Believe it or not Valdez is only about 3 inches away from Haines. 17 hours later we arived at Alaska Rendezvous Lodge. The accommodation's on Thompson Pass are very limited and its a 45 mile drive to the town of Valdez. Two uncomfortable nights of "car" camping lead us to the acquisition of our next rv. The Cavalier, one of the most majestic rv's ever to grace this earth was ours for two weeks at the modest rate of $50 a day (standard is $120, thanks rv Tim!). With housing under control it was time to focus on skiing! Valdez had a significantly smaller snow pack than Haines, however 10 inches of fresh earlier in the week helped out greatly.
With Blue skies and fresh snow I lit my credit card on fire and decided to go heli skiing! If have an opportunity to go make sure you have a solid 4 pack, the guides will only take you to zones that the weakest skier in the group can handle. We had been camping out in the parking lot of ABA Heli opp, so we flew with them. We were fortunate enough to get a great guide and a solid group together. We bought a half day = 3 drops = $350 (it ain't cheep!). Our first two drops were 35 degree north facing shots holding great snow and about 3000 ft of vert. Unfortunately we had been skiing this type of terrain all week and getting to it on our snowmobiles so non of us were stoked at all. Our guide realized he needed to step it up big time for out last drop or we probably would have thrown him out of the bird.
Or last drop was on a solid rock LZ (landing zone), some 4th class climbing on loose shale and a really sketchy down climb put us directly onto of the white Ice Couloir.
2000 ft sustained 45 to 50 degree shot. This was definitely what we were looking for! The couloir was sweet and topped off with a 3000 ft mellow pow run down to the road.
The heli skiing was a really amazing experience but in my mind just not worth the money. We were lucky to get dropped on the couloir we skied but most groups probably wouldn't be. If you want heli access to the real gnar, the stuff you see in the movies, you have to pay for your own bird, about $2,500 an hour. A little bit out of my price range.
Our good weather streak finally ended and it socked in for 3 days! After about 22 hours of being crammed in the rv we all lost it and decided to take a road trip to Anchorage (300mi away). We stopped at ARLINC and loaded up the RV with friends from Jackson and a few cases of beer. The destination was the A.B.C ( Alaskan Bush Company), if you don't know what the A.B.C is then buy a ticked to Anchorage. We sat front row for 5 hours, and before being asked to leave Cory got the bush "Box"! sorry for the lack of pictures but cameras were not allowed.
Upon returning to Valdez the skies opened back up and we had clear weather for the rest of the trip! A great corn cycle had started and we skied some amazing shots all sled access. Because the snow was so solid we could get the sleds up just about everything and were able to get ontop of a bunch of the Helie LZ's.
A bunch of pictures from the rest of the trip, about a week and half of getting up at 10am jumping on the sleds and skiing till 10pm.
cory droping in on Bro Bowl
Port of Valdez
Valdez limo
All sled access shots
Overall the trip was amazing, and a great way to try and salvage a Shotty snow year in Jackson. The 52 hour drive was insane and I still have not driven a car.
Part One of the trip Link
