After a winter of traveling with airplanes, trains, rentals, taxis and other transports on different continents it’s so comfortable to pack my own car and my second home, caravan, and just drive north. My intention is park the caravan at bottom of Tamok valley which has started to feel like home away from home – a spiritual home, and spend the rest of the winter and little more enjoying the endless possibilities of the northern playground. Our plan was to film for Antti Autti’s new project for several weeks and play it by the conditions.
Snowing snowing equals pow pow. Photo: Teemu Lahtinen
Face shot? photo: Teemu Lahtinen
Troms commune is situated well above the arctic circle in northern Norway and it has 666 peaks reaching over 1000meters and thousands of kilometers of coast line. I wonder if devil himself will show up for shred if you ride all the peaks! Tamok is situated nicely in the middle of everything in the county, just inland from Lyngen peninsula. It has more dry climate than the coast and the snowpack is between coastal and continental. The snow is usually more stable in Tamok than elsewhere in the commune. 30 kilometer long valley has lot to offer and makes the perfect base for missions of any kind and level. Valley itself is still undeveloped and there is only about 70 inhabitants on the whole stretch. It makes a perfect getaway from crowds. Just friends and mountains, what more could you ask?
Northern Norway is a paradise when the conditions come together but can be harsh too. The arctic location and sea makes weather variable and sometimes difficult. Mountains are magnificent and lose to none in comparison but the weather and the snow can change fast. The northern climate does not produce so much snow as Alaska for example but good years come not too far. This has been one of them.
Forest couloirs are good option when the visibility restricts alpine terrain. Photo: Aadne Olsrud
Perfect snow
I parked my caravan in Tamok in the end of March and there was tons of snow already then, the most I have ever seen here in seven years, and more was to come. We planned a helishoot with special permits for the beginning of the trip with a help from the “king of the valley”, Aadne Olsrud and Jarkko Henttonen who have basically founded freeriding in Tamok. The snow was awesome and more was falling constantly. We basically got the check out some mountains and the snowpack with the heli and then the weather would close again and bring more snow. Soon it was waist deep and the tree riding felt like I was back in Japan! It was dry, light and deep and stayed so for a long time. Clouds were protecting the perfect snow. Definitely the best snow of the season and. It was inspirational to ride such snow so close to home.
Slasher in the tree line. Photo: Teemu Lahtinen
Trees, pillows and ollie. Photo: Teemu Lahtinen
Waiting game
With the persistant low pressures circling the valley we were mostly stuck on the bottom and the bird stayed parked next to the caravans. That would have been completely ok to shred the trees and pillows with this snow but big plans and paralyzed helicopter started to create some pressure and frustration after a while. Every now and then we got brief weather windows and got to test and ride some awesome snow but as soon as the cameras came out the clouds rolled in. It started to be the story of the season for me, like the cameras and the weather didn’t make friends this year. But the riding was still awesome and the time spent with friends in the valley is priceless so I couldn’t complain at all. It’s hard to be mad at the weather and it’s better to make the best out it anyway and we did. We rode pillows and discovered new spots in the lower elevations and got creative with the heli too. And the weather has to clear sooner or later, right?
Buttering through the trees. Photo: Aadne Olsrud
If the night is clear in March the norhtern lights are almost guaranteed.
Jonas relaxing in onsen after couloir shredding in Tokachidake
“There is nothing better than to relax in an onsen and feel big snow flakes falling and almost accumulating on your head knowing that tomorrow will be as awesome as today but only deeper”
Japan is one of my favorite snowboard destinations. There is the best snow, lots of it, good food, great people, culture and all kinds of gadgets to wonder. It is easy to travel even with the language barrier and it is safe. Onsens ( natural hot springs ) ease the longing for sauna and they are the absolute best way to relax after shredding chest deep pow.
Japanese powder is famous for a reason. pic: Takuro “TK” Hayashi
Definition -waist deep- is surely met here
Stories from Here to There – Japan episode 1:
Snowboarding is easy in Japan in general. Go into a resort, buy a lift pass, ride pow. If you stay for a week during January-February and don’t get a big dump you are really unlucky. The problem these days is that Japanese powder is famous, well-known and coveted. Powderdawgs from all over travel to the big resorts and consume all the snow within hours. Doing so in big numbers is also changing the local culture. Niseko is a bad example what has happened. It’s a great mountain area with tons of stuff to do but it feels like there is now more Westeners than Japanese and it’s really crowded. It has turned into Whistler of some sort and I think it’s a shame.
“When in Rome”
Japanese are very tradition oriented and respect cherishing people. There are lots of things we don’t see and understand from their culture and it is easy to insult them by accident. Respect is very important in Japan and it is not nice and honorable to cut ropes, ride all over the place and insult their rules and beliefs. “When in Rome” – I try live by this saying everywhere I go and in Japan it feels even more important. Even if we all are greedy for powder there should be some limits to our hunger. But there is a solution: a local (mountain) guide and a splitboard. Guide will help you not only with accessing mountains but also with translation, local customs, traditions and boundaries. Splitboard is a great tool in Japan where there is not a lot motored means to get up the mountain. Splitboarding gets you to places even in deep japanese powder since the ascents and hikes are not that long and rarely very steep. Short hikes of resort boundaries in to the backcountry will guarantee you deep untracked pow. But keep in mind that the longer hike might wait at the bottom. It can be pain in the ass to hike even on the flat if there is snow up to the waist. Splitboard is by far the best way to move. Snowshoes will help but if you end up hiking, or more like swimming, just few hundred meters after the run it might be the only run you have power to do, so get equipped! And respect the rules. You will lose your lift pass and your face if caught on monkey business. Sidecountry, as the japanese call it, is the lift access terrain just outside of resort boundaries. It is really fun but often requires some rope ducking and some times it’s strictly forbidden and some times ok. Asking always locals helps.
Islands and areas
Honzu is the main island and Hokkaido is the famous powder island in the north. The most famous destinations are Niseko in Hokkaido and Hakuba in the Nagano prefecture of the main island and those are also the most crowded. I have grown very fond of the Niigata area which offers great mountains and crazy snowfall just few hours northwest of Tokyo. There are also tons of smaller areas, resorts and zones on both islands but these three main destinations.
Niigata
Mt. Hakkaisan one of Niigata’s finest
I have experienced some of the deepest powder of my life in Niigata. It snows like crazy during the winter months and one meter in 24h is not a rarity. Snow might warm up fast but the reset comes quickly too. The mountains are big in Japanese scale and steep too. The area is vast and there is lots to explore. There is excellent tree riding and good alpine terrain. The best thing about Niigata is that there is hardly any westeners and the culture is authentic Japanese. There is lots of people on the slopes during weekends but week days are really mellow. Being mostly just Japanese means that everything is little more difficult without a guide. I am honored to have met and became very good friends with the best mountain guide around and father of splitboarding in Niigata: Takumi Nagai and his crew. He is the man in the area when in comes to mountains, snow and fun. He also runs his own splitboard brand Voltage.
I have not visited Hakuba so I don’t have first hand experiences. Hakuba is located southwest of Niigata and is home to the biggest mountains in Japan and famous from many movies. Mountains are great I hear but also getting crowded and the weather is more difficult. Hakuba is known to be windy.
Hokkaido
Splitboarding up to the Tokachidake volcanoes
Hokkaido is famous for it’s light powder and seafood. Hokkaido life is more mellow than the densely populated main island. Many of the Japanese value Hokkaido the best because of its light and deep powder. The climate is more cold and dryer in Hokkaido which keeps the snow better longer but the mountains are not as big and steep as in the main island. Actually many of the resorts are quite flat with only some steep sections.
Slashing my way down to the steaming volcano valley
POV edit from last seasons split missions
Niseko has it all: good resorts, Mt. Yotei, restaurants and nightlife but it is also crowded as hell. The western culture has had a big impact on Niseko. Many of the hotels and much of property is owned by foreigners now. It feels that Australians, Europeans and Americans are taking over Niseko. I have visited it few times and I think I have had enough. I feel the crowds are killing the good vibe.
There are more to Hokkaido than just Niseko. There are good resorts close to Sapporo too and awesome volcano mountains and resorts north from Asahikawa city. Asahidake is the famous resort with a ropeway (Japanese for gondola) on a side of a volcano. Many film crews visit Asahidake every year but otherwise it’s not crowded at all. Terrain is good for short stuff but in general it’s pretty flat. There lies a real pearl for splitboarders close by that can be explored when the weather opens up: Tokachidake. There is no lifts and people go there mainly in the summer to hike on the volcanic mountains but it offers great touring possibilities in the winter time when the conditions come together. We found some really fun couloirs and lots of vertical drop. Peaks reach to 2000 meters and the hotel is in 1200 meters. The hotel is very Japanese with a real authentic onsen overlooking the mountains. Few lucky sunny days that we spent there are among the most memorable experiences for me.
I started January by taking a professional avalanche course. The course was held by European Avalanche School in La Grave, France. The course leaders were Steve Jones and Per Ås. They have years of experience from the field and science. I was hoping to get more in depth knowledge of snow, avalanches, terrain and the science around them. The course is mandatory for all those studying to be a mountain guide. I just wanted to get more information so that I could… well stay alive. I have learned a lot during the years in the backcountry, learning from more experienced and observing nature. I think I know the basics of risk evaluation and avalanche awareness but I wanted to get better answers when it was possible to ride steeps and when to turn back. I wanted to dig snow and find answers. How naive was I hoping such things? How could I expect answers in uncertainty? Snow science is a branch of science like all the others. It can be studied in few universities around the world. It belongs to natural sciences and mathematic models help a lot on predictions but lot of different things affect snow. The snow pack is in constant change and that’s why so hard to read and predict.
Drop in or not? If so where to ride?
We learned a lot during the course and some of the stuff was recap from old but important stuff like beacon search. I now know better how to dig snow pit and make precise notes of the snow layers, temperatures, weather, wind and all that is effecting the snow and mountain climate. Through measuring and analyzing this information we learned to make some sort of evaluation of the avalanche hazard. But the most important thing I learned during the week was that uncertainty and constant change are the only prevailing factors. I now know how to evaluate the danger better but I didn’t find the answer that I was looking for in the first place. Knowledge of the layers and how they form and change is a big help but making precise calls of the hazard is not easy. It’s easy to predict the avalanche danger on the scale’s both ends. When hazard is low or high it’s easy to make the call but there lies big grey area in between. Rating 3 is considerable and can be interpreted in many ways. It varies from stable to hazardous conditions and should be taken seriously. Most accidents happen during rating 3.
Course leader Steve Jones showing showind the tap test
Jarkko has eye for snow
Making notes and measuring
snow grids and loops
studying snow grains
Per Ås teaching snow pit analyze
snow density and weighing machine
Jarkko found a layer
fracture line and facets
building a snow anchor with Ode Siivonen
Layer analyze
temperature measurements
Internet is now excellent way to find information about the hazards almost everywhere. By learning how to read weather and avalanche bulletins you can have a pretty good idea of the conditions before even stepping out of the door. But the internet forecasts are usually based on mathematic models and are given for big areas. Nothing beats local knowledge and continuous self observation in the field. I would say that going out to the mountains and learning by doing is the best way to evaluate the conditions, not the internet or resort bulletins. Experts are agreeing with this also. Of course you have to have some basic knowledge and skills but you should always trust your own nose in the end. I say that getting out there with more experienced friend is the best way to learn and train your skills and sense for the snow. But there lies yet another trap – the human factor.
Human factor is the biggest thing affecting the avalanche accidents. First of all it needs humans in the avalanche terrain to be a accident otherwise it’s just a natural phenomena. I consider the psychological factors to be the most important. Mind works in many ways. It’s very hard to keep a clear head and do just rational decisions when there is pow all around. People tend to take more risks especially when the powder is rare. I encourage everyone to study their own feelings and decision making in the backcountry and what affects them. Do you make different decisions when there is others around? If there is more experienced person in the group do you trust his decisions blindly? Does your safety gear make you feel safer? What kind of situations are you ready to put yourself and are you ready to take others with you? I think it’s really interesting to investigate yourself when you are outside of comfort zone but also in familiar places. Can you recognize your own weaknesses and strengths in different situations?
Excellent in-depth article on avalanche accident and what factors led to it:
The course was really interesting and helpful for me. I feel that I definitely learned a lot and know more now. But at the same time I have more questions and there is more uncertainty than answers. I guess it works that way in many studies – the more you learn the more you actually realize that you don’t know much. You can never know too much and everything. That’s one of the reasons I think backcountry and mountain environment is so intriguing.
