Any Denali skiers on here?

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The main reason you don't see edits in the Denali park area is it's very hard area to access. And the parts that do get accessed are done by really good mountaineer skiers who don't make extensive gopro videos. Might just be a 5 min clip of going down Denali. It's not like you can just lap it and get tons of shots. You might see a few edits like the one North Face did with Sage Cattabriga-Alosa on Denali or Redbulls Unridables. But there really is not a whole lot of skiing for cameras going on in the Alaska range because of the high risk.
Crevasses, high avi dangers, extreme weather ect.

While some of the foothills are totally day hikeable(Mt Healy), I want more experience for myself before I ski in the Denali area. Guess I will just have to hike and dream for now.

Jun 17 2015 8:32PM

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firecrotch

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I wish

Jun 17 2015 11:46PM

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theabortionator

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Op should go from the summit. If he does it and makes it top to bottom in less than 10 min I'll give him $1

Jun 18 2015 2:09AM

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loganimlach

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the foothills are sick but the winter time in that whole cantwell/healy area is gnarly. there's so many sick, short lines and good jump spots around that area, but getting there is a pain.

Jun 18 2015 11:05AM

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Mike.Records

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You could spend several lifetimes exploring the Alaska Rang, so incredible up there! Like other people have mentioned, obviously there are challenges associated with those really big interior mountains. I've never skied in the foothills, but they are near the top of my list. Here are a few zones by Cantwell that I flew over last spring.

Jun 18 2015 1:18PM

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I wish the park would let a single lane of traffic go through the park in winter via snowmobiles. I feel it could be done like the road lottery in fall.

Jun 18 2015 5:59PM

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chicknfriedsteak

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LiteratureYou're talking about the foothills, not the summit of Denali itself, right?

theabortionatorOp should go from the summit. If he does it and makes it top to bottom in less than 10 min I'll give him $1

I'm not even talking about Denali mountain or the interior park for that matter. Just what I see from the road between Heally and Cantwell(look it up on a map) There are so many sick lines and unless your lazy and aren't willing to hike over a mile to get to your line then its all very accessible.

Jun 18 2015 7:06PM

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Calb3rt

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What are you doing out there? There isnt much else to do around there besides explore, unless you are mining coal. alaska is just so vast, people do get out there but most of the people i know who really access that area are slednecks who just brap around. The skiing community in fairbanks is really small, and most of them are more on the tech side of touring, most of my friends prefer going into the white mountains if they are not skinning into some random glacier, or head south to rainbow ridge and down towards Thompson pass... There is just so many places to go and its almost always guaranteed to be at least an overnight trip and not many who are willing or wanting to put themselves in those conditions, and those who are generally are not out there to stack footy for an edit, but that being said.. there are definitely edits out there but they encompass more of the total experiences of the trips and not the individual lines as much... I will see what I can dig up. I remember there was an on3p rider who was in ak and did some webisodes, i am pretty sure this is it. http://skinningwithbearspray.com

Also, if you are into that sort of shit, there are some amazing fossils around the Healy area.

Jun 21 2015 3:29AM

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Mike.Records

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Calb3rtnot many who are willing or wanting to put themselves in those conditions

I completely disagree with this. I have never lived anywhere that was easier to find crushers to get into the backcountry with than in AK.

Jun 22 2015 1:58PM

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Rparr

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clikced on this expecting a thread about the danollies. I am fucking retarded.

Jun 22 2015 2:27PM

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Calb3rt

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Mike.RecordsI completely disagree with this. I have never lived anywhere that was easier to find crushers to get into the backcountry with than in AK.

you have never lived in fairbanks

Jun 22 2015 5:25PM

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loganimlach

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Calb3rtyou have never lived in fairbanks

^

Jun 23 2015 12:06AM

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Mike.Records

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Calb3rtyou have never lived in fairbanks

I definitely know a crew of crushers in Fairbanks. But, yeah its no Anchorage.

