4-19-08, Douglas Island, AK â got a day?
4/19/08
2336
2
Shout out to the Oly crew, and Heart Attack heading it up from the West Seattle, and any splitboard-knuckledragger out there. I hope that last PNW storm system left you getting hammered by the gods. When it lets up and its sunny, I hope you get into the mountains.
Most of the local rippers had begun the annual transition of working on boats and getting fishing gear and mountain bikes ready when a mid-April four-day storm laid down 55 inches (at 2,500 feet on top of the more than 200 inches already down) then quickly came the sunshine and cold clear. Instead of getting wetter then setting up it PNW style, it dried out and got fluffier and puffier.
A lot of moisture cooked off and Im beginning to think that is the answer to the secret mystery behind the ability of snow here to stick to everything so steep think flutes and ribs and those fools from TGR. (This being the forum it is, I should say its not that avalanches dont happen, they do, all the time. We just lost our hydro power to avalanches last week. Were now a city of 30,000 powered entirely by diesel, 100,000 gallons a day!)
Two friends asked me to join their crack-o'noon-tour, maybe there would be a party on the backside of the island, maybe not. Two days after the storm quit, the powder was amazing, and then more amazing and then more amazing! Ridge tops were blown out ranging from styrofoam sandstone to chunky-ice-death, but two turns below walah!
Four great runs in three locations that will generally mean nothing to most of you reading this, including you DWSIII. The party never materialized, but day 71 was as good as days 62 through 68 even without four feet of blower and a whirlybird.
I still can't figure out the photo deal on this site so here's a link to flicker and some photos of the day.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/25085807@N06/sets/72157604642780703/
Most of the local rippers had begun the annual transition of working on boats and getting fishing gear and mountain bikes ready when a mid-April four-day storm laid down 55 inches (at 2,500 feet on top of the more than 200 inches already down) then quickly came the sunshine and cold clear. Instead of getting wetter then setting up it PNW style, it dried out and got fluffier and puffier.
A lot of moisture cooked off and Im beginning to think that is the answer to the secret mystery behind the ability of snow here to stick to everything so steep think flutes and ribs and those fools from TGR. (This being the forum it is, I should say its not that avalanches dont happen, they do, all the time. We just lost our hydro power to avalanches last week. Were now a city of 30,000 powered entirely by diesel, 100,000 gallons a day!)
Two friends asked me to join their crack-o'noon-tour, maybe there would be a party on the backside of the island, maybe not. Two days after the storm quit, the powder was amazing, and then more amazing and then more amazing! Ridge tops were blown out ranging from styrofoam sandstone to chunky-ice-death, but two turns below walah!
Four great runs in three locations that will generally mean nothing to most of you reading this, including you DWSIII. The party never materialized, but day 71 was as good as days 62 through 68 even without four feet of blower and a whirlybird.
I still can't figure out the photo deal on this site so here's a link to flicker and some photos of the day.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/25085807@N06/sets/72157604642780703/
Awesome. I worked in Misty Fjords in 97' and 98' and, though the mountains aren't tall, I always knew there was lots of terrain to hit in SE AK. Thanks for sharing, Jimmy. So that one photo of your friends is really looking over the water at Admiralty Island? It looks sooo close!
John
John
Way to get it Skinner
cheers
rob
cheers
rob
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