Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Alyeska Resort, Alaska in April
The gorgeous view of Cook Inlet from Alyeska. In my opinion it's one of the best views if not THE best of any ski resort in the world. You've got the ocean (and in this picture it is at low tide) at one side of the valley, a resort at another, and the remaining area is surrounded by beautiful mountains and glaciers.Being a sponsored athlete of my hometown resort, Alyeska, I was given the opportunity to head up to Alaska and get in the last throws of winter once I returned from France. I was pretty excited about this, Alyeska was on its way to breaking 800 inches of snowfall. In the beginning the weather was full of precipiation- snow on top and rain on the bottom. Something to be expected in April when the temps start to warm up, the base of the resort is at sea level after all. Nonetheless, as long as it was snowing up high the rain wasn't much of a factor. After a week the sun finally broke and I was able to work with local photographer, Simon Evans, to do some photos for Alyeska. Fortunately, the Resort was really helpful and willing to cater to our needs- access to closed terrain where we wouldn't be competing with the crowds. This ended up with us hiking up Center Ridge and dropping back into Glacier Bowl, thus skiing terrain that hasn't been open for at least the last 3 years. So lucky! It was sooo steep and the snow was sooo good, those few runs were definitely the highlight of my trip up north. Ohhh Alaska. The BEST place on earth to ski.
Scott Hillard, one of the Alyeska patrollers who assisted us while shooting, getting in a fun run after us. What a great job to have! And lots of thanks to the Alyeska Patrol!!!
The top of Chair 6
Christmas Chute and the North Face are right behind me
Cody is all smiles for plenty of reasons. He decided to stick around and get in some more great skiing after his film trip with MSP was over, which apparently was THE film trip of his life. Can't wait to see his segment with Henrik in next year's movie!
Alyeska's annual Slush Cup - with the sun comes the crowds!
Someone taking a digger. This particular pond crossing is 3/4ths gapers so it makes for a great show!
So many good reasons to bring out the cheesiness!
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]