Jun 23 2015 2:23PM

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Calb3rtWhat are you doing out there? There isnt much else to do around there besides explore, unless you are mining coal. alaska is just so vast, people do get out there but most of the people i know who really access that area are slednecks who just brap around. The skiing community in fairbanks is really small, and most of them are more on the tech side of touring, most of my friends prefer going into the white mountains if they are not skinning into some random glacier, or head south to rainbow ridge and down towards Thompson pass... There is just so many places to go and its almost always guaranteed to be at least an overnight trip and not many who are willing or wanting to put themselves in those conditions, and those who are generally are not out there to stack footy for an edit, but that being said.. there are definitely edits out there but they encompass more of the total experiences of the trips and not the individual lines as much... I will see what I can dig up. I remember there was an on3p rider who was in ak and did some webisodes, i am pretty sure this is it. http://skinningwithbearspray.com

Also, if you are into that sort of shit, there are some amazing fossils around the Healy area.

yeah dude thats david steele! 406 represent!

Aug 24 2016 10:16PM

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btw if anyone has been out in denali/healy this summer let me know.... i work at the salmon bake, come on in and ill buy you a beer!

Aug 24 2016 10:20PM

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whiteboi

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mcnamarskiezbtw if anyone has been out in denali/healy this summer let me know.... i work at the salmon bake, come on in and ill buy you a beer!

I've spent some time in Denali this summer, heading back down for the weekend. The Salmon Bake in Fairbanks? If so we should shred this winter

Aug 24 2016 10:31PM

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na the denali salmon bake.... I'm here for another couple weeks actually then road tripping around AK and eventually drive all the way back to montana..... its been a long summer dude, I'm ready for snow to fall and the shredding to begin

Aug 24 2016 10:45PM

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.GUCCI.

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LiteratureYou're talking about the foothills, not the summit of Denali itself, right?

Calb3rthttp://skinningwithbearspray.com

[/url]

cal, meet david

Aug 24 2016 10:47PM

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mcnamarskiezbtw if anyone has been out in denali/healy this summer let me know.... i work at the salmon bake, come on in and ill buy you a beer!

The bake is for WADS. Real men and women drink at the Spike.

Aug 24 2016 10:57PM

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50KalThe bake is for WADS. Real men and women drink at the Spike.

lol.... its my first season in denali so don't judge me. how was i supposed to know the bake was a fucking joke?

and TOTEM>everything

Aug 24 2016 11:01PM

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A couple years after I was born, eminent glacier pilot Don Sheldon began strapping lumber/supplies to the struts of his plane.
He picked a small rock outcropping on the Ruth glacier as a spot for his dream house/smoke shack/emergency shelter.
The fruits of his labor

When Denali NP was expanded, the hut and a 5 acres parcel were retained by the Sheldon family.
The Alaska Mountaineering school manages it for the family. The hut, while only beind 14' in diameter and lacking amenities, has what every prime piece of real estate ,location location, FKNA location,

So last summer when my bud Pondo said he scored the hut I jumped on the opportunity.
The crew was assembled Pondo, Jon, Josh, Topher and myself. A late night flight and a night at the Longhouse. Followed by a bloody mary and reindeer sausage breakfast at Gwinnies, 5 guys and a shitload of gear strapped to a durango, on the road. They even provided a map so we wouldn't get lost, as the gps unit got left back in SLC.

The plan was to get to Palmer score supplies and do a day of touring at Hatchers Pass before flying in on Sat. morning.

Grocery shopping was humorous. 5 guys 3 carts the most bickering of the trip. Capers?? We don't need no stinking rat turds grab another pack of bacon and an extra pouch of Bugler could get weathered in ya know:wink:
Some $800 and a couple credit card refusals later, the realization that we were not gonna be able to cram any more on the roof of the durango, ment we would be making an early morning trip to Talkeetna to store stuff in the hanger. Arriving at Talkeetna air taxi we learned they were calling for weather Sat. and flying in a day early would be possible. This set of a scramble to get shit togather. Jon dealing w/ UPS (What can Brown Fuck up for you today) to acquire a Sat. phone, National Park briefings , picking up CMC's (aka shit cans), AMS briefings, and another trip to the store for firewood and last minute supplies.
Loading the Otter

For ~$420 per person the !/2 hour flight was damn near worth it just for the views

Our pilot Paul threaded his way through mountain passes

After a smooth landing and unloading the Otter flys away

leaving us in an silence with a 1/4 mile uphill trek to haul in our gear to the hut. 3 or 4 trips and it was party time

Aug 25 2016 7:37AM

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So the 1st day we awoke about 9:00 to the "whats going on" alarm clock.
A hearty bfast of bacon & eggs. Skies were cloudy and gray validating the decision and effort to fly in early.
We roped up for glacier/crevasse travel and set out a few miles across the glacier to Telemark hill

The clouds burnt off and we witnessed, what would pretty much be a daily
occurrence, a natural avalanche. Most of which were due to serac icefall.

The snow quality was good and stablity decent.
The kneedroppers Pondo, Josh, and Toph tele'd down while Jon and I locked em down.
Pondo

TBC.....
Day 2 we decided to go for a little stroll and check out the hood.

Towards the Don Sheldon Ampitheater around Mount Bayrill and into the Great Gorge.

The Great Gorge

Is massive and it's hard to imagine your standing on 3-4 thousand feet of ice
We slogged on past the Mooses tooth on the left and around Mount Dickey
past the Japanese couloir to 747 pass.

A quick lunch break
747 pass Pondo leading the charge w/ another one of his subhuman trail breaking exploits.

From the top of the pass we headed up again towards Pittock pass which would allow us to pretty much ski down to the hut.
The FKNA lets go down hill point shot

At the top of Pittock pass we were able to get a look at the huge ice seracs
we could hear grumbling from the hut

Aug 25 2016 7:40AM

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I'd like to interupt the making of this TR to say
Yesterday in the BCC did not suck

Ok back to the tr
Day 3 St. Paddys day after the previous days slog we decided to see what we could ski close to the hut.
The shit house coulior looked nice but not really skinable

We opted for this one

Pondo had a little binding trauma, but nothing a little bailing wire and a leatherman couldn't fix
The views from the top were stellar as are skiing on PM gears Brockers;)

Topher gittin sum

Josh

The Saint Paddys day couliar

After a couple laps we headed back to celebrate the holiday proper

Jon whipped up some pasta as a $8,000 whore would make and the Jamesons and other green bottled liquids were consumed

Product placement/pimping photo:wink:

And a little somthin somethin from the high dollar camera guy.

Aug 25 2016 7:46AM

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Day 5 Awoke to a couple inches of snow and socked in skies.
Obligtory bacon pic

After a hearty breakfast, coffee talk and daily safety briefing, we rolled out to ski after a couple short laps off the side of Mount Barill in vertigo inducing white out. Stan the raven, who had destroyed our garbage a few days before, flew over and the skies cleared. Kind of like an Oburnhard miracle:biggrin:
We worked around to this steep face w/ minimal overhead danger onto what appeared to be wind affected snow but wasn't .

I had brought both my 1st year bros and a pair of brocker brototypes
So i let Jon use the brockers this day he dug and ripped the shit out of them.

Toph

A bum on bros

Blowing by the damn turn farming meadow skippers cause the last one to the hut has to empty the honey bucket

Sum gotten

TBC...

Aug 25 2016 7:51AM

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HaydenWrong

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Mike.RecordsI completely disagree with this. I have never lived anywhere that was easier to find crushers to get into the backcountry with than in AK.

Calb3rtyou have never lived in fairbanks

Calb3rt speaks truth

Aug 25 2016 8:05AM

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Day 6 It was decided we would check out the west fork of the Ruth.
We hoped to ski the RJ Dio secret devil sign coulior

We worked our way around the crevasses

As we made it around the corner the secret devil sign sent a little P&Q reminder by ripping out.
There was a lot of kickass looking coolis and terrain, but most of it had to much potential for asswhuppin from above.

