More Early Turns - Waiting for Winter

One of the tasty faces off the Milk GlacierWinter is taking it’s sweet time getting here, even here in Alaska. The powder day I had under blue skies two weeks ago was just a tease. I went back to Crow Pass last Sunday for a tour on an adjacent glacier, the Milk, but the snow was hammered. Still, seeing that terrain was cool even if the run down was survival skiing.

Thin snow and talus...what fun! The approach to the Milk

Milk Glacier lateral moraine

Looking up the low angled Milk Glacier

A few cracks to keep an eye on.

Top of the Milk and the Raven Glacier headwall. Tasty lines.This past week saw a weak front move through followed by unsettled weather keeping the dustings coming. It was enough to get me back up on the Jewel Glacier today. The weather was dubious, calling for rain and flurries but I went anyway.

Crack of ass start from the car at noon (sun’s not up until 10am right now) and I thought I would be following the masses. The added snow had me skinning from the car. Oddly enough, after passing 3 sweaty dudes in Gortex creeping up the trail I was alone at the front breaking trail up to the glacier in 8-10” of fresh. It wasn’t blower but it was soft. Good enough for me.

Looking back up the upper approach to the JewelAfter the crowd scene a couple of weeks ago I figured the same was in store today. In reality, I did three laps before the sweaty guys showed up for their turns. After spooning my three 700’ runs I left plenty of real estate for them to farm.

Trying not to hog the resource

Some more powder farmers

The walk downI just can’t get over the lack of folks up there. I mean, the weather turned out to be perfect and there was a nice coating of fresh snow to play on. What were the skiers doing today? Actually, I did see two guys on the Milk going for greatness on one of the schrund protected faces across from the Jewel ridgeline. Not everyone was watching football.