It’s been an Alaskan whirlwind. Over the course of three days, we flew into Juneau, bought food, took the ferry to Haines, saw the fantastic weather, and flew out to the glacier. Whew!
Drake taking off, leaving us to our devices.
As we boarded the early morning ferry to Haines on Sunday, the sky was cloudy, but as we traveled up Lynn Canal, the weather cleared, and we floated into blue skies. The discussion turned from hanging out in Haines, to heading out to the glacier ASAP.
We showed up at Drake’s hanger. After a long discussion about our options we decided to fly out and get as much done in the remaining daylight as possible. Coop, Cory, and I managed to make it — with most of our gear. Jason and Zach were able to show up the next morning. When you’ve got a weather window, you’ve got to take it!
We are excited, and entirely blown away that we have made it from Sea-Tac airport to the Alaskan glaciers in 27 hours. Rad! Last time we waited around in Haines for the weather for 6 days). This morning, after Zach and Jason got here, we headed out for our first tour. With minimal knowledge of the snowpack, we spent the day evaluating the snowpack and poking around. We try to be mellow and figure things out in these situations rather than just charging straight out the aircraft door into a mysterious snowpack. Even so, we managed to find some incredible skiing.
We got back to camp late, and I’m making this post quick on our WildSnow.com satphone blogging system so I can get some sleep (in short supply over the past few days of travel, gear packing, food shopping, and setting up camp). More to come. Meanwhile, check out some pictures.
Coop excited about being on the plane hours after arriving in Haines.
Drake in his element.
An unreal experience. A few minutes ago we were sitting on the tarmac, then we’re dropped in the middle of nowhere.
Louie Dawson earned his Bachelor Degree in Industrial Design from Western Washington University in 2014. When he’s not skiing Mount Baker or somewhere equally as snowy, he’s thinking about new products to make ski mountaineering more fun and safe.
