Mount Drum photo: Paige Brady

We headed North from Anchorage to attempt to ski the North Face of Mount Drum (12,010 ft).  We pulled over a few miles after the Tok cut-off on the Glen Highway and started skinning from our cars.

the trip begins

After about an hour of bushwhacking we dropped into the Copper River where we quickly turned off and started skinning up the Sanford River.

Skinning along the Sanford River

It was nice and sunny during the day, but dropped to around -30° at night while camping on the river.

Danielle and I

waking up to falling death crystals

We heading up an unnamed drainage about 4 miles after the bend in the Sanford River toward Mt. Drum.

going up unnamed drainage off the Sanford River

Sean, Ben, Stormy, and Danielle

Mount Drum's North Face

Mt. Drum

Our camp that we cashed our sleds at.

Mt. Drum

Mt. Drum's North Face

This was the basin our high camp was in.

getting roped up

climbing Mt. Drum

our high point

our high point

The lack of snow made for minimal snow bridges and blue ice which made us have to abandon our summit attempt.

the final uphill bushwhack fun

It was still a amazing trip with many funny moments!

Alyeska World Comp

The second day was planned to start early to get our Super Final run done in morning before weather moved in.  We awoke to another beautiful day and had our brief athlete meeting before heading back up to the High Traverse to inspect the Slowboy Chutes on the Headwall, looker’s left of the Wedge.

The Slowboy Chutes

Having never skied the Slowboy’s before I didn’t really know what to expect, but I found a line I thought looked good.  I was planning on dropping in skiers left of the Headstone and then going through a little chute I found skiers right of the Headstone rock into Slowboy 2.  We booted back up the Headwall to get ready for our run.

The boys inspecting above the Headstone

Only three of the telemark girls made it into the Super Final run.  Lizet went first, skiing Slowboy 1.

Megan dropping in

Then Megan dropped into Slowboy 2 and skied the ridge between the two chutes.

Paige - photo: Jon Gurry

Then I dropped in above the Headstone, after making a few turns I realized I had pasted the Headstone rