Maui update

Saturday 1^st May: After a week or so of nothing but eating, drinking, sleeping and windsurfing, I feel like I’m starting to settle in here. 10 days windsurfing in a row now. I think that’s approaching some kind of record for me.

The first 5 or 6 days were pretty tough on the body. My arms hadn’t see that much exercise in a long time. My hands were falling to bits. All sorts of problems… But a couple days later I feel like everything’s starting to sort it self out.

The hours that we rented, is pretty simple, but its all we need. The best part about it however is its right across the road from Spercks beach, and awesome windsurfing beach, perfect for jumping and the odd on shore wave ride.

Sprecks beach

POV screen shot from me doing a push loop at Sprecks

Just 5 mins East from our place is the world famous Ho’okipa Beach. Lately we have just been sailing here because the wind direction is better for wave riding.

When we first arrived there was a pretty solid swell hitting the North shore of Maui. The bigger waves at Ho’okipa were about mast high. Having been out of the water for almost 4 months, I decided to sit it out and watch Joel Ryan and Al McLeod get out and mix it up with the worlds best.

Levi Siver ripping at Ho'okipa

Al McLeod getting into it

Ho’okipa was a bit of a circus when we arrived, this is the time of year that most of the top sponsored sailors from all over the world come to Maui to test next years equipment, and to shoot the Catalogs for the summing season.

The cliff to was scattered with photographers. There were even a couple right in the break getting shots from the water. There was even a massive helicopter hovering about 10 – 15m above the break getting shots from the air. It was all happening.

The next couple days we sailed at Sprecks. I was slowly feeling more coordinated. Time to check out Ho’okipa for my self. Luckily for me the swell had dropped off quite a bit so it would be easier to get out, and get back into the swing of things.

Me doing an off the lip arial at Ho'okipa

The swell has been small for a few days now, and now the wind is looking like it may drop right off for a couple days. Today might be the last time we windsurf until maybe Tuesday.

At this stage there also looks to be another swell coming in from the North East. Fingers crossed for that.

Me cursing out the back of Sprecks

Me jumping at Sprecks

Haines to Maui

After waiting around all day with no car and nothing to do. I got a lift to the ferry terminal in Haines and started the trip to Maui. I made it to Juneau that night by about 11pm, checked into a hotel room and got some rest.

The next day I had no plans, just catching a plane at 8pm. So went the down town in Juneau to check it out. After about 10 mins I had covered all there was to see there. Not a great place to be a tourist… Somehow I managed to kill 5 hours, before going back to my hotel and getting to the airport 3 and a half hours before my flight, mostly because I had nothing else to do.

All my gear. It is actually possible for me to move all of this around an airport without a trolly

I flew to Seattle that night, checked into another room, slept for 6 hours. Got up at 6am and made my next flight at 8am which was direct to Maui. Woo Hoo

I made it to Maui!!

The rest of our Haines adventure

If someone asked me to describe Alaska in one word, it would be contrast. Everything about the place is so different and so extreme. Either in comparison to other places like it, and even to itself. One day we found our self’s skiing huge Alaskan peaks from a helicopter, the next struggling to find things to do to fill up a day.

In total we skied for 3 days while in Haines. 2 from the heli, and 1 ski touring. The other days were tough. We saw all the sights that Haines had to offer. In a way I’m glad we only had a week there. Because we were running out of things to do. On the other hand, we did get very lucky with the weather. Getting to go skiing 3 times in a week doesn’t always happen.

Day 2 in the Heli: Sam and Nick decided to sit this one out. I showed up not knowing who or what I would be skiing with. Once again I got pretty lucky here, there weren’t that many skiers, there were only 2 groups in total. One group had a couple of older guys from Australia. One who used to work for Scott in the US and we had a few mutual friends. And his mate who just happened to be Nat Young, the very famous surfer from back in the day. (The people you meet in Haines…) My group was mostly made up of Guides in training, and a couple from Switzerland. When I asked the 30 something guys what he did for work, his reply was, “I’m in the oil business.” Enough said, just another day heli skiing for this couple…

We did 4 runs that day. The snow was not as good as it was earlier in the week. But we did have some very good runs. We actually got really lucky with one of them finding probably some of the best snow of the whole trip.

Here’s some photos from the day.

