I did it!
23 March 2017 | Seward, AK
Larry Nelson
Remember that our adventure is "mission driven". This winter we are in Alaska, where it turns out to be dark and cold and snowy and windy. What's the mission?
We decided to see if we were too old to ski. Considering that last year Karen broke her hip and that I had "hurting" knees, it was a real question. We deployed all our forces on this mission. We started eating carefully. We went to the gym every day. We bought a AWD car and a roof rack to take the skis. We bought skis and (the first wonder) Larry found ski boots that fit. It wasn't cheap. We bought season passes at Alyeska.
Then we started to ski. At first it was only a few runs per day. In spite of the gym, our legs were noodles. We got cold. It was only twilight between 10:30 am and 3 pm. We persevered through the winter: 26 days of skiing. By spring I found that we could now ski all day consecutive runs and that we could ski everywhere on the mountain, Karen a little less so than Larry but still doing it. Then March came to Alaska.
March is an awesome month. The sun came out and the snow covered the mountains in abundance. They were everywhere. Gleaming. One morning I noticed that some soul had climbed Mt Marathon (behind Seward AK) and skied down. I didn't think I could climb that mountain, but there was another alternative: Chugach Powder Guides. That is a helicopter skiing outfit operating out of Alyeska. I signed up. Karen stayed home to manage evacuating the body should things not work as planned.
Now I had imagined a pretty fantastic ski day. All I had to do was survive the whole day. That turns out to be truly difficult. I'm still exhausted 3 days later! It was more difficult than I imagined. The powder fields were there, but not continuously. We had to work our way across the glacier between powder fields. In between there was wind packed ridges, steep icy side hills, sun crusted deep powder, ice, rocks, gullies, DEEP holes into the crevasse fields to circumvent and winds. There was also sun, deep powder, shallow powder, under snow "features" to destabilize you.
Note, I haven't even mentioned the helicopter which is an awesome machine flown by true experts. We landed on postage stamps, flew mountain valleys in gusting winds, navigated around clouds, climbed like an elevator and spun like a raven in a thermal.
Our guide was fantastic. His first advice was "There are rocks here just under the snow. Follow me closely". I followed within 4 inches of his track. 50 feet later I hit a rock that he missed. OK I thought. I understand now. Do EXACTLY as I say. He kept apologizing for constantly talking, but to me every word was gold. And as the day progressed the reality of the mountain world revealed itself. It wasn't simple or easy but it was an ADVENTURE and it was REAL. Real is 100 times more interesting than imagined.
This day is the high end of my bucket list. My only regret is that I didn't do it when I was much younger.
Mission Accomplished!