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Posted by Mike on 29 March 2010
Alaska round-up
Flying home from the holiday of a lifetime (that I hope will not be a “once in a lifetime” trip) with 26 hours of journeying ahead - time at last to catch up on the blog.

It was about a year ago that I started cajoling the group of potential heli-skiiers into action, and by linking up with Charlie we made it happen. Charlie works for the newly re-branded purepowder.com which used to solely offer CMH heli-skiing trips in Canada (CMH being the biggest heli operator in the world and his company the sole seller in the UK.) They're now expanding out so our trip to Alaska was perfect for him to meet Chugach Powder Guides (CPG) and decide whether to start selling for them as well. Having a pro like Charlie on board made it all happen painlessly, we transferred the money months ago and sat back, excitement building. The weeks before leaving I became nervous about getting injured, and a pretty rough fall wakeboarding had me worried it was all over for a sec. Gotz similarly had a potential disaster with his Granny falling ill and a tough decision as to whether to bail or not. Hopefully she's better and he made it to Kenya.

My journey was long and tough - 26 hours with 3 changes, having to collect my bags and check them back in at every airport (San Fran, Seattle, Anchorage.) But I got the exit seats and all went smoothly, arriving Thursday night with heli skiing supposed to start the next day. The whole holiday had been pushed forward two days to accommodate Gotz's trip to Kenya for Guy Lawrence's wedding, but with my flights already booked it meant I lost my warm up days - straight into it!

The reality was slightly different. As we entered the resort there was some light rain, which was snow a little further up the mountain. The drive from the airport to Alyeska is incredible, following a tributary from the sea almost all the way - the resort is the lowest in the US, with the highest skiing up to only about 5000ft.

I met the guys and we had a warm up beer, then up the next morning at 7.30am for our safety briefing. This was led by our guide Jeff Hoke, a 31 year old Alaskan and a very cool guy. Super chilled, extremely smart, the safety briefing served to assure us as we were in good hands as did his guiding all week (both on and off the snow!) He’s a great skier and used to be a pro snowboarder as a kid, loves his couloirs (or coolars as the Alaskans pronounce them) and happy to take us to some extreme lines, as long as the conditions permitted. Gotz right away was giving him banter, I think Jeff was a bit hung over and had yet to adjust to the English humour, but he soon got into the groove, rallying back with a dry sense of humour. We did our beacon briefing and testing outside, then loaded up on the cat. The weather was too overcast for the helis to fly, which means you go on weather hold until midday and see if things improve. Charlie had warned us that Alaska gets an average of 3 down days a week, but I thought this was when really bad weather moves in. The reality is that they don’t fly if there’s any low lying cloud or snow, instead you go up on a snow cat which is like a piste basher with a big cabin in the back fitting about 12 guests and 2 guides. We had a great first day, the terrain is fun with some tree runs and deep powder – there was about a foot of fresh snow from the day before (although paled into insignificance considering the 80 inches that had fallen in 3 days a couple of weeks before!) It was good to have a warm up day, it took most of the day to get the bindings right on my new board, and of course I hadn’t snowboarded since a couple of rainy days in Aus in July.