There is a lot of information in the internet and books about snow and avalanches. Just by googling “avalanche safety” you can find tons of useful information. There is lots of courses of different levels available and I encourage everyone to take some and practice your skills. The gear does not save or protect you in the end, you do.
Avalanche packbacks are good addition to safety but will not necessarily save your life
Thanks to the EAS for the course and Jarkko Henttonen and Markus Perttunen for attending with me.
For the second part I interviewed my friend Takumi Nagai. Who is a japanese mountain guide, Voltage splitboard brand founder and owner and has soon PhD in snow science. He shared some of his thoughts and philosophy about snow and snowboarding.
-Thermo Sole – heated soles with integrated battery
I have suffered from freezing toes all my life. I have tried everything from space socks to walking bare feet on snow to increase blood circulation and eating warming foods. Nothing just helps, especially when I strap in. The blood circulation seems to reduce then to minimum and I lose the feeling of the board. Couple of years ago I finally tried electric foot warmers. I never really believed in them because I thought they were bulky, not going to stay on the boot, run out of battery, for sissys and pricy. I found it was all to the contrary, expect maybe the price.
Most of the people suffer from cold, feet at least in really cold temperatures.. In Finland and in the mountains it’s freezing most of the days during the dark winter and I was really suffering. My toes froze until they were white and next time they froze even more easily. Now with the heated soles I could ride for hours and have a good feel for the board even in freezing temperatures. Especially in powder I think it’s essential to have the board work as an extension to your feet and if the toes are freezing that’s lost. Foot warmers keep feet dry and comfortable the whole day. I even use them during spring since they keep the toes dry longer. It’s seriously the best accessory I ever bought.
make hole to the heel of the liner
insert sole and pull the cable through
use duct tape to tape calbe in place
battery pack
attach to side of the boot
There are different brands in the market. I chose Therm-ic because it was available and looked least bulky but all brands are pretty similar: battety pack and soles. There are also just heating pads that you can attach under your own special sole if you are using one. I found that the integrated sole is pretty supportive as well, at least for my feet. There are 3 levels for the heat. 1 – feels like dry feet in most temperatures, 2 – warms the toes when it’s colder and 3- for cooking. Battery last the whole day or more even if you are using level 2 for several hours. Price is pretty high around 200€ for the battery pack and soles together but worth every penny. This is my fourth season using them and I had to buy new batteries after two season (about 200days) so last pretty well. The cable from the soles tend to wear out which is the only down side.
But now when I am in Japan I discovered that there is a new brand with sole where the battery is integrated inside the sole and no cable or battery pack needed. You can have just the soles or the deluxe version with different heat levels and remote control (otherwise you have to remove the liners to turn on/off). I have to get my hands ( feet ) on this!
Two first timers in the last frontier. Story of a splitboard trip to AK.
(Also found in Slammer magazine for Finnish readers.)
My Alaska was full of expectations; sharp snow covered mountains reaching high and as far as the eye can see, difficult access, helicopters, big budget filming trips, wild west and rifles, wilderness and animals, waiting for the weather and cabin fever. AK is legendary among the freeriders. and enthusiasts a like. It is feared and admired. Some who visit talk of nothing else and some never want to go back. What is in the last frontier?
Lines and peaks as far as the eye can see. Turnagain Pass.
The dream about Alaska has lived since I started watching snowboard movies. The AK powder (gold of the present time) and steep lines have intrigued me for years but it has always felt so unreachable without big budgets and high profile filming projects. I have always thought AK to be only heli access and demanding lots of dollars, specially flying from Europe. With the spreading of splitboarding and realization of that many places are actually more accessible for snowboarders too made us curious if we could find good riding in AK without spending too much green and being little greener at the same time. The idea spawned from Jeremy Jones when we met him in Austria while he was filming for Further. He told us that there is lots of easy access stuff too if you were ready to hike around. That was a surprise to us but we took the bait without asking too many questions. We were planning a trip to the new continent but the snow sucked in the lower states. Alaska was having a record breaking snow year so that fit our Protest Snowtour program perfectly. Week after the initial idea was born in the Alps we were already on the plane to Anchorage. We didn’t have time to do much research nor plan the trip proper. We just decided to go and have a look. It had worked well for us in many places so we were still feeling lucky! Alaska is roughly the size of continental Europe and there is few famous hubs for riding: Valdez, Haines and Juneau. All of them are far apart and different flight destinations. We decided to fly to Anchorage since there was apparently some mountain passes close to the city and even a resort. Valdez was a half a day drive away.
