TURNAGAIN PASS CONDITIONS REPORT❄️ Weather Windows & Rad Runs ~ January

Sometimes a fella just hits the ski bum jackpot. And by all accounts, any winter you spend in the Chugach Range of Alaska, is a million dollar pay dirt gold mine kinda jack pot

Chugach Gold, the good stuff

Alyeska Resort, AK and the neighboring Chugach Range & Kenai Range, consistently boast one of the deepest Maritime snowpacks in all of North America

Bluebird weather window for skiing coming round the bend this week in South Central Alaska

https://www.wunderground.com/weather/us/ak/girdwood/60.95473567940097,-149.15972748810384

2 days of high pressure this Thur/Fri, cold 15-20 degree bluebird ski days, after a week of 2-4+foot snow accumulations in the Alpine

When the need to stretch the legs and find the skin track hits, a veritable cornucopia of wildly different ski terrain unfolds with every passing mile along the Seward HWY

The whole damn drive 90 miles south from Girdwood to Seward, is an adventure in and of itself, trying not to drive off the road while staring at ski line after glorious ski line

Turnagain Pass, along the Seward Highway, is the main corridor for Winter Recreation

Easily approachable moderate ridge systems, access vertigo inducing & wildly featured AK ski lines

KNOW BEFORE YOU GO

Get the Avalanche Forecast

http://www.cnfaic.org/advisories/current.php

Read the forecast, gather your own observations, make a plan, assess the terrain, mitigate the hazards, and follow safe travel plans and Big Mountain Skiing protocol

Need a guide to get you oriented to a new Mountain Range & snow pack here in the Chugach, look no further than Joe Stock

Stock Alpine Guide

Image: Chugach National Forest Avalanche Information Center

LOGISTICS

Girdwood, AK , is your base camp for exploring the Kenai Range & Chugach Range

Gas stations, bars & restaurants, all those snazzy ski town amenities we know and love, with none of the fattening pretense & posers

ALYESKA RESORT

Bring your dancing shoes & Powder skis if stopping to ski at Alyeska

Check the Snow Report here

https://www.alyeskaresort.com/snow-report

APRES

Girdwood Brewery

• Ale~Hot Tub Time Machine
• Stout~Hippie Speedball Coffee Stout
• IPA~No Woman No Cryo
• Hazy Pale Ale~Alyeska Brewski

Image: Girdwood Brewery

Good for what ales you~

MUSIC

Recharge the soul, hippie shuffle & dance yourself clean at the slopeside Alyeska Sitzmark Bar

In this hippies opinion, Girdwood hosts arguably the best small town music scene in the Ski universe

Lucas Nelson & POTR “Find Yourself”

Lucas Nelson (yep, the red headed stranger, Willie Nelson’s son) and his Texas Honky Tonk band ‘Promise of the Real’ , fresh off the road as Neil Young’s backing band, play this weekend Feb 1 & 2nd

http://thesitzmark.com/

Bob Weir of Grateful Dead fame, even plays this super cool, laid back, intimate venue

National Touring Acts like North Mississippi All Stars , Leftover Salmon, and a Widespread Panic side project, are all breezing thru this season

Ski day in the books, cold one in hand, now as Jerry Garcia once sang “There’s nothing left to do but smile smile smile”

‘He’s Gone’ Grateful Dead 7-2-89