ALASKA 2012 - Travel Journal

To those who have pondered or even thought for a second about taking a trip to Alaska, I say do it, and do it now, and by now I mean next season as the snow is starting to melt.  At least you have a good few months to scratch together some coin and start organising.  I make this statement as I have just returned from a week’s long trip to the land of big mountains and big snow that is AK.

Just briefly, here is a bit of background so you can get an idea of the level of snowboarding I brought with me to AK.  I have done probably around 50 days of snowboarding in total in my life.  I have never done a season and hadn’t really rode any proper big mountain terrain except a 3 run heli-boarding session in New Zealand a couple of years ago, and during a 3 week trip in Canada before arriving in AK.  By the end of Canada I could confidently make it down a double black run in resorts like Fernie, Red Mountain and Revelstoke.  The other two friends I went to AK with have done 7 full seasons between them in places like Canada, Australia and India.  I was by far the weakest rider in the group.

So the basis of our Alaskan adventure was to fly from Vancouver to Anchorage on the 5th April, hire an RV, take a road trip to Fairbanks and then down to Valdez to heli-board, before arriving back in Anchorage and then fly home on the 14th April.  Below is a kind of part by part of how things went down, along with some information that hopefully will help people out when organising a similar trip.

NOTE: Skip to Part 5 if you just want to read about heli-boarding.

PART 1 – ANCHORAGE

Arrived in Anchorage late on a Friday afternoon.  Stayed the night at Ramada Anchorage Downtown.  Good location as it is in walking distance to the main downtown areas, it’s cheap (we paid $25 each a night), decent room conditions, and best of all it has free airport transfers.

Unfortunately I didn’t like Anchorage much at all.  It’s got a very redneck vibe to it and it’s full of some unsavoury people.  A few people actually warned us about staying out after dark.  Aesthetically it’s not that nice of a place but the harbour views and the mountain range in the background helps it out a bit.

Some good things about Anchorage is the Moose’s Tooth Pub and Pizzeria if you like good pizza (about a $10 taxi ride from downtown) and the local beers are good as well.  Try the Hard Apple Ale or the Raspberry Wheat beer if you like your beers.  There is a good board shop downtown called Zaks Boardroom.  They have good gear, plus the biggest range of Nike SB kicks I’ve seen since being in Tokyo.  The city also looks like it would be awesome for urban jibbing.  We came across a few features that have been covered in some snowboarding videos.

In summary, I would suggest staying in Anchorage only if you have to.  It’s a good place to do all your souvenir shopping, eat some good food and will most likely be the place where you will be hiring your car/RV.  Try and stay in the downtown area if you can, as it will be convenient.

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PART 2 – RV

We decided to hire an RV during our stay in AK to cut down on costs and to add to the whole ‘road trip’ feel to our stay.  To help you decide whether or not to hire an RV I have listed a few pros and cons:

Pros:

•  You will save money as you car hire and accommodation is built into one price (depending on how many people are sharing the cost), and you can cook your own meal on board so you don’t have to eat out 3 times a day.

•  You can stay close to mountains etc granted that there is a place to park, rather than staying in a nearby town and making the commute everyday.

•  Driving around in an RV does add to the whole ‘road trip’ feel.

Cons:

•  They chew through petrol so be aware of petrol costs.

•  All RV’s will be ‘winterized’ which means they won’t have running water.  You can still use the toilet but you won’t be able to use the kitchen sink, shower or the bathroom sink.  This might not be an issue if you are a guy and don’t mind a shower-free week, however the Mountain Sky Hotel in Valdez does let you use their showers for $5 if you can’t hold out.  It also makes cooking a little hard as washing the dishes is a pain, but stick to microwave meals and you’ll be fine.

