My 5th time out on the split thus far this winter produced exceptional results. I was offered a last minute opportunity to tag along on a trip to Southeast Alaska where it had supposedly been snowing heavily for several days. While driving the road looking for a place to skin I quickly discovered a part of Alaska I had had never knew existed before. I was in the Coast Range and thus felt as if I had somehow ended up in British Columbia, but no, this is AK., albeit very close to the border of BC.

Sitka Black-Tail Deer playing in the powder.

As I ascended the slope the reality hit that I was about to score huge!

It was blue , white, and beautiful in the surrounding mountains

In the distance I could see the famed Mendenhal Towers

And some inlets and islands of the Pacific Ocean

Wait a second, is this really November?

Solo today, so no riding pics, but here is a look down what I was looking at dropping:

And here is a look back up after I finally took a rest from the face shots.

The next day my partner got off work and since she hooked me up on this dope trip I wanted to make sure she got some. We headed off for this sweet looking cirque.

She was fired up, setting the pace and moving quick. Me being sore from three fat runs the day the before I kicked it in the back and got some nice skinning pics.

We reached the ridge line and enjoyed world class ski-touring above the salt water.

I dropped into beautiful snow (my only three riding photos of the trip).

We crushed that nice little bowl and then headed back up for more

The rhime plastered trees on the ridge made for sublime touring.

I took some more photos of the Mendenhal Glacier and the Towers in the distance.

For our final lap I headed for this nice little couloir (our season couloir opener!)

…and she crushed it.

Following a nice powder ski out we were off to the hotel and hot tub. Who woulda known that random out of the blue ski trip to an unknown location in November could turn out so epic?
Providing the temps stay cold enough to keep the snow dry, Southeast Alaska is the goods. Wow.