Saturday morning we woke up to beautiful sunshine and the best day’s skiing of my life. In fact probably safe to say the best day of my life, I had a permanent smile fixated to my face. Every bit of the experience was phenomenal. I’d never been in a heli before, and the pick ups and drop offs were a real buzz. In fact it was the drop offs at the top of sometimes knife edge ridges that I had no idea would happen, and were in many ways my favourite part – especially when the heli flies you away and leaves you in perfect silence. The days start late in Alaska, with 10am pickups from the hotel, but they can run late too – the last heli needs to be in by 7pm, with light going at about 8pm. On that first heli day we skied 24,000 vertical feet with 12 drop-offs, fresh snow everywhere we went, sometimes close to waste deep. They share one heli between 4 groups but we moved fast, generally there was no waiting at the bottom which meant it was non stop flying or skiing. The views were breathtaking (excuse the cliché) and I had a great group of friends to share the experience with (excuse the cheesiness!) Jeff pointed out “movie lines” i.e. the runs that they use when filming ski videos – the Warren Miller team actually arrived a couple of days later and apparently set up on Spine Cell which he pointed out. We skied Spine Cell twice on the Sunday but of course very different lines, still pretty extreme as far as we were concerned! Jeff described some of the movie lines as “The shit that makes the pros scared!” There were some great new expressions learnt, always said in a deep voice with an Alaskan accent (which almost has a Southern drawl twinge) – “Send it” when you’re about to rip it up, and “Droppin” just as you set off. A few days later when we were in the terrain park, I asked Jeff for advice on the half pipe. The advice that came back “When you get to the top……Send it.” Sunday he took us to a couloir called Velvet Curtain. Gotz had been pestering him to take us to some of the real steeps, a plea they get every week as clients come to Alaska specifically to go “extreme”. Well the conditions permitted and he took us to the gnarliest landing we had, followed by a serious pitch – the first time they’d taken clients to it (or so they said!) There’s a whole host of photos that attempt to do it some justice, in reality it’s nowhere close to movie lines but every turn was a jump turn and it had our hearts racing. The light was flat unfortunately, so Jeff told us to take it easy – none of us were happy with how we skied it although Charlie did a pretty good job. Jeff twisted his knee, heard a pop, so he was pretty tentative for the rest of the day.

I won’t go through the rest of the week as I’m sure it’ll get a bit boring, but to sum it up briefly the weather closed in for a couple of days so we resort skied and cat skied, then we got some snow and just as things were looking bad for the final day (we’d only had 2.5 days of heli out of 6) things cleared and we had a superb final day. The 0.5 day was when we went up on the cat, then the weather cleared and the heli picked us up from the cat area at lunch. Very rockstar. It closed in again a few hours later so was a bit of a non-event, but any heli time was gratefully taken. Our package included 100,000 vertical feet and with the final day being a success we skied 97,000 vert, anything over 100k and you have to start paying. Charlie then managed to get me and him onto a heli on our 8th day, to use up the remaining vert and pay for any additional. The sun was shining and we drove South for 45 minutes, then the heli picked us up and we had a day in new terrain. It was cold though and they’d made an extra group to accommodate us which meant the going was slow – we didn’t get into the heli until midday and there were long waits in between runs. There was a nasty crust layer for the first two runs, but then we found the fresh powder and got some great runs in, before the weather closed in and we called it a day. Charlie finished it by deploying his ABS – everyone (except me) had these backpacks that inflate when you pull a rip cord. The idea is that they keep you on top of an avalanche and they’ve had a great success rate. The guys had these packs, a shovel, a probe and the beacons. I had my beacon! When Jeff handed out the walkie talkies, he was one short so I didn’t get one. He joked later that he’d assessed the group, I was the only one without any of the kit so he figured I didn’t care about risk and therefore didn’t need a 2 way… cheers dude!!

Bollo (my gorilla friend) came heli-boarding one day, which kind of freaked out the pilot when he turned around to see a gorilla in the back of his chopper! On a down day, Jeff took us to Big Game – an animal reserve for buffalo, musk ox, bears, reindeer and various other weird Alaskan creatures. Bollo was keen to meet a huge musk ox that was hanging near the fence, a great photo opportunity and the musk ox was pretty confused at meeting a gorilla. Then the ranger came along who was not impressed, told me that it was extremely dangerous and could smash through the fence at any time (maybe get better fences then?!) He had a go at Jeff who was in the van taking photos, quizzing him as to who he was and where he was from. Jeff was reluctant at first to give away CPG, but did in the end. It turned pretty funny:

“Who do you work for?”
“Nobody, this is just a rental van”
“Really. Hmmmm. What’s your name?”
“er….Jeff”
“Jeff what?”
“Jeff Hoke”
“Hoke? [clearly recognises his name] Jesus you should know better. This is the ox that smashed your friend, threw him 10 feet in the air” (Jeff showed us the Youtube clip as it was filmed and even made it onto the news, although the guy wasn’t badly hurt.)