Jumping over a crevasse

The next day the weather was still too nice to sit inside and watch dvd’s so we drove to the pass just outside of Haines and went for a little ski tour. The weather was really warm. So I decided to wear my board shorts on the hour drive to the pass. Unfortunately when we arrived I realised I forgot my ski pants. Which left 2 options: ski in board shorts, or sit in the car. So I skied in board shorts. Which was actually not as bad as it sounds. I actually got more snow in my boots on the skin up than on the ski down.

We spent our final day in Haines packing and getting ready to leave. Nick and Sam were leaving early on Sunday morning and driving to Valdez. And I was catching a ferry back to Juneau in the afternoon. We did manage to make a trip out the Haines brewery in the afternoon, which I would recommend to anyone who if they ever make it to Haines. Some pretty tasty and heavy beers such as: The DMMDI IPA. Meaning, the devil made me do it IPA, the alcohol content just happening to be 6.66% exactly. Also the Black Fang which was a huge 10% beer. Heavy!

http://hainesbrewing.com/

Heli skiing Haines

We showed up at 8am as instructed. Everyone was looking pretty casual. There were a group of snowboarders getting ready to go out filming. These guys were from Absinthe films.

The chopper was just sitting on the snow waiting to take off. The same chopper that I’ve seen 1000 times on ski movies from the past 6 years. Then I noticed the pilot, the same pilot that I’ve seen pop up in countless movies over the years too.

About 5 mins later the rotors started moving, they were getting ready to go. Just being there watching the first lot of people load up in the chopper as the rotors were moving gave me chills. Butterfly’s in my stomach…

At this point we realized that we had a bit of time up our sleeves. We went into the office and got things organized. We met the Canadians. We were all pretty quite, not saying too much to each other. Both parties skeptical of each others abilities. Questions got thrown around… “Were do you guys ski again?” “What kind of stuff do you like to ski?” All friendly but a bit with a bit of a funny twist to it. We were feeling no different about the whole thing.

We had a brief word to the operator O’ryan, clarifying that we wanted to ski 3 runs. We kept pushing that we were all good skiers and wanted to ski some big lines. We never got much clarity from what was going on. No fixed price, no real idea where we were going, or what we were going to be skiing.

10am, still sitting around waiting for something to happen. Then all of a sudden, “All right let’s go!” “Gear up and get weighed in.” We had to get weighed with all our gear they knew how much fuel to put in the heil. Skis, boot, etc, also all normal backcountry gear. A new item of gear that I wasn’t too familiar with was needed. A climbing harness. This would be very useful if you fell down a crevasse and had to get pulled out with ropes. Also radios, another very important tool.

Then as we me t our guide Tim, we could hear the heli coming in over the mountains. It was all happening..!

The rest of the day is hard to put into words. The whole experience was intense! The heli ride it self was just awesome! 7 people pack into this little space, cursing around the mountains. The moment we took off we became best mates with the Canadians, there was no need to worry about everyone ability, this was going to be an absolutely ridiculous experience regardless!

First run: The whole process of getting off the heli, unloading it and it leaving took about 2 mins. All of a sudden I felt pretty dam small. 6 people standing on a giant Alaskan peak, and the only way down was to ski.

As I dropped in I was suppressed at the quality of the snow. The temperature was really nice. I expected the snow to be much heavier. Such awesome terrain, really fun! A few little cliffs to hit good pitch, steep but not too steep. One of the hardest things I noticed about skiing in a place like this is knowing how fast your going. Coming out of the main chute I started opening up my turns in to the bottom. I almost lost it coming into a gradual compression, my legs almost couldn’t handle the speed.

At the bottom we were all so pumped! My first line in AK. This place has already exceeded my expectations.

Second run: was a little disappointing. It was steeper, but much shorter. I had a couple turns on a nice spine, but that was about it. We were all at the bottom confused why our guide has just made us ski that. I think he felt a bit bad, he knew the run was short. I think he had intentions of skiing something slightly different. But I don’t think he was totally convinced on our ability and whether we could handle more serious terrain.

We kept pushing him to take us some where bigger, something longer and steeper.

Third run: Our request was granted. We got taken up to a one of the biggest peaks in our zone. Just over 6500 vertical feet in height. It was quite an amazing moment getting out of the heli up there, I felt like I was on a movie.

Peering over the edge down the run, this was definitely the gnarlyest thing I have ever skied X 10!

I was dropping first, even before the guide. Just incase anything happened. First turns down this spine section was intense. I don’t think I have ever been so focused or concentrated on one particular thing. A fall here would be a small one! I was getting air with every turn. Gradually things started to mellow out slightly, and I started to open up my turns. The snow was quite variable, going from pow to wind blown. It was had to see where the snow was good and where it wasn’t. I was moving around the slope, testing the snow here and there. Sluff poring down around me. My turns got bigger, my speed got faster. My legs were hurting already. As I skied over one patch of wind blown snow my outside ski got caught under the top crust. When I tried to turn I got bucked. Straight over the front. Totally air bourn at this point, my only thought was, OH FUCK!. I tumbled a couple times and luckily came to a stop. The helmet cam footage speaks for it self.

I dropped a pole, it was about 30m above me. It wasn’t until I took my skis off to get my pole I realized how steep it actually was. It was not mellow at all. I got my pole, clicked back into my skis and skied down. Still only about half way down.

At the bottom I looked back and I was just stunned. The most intense thing I’ve ever done!

The others made there way down, and we were back in the heli and heading back to 33mile. Getting out of the heli the intense feeling I had had for the last couple hours immediately turned into excitement and relief. Time for a couple beers and talk about the day.

This the the line we skied on the 3rd run

Juneau to Haines

We boarded a slightly smaller ferry at about 7am, about an 40 mins after sun rise. Very excited to see the mountains grow the further north we went.

Our expectations didn’t not disappoint. Possibly one of the most amazing sights I have ever seen! The trip was jaw dropping. 360 degree views of the most amazing scenery. Everything about it, the huge peaks, the pitch of the mountains, some of the steepest snow covered terrain I’ve ever seen. We had dolphins jumping around just off the boat as well as some seals. Ever bald eagles flying over our heads. So much to see. Its hard to capture what I saw on the way. I tried my best.

Already I would recommend this place to anyone! Hard to put into words. One of the most amazing places I’ve ever been. And I haven’t even been skiing yet…

The ferry from Prince Rupert to Juneau

We boarded the ferry at about 10.30pm pretty exhausted. Really looking forward to relaxing on the boat and letting someone else take over the traveling. We hit the sack soon after boarding, getting slowly rocked to sleep as we departed the port.

I have to say that night was one of the most satisfying nights sleep I’ve ever experienced. We eventually woke up at 10am the next morning. Looking out the window that morning was also pretty special., sailing through these majestic foulards surrounded by giant mountains.

We settled in to a pretty relaxing few hours sitting on the viewing area of the bow. Gradually the mountains got bigger, and bigger the further north we went.

The ferry stopped at some pretty interesting villages on the way too.

Kitlanna, Wrangle, Petersberg, Kake. The whole trip took 29hours before we finally arrived in Juneau. Shame it was at 4.30am. Early start that day. At least we got to see the sun rise.

Prince George to Prince Rupert

Once again not the most totally exciting drive, but it was the last leg of our mission. In the van at least. About 8 hours in total, driving west.

About half way the scenery started to change. The hills turned into mountains, which turned into bigger mountains. Things were starting to look a little more interesting… Staring out the window looking at peaks, and imagining skiing them.

Finally at about 6pm we pulled into Prince Rupert. Tired and sick of sitting down. From Prince Rupert we were booked on a ferry to Juneau, and then another ferry from Juneau to Haines. Our final destination.

The port at Prince Rupert on sunset

Whistler to Prince George

Not too much to report from this leg of the journey. We woke up at 7am feeling a bit less than average, not at all excited about the prospect of sitting in the car for 10 hours. The drive was long and boring. The only interesting thing noting was the geological change in our surroundings, going from Whistler / Pemberton side of the mountains to the other side. Whistler basically looked like a rain forest covered in snow. Very green, lots of vegetation, even ferns on the side of the road. On the other side we found dry dirt, not much snow and brown grass.

We made it to Prince George by about 7pm exhausted. It’s not a very nice place to visit. Nothing at all going on pretty depressing place. The population must have been about 20,000+.

We found a pretty doggy looking motel and settled in for the night. Not before sushi night round 3, which was actually surprisingly good.

Skiing Whistler

We woke up to a couple inch’s of fresh snow in the car park and pretty excited that we were not going to be sitting in a car all day.

We made our way down to the village to meet up with another one of Sam’s friends who pretty much has one of those ski resort dream jobs. Working and living full time in Whistler, managing a bunch of retail stores and restaurants in the village. The kind of job where you have business meetings on the chair lift, and not in the office.

The weather was brutal to say the least. Cold, windy, snowing and no visibility. Very lucky to have a guide today, as we were having to ski totally blind. I think we skied some really good snow that day. But I really cant be sure, because I couldn’t see anything. We lasted until about 2.30pm, and then headed in to warm up. I think I may have even got some minor frost bit on my nose.

Later on we met with George, a couple of his friends, as well as Annabel and went to the GLC for some Après beverages. A cool place. Totally different vibe to any bar you could go to in Jackson.

After, we moved on to the Sushi Village. Sushi 2 nights in a row. Awesome food, topped off with a dumbo bottler of Saki.

Another great time in Whistler. Its definitely a very fun place to visit, especially if you after the whole mountain village experience, and not just good skiing. Definitely puts a strain on the wallet though.

Our arrival into Whistler

We arrived into Whistler at about 9pm. Our accommodation for the next couple nights was staying with a friend of Sam’s. She worked for the mountain, and lived in staff accommodation.

Without too much trouble we found the dormitory style accommodation. There were people coming and going, in and out of the rooms. Extremely close quarters compared to what we were used to in Jackson.

No one was home… Did Sam have a phone number? No. Now what?

There seemed to be a party across the hall. Maybe she was in there… No luck, infect no one even knew of an Annabel. They assured us that they knew everybody on there floor too. Slightly worried that were going to have to check into the Hilton again, we headed back into town in search of internet access to see she had left us message on email… No email.

We decided to give it one more go back at the staff accommodation. Maybe she just stepped out for a while?

Sam went up to check it out. Knocked on the door for a while. He started chatting to someone walking down the hall, while he was chatting he started banging on the door, for no other reason than because he was pissed off that all his planning for our trip to Whistler was falling apart.

All of a sudden the door opened. But it wasn’t Annabel. A very sleepy looking girl came to the door. “Can I help you?” Sam’s sure that’s he’s got the address wrong. “I don’t suppose you know an Annabel?” “Yeah, she lives here. But everyone call’s her Bell. She’s out in town.”

So after all that we did have the right address, Bell just gave up on waiting for us, as we were suppose to arrive at 6pm. Everything worked out in the end.

Spokane to Whistler

Talking with a few people in Spokane, we were recommended when traveling on to Vancouver we should take the number 2 Hwy West. As it was a much more interesting drive, and took roughly the same time.

It was definitely a more interesting drive. We snaked our way through the Cascade Mountains, passing towns such as Leavenworth and Stevens Pass. Which is also a ski resort. The terrain looked amazing. It would have been a great place to stop for the afternoon and make some turns, but we didn’t have the time.

After 9 hours we finally reached the US / Canada boarder. The crossing was fairly painless, and took on 20mins. We arrived in Vancouver at about 6pm. The time that we were suppose to arrive in Whistler and meet Sam’s friend Annabel, who we were going to stay with. Instead of pushing on to Whistler we hung out in Vancouver for a couple of hours. Sam and Nick hadn’t been in a big city for months. It was all pretty exciting.

After a very tasty dinner of Japanese and a couple of beers we jumped back in the van, talked our way out of a parking ticket and pushed on to Whistler.

See ya Jackson

April 5^th: Woke up to in Jackson, to be greeted with even more snow falling from the sky. Something that I didn’t need to see. Mountain is closed, and we are leaving today. I had a definite feeling of sadness that morning. Not wanting to leave the snow, the people, and the town it self. It didn’t feel right. But it was time. More exciting journeys await.

Once we finally packed up and left our place in the Aspens we hit the road. Still snowing.

The aim for the day was to make it to Spokane, in Washington. About a 10 hour drive from Jackson. Stay the night there, then drive west to Vancouver and then make it to Whistler before dark. Currently we are somewhere between somewhere between Spokane and Seattle. Today’s drive will probably take around 8 hours.

The final week

The final week in the Jackson Hole’s regular winter season is always action packed! Lots of great events to wrap up the season: Mountain Festival, Gaper Fools Day, and April 4^th, the final lift service day of the season. There was also one other event that was taking place… It was snowing.

We are not talking about a dusting, of a few inch’s here and there. Finally, just as everyone had given up on skiing and resorted to carriers in professional drinking a real winter storm cycle started to roll in. A deep low pressure system formed off over the pacific with really cold air pushed its way over the coast, covering all the western US mountains. Tahoe got dumped on again, Whistler got a couple meters and finally Jackson Hole got the goods! 80inchs in 2 weeks. Winter came back for round 2.

The 31^st of March we saw some real brutal winter weather conditions. Winds up to 160km’s an hour were blowing on the peak. It was dumping hard. Too much for most people. The conditions were intense! The upper lifts were on wind hold in the morning. Then the tram even went down, AV, Casper. Leaving the Gondola and Thunder open.

A few of us lapped thunder for a coupe hours. The skiing was just stupid, in a very good way. Every run down was totally fresh, mostly due to the wind covering your tracks from the last run. Something that I haven’t experienced this season, a term know as ‘Free refills.’ This only lasted a couple hours until the weather got a bit too furious and the mountain got shut down for the day.

April 1^st: Gaper Fools day. One of the guaranteed high light of a season at Jackson Hole. The idea is to dress up like a ‘Gaper’ (Is a person that you see at a ski resort that just has no idea. Pretending to be somebody there not, or thinking they are all that but really are clue less to modern day ski attire or ski equipment. This person is a Gaper.)

So everyone is suppose to dress up like an Idiot and ski around on 205cm straight skis with rear entry boots. Followed by a big party at the base of the resort. This is all fine but considering it had not stopped snowing in a couple days, we weren’t about to joke around and not properly make use of the awesome snow. Well not right away anyway.

I met up with a few mates and we headed up to the Crags. Definitely in the top 3 of my favorite runs on the resort. With a mission for the day I met up with Tristan Grezko. He wanted to get some shots in the snow using a big flash. Requiring a camera man and a guys holding a battery a little bigger than one in a car, and a big camera flash on the end of a boom. Pretty interesting process trying to get all people working together to get the shot. It was a lot harder and slower than the normal process of shooting ski shots,. But the end result is pretty awesome!

Photos by Tristan Greszko

Time to transform my self into a Gaper and join the party… Not a lot can be said, things got a little crazy to say the least. Everyone got pretty involved with the theme. Just to top off the day / night, it continued to dump snow… Everyone was pretty excited for the final 3 days for the season.

2^nd April: Up at 8ish, the I jumped out of bed, my head definitely pounding. I raced down stairs to see if it had cleared… It did. Blue sky and fresh snow, it looked awesome. Unfortunately as much as I wanted too, skiing wasn’t going to happen today. Too much to do, packing, take Andrew to the airport, more packing...

3^rd April: Weather came back in, snowing and windy again. Had to make the most of it, second last day and all.

First tram, skied hard all morning finished at about 2.30pm. Headed home for some more packing and cleaning…

4^th April The final day: Up early 7am, on the bus at 8, in the tram line at about 20 past. The weather had eased up there was some cloud around but it was thin, and had that look about it.. Maybe its going to lift?

By 9am the line for the tram was about 250 people deep. We made it on the first box. On the way up the conditions look good, but as we looked past the resort boundary, it was looking even better. The atmosphere in the tram that morning was pretty amazing. Excitement for the snow, disappointment for the end of the season. Everyone was just going to go for it.

We unloaded and headed strait to the top gate making a b-line for 4 Pines. Once up the top we glanced down the fall line… Totally fresh. The clouds ware lifting and the un was poking through. There was still some very light snow falling, the light was almost magical. “This could be the best run of the season…”

It pretty much was. So go we did it again, strait up. Just as good, almost better.

12.30, what a morning! To the VC for lunch and beer to reflect on the amazing morning. Everyone in the village had a smile from ear to ear. No matter where you would have skied that morning, it would have been blower.

I spent the afternoon making the most of the resort charging around with Meg and Hillary. We skied hard until about 3pm. Exhausted, but there was one more box I needed to tick off for the day. Last tram of the season.

The tram normally closes at 3.30pm but to be on the last tram of the season is a bit of a fine art. First, everyone want to be on it, so there’s going to be a line. But you don’t want to be too early and end up on the second last tram, or be too late and miss it totally.

Meg and I just made it, 4^th and 5^th through the gate… Once again a pretty special atmosphere in the tram, the final run for the season. A definite sense of sadness and excitement.

Pretty much too tired to really enjoy the final run of the season, but we made it down. Very thirsty I might add, beer o’clock. The final après session of the season did not disappoint. Hundreds of people partying and having a good time. DJ Cutter mixing up a storm. An awesome and to an awesome season at Jackson Hole.