IN CIVILIZATION
Me and Jonas Hagstöm landed in Anchorage on the last day of February. We rented a big 4wd SUV thinking we can drive through mountain passes, piles of snow and moose if needed. It hurt on the budget but better over do it than under, as we say in Finland. Bags got stuck somewhere over the Atlantic which gave us few days to explore Anchorage and get more information we are we actually about to go. We visited the Avalanche center in Anchorage to fill the avalanche backpack cartridges and get lots of valuable information about the mountain passes and conditions. (find the website links and info in the end)
We had to get some clean and cool shirts while waiting for the missing luggage.
Visitor at the motel parking lot
The stories of drunk inuits were not over exaggerated and peopleseemed to be affected by the lack of sun and fast food culture, similar like back home but worse. We bought ice-road-truckers t-shirts to fit in and drank Alaskan Amber. Anchorage was not beautiful but functioning as well as any American block city. Wilderness was present even within city as a huge moose was hanging out in the parking lot next to our car.
After finally getting our bags and idea where to go we headed few hours southwest to Alyeska resort. It was good to get some chairlift pow in before the hiking missions. We ran into Travis Rice in Alyeska who was also apparently warming up in the resort. His presence made us feel good about the conditions. It seemed that we had chosen a good time to come to AK! The resort was fun and snow was good but it was surprisingly crowded which didn’t fit to our image of AK. Also the rules of the resort and funny, yet far too serious, caution signs like “no dogs, guns and knives allowed in the bar” were not what we were after so we turned boards towards Turnagain pass, which was an hour drive away. We decided to do day missions from Alyeska to the pass since there was no places to stay closer, except camping.
First exploration hike. We found splitboarding up easy in Turnagain since the ridgelines we positioned against the road.
TURNAGAIN PASS – wilderness close by
We had some sort of map but not much of idea where to go once we got up the pass. Weather was also in and out when we arrived so we decided to follow some tracks in to the woods. At least we could see something on our way down. Once we got higher we saw that Turnagain pass seemed to be set up perfectly for splitboarding. The ridges rose sideways against the road making the hiking and access to faces easy. There were lots of reachable terrain without hours long approaches. On the left side of the road it was only hike access and the right side was mainly used by the sledders. We got above the treeline and saw some amazing terrain when the clouds opened up a little bit. Snow was deep and perfect just like in the tales from AK. We decided to hold back still a little when we didn’t see exactly was below, the weather kept changing and we had hard time believing that the snow actually stuck so well. We dug a pit to check the layers and tried to evaluate the avi danger. We chose a more mellow line for safety but decided to come back the next day. We were little intimidated being alone in the mountains. For sure no help would come in time if something happened so we had to be extra safe. But snow was as good as we had dreamed of and it felt really stable.
First turns. Feeling the snow… seems to be pretty damn nice!
The weather and avalanche forecasts seemed to work very well. Every mountain pass had own web site with up to date info (see below). Avalanche forecasts were updated every morning and we couldn’t believe our eyes when the danger was only 2 even after fair snowfall. Stable conditions with over 50cm of fresh seemed unbelievable to us. The snow really seems to stick better here. Weather opened up the next day. We went back to hike the same ridge line and planning to ride the line from the peak that we spotted the day before. We figured out the name from the map: Tincan. Sun was shining and we were alone at the top. Jonas dropped first and I snapped some photos of him slashing perfect snow. Nothing but the slough followed him and I dropped after him on the next spine. The feeling after the first proper AK line with perfect snow was indescribable. We stood on the valley floor waist deep in snow admiring our freshly drawn lines and high fiving several times. We spotted and assessed the lines ourselves and succeeded with out any guiding. For all that we knew and cared it could have been first descents. There was no tracks around. It felt wild and awesome to us even if we knew people had been riding these mountains for years. This is what we came for!
Jonas shredding shredding Tincan.
-POV & home video from our first feelings and riding on Tincan.
Valley bottom. Endless line possibilities. Just follow the ridgeline and drop in.
We learned that the easy approach meant little longer hike out. The valley floor was quite flat and snow was deep so it was a mission to get back to the car but we didn’t mind. The views and setting was perfect and we were still little high from the adrenaline. Only disturbance was the distant sounds of sledders on the other side of the pass which made a ripple to the perfect atmosphere. On the drive back we stopped at wild animal refugee/zoo. There was most of the Alaskan wildlife species hanging out on the meadows and we learned the difference between elk and moose finally. There is no such thing as elks back home.
The next day the clouds covered the sky again and we had to stay in the tree covered faces for visibility. It was nice to discover that you could ride even when the weather was bad. The weather forecast didn’t show any windows for the next days so we decided to start driving to our second destination: The Legendary Valdez.
Some tree riding when the clouds covered the sky. Sharks Fin in Turnagain Pass.
VALDEZ and THOMPSONS PASS – Historical spots – record breaking conditions
The drive was long but rewarding. The highway cut through wilderness. There was nothing except forest and vast scenes for hours. Occasional moose was hanging out next to the road like reindeers back home. There were few funny houses on the way but otherwise the highway was empty. Eddie Vedder’s Into the Wild was the perfect soundtrack for the road trip. The road to Valdez goes through Thompsons pass which is a place for many famous peaks and lines. Heliboarding in AK started there, I think. It started snowing once we reached the pass and it turned into a blizzard while we were driving through. New snow was always welcome but it was interesting to drive in that weather without knowledge how the road or the pass would turn out. Now we felt that our SUV finally served some purpose. Movie scenes turned from Into the Wild to the Shining. We didn’t dare to put that that soundtrack on. The road finally turned downwards and we reached Valdez late. We checked into Mountain Sky hotel. All the hotels were pretty pricy if you take in to account the remote location and the fact that they were almost empty. Standard price was around 100$ room per night. It was around the same in Alyeska so lodging was not cheap in AK. The rooms were according to the typical American standard: huge beds and millonchannel TV. Breakfast included sugars in different forms and everything individually wrapped in plastic.
Highway to mountains. Wrangel range. On the road to Valdez.
Awesome road side shop in the middle of nowhere
It was still snowing when we woke up. Car had 30cm cover from last night so it must be lot in the mountains! Jonas had been fighting a persistent flu the whole trip but he got worse on the drive. He had to stay in bed while I went to explore the village and check out some heli operations. Jonas was in no shape for splitboarding and forecast shoved sunny for the next day. We couldn’t and shouldn’t miss that. Originally we were not planning to use heli and it was not in our budget either. There was lots of fresh snow and sun. Situation was calling for it and hey, once in Alaska! I had been doing some heliboarding in the past and I was trying to make sure that we could ride something proper if we were emptying our wallets. It was not an easy task. Everybody was saying: “yes,yes, you will get good riding” but I had to explain to them that we were spoiled with powder already and we didn’t want to ride some mellow meadows, even if the snow was sick. We could do that any day with few granola bars and hiking. It had to be steep and deep! Of course the operations were all about safety and have to always be sure of the clients abilities before showing the good stuff but we only could afford one day so I really had to persuade the guides. Finally I found a operator and guides who spoke the same language. Valdez Heli Ski up in Thompsons Pass promised to try to get a skilful group together and try to show us the best time possible. I made a date for the next morning.
Good morning Valdez!
“FORCED” TO DO HELIBOARDING
Jonas was still coughing badly in the morning but stood up more friskly than he looked. Clear sky was the best medicine. We drove up to the pass and it was freezing temperatures. In the shade the thermometer was lurking at -30 when we were given the heli brief. We got up in the air and started on some mellow runs making our way to steeper and bigger faces. Snow was absolutely perfect and I couldn’t believe that waist deep and partly bottomless pow stuck on the faces so well. We set few minor avalanches but that was all. It felt really ride steeper stuff with that much snow. We got to ride the Gun barrels from Mt. Dimond and several other good ones. In total we had six plus one runs. They sold us one extra run and we couldn’t say no to those conditions! We paid a grand happily for that day even if it almost doubled our budget. I don’t think you could have gotten it better with a commercial company and showing up without reservation. It was an awesome day and experience but still the feelings that we got after hiking and riding ourselves in Turnagain pass were even better. With the heliboarding the guide was always pointing out the run and direction and we had no say in the game. So it didn’t feel painful at all to return to muscle power and splitboarding even after nearly perfect day. We found another option for accessing terrain too. In our group was a snowboarder, Jeremy, who is operating a sled taxi in Thompsons pass. You could get a sled tow as high as the sled goes for a fraction of a heli run price. From there you could continue hiking the steeps or just ride down. The approaches in Thompson pass were way longer than in Turnagain. It takes hours to get to the bottom of the good stuff so the sled taxi service is definitely a good option.
Snow was as good as it gets
Gun Barrels
drop in gun barrels
small avi on me
The Pot
Jonas dropping in
-small avalanche escape
BACK TO HOLY SOLITUDE – Port of Valdez
We bought a topo/ touring guide for the area from Valdez and started to look for good splitboard access faces. The weather turned unpredictable and visibility in Thompsons pass was really bad. There were no trees up in the pass so it the weather was bad you had no contrast and no chance to ride. But the situation was little different around Port of Valdez were the mountains were as good, shorter approaches and had some trees too. We started to explore the mountains that rose straight from the village and sea. Maybe the record snow year made it possible to ride good snow all the way to sea level. It had snowed 9 meters in Valdez already that year and 14 meters up in the pass. So you could say that the base was good! Even the houses were almost covered in snow.
Valdez being slowly buried
We found some awesome stuff just around the corner in Valdez and the approaches were easy and fast. We hit some minigolf spine runs, pillows and saw some great kicker terrain and bigger faces. The weather was on and off and we had to turn back many times because we couldn’t see well above the tree line. There was no crowds here. We saw handful of hikers and few sledders the whole week. Valdez apparently attracts mostly heliskiing tourists and the season was also only beginning too. We enjoyed the peace and unhurried pace. When we got few weather windows we used them best to our knowledge. One time we rode to the backside of one of the peaks and on the way out ended up at the parking lot of the oil refinery. It came to our attention that it was strictly off limits to civilians, specially Scandinavian snowboarders. We had to explain and give out all our information and photos to the security who spotted us immediately when strapped off. It was partly funny and partly concerning. Suddenly we were a threat to the national security. Eventually we managed to convince the men with guns that we were only snowboarding not spying. They let us go for now but I bet our faces are saved deep in some database.
minigolf spines
Jonas spining on a flat light day
Pow to the bottom
Port of Valdez
Port of Valdez from a mountain
Endless booter terrain
Spraying our way to oil refinery and trouble
Slash with a view
Flat light pillows
The weather rewarded our last day with on more bluebird day. We set out on a mission to ride 600 vertical meter high and steep face that drops into a lake bed and overlooks the whole village. We had seen the face from the opposite side and the best snow was on that aspect. There had been some high winds and temperature rise in the previous day so the conditions had changed some aspects from perfect to shitty. As we were making our way through the tree line we got scared by a thing in the hanging out on a branch just few meters from us. It looked like a mix of a cat, monkey and hedgehog. We learned later that it was a porcupine. Baldhead eagles were hovering above all the time too so it felt like being in National Geography show. Apparently later in the spring the whales gather in the bay and it’s possible to see dozens of them. It is the wild west still definitely.
Creature spying us from the tree turned out to be a porcupine
We got to the top after few hour hike and small detour. The top section was steepish and little sun and affected. Sun was on the whole wall but it was not too warm yet. I dropped in after planning the route from above. We didn’t have a close up picture of the features so we were doing kind of half back door entrance. The face was fortunately concave and visible mostly the whole way. Snow was still awesome most of the run but I did find and hit some slough channels that were icy that surprised me. I gave some directions and info from below about the conditionds to Jonas through radio. That’s the way we worked and it gave the second guy some comfort and useful info. Jonas ripped down with a big smile on his face. We admired our canvas from the lake bed as we hiked out. Few sledders passed us and gave us thumps up for the lines. They were the only people we saw whole day. It was bluebird, amazing conditions, nobody out and just around the corner in Port of Valdez. We really felt again that we accomplished what we came for on our own with no guiding nor advice from anyone. It felt really good and made the perfect ending to our amazing trip to the last frontier.
