Alaska part 2

Well now I'm back in America and miss my Alaska life of being isolated, surrounded by epic peaks, and the luxury of helicopter lifts. But there are few last things from the trip that are worth noting...one that I will only mention quickly is Jay our roommate. He ended up slipping deeper into a strange state that was becoming increasingly more dangerous. For example one night when we were returning from dinner there was a large moose in our driveway which we chased up to the house in the van. Jay was already there with his girlfriend, he had been saying that he had fed a moose an apple a few days prior, so Chris, Josh, Tim, Mike and I are in the van which is stuck on the steep part of the driveway. Then Jay comes outside with a pear in his hand. He decided it was a good idea to approach the giant moose, the moose charged him! He ran back into the house as the moose hit his hump on the top of the entryway, which was almost ten feet high! If your on facebook you can check out Timmy Dutton's video of this attack under his profile. A couple days later Jay decided that he was not in the correct place and was going to leave guide school. But before he could leave on his own he did a few final acts that lead to him being escorded to the farry terminal and put on a boat out of there. Our house was much more comfortable for the rest of school!

So the last week at guide school was focused on crevasse rescue and standard operating procedures at Alaska Heli Skiing company. The crevasse we repelled into was only like 15 feet deep and only had a bit of blue ice around it but was still a cool feeling to be inside a large glacier. We practiced making snow anchors and pully systems, it was a good day of practicing these techniques. After a really fun graduation party at Seandog and Vikki's house with a sweet bon-fire and tacos it was time to re-enter the real world. When we got to Juneau we had a great meal with Kanaan, his father Karl, and his mother Katie. It was so nice to have a real meal! The next day we shralped at Eaglecrest it was super fun day of hiking for powder and ripping through the trees. Then it was time to fly to Seattle, it was a nice day so I could actually see out of the plane which was really beautiful. Now I've been kicking it in Seattle and lovin it!

Both Alaska post's photos are from Mr. Timmy Dutton.

Alaska part 1

First ever trip to Alaska...and defiantly not the last! The journey up here started with a 10 hour drive to Seattle that required 3 redbulls and left me pretty cracked out when I got to DeeJay's apartment so we proceeded to watch snowboard and ski movies that only ampt up my stoke farther. I got to the airport and made it to the security area with my camera bag but had forgotten that I had a leather man tool in there...so I had to deal with that and mail it home. Walked over towards the gate looking for the man,the mystery, the Timmy. I found him geeking out on his iphone and a huge smile on his face. So we sat there and discussed the fact that we were in route to Alaska!!! We met a few Juneau locals and had a nice short flight and one of the girls we met gave us a ride with her boyfriend to our hotel. We schlepped all our gear up to the room and took a much needed nap. Then the next day we had to wait for the ferry that left at 1:30 in the morning so we left all our gear at the hotel and wandered around Juneau and had a danky breakfast!

Then we got on to the ferry and tried to sleep why we cruised up to Haines. Upon arrival we converged on the group of guide schoolers and Seandog the man behind Alaska Heli Skiing. We did a quick grocery mission then it was straight to our WAFA (Wilderness advanced first aid) course, that first day was extremely difficult to stay awake that first day. That night we went to our house and met our roommates; Chris a badass tele-skier and bull rider from Vermont, Josh who laid himself off from his office space style job in Maine, then Jay from Mt. Baker area who brought his Swedish girlfriend and his weird ass ego. Our house is at 35 mile, while the heli pad is at 33 mile, we have an epic view of some of the surrounding peaks and some neighborly moose. After 4 days of learning about injury assessment, cpr, splinting and field procedures it was time to begin avalanche training. Our teacher Bill is a world renowned snow science professional and his assistant Kent who is Alaska Heli Skiing's avalanche forecaster. This 5 day course was amazing, it is considered an avalanche 1 but they said it is equivalent to an avy. 2 course. I learned more about snow in that class then I ever imagined now it is all about applying that knowledge and studying snow on my own as both a tool and for exposure to different situations. Part of that course we got our first 4 days heli days, and I must say my first Ak turns were a bit disappointing, it was a super mellow 200 vertical foot run down to an area to do avalanche beacon drills. then another mellow run to the PZ (pick-up zone). The next day we dug a bunch of pits and learned a grip of stability tests then skied a run thru some gnarly bushes down to our house. Day 3 on the heli was way better, we skied down to "dangerous" pitch and dug a pit and did a snow profile, which I learned a lot from, then we got to shralp! There was a bunch of single and double pillows and some fun pitches. Then at the bottom is what I would consider my first true pillow line, a 7 pillow drop that I made to the second to last pillow and got bucked hard, landed sort of and rag dolled down the landing; you can see my tracks bouncing down the slope bellow the line.

