I decided to take a shot at this after my March trip at White Grizzly went well. I had first met Points North owner Kevin Quinn at the L.A. ski show a decade ago. But Kevin was on the Antarctic cruise with some of his guides and several of his customers, one of whom Tom Hicks was in my ski group. Kevin also helped Liz out and gave her a powder lesson one afternoon in Antarctica.
The final week of the season was the only one available when I inquired. Points North has been offering the last week of April just a few years after observing that conditions often remained good after they were done. This year spring arrived in full force the week before mine. This resulted in unstable and/or rain-soaked snow at low elevation. Kevin felt we needed clear weather above 4,000 feet for good skiing and we did not get that for the first 3 days. Sunday and Monday were just cloudy but Tuesday was drizzly at PNH's Orca Lodge, which is at sea level 2 miles outside Cordova.
Wednesday was clear so we finally got out about 10:30AM. We were in the second group. PNH is the largest operation in Alaska with 3 A-Stars usually serving 4 groups of 4 each though there were only 3 groups per heli this week. The Orca Lodge is 10-12 minutes flight time from most of the ski terrain so it takes an hour to get everyone out there. They had not flown for 5 days so we had to assess conditions. There was about 2 inches new snow, but it was dense and had bonded to the old snow so there was almost never a hard subsurface. Intermediate pitches like our first run in Super Bowl skied almost like packed powder groomers much of the time. There was occasional thin zipper crust but it did not impede skiing.
We had our safety drills on Sunday and guide Tom Walker inquired about our skiing. All of us were first time at Points North. Michael and Julia had immigrated from Russia in the late 1980's and now live in the Bay Area and ski mostly at Squaw. Tom and Jeannine were from a rural area in southeast Idaho and had not skied all season due to lack of snow at their local ski area Pebble Creek. Guide Tom said later he had some concerns there but Idaho Tom had ski bummed ~150 days a year when he was in college in Utah and also has a racing background. Jeannine skied well enough but she got tired and went in after 7 runs when the heli had to refuel. If we had a full week Jeannine was scheduled to ski one day and Tom the rest, but after 3 down days PNH took them both out Wednesday. The remaining 4 of us turned out to be quite compatible in how and what we could ski.
Since the new snow had improved the skiing PNH tried for mostly sheltered north-facing looking for powder. The second and third runs were mostly successful in this regard.
We stopped for lunch after the third run while the heli refueled. After lunch we moved west into the Targhetto area, which drains into the Cordova Glacier.
These runs had short steep sections near the top (4,500 - 5,000 feet) that were usually soft chalk, then some powder in the middle and smooth packed powder lower down.
Below 3,000 the snow was softening but since the new snow down there was only an inch or so over a consolidated base it was already in corn mode. At lunch guide Tom dug a few inches down through the packed powder and showed us that the snow beneath was granular corn from last week.
After Jeannine flew out guide Tom tried to get us on some steep terrain. Unfortunately there was some wind on the ridgeline and the pilot made 3 passes but was unable to make a secure landing. We ended up of the flat saddle at upper right and skied diagonally to the center here.
While skiing down we got a good look at where Tom had been trying to get us. This is the Hidden Couloir.
There's a bergschrund to avoid at the bottom of the couloir, then what looked like good powder on the apron below. We later learned that one of the other groups got in there during a lull in the wind.
Looker's left of Hidden Couloir is Fruit Bowl, wide at the top then funneling in to the right of the glacial ice.
The lumps below Fruit Bowl are buried crevasses and Tom did not think it was safe to ski there in late season when the snow bridges are likely weaker.
Our last run had good consistent pitch and snow for 2,000+ vertical.
Looking up from last run
Total 10 runs by 5:30PM, 18,100 vertical. Flying back to the lodge:
The final week of the season was the only one available when I inquired. Points North has been offering the last week of April just a few years after observing that conditions often remained good after they were done. This year spring arrived in full force the week before mine. This resulted in unstable and/or rain-soaked snow at low elevation. Kevin felt we needed clear weather above 4,000 feet for good skiing and we did not get that for the first 3 days. Sunday and Monday were just cloudy but Tuesday was drizzly at PNH's Orca Lodge, which is at sea level 2 miles outside Cordova.
Wednesday was clear so we finally got out about 10:30AM. We were in the second group. PNH is the largest operation in Alaska with 3 A-Stars usually serving 4 groups of 4 each though there were only 3 groups per heli this week. The Orca Lodge is 10-12 minutes flight time from most of the ski terrain so it takes an hour to get everyone out there. They had not flown for 5 days so we had to assess conditions. There was about 2 inches new snow, but it was dense and had bonded to the old snow so there was almost never a hard subsurface. Intermediate pitches like our first run in Super Bowl skied almost like packed powder groomers much of the time. There was occasional thin zipper crust but it did not impede skiing.
We had our safety drills on Sunday and guide Tom Walker inquired about our skiing. All of us were first time at Points North. Michael and Julia had immigrated from Russia in the late 1980's and now live in the Bay Area and ski mostly at Squaw. Tom and Jeannine were from a rural area in southeast Idaho and had not skied all season due to lack of snow at their local ski area Pebble Creek. Guide Tom said later he had some concerns there but Idaho Tom had ski bummed ~150 days a year when he was in college in Utah and also has a racing background. Jeannine skied well enough but she got tired and went in after 7 runs when the heli had to refuel. If we had a full week Jeannine was scheduled to ski one day and Tom the rest, but after 3 down days PNH took them both out Wednesday. The remaining 4 of us turned out to be quite compatible in how and what we could ski.
Since the new snow had improved the skiing PNH tried for mostly sheltered north-facing looking for powder. The second and third runs were mostly successful in this regard.
We stopped for lunch after the third run while the heli refueled. After lunch we moved west into the Targhetto area, which drains into the Cordova Glacier.
These runs had short steep sections near the top (4,500 - 5,000 feet) that were usually soft chalk, then some powder in the middle and smooth packed powder lower down.
Below 3,000 the snow was softening but since the new snow down there was only an inch or so over a consolidated base it was already in corn mode. At lunch guide Tom dug a few inches down through the packed powder and showed us that the snow beneath was granular corn from last week.
After Jeannine flew out guide Tom tried to get us on some steep terrain. Unfortunately there was some wind on the ridgeline and the pilot made 3 passes but was unable to make a secure landing. We ended up of the flat saddle at upper right and skied diagonally to the center here.
While skiing down we got a good look at where Tom had been trying to get us. This is the Hidden Couloir.
There's a bergschrund to avoid at the bottom of the couloir, then what looked like good powder on the apron below. We later learned that one of the other groups got in there during a lull in the wind.
Looker's left of Hidden Couloir is Fruit Bowl, wide at the top then funneling in to the right of the glacial ice.
The lumps below Fruit Bowl are buried crevasses and Tom did not think it was safe to ski there in late season when the snow bridges are likely weaker.
Our last run had good consistent pitch and snow for 2,000+ vertical.
Looking up from last run
Total 10 runs by 5:30PM, 18,100 vertical. Flying back to the lodge:
