Alaska. We don’t need to give you the spiel; If you haven’t been under a rock for the last 20 years then you’ve seen enough photos and movies of this most sacred location to last a life time. But, almost everything you see is heli access. What is there for the ski tourer? Well, everything really.
From the coastal glaciers around Juneau and Haines, offering ski touring with some unusual and spectacular views – ocean - to the interior with its massive mountains and even more massive snowfall, Alaska has whatever you want.
Access and weather are issues though. Most, but not all, of the good stuff must be accessed by ski plane or heli, making tours more expensive and often more committing. Thompson pass is the exception to this rule, offering the goods Alaskan style straight from the road. Winter is a time of storm after storm, often with no or only brief windows of clear weather. Oh, and if you’re away from the coast it can get rather cold in those clear periods (arctic high pressure systems don’t mess about). But spring offers opportunities to get out and explore the unrivaled mountains of Alaska. Big. Remote. Empty. Just how we like them. |
