Once upon a time I worked as a lift operator at Deer Valley. This is where I discovered powder (of all places) and became a SKIER.
I was a very impressionable youth
I loved ski films and wanted to be in them! The TV in the employee housing unit I inhabited would be playing “Reel Thrills” every night. It’s what I dreamed about and fantasised of doing while the bull-wheel turned. We had the option of getting first ski break in the morning before public loaded. I would volunteer every single time. I can’t think of any better way to start the day!
On Tuesday’s we’d go to “local’s night” at O’shucks to eat free peanuts and drink goblets of cheap beer. One night I found myself stool to stool with the THE JEREMY NOBIS! This was in the prime of his straight-lining madness with TGR. There were few living personages I could have been more excited to share skiing stories (his, not mine) with. He started going off about Alaska and it was clear he was very drunk. It didn’t matter to me, this was Moses who had been to the mountains and was coming back with the commandments I would obey. “GO TO ALASKA”, he said. “Put it on the credit card, whatever it takes, but there is no place like it”! I had seen the movies and thought I understood, but Jeremy was trying to impart things that couldn’t be explained and must be experienced. It wouldn’t be until my first time standing on top of lines in Thompson Pass that I would “understand”.
It took me a few years, but I went. And I’ve been back almost every year since. And now my bags are packed to make another pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Why AK? There is no other place on the planet that offers relatively easy and affordable access to a lifetime of mountains that receive thick blankets of snow.
Resting up at 14K on Denali in 2005
Camping in the Chugach with Darrell Finlayson, 2007
Getting another glacier drop near Haines in 2009
Revelations in 2010
Thank you Jeremy!
I’ll be embarking on two trips to different mountain Ranges this Spring. First off I’ll be joined by my brother Jonah and Neil and Ian Provo for 2 weeks of big mountains and powder in the Tordrillo Mountains. Next I’m teaming up with Andrew McLean, Mark Holbrook and Garrett Grove for steep turns in the Ruth Gorge.
I’ll try and post some updates from in between trips.
God Speed