So we skinned up the mellow side as pondo yet again redesigned the volie telebinding using a leatherman ice axe and wire

TBC

Aug 25 2016 8:07AM

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Damn that's ironic. We were talking about this trip the other night at the avvie fundraiser and they were giving me shit for never finishing the TR.
So here are a few more pics and some ramblings/thoughts from a skibum.
I know it's mean but the thought of 12 Japanese students stuck there for 2 weeks, sitting around playing guitar brings a smile to my face.
Someones eating capers lord coombaya. Give me a shot of that sweet vermouth they left oh lord coombaya. I'm really hoping one of those guides found the large safety spliff I geocached.:tongue:.
This is one of those places were a 2' dump would suck, trail breaking across loaded crevasses, in an effort to find steep enough terrain to ski that much snow, without danger from above would pretty much be futile.
I was hoping to summit someting grand and name it for H.I.M Haile Selaisse so we worked our way around the backside

To this point

Even though I had studied it from the other side those last few steps and the self doubt that possibly you were foolishly stepping out onto a cornice unroped, combined with the stunning panoramic views, gave one of those holy shit so fkna glad to be alive moments.
The rest of the crew made it out to this point and a consensus was reached that in such a huge place this was not worthy of H.I.M.
So we went with Judge Joe Brown point.
Once again we were blessed to watch another natural rip out from afar.

A few sucky shots from the ski down

Pondo

TBC

Aug 25 2016 9:16AM

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loganimlach

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that was a pretty epic tr.

Aug 25 2016 10:16AM

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it was the most epic score on killer conditions in a most epic place
the next group in was a dozen or so japaense climbing crew
who were socked in for 14 days and whose activities were limited to stampin out the runway and praying for a break in the skies that would allow paul and the super otter to end their misery
The last day of skiing we decided another slog was in order.
So we head out and down the great gorge again.

We headed towards the Mooses Tooth and up onto the Root Canal glacier.

There was enough wind that day employ a kite on the way down the gorge and the gorge itself was fairly crevasse free. I think pondo brought a kite but never used it. I would have been hard pressed to jam anything else into my pack.
The root Canal glacier was grand and the big walls surrounding it were impressive.

We stopped for lunch and to pour a little out in honor of Mugs Stump who pioneered some sick climbing routes in this area before his death in 92

RIP Mugs you led the "High Life" to the fullest.

We continued on past more crevasses and looming big walls.

The snow and the ski down were stellar
Toph

Josh

Heading back up the gorge was an ass kicker at least for me. I'm a big fan of the ski down and be done not ski down and slog back 3 hours. But we did have Steak and pharmacutical night to look forward to. The setting sun was awesome and gave way to some sweet alpenglow.

Aug 25 2016 10:51AM

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Wanna go ski right about now.

Aug 25 2016 11:32AM

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mcswizzle

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http://www.stockalpine.com/posts/

Hit up Joe Stock, he knows a thing or two about skiing in the Range. Had the distinct pleasure of camping next to him and the Army Parajumpers as they were training up in Little Switzerland. He probably has more intel on the skiing near Denali than anyone. J Stock wrote the book on backcountry skiing in Alaska AND you can hire him.

Did a trip out to the Pika Glacier this spring (late May) and conditions SUCKED for skiing. Wet slides on every aspect, knee tweak sludge snow, etc. Intended to go out earlier but the crew I was with got sidelined for a couple weeks for a variety of reasons. If you are gonna drop the coin for a flight out there, timing is everything for stable and soft snow. Better access and weather in other ranges (esp. Chugach as you have Thompson and Turnagain Pass for baller access) for a pure ski experience, but nothing compares to skiing along side the monsters in the AK Range. Also, the Alaska Range is higher elevation (considerably) than other ranges so often times the soft stuff will stick around for longer, theoretically into May.