•  At this time of year about 99% of RV/caravan/camping parks are closed, and there are a lot of snow banks around meaning that trying to find a place to park for the night can be tricky.  One night we drove around till midnight before finding a suitable place to park only to be kicked out by a security guard moments later.  Another night we were woken up at 1am by a police officer trying to break the door down.  Luckily he was cool and ended up letting us stay the night.  My advice would be to stay well away from major towns and cities, as they are the hardest places to drive and park an RV.  Don’t sweat though cause Valdez caters for RVs.  We had no problems there at all and you can also even park at the base of the mountains in Thompson’s Pass.

•  Driving an RV can be daunting especially in major towns.  They can also get bogged easily on icy and muddy roads.  We ended up bogged twice during the trip, with a local towing us out the first time and coughing up $160 to get a tow truck to pull us out the second time.  Be careful where you drive.

I would probably hire an RV if I came back.  Just remember to book well in advance, as they do get busy around this time of year.

PART 3 – FAIRBANKS & MT AURORA (SKILAND)

After picking up the wheels we decided to drive straight through to Fairbanks.  We were going to stop at Denali National Park but it was closed.  Something to keep in mind if you are travelling at this time of year is that most of the National Parks are closed, cruises around the bays and coasts haven’t started running yet, and most of the wildlife is still in hibernation, so there isn’t much touristy things to do on the road.

Fairbanks is the second largest city in AK.  Didn’t spend much time there but it was kind of similar to Anchorage, just smaller.  The main reason we drove to Fairbanks was to see the northern lights, which we did.  They are pretty cool and in the end it was worth the drive.

The next day we went boarding at Mt Aurora aka Ski-Land, which is a short drive from Fairbanks.  It is has the most northern chairlift in the US, and ‘possibly the world’, as stated on their website.  The resort has one slow chairlift and is quite small.  It looks like a pretty fun and playful hill, but the snow conditions were like Australia on the day so it was pretty bumpy and hard underfoot.  Talking to a couple of local riders we found out that it had only had 4 inches of snow over the last 2 months so I don’t know how reliable snow fall is there.  Still surprising to see such a deep base of snow though after such a long period of no snow.

In summary I would only recommend driving to Fairbanks to see the northern lights and for the novelty of riding the most northern chairlift in the US, and ‘possibly the world’.

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PART 4 – VALDEZ

After spending the night parked in the car park of Santa Clause’s House in a town called North Pole… I’m being serious… Google it… we drove down to Valdez, the base camp for heli-boarding.  To get to Valdez you drive through Thompson Pass, which is where most of the heli-boarding is based in Valdez.  Simply put this stretch of road is pure insanity.  Huge mountains line the road on both sides and it gave us a nice preview of what heli-boarding was going to be like.

Valdez is a really nice town.  It’s small and the views of the bay and the mountains are amazing, a real mountain town vibe.  Make sure you go to the bar next to the Best Western Hotel for a drink and some good food.  They also play snowboarding films on the TV.  The Art of Flight happened to be playing there when we went, which we found rather fitting as the next day was the big day. 

Valdez has a couple of hotels, a supermarket, a post office and a few places to eat, so you’ll be covered there.  It’s around a 25min drive to Thompson Pass so make sure you have a car to get up the hill.  Not sure if there is a public bus so check your transport options before getting there.  There is also an airport around the corner.  If you are traveling in an RV I suggest staying at least one night up in the Pass.  It’s cold but you’ll thank me when you see the sunrise and sunsets through the peaks of the mountains.

Tailgate was on during our stay.  It’s the largest back country festival in the world.  The Pass was full of RVs, tents, snow mobiles and huskies.  Such a sick vibe and made me really want to learn everything about back country and go out and buy my own Ski-Doo.

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very nice write up mate and love the last image in post 3 it is so good.

PART 5 – THE DAY

We booked heli-boarding with Alaskan Backcountry Adventures for a 1 day, 6 run, session.  It cost around $900 for the day including hire of an avalanche kit.  I didn’t do the booking so I don’t know if they were the cheapest, but they were very professional and we had no problems whatsoever.  They ride in groups of 4, plus a guide.  Heli over there is taken seriously.  You will need to do a safety briefing, preferably the day before you fly, and they run you through avalanche safety, beacons, probing and digging.  On the day you will be carrying a full avalanche kit as well as a harness in case you fall into a ravine.  It’s a lot of gear but you get used to it after the first run.

