to deal with, as well as un skied lines for the taking.  The logistics didn’t end there.  Thoughts of renting a boat and staying at other lodges were thrown around.  All the bases were covered to end up where we did.  Amazing amount of effort and knowledge.
In the end my trip was the shortest I have had in years to pursue another trip in Europe. Although I missed it due to weather not conditions, I saw that what we have created up there is taken to heart by many.  I knew well before going I may get nothing.  People saying that there was no snow there were very wrong.  Maybe not the deep powder the ski porn addicts dream of , but it’s Alaska!  There are glaciers that stretch hundreds of miles with snow covered peaks.  Many times there is to much weather, you have to be there to wait it out for weeks on end.  Being there in March still rings true as hit or miss, but more of a miss.  April has brought it back into form.  With all the snow in the lower 48 people have forgotten what Alaska is all about this year.  Low tide or not its still the same to me, a gamble!