The Land of First Descents-Petersburg, AK.

Alaska!  This time around with TGR we (Sage, Ian, Dana, and soon Daron Rahlves) have chosen. Petersburg, AK no one has ever been here to film skiing with a helicopter. Over the years all of us here, have been to all the Alaska hot spots and were starting to feel like we were skiing the same old mountains. Along with that, those areas were starting to become over run with clients and other film crews. So it was time to take a chance and go exploring once again, just like the old days.

As a group we made a few choices and found out which of those would work best. Some of the TGR boys had been to Petersburg, earning money for the winter season years ago on fishing boats. They had seen the mountains from the water. While flying up to Alaska you go right over these peaks, but never really know where you are.  Unless on the milk run flight and were paying close attention. Lots of planning has gone into this trip, leaving us out of our comfort zone as to where to begin. Fixed wing flights have played a crucial roll in that.

Being here is quite a bit different than other AK trips. This is a full time fishing town and you notice that in the nice homes and trucks. Out in the mountains we have long flights in and complete silence, since we are all alone. No other film crews or client groups to get beta on snow pack stability in the surrounding areas.  Relying on ourselves for safety, there is heli back up, but that is an hour out at best if we had a problem.  We are GPS tracked and the heli calls in often.

Weather has been some of the worst keeping us down most of the time.  Skiing has been days apart to the next.  Down days are quickly forgotten when we get out. The mountains are all their own here, big dark brown spiky peaks shoot up out of the glaciers. It’s hard to show perspective since the glaciers are miles wide spreading out the terrain.  Peak’s with names like the Devils Thumb and Witches Cauldron fill the area, which has only been explored by ski mountaineers and climbers.

As far as it goes, every run is a first to be skied, from the flattest to the steepest of them. This is something that is harder to find these days. Thus far halfway through the trip (just over 2 weeks have passed) much has happened when we do get out. I don’t want to spoil the tale, I’ll let TGR’s new film “Light The Wick” and my photo’s tell the rest. Till the next Alaska Blog of Petersburg!