Aug 25 2016 10:19PM

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We rationed our food pretty well, but by the last night party supplies were dwindleing. I was into my 3rd bottle of vodka and the rest of the crew was down to sweet vermouth that I had poo pooed as a waste of booze space.
Although manhattans are tastey. So after a big steak and veggie meal.
Chef Toph rocking the smiley face airplane fork w/ the goods

And JR's daily sat phone weather check

revealed that we were on to fly out in the am.
The realization that we had made it through the week safely meant we had a surplus of pharmacutical goodies.
Vicodins lorotabs tramidals a shortage of booze emergency was called and things got a bit fuzzy from there.
I promised I wouldn't go into details to protect the not so innocent.
The alpenglow changed to a funky blue bro colored moonlit twilight.

Brockers

Reading the years worth of log/guest books was quite entertaining.
Surprisingly so there really weren't that many people who had come to the hut to ski. The North american tele organization or sumthin to that effect had made a few trips and skied some good lines, but for the most part the hut was primarily used by families flying in for a night or two.
A few climbing parties using it as a base camp like the Japenese Aroura Club.
The most prolific users were Jehovah witness giving praise to jehovah for createing such a splendorous wonder of soul touching, awe inspireing, vision of holyness and other religious gobbly gook.
I am bummed that we didn't take a picture of our alcohol/drug induced 3 page ramblings giving praise to Jah. Giving Props to Phizer, Mercks the Irish for creating scotch,Black diamond, Pm Gear, rappers for the crunk
that kept us grooving. Genisis 1:12 as justifacation for smoking dried herbs.
and of corse the obligatory change 4 a $.05.
Funny shit at least in our minds
The next morning we awoke to the sound of Paul and the Otter flying over and a mad rush to drag our crap down to the landing strip.

A few more random photos
group shot

a few from the flight out

The amount of terrain is mind boggling

Back in civiliation we showered at Talkeetna Air Taxi and hit the town dump returned our shit cans for Nanuque to clean, and hit the bar.
On a trip like this in a small living quarters

In what could be described as dicey terrain,
Group dynamics will pretty much make or break the trip.
I can't imagine 4 more Fkna kick ass partners.
Cheers and thanks for everything my brothers.:yourock:

The best item aside from skiing essentials was Ipods with speakers definately help feed the good vibe on what I consider a trip of a lifetime.

Aug 26 2016 8:46AM

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http://www.adn.com/alaska-news/2016/07/25/deep-in-the-heart-of-denali-ode-to-an-aviation-pioneer/

sadly mom died the kids need to cash in
what we paid for a week for 5
now gets ya 1 night
when you look at what a week in a sweet bc hut/chalet costs
hard to justify 3 or 4 times the cost.
glad we got to do it before they priced out the skibums

Aug 26 2016 8:58AM

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cydwhit

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SFBv420.0http://www.adn.com/alaska-news/2016/07/25/deep-in-the-heart-of-denali-ode-to-an-aviation-pioneer/

sadly mom died the kids need to cash in
what we paid for a week for 5
now gets ya 1 night
when you look at what a week in a sweet bc hut/chalet costs
hard to justify 3 or 4 times the cost.
glad we got to do it before they priced out the skibums

Dammit.

After reading your TR I was going to try to book a trip ASAP.

Aug 26 2016 12:20PM

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SkiBum.

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SFB with the goods as usual. I thanks you.

Aug 26 2016 1:31PM

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SFBv420.0http://www.adn.com/alaska-news/2016/07/25/deep-in-the-heart-of-denali-ode-to-an-aviation-pioneer/

sadly mom died the kids need to cash in
what we paid for a week for 5
now gets ya 1 night
when you look at what a week in a sweet bc hut/chalet costs
hard to justify 3 or 4 times the cost.
glad we got to do it before they priced out the skibums

that was a really cool man, thanks for sharing!

Aug 26 2016 8:07PM

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Notaskibum

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Epic thread

Jun 5 2021 6:21PM

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still bummed the greedy sheldon crotch fruits fucked it all up in pursuit of the almighty dolla dolla bill
instead of making their own legacy
if thats what don wanted he'd have done it himself that way
heres an edit
https://www.newschoolers.com/videos/watch/1004977/Don-Sheldon-Mountain-House

Jun 5 2021 7:12PM

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