Just a quick warning.  Over there if you are flat out of luck and cannot ride during your stay, you do NOT get your money back.  Instead you will be given a credit for the next season, meaning you will have to come back to AK to redeem them, not that that’s necessarily a bad thing.  Just make sure you stay for enough time in case the weather is a bitch.

Luck was on our side big time on the day that we booked.  It was a perfect blue bird day with no wind.  Although it had been a few days since it had snowed last, thanks to our guide, we ended up riding fresh powder ranging between 5-30cms.  The snow did get a little crunchy down the bottom, which was to be expected, but overall riding conditions couldn’t have been better.

The terrain was straight up and down, six o’clock, awesome.  Most of the runs we did consisted of the following; Heli lands you on a sketchy ridge, you scratch your head try to figure out where the guide is going to get you to drop.  You begin with a steep, fast drop down a 50 degree plus face in deep pow, for the first 200-300m vert into a bowl/glacier.  Following that you have a nice gentle run out of the bowl/glacier before dropping into the last few hundred meters of vert, which was full of gullies, rollers, and natural kickers.  So much to hit and carve off.  The runs will obviously differ depending on the terrain your guide takes you on, which depends on how they assess your riding.  I would say that the runs we did were between intermediate and advanced.

Another thing that made our day perfect was our guide.  His name was Mark ‘Badgr’ Barajas.  Some people may recognise his name, as he is quite well know in the backcountry scene.  He has been the back country guide for almost every big name snowboarder, including Travis Rice, Scotty Largo, Sean White, Mark Landvik, to name a few.  He has also done stuff with Standard Films and Mack Dawg Productions so you may see his name at the end of a few of their films.  He knows the mountains like the back of his hand and took us to all the sweet spots.  At one point he pointed to a couple of insane lines down a mountain face and told us that they were Lago’s and Landvik’s from the day before.  In between runs he was nice enough to take us to a couple of ice caves and spotted some wildlife for us while waiting for our next pick up.  I highly suggest you ask to book Badgr to be your guide when you make your reservation, as he is one of only 2 snowboarding guides and books out fast.  Thanks again Badgr for a sick day.  You’re a champ.

Because it was such a perfect day it didn’t really matter that we only had 1 day of riding.  In the future though 1 day would not be enough for me.  I would suggest booking at least the 3-of-5 day package if you have the money.  It does cost $2,700 but if you only plan to head to Alaska the one time, it’s well worth it.

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PART 6 – LAST THOUGHTS

If I was to head over to AK again, which is a big possibility, I would do the following differently:

1.  Head straight to Valdez.  Apart from driving through some nice scenery, Alaska is pretty dead during winter when it comes to things to do besides boarding.

2.  Stay at least a week in Valdez and book a 3-of-5 day heli package.  Thinking back on it 1 day wasn’t enough! 

Feel free to ask me any questions about AK.  I will also post a short edit with lots of Go-Pro footage so you guys can see what it’s like first hand.

People, seriously start looking into a trip there next season.  You won’t regret it.

Great report mate looks awesome!

Dude, this is epic! Amazing photos and a great read. You’ve made a lot of really good points and I will definitely keep your advice in mind when I eventually go shredding in Alaska. I’m super pumped to get there one day soon.

Do you have any photos of the northern lights? I can’t wait to see your GoPro footage.

I can only imagine what it would be like for Mizu living in an RV without a shower.

Well done, Tom! Nice BW repping too!

Awesome report Tom, what a trip !!!!

hells yeh, there is 2 places i have promised myself i will ride.
Its Jackson Hole & Alaska.

Wicked write up man!

Awesome!!

BW shred to alaska??

yep, sick write up. Thanks for taking the time to do that.

Nice write up

Stoked for you man! Looks like you had a truly amazing time

Well that was 5 kinds of awesome.

I plan on blowing my LSL on an AK trip.