Then the next day we got to strictly shralp! We went out, scouted a zone and got first tracks down it, a sweet 4k vertical run that had some spines and pillows thru-out it. It was called buns of steal and it got the burn on, my legs were still burning when we got back to 33. We got some!!! It was great to get some true AK lines! Then we had our first day off so we slept in and did a shopping mission to town 33 miles away and some laundry. Then we got a morning shralp session...in the heli! It was sick Tim and I destroyed some bushes and had a wicked good time riding some fun terrain. Then it was off to class for an afternoon of knot tying and harness and carabiniere knowledge. Today we learned about snow anchors and other forms of climbing anchors. The afternoon was spent riding with a couple of sweet Juneau kids and one of their dads. It was a sick day except for my first run...the second drop of the run I hit the shitty landing, double ejected, tomahawked and watched my skis shralp the next 1200 vertical feet of the best snow on the mountain without me! I honestly thought they were goners, and my first concern was for my new bindings which were cranked to 14 and still popped off! That walk down the mountain to get my skis was the most expensive walk of my life. I basically killed my heli school budget today so we will see if I decide to destroy the credit card in pursuit of epicness...only time will tell.

January gone? Really?

How time flys when you love to fly yourself. January was an intense month that was very out of the ordinary for multiple reasons. To start the month off I went back to Tahoe to meet up with the posse for our Grand Targhee trip and for Randy's service. Randy's service was held at Squaw Valley and was attended by nearly 2000 people it was good to hear so many positive stories and great memories. He will be severely missed by all he touched in his life.
At like 6am the next morning I met up with the crew and we started the 12hour barge to the Grand! Here is the group at a pit stop in route from left to right Dennis, Dave, Christian, Kevin, Amanda, Rose and Mullet the photo was taken by Lucia and I was off skating around. The best part of the drive was the walky-talky's! The two subaru's were in humorous communication through out the mind altering drive. Arriving to -9 degrees and a storm front approaching we unloaded the gear in an extremely timely manner. The first two days were Teaton style snow; light and fluffy, but Wednesday looked to be the "day" a big front coming in! Unfortunately the temperature went up and the big front still produced lots of snow just not good snow. It was heavier then the Sierra cement we all grew up riding plus it had this funky crispy layer on top. So needless to say it was kind of a bummer but we made the best of it... I went and slid a bunch of rails and got a few other members of the group to try the boxes. One of the nights we went to the yurt a totally unique experience, first off the transportation to and from was by horse drawn sleigh, the food was epicly delicious plus wine and good friends. To top off an already great evening we had to have a good old session on the sled hill! OHH what a great week!

On my way back to Humboldt I went to Sacramento to see my Grandmother for the last time. My sister, dad and I went to the hospital she was in and spent a few hour with her. I am extremely grateful I was able to say good bye to her before she passed on. Plus it was really good to hear her laugh, she was absolutely cracking up at the sight on my wild hair! As I took off my hat my mop of hair was all over the place and she started laughing so hard, it was great. I love you Granny!
The rest of January and the beginning of February were unseasonably nice up here on the North Coast so I spent a lot of time hiking, biking, disc golfing and climbing; I even went skim boarding and swimming in the ocean. My hommie Mark moved up here to go to Humboldt state and our good friends Bobby and Scott came up for a visit that involved a lot of disc golf and one round of ball golf. Now I'm preparing for an epic journey to Alaska for heli skiing guide school! Stay tuned for and update from AK.

Another trip around the sun complete!

While reflecting on the past year I have come to realize that I have had some monumental events! I have been riding a wave of highs and lows, great times and darker times, but continually moving down my path. The passing of Clay Beck and now Randy Davis has helped me to understand that life is short so its best to take advantage of every moment! Two people who left this world doing what they love, both seem like it was too early in their lives. Yet death is our only guarantee in life and as a friend told me recently: "When you are born you cry and the world celebrates; when you die the world cries and you celebrate." Love and learn...live and love! I'm off on a snow quest trying to find myself. All best for this new year to you and yours.