Springtime, and hot pow

You'd think that after 23 years or something of skiing, that I'd get used to how quickly winter flies by, but once again, here it is almost the end of April and I'm totally shocked that winter is probably already over! (I say probably because you never know what the weather will do these days, especially because it seems like winter is just picking up momentum here in Tahoe! Also, I'm trying to use reverse-psychology on Ullr--if we act like winter is over, then maybe we'll be pleasantly surprised with another two feet?!)

It definitely was winter still up in Alaska, where I spent the past week--I got to go back with a different crew this time, Higher Ground Productions. They're working their butts off, making a documentary about big mountain skiing, and I can't wait to see the finished product. We flew into Anchorage, and then loaded up two of my favorite-named planes, a beaver and an otter, and flew about 40 minutes northwest of Anchorage, to a cabin on frozen Judd Lake in the Tordrillo Range. It's a new lodge, owned by Mike Overcast, Jeremy Nobis, and Tommy Moe, all of whom were there, and operated by Chugach Powder Guides. It was a totally sweet trip--we hung out in a beautiful log lodge, everyone there was great, and we even saw amazing, purple, red, and green Northern lights one night, shimmering all over the sky. Oh, and the skiing--the mountains there are huge. We skied four out of six days, which is a great percentage for Alaska. The avie danger was considerable, so we took it easy, especially because many of the runs you would normally drool over there are huge--if anything went wrong, it would be a big slide, not just slough. So we went for smaller runs with good snow, and then, one day, we skied Mount Spurr, an active volcano, from 11,000 feet. The ski itself was pretty mellow (Bill Dyer and Overcast navigated the upper, 'shrunded section roped up, and then we followed their tracks)--wind-scoured ice and rime up high and wind-packed drifts down below made for some nice turns, but the coolest part was hanging out up top. We could see Denali and Foraker to the north, the fumarole was constantly sending up sulphur smoke right next to us, and you could see the ocean to the southeast. Awesome! On down days, we would cruise around the lake on snowshoes with Baxter, the resident black lab and tireless outdoor fiend. And we watched Grizzly Man one day--have you seen that? It's very interesting--sad, too, but really fascinating, with incredible bear footage.

I had Easter dinner at Grandma Bunny's house, in Seattle, and now I'm back in Squaw. The last three days have been spring skiing to the max--hot and sunny, with hot pow, and corn in spots. There's been so much snow here that tons of lines are in right now that you normally can't even ski mid-winter--it's like a whole new realm of spring skiing, and it's blowing my mind! Heh. Hopefully the rain that started an hour ago will turn to snow tonight--because it's been such a great winter, I'm just not ready for it to end yet.