April 11-16, 2005, Valdez

I wasn't going to do this, but I couldn't resist. Brenda and I spent the week up in Valdez skiing with Matt Kinney out of his chalet below Thompson Pass. We skied six days straight with perfect skies on all except one. Had variety of snow conditions from powder and corn to crust and ice. Highlights included coming upon what I'm pretty sure was a wolf trying to pick his way down 35+ degree icy slopes near where we just happened to be skinning up at the time. He kept moving closer and closer until he finally found our slope to his liking. Also the great Mountain Man snowmobile competition on the north side of Thompson Pass on Sat. Talk about a zoo.

Matt's got a trip report and photos on his website from our week here:

http://www.alaska.net/~chalet/in/ski_report.html

here's Brenda on a steep rollover at our Lady of the Square Rock tour.