Report from April 7, 2024

(if you would like to heli-ski with Miles this April please email us:  contact@snowbrains.com)

Sunday was the first day of my 2024 Alaska ski season.

This is my 3rd season heli-ski guiding for Pulseline Adventure and my 16th spring in Alaska.

I consider skiing up here a completely different season because there’s nothing else like it.

There’s not even a great way to prepare for skiing here – except maybe to ski your ass off before you get here.

I arrived in Valdez, AK, on Thursday night and spent Friday and Saturday grinding through guide training.

• Medical component
• Helicopter safety component
• Crevasse rescue component
• Dispatch component
• Fueling component
• Avalanche rescue component

On Sunday it was truly a sun day and game on.

We skied 9 runs in the most explosive snow I’ve skied all season.

We rolled straight out to the Wortmanns Glacier area and skied a fun warm-up run in blower powder and dramatic light.

Then we hit “Vito’s” off The Deserted Glacier and took it 2,800-vertical-feet down to the glacier below.

From there we bounced over to the Tasnuna Glacier – a zone I’ve never skied in.

The Tasnuna is full of ramps, terrific terrain, and on this day, unmatched crystaline powder.

We got right into and skied 7 splendid runs in a very tight zone being very efficient.

One ramp we liked so much that we skied it twice.

We also hit “The Hammer” twice as it was splendiferous on our first run, then surreal on our last run of the day as the evening light began to grace it.

My clients Toby, Steven, and Gary were beyond stoked.

We flew back to the airport suffering from severe glee.

The views of Pontoon and friends on the trip home bent our minds.

Dinner at Growler Bay with the clients was a stoke-fest full of smiles, cheers, and speeches.

And a plethora of “…the best day of my life” proclamations.

I collapsed into bed at 11pm simply buzzing…

I’m feeling extremely grateful.

What a world we live in…

Thanks, Alaska!

Photos