Our trips last line to the lake
Jonas draving his line
-Home & POV video from the last day
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcHFhocbr98
Happy split back home
PERCEPTIONS AND FEELINGS
Our trip to Alaska confirmed a lot of the expectations that I had before and changed some. Snow and the mountains were as amazing as I had hoped and they were far more accessible than I ever thought. With some basic backcountry skills it is possible to access and ride some really good stuff. The scenery is breathtaking all around. And you don’t need a big budget if you are ready to work a little. The riding exceeded our expectations and weather treated us well too. There was riding for all backcountry levels: from small minigolf to pillow lines and kicker spots all the way to huge faces. The Alaskan redneck culture was still thriving, awesome and funny but it also starts resemble the general American culture in good and bad. It was interesting to see gun cases strapped on four-wheelers and moose hanging around everywhere. The only big disappointment was food. We were hoping to find some fresh fish out of the sea and maybe even some game meat but the food was like the worst example of the fast food and diner culture. Everything was processed, individually wrapped in plastic, sugar coated and imported thousands of miles away. We tried almost everyplace in Valdez and didn’t find any good ones. But beer and burgers were tasty of course! In total our Alaskan experience was awesome and I will count myself among those who always want to go back. It is still pretty wild and wilderness is all around. I just wonder how wild it is must have been 20-30 years ago. My perception of Alaska is still wild and even mystical although we got just a glimpse of it. I strongly recommend to all backcounrty enthusiasts alike to check it out before it too will become more and more touristic, commercial and crowded. Our surface scratching exploration to the last frontier spawned a hunger to return and experience Alaska all over again and again.
Facts, info and websites:
We were in AK (Anchorage and Valdez area) for two weeks from the end of February until mid March. Our budget was around 3000€ including flights but excluding heliboarding.
Flights from Europe to Anchorage or Juneau (which are completely different zones) are around 1000-1500€. Car rental 150-500$/week. Car is a must like generally everywhere else in USA as well. Roads are generally in good condition and no 4wd is needed except if the weather gets bad in the mountain passes.
Hotels/motels are generally around 50$/person/night. If staying longer possibility find vacation rentals.
Splitboard is the best option for getting around because of the deep snow but snowshoes will work too. Other access by sled or specially heli is pricy.
There was very little or none apres-ski and night life. Some can be found in Alyeska resort and helilodges.
There are three mountain passes around Anchorage/Valdez area which have good and easy to read websites for weather and avalanche forecasts:
Last summers trip to Nicaragua. Good times. Now my H20 is in a different form. Surf stories will follow when the snow melts. Pic: Niko Soikkeli www.n-iko.com
-Kaamos moon from top of Blåbaertinden in Tamok. Kaamos is the time in the north when the sun doesn’t rise above the horizon. Moon still lurks around though. Extremely dark and cold but beautiful moments.
Coming out of flat Finland means that I have always had to travel for the mountains and deep snow and for waves in the summer time. This has positive and negative sides to it. I have not grown in the mountains and have had to learn the ways and the rules of the mountain environment in the later age. This has been challenging and unnatural but at the same time an intriguing journey which has taken me around the world to places I, as a kid out of Finland, never could have imagined. It has given me a personal perception of things a long the way. The process of learning is addicting and annoying. As soon as I figure something new out I see that new knowledge just opens more doors and questions. Little frustrating and highly addictive.
-Just around the corner hip session in Tamok. Different time of the year different orb. Sun in the method arch. Photo: Teemu Lahtinen
Through traveling with a snowboard bag I discovered and realized many things that have made me the person I am today. Experiences I got a long the way made me see the world differently and in a constantly changing way. Perceptions on board is about how I experience and perceive things through traveling with and moving on a board. It’s the indescribable feeling of sliding sideways that keeps me on the move. Looking at things little sideways is sometimes crooked but for me everything just feels little better that way. Through those experiences rises thoughts and perceptions that I want to share here. It is a scrapbook for me and hopefully some inspiration and useful knowledge to you. Welcome.
-Miikka
One of my this years projects also begins now. STORIES FROM HERE TO THERE -project starts at home and gives a good introduction.
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Hut in the mountains