So we were kicked out of Big Game and the news made it around CPG, everyone finding it very funny. Bollo also crashed a Warren Miller meeting, the pros and crew were all sitting around discussing plans and Bollo came up to give the guide a hug. There’s a photo showing the reactions, everyone laughing except Chris Davenport, Mr Extreme skier apparently. I asked him later in the week if he’d wear the gorilla outfit shooting, would give a good twist to the next warren miller film.

On Friday Gotz left us heading for Kenya, then Charlie took off Saturday after our extra day’s heli, leaving Will and I to have one final day’s resort skiing. It was snowing heavily so we only ventured out about 3pm, but visibility was terrible and Will’s goggles weren’t playing the game so after an hour or so he bailed. I tried the north face as there are more trees so the visibility can be better, and had an awesome run with some near waste deep powder building up around the trees. I went up again and they’d closed it as it was after 5pm (although the slopes are open until 8.30pm!) but as I skied by the boundary rope I fell and went under it. I considered skiing down anyway as it was such a good run, then saw what I thought was a ski patrol guy by an entrance that was clearly signed Closed. I skied up close to him but then realised he wasn’t ski patrol, he was just checking it out. As I looked up at him he said “Take it dude, it’s awesome” and that was all the encouragement I needed, one final run in the deep Alaskan powder before the long trip home. I had dinner with Will in a “world famous” local restaurant (I suspect their world is defined as Alaska) and then met up with Jeff and a few of his buddies that Charlie and I had heli-skied with on our last day. A few drinks in the Sitzmarch where a local band was rocking, then Chair Five where Gotz had fallen asleep on a girl’s shoulder earlier in the week. There was a scuffle in Chair 5 that I was a bit too close to, but nothing much came of it and I get the feeling it happens all the time. One of the guys in our group had rung the bell not knowing what it meant. It meant that he was supposed to buy everyone at the bar a drink, and considering there were about 60 people there it was going to be an expensive round. When he discovered his folly he bailed out of the bar, then 5 minutes later tried to return to the bar but was pushed out by the furious 5’2 barmaid, backed up by some angry locals. These Alaskans like their drink and don’t take kindly to outsiders messing with the rules. Lesson learnt!

So that was the end of our epic adventure, a glimpse into Alaska’s great outdoors. Hearing Jeff’s stories of living amongst the bears, fishing rivers so thick with salmon “you could walk across them”, landing planes on glaciers and skiing down, surfing with the mountains in the background and a remote town accessible only by train and sea where all the residents live in a solitary tower block, we realised we’d only just touched the surface. We’re all very grateful to Jeff for making it so unforgettable, he looked after us day and night, showing us around town, bearing the blame for Bollo’s antics, and most importantly keeping us safe on the snow. Charlie’s overt man crush was a hilarious spectacle, I think Angie had better beware! Thanks to Charlie for organising, Gotz for showing up and Tonker for extending his trip to keep me company. Good times.



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Posted by Mike on 22 February 2010
Playground Weekender
Just back from a cracking weekend at Playground Weekender, a shadow of my former self but happy to take the hit. I'll write up a decent report soon, but for now here's a video clip of a very special moment from Orbital....




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Posted by Mike on 10 January 2010
Happy new year
It's going to be tough returning to work on Monday after such a long time off. Apart from the three days of work between xmas and New Year, I've been off since 23rd December and getting used to the easy life. The week in Margaret River has been exactly what the doctor ordered, lots of beach time, swimming, some early morning runs, leisurely lunches, fine wine drinking and early nights. The area is as beautiful as claimed by so many, with beautiful clear water, gorgeous beaches and headlands, and stunning vineyards. We were staying at Tyrone's house in Quindalup near Dunnesborough which is on the North facing coast, so no waves but some amazing beaches. The only problem with the whole thing was the horrendous fly situation - apparently some late rains and a reduced dung beatle campaign by the Environmental Services have led to the worst flies in most peoples' memory. They're okay near the water but the walk from the car down to the beach is unlike anything I've ever experienced with a need to constantly swat. Lots of people have taken to wearing fly net hats, although I didn't see a single Aussie-cliched cork hat! Weirdly they were okay one of the days, but came back in abundance today.
The weather has been stunning, late 20s / early 30s, and the water is cold which means you quickly chill. I only managed one (failed) afternoon of surfing where I was shown up by a 6 year old boy, who in fair was incredible. It was a bit hard logisitically to sort surfing as our car didnt have roof racks and the surf beaches were a bit of a drive away. I'm also still recovering from the whiplash with my wakeboarding fall dressed as Bollo up in Smith's Lake - very sore neck that needs some physio attention. We've had a fun crowd down here - Tyrone, Imran and his girlfriend Anne, Dave Hoppe and his girlfriend Nina, then the English crew: me, John, Pete, Emma, Georgie and Nics. That same English crew were all together for Christmas, and mostly New Year, so we all came over feeling jaded and looking for a relaxing week. Sadly I think Ty was after the opposite after lots of family time, and it probably didn't kick off as much as he would have liked, but plenty of fun was still had! We had a very fine lunch in Vasse Felix where he used to work for 2 years as restaurant manager. It's a beatiful vineyard that has an amazing menu, and I had possibly one of the best steaks of my life - melt in your mouth perfection. There was of course some fine wine drunk too, and it followed to an almighty beach session next to Casa Del Stott and a new drinking game I'd witnessed on a run two days before. Basically you line up in the shallows of water with beer in hand, then one guy is on the beach with a cricket bat and hits the ball at the group for some one handed catches. Any missed catches, drink, any mis-hits, batsman drinks. Incredibly simple but kept us entertained for hours!!!

The night before a smaller group of us had some wine on the beach at sunset and a great chat about 2009 and plans for 2010. I'm definitely doing more thinking about it than ever before, maybe the year of some change but we'll see.

Going back a bit, New Years Eve was a very fun party at Neilsen's Park organised by Nicola: Circus by the Sea. My brother's outfit was hilarious - a psychodellic lycra all in one, along with a helmet and some equally trippy trainers - the human cannonball on acid! He got so much attention, including police in the Cross taking their cameras out and taking photos of him, that he decided to wear it the next day to Space. It was a pretty good festival, awesome location in the Showgrounds in the Entertainment Quarter, with not a bad crowd and some excellent music - the highlight being D Ramirez and Pete Tong. Tiefshwarz were headlining but actually didn't really do it for me - a little too heavy. Anthony Mcgrath had also joined us for NYE and NYD and it was great to hang out with him before he went up the coast with his bro, then on to NZ for a wedding. After Space we headed out in the Cross, starting in the usual K&K (where we also went after NYE party!) and then onto Dragonfly - my first time there in probably a couple of years and it was great to be back, but I happened to speak to the owner outside who said it was closing to be revamped for a 6 months. Before I realised he was the owner, I very nearly said about how it was owned by dodgy money (well known as bikey-gang owned) - thank god I didn't!

We're heading out in Perth tonight, then back to Sydney late tomorrow and out for Sam's last night - it will be a shame to see him go, he's been such an awesome addition over the last couple of weeks, but he's hoping to find a job in Melbourne and move back out. It's also Crispin's bucks tomorrow night as he leaves the country in the next couple of weeks, but I'm back too late and it's over in Bondi so I don't think it's gonna happen. I'll go to his farewell on 16th Jan though, a bbq at Tama which always works for me! I'm hoping to do something small for my birthday the next day, but not sure what yet. Will be a daytime thing, in a park or on a beach, get people together for a picnic and throw a ball around, hire a speaker, pump out some tunes, relive the 30th!! I'm not sure what my 31st year will hold for me, but John pointed out this is the decade we need to grow up and I think he's onto something. Things will change in the next couple of yeras, not sure in what way yet, I've never been too focused on the future, but it does make me a little nervous. That said, I had a great 09 and if I have the same highs in 2010 then I can't complain.



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