Report from March 26, 2023

I arrived in Alaska on March 21st for my 16th ski trip here and my 2nd season of heli-ski guiding.

I went through 4 days of guide training with Pulseline Adventure:  

• Crevasse Rescue
• Avalanche Rescue
• Medical
• Fuel Truck
• Dispatch
• Aircraft Safety

After guide training, my clients arrived on Saturday and we were ready to roll on Sunday.

On Sunday morning we took the clients through aircraft safety and avalanche rescue.

Once cleared to fly, we went straight to the Pencil Glacier and dropped off on Snow Cone.

Snow Cone feels just how it sounds.

It’s a spicy landing and my clients were pumped.

After some exposed skiing, we locked into a nice wide open face.

We’d had a wind event on Saturday so the sun wasn’t ideal.

Hooky, punchy, funky, and difficult.

It required full concentration and maximum effort.

But this zone on the west side of the Pencil Glacier is truly Alaskan.

Truly steep.

Truly memorable.

We tried one more run on this side of the glacier through the Ice Box with similar results.

From there, we took it across the glacier to Backpackers and found some perfect powder.

It’s incredible how easy powder feels after grinding through consequential terrain in wind-affected snow.

The Backpackers zone skied like a dream…

We blasted 2 runs in sunlit powder with mini-spines, mini-airs, and plenty of speed.

We hit our Cinderella hour at 5pm and started our move home.

The Pencil Glacier is an absolutely spectacular zone.

Just the heli-rides today were worth trip.

Thanks, Alaska

AVALANCHE FORECAST

WEATHER FORECAST

PHOTOS