Comments | mauitian: Hella-skiing

mauitian

Hella-skiing

Apr 27, 2008 22:16

I spent the last week heli-skiing in the Chugach mountains of Alaska, near Valdez. My friend Mark had called me up a month previously and asked if I wanted to go, offering to pay my way in exchange for talking physics with him. I think I thought it over for about a tenth of a second before saying yes. This was definitely among the more crazy things ( Read more... )

Comments 37

snarkyshark2 April 29 2008, 00:57:46 UTC

Neato! Sounds like good fun! Also, I got a chance to read the article about you in Outside magazine. I thought it was really well done :)

i think that makes me lovelyslr April 29 2008, 01:57:18 UTC

heli-jealous

pozorvlak April 29 2008, 12:47:00 UTC

Damn, that looks stunning.

mauitian May 7 2008, 16:00:01 UTC

I was stunned.

That first run, I would have been perfectly happy to remain their, stunned, for quite a while. But others would have been annoyed.

Living vicariously through your awesome adventure memetician May 5 2008, 04:45:20 UTC

What a great post, thanks! Damn that helicopter ride when you were alone with the pilot, that sounds a little white knuckley. Were you kind of freaked out? Heli-boarding is on my List of Stuff to do Before I Die. That, drive on the Autobahn in a really expensive German car, and ride the Alps before they melt.

Hard booter?! memetician May 7 2008, 12:42:45 UTC

Hi, me again. Hey I just read the Outside article (congrats), and I was like "Holy Crap!" when I saw that eighteen foot board of yours in the pic. I didn't know you were a hard booter! Did you use that thing on these mountains? Yikes, scary!

Re: Hard booter?! mauitian May 7 2008, 16:03:40 UTC

Aw, that board's only a 210. ;)

I did ride plates all week, but on a powder board--not a carving deck. Long narrow alpine boards are terrible in powder--no float. The hard boots were great for getting the normal-ish snowboard over on edge and carving though. They were just the usual pain in the ass for walking, but no more so than ski boots.

Re: Hard booter?! cormacor May 26 2008, 21:19:34 UTC

Bloody hell. Cool photos.
Wouldn't fancy it on skis, mind you - not a good place for a tumble!
Like the sound of the science hostel, hope it takes off.

Surfing, windsurfing snowboarding or skiing, doesn't matter. As long as there's somewhere quiet to work in the late afternoon, I'll be there before you can say positive cosmological constant....Cormac