Tailgate Alaska
I cant believe i'm really here, I have to pinch myself on a regular basis. We flew in to Anchorage on Friday night, stayed at an airport hotel. The next morning we got up and went to pick up our home for the next 2 weeks from Clippership, a 29ft Motorhome. It was to be my first RV experience. We went shopping and bought a ton of supplies and headed out on the 6 hour drive to Valdez. The drive was incredible, we saw massive glaciers, endless towering mountain peaks, and stopped by a tiny store in the middle of nowhere run by a cigarette ssmoking, gun loving Iranian. It was absolutely dumping snow as we drove over Thompson Pass, spectacular but scary as these RV's have summer tyres on them (dodgy!). Thanks to Gus'skillful driving and my co-pilot skills of managing to not spill my Budweiser we made it. We caught the end of the Fish Fry Party, where a few of the Tailgate crew were, and we enjoyed a few extremely tasty Alaskan White Beers looking over Valdez Harbour full of huge fishing boats blanketed with snow...amazing. We slept in the RV in a hotel carpark, got up and paid our $4 for a shower, did a few things in town then headed back up the pass to the Tailgate Alaska Campsite at ABA Heli Base, Mile 29 1/2 on Thompson Pass. When we got here we scored the best parking posi right at the front next to the beer tent and all the action...perfect! We settled in and did our heli briefing, and then watched as the clouds cleared to be blown away by the insanity that surrounded us. I know they say everything is bigger in Alaska...but seriously these mountains are HUGE! We were parked in one of the most amazing surroundings you can imagine. The first night sleeping in the RV on the pass was ok, but I woke up and my head was freezing, I threw on a beenie and wrapped the sheet around my head in it was all good! Thankfully we had invested in some awesome North Face sleeping bags or we would be in trouble, it is damn cold up here!!
The next day we were greeted by the most beautiful bluebird day, there were helicopters flying around, sleds buzzing by it was awesome. I felt like I was going to explode I just wanted to get up there. We went and did our Sled safety briefing got our card and bought some chips to get a drop off up the mountain via Big Mountain Sled Taxis. We went and got ready, slightly nervous about my first real runs in Alaska backcountry. On with the tranciever, avalung, backcountry pack and my climbing harness (for cravasse retrieval...augh!). This area is full of glaciers, beautiful but scary stuff! Harro turned up and came up with us, which I was so excited about. He has a lot of experience up here, and Gus and I had none. We got our sled ride up which was pretty fun except when we got to the top our sled rolled...oh well got the fear of falling out the way early! We navigated our way down the mountain which was so awesome, the snow was great. We had been watching the clouds slowly roll in when we got up there, and quickly learnt that flat light up here is so bad, you really cannot see anything. The light went on us about 2/3 of the way down...not fun. It was so great to get out there though and get over the nerves of the first day! That night we enjoyed a few beers and some very tasty Alaskan Salmon on the bbq. Yesterday started off kinda slow, the light was flat and there was a few clouds around, we spoke to Harro who was in Valdez he said we may have a chance later to go out with local legend Rydor on some sleds and get some turns in. So we packed up the car and went down. It wasnt looking good weatherwise so we hung around town and got a few things done...little did we know we were about to have the most incredible day EVER!!! The weather started to clear, Harro spoke to Rydor we were on! We met Rydor and some of his friends on sleds, some of which turned out to be pro team members of the Slednecks (bad asses!) I dont have enough words to describe what was to come, except endless untracked powder. We rode the sleds over 4000 vertical feet. This mountain was so awesome, so many bowls and rolling powder fields. We had a few runs then went up to the peak of a bowl and watched the slednecks do massive airs over windlips then we hiked up and put some turns in down a steep untracked face...sweet!! The sun was starting to go down so we moved around the mountain to a face overlooking Valdez Harbour and built a kicker over a big roller. We hit that for a few hours it was so fun in an incredibly beautiful setting. It was stuff dreams are made of, I know that sounds tacky but it is so true. It was about 8.00pm, it was till light and we made our way down the mountain. It was a day I'll never forget, I am so grateful to the locals Rydor, Tony and Donnie for being our sled guides, the slednecks for hanging out with us and and showing us some awesome riding, Harro for taking some awesome shots of us, Alaska for being so incredibly beautiful and to the weather it could not have been more perfect!!! We got back to the Tailgate camp late last night, it s filling up fast. I have woken up today to grey skies, the helis are on the ground, everything is pretty quiet here today so a good chance to fill you in on my crazy adventure to Alaska!!
Im sorry I haven't been able to update my blog since the earlier part was written, we have been away from internet and im posting this as we sneak in a shower down in Valdez. I also apologise there are no photos attached, I slipped on the ice and smashed my camera...doh!! You can see some awesome photos of my day out with Harro, Rydor, Gus, Donnie and Tony at www.wheresharro.com. Gus also has many great photos and I will update everything when I get back to the internet!!
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