Turnagain Pass, AK Report: Perfect Powder on Pastoral Peak

Today was a repeat of yesterday on Turnagain Pass in Alaska (near Girdwood).  About a foot of blower powder on everything we skied.

To start off we headed up to the top of Pastoral peak.  The snow was phenomenal.  We ripped down and glided across the bench on Pastoral’s northwest face and dropped the next face, which was even more fun.  Simply incredible snow.

From the bottom of the second face we skinned back up to a saddle we’d crossed on our approach to Pastoral.  We “bootpacked” up moss, lichen, and grass along with a bit of snow to the large chute just east of the Elevator Shaft, which we’d skied yesterday.  This run was long, fun and ended in huge avalanche debris from an enormous avy that must have occurred quite a whilst ago.  The avy debris looked and felt like glacier.

It was a 6.5 hour day with 5,440 vertical feet climbed and skied and 11.83 total miles traveled.  We are tired and happy.

One more day on the pass tomorrow before I catch a flight back to Tahoe tomorrow night.  Not excited to leave here.

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