Alyeska hosted the http://nasja.org annual meeting this year. The Chugach was under high pressure and bluebird skies the entire week, as it had been the week before. Temps were in single digits in the early morning, topping out around 20F. It felt colder than that as the sun is still quite weak. South facing off-piste skied best about 2-4PM but it was not really in melt-freeze mode. The North Face had mostly firm chalk, similar to Mammoth a month ago. However the North Face was only open from directly under the tram, where it has a consistent 30 degree pitch. Steeper lines accessible from Chair 6 like Christmas Chute were closed. The 30 degrees is sustained for close to 1,500 vertical so there were potential fall consequences. Halfway down the North Face were occasional patches of frozen granular, but they could be avoided. The lowest quarter of the North Face had groomed runouts.
The mountain faces west and is mostly shaded when it opens at 10:30Am. So most of us started skiing at noon. It's not busy at all, so I still skied 29,100 vertical on Wednesday by 4:45. It closes at 5:30PM.
Alyeska is one of the most scenic areas anywhere. View from patrol shack near the top out to Turnagain Arm.
The sun starts to illuminate part of the North Face around 3:30. Best skiing there was between 4-5PM.
Thursday was the NASJA race. I got cold down there riding the slow lower chair 4 times. Most of our skiing was on high speed chair 6 serving the upper ~1,500 vertical. I skied 3 North Face runs later Thursday and finished at 4:45 with 20,200 vertical. One of these was with Greg Snow
and Scott Staples
Friday I had lunch at the Seven Glaciers restaurant at the top of the tram. Views from there:
Friday afternoon I took a long traverse out into these upper bowls.
Far out that traverse had not been skied much, so there was a similar search for a smooth skiable line as on the heli days.
The mountain faces west and is mostly shaded when it opens at 10:30Am. So most of us started skiing at noon. It's not busy at all, so I still skied 29,100 vertical on Wednesday by 4:45. It closes at 5:30PM.
Alyeska is one of the most scenic areas anywhere. View from patrol shack near the top out to Turnagain Arm.
The sun starts to illuminate part of the North Face around 3:30. Best skiing there was between 4-5PM.
Thursday was the NASJA race. I got cold down there riding the slow lower chair 4 times. Most of our skiing was on high speed chair 6 serving the upper ~1,500 vertical. I skied 3 North Face runs later Thursday and finished at 4:45 with 20,200 vertical. One of these was with Greg Snow
and Scott Staples
Friday I had lunch at the Seven Glaciers restaurant at the top of the tram. Views from there:
Friday afternoon I took a long traverse out into these upper bowls.
Far out that traverse had not been skied much, so there was a similar search for a smooth skiable line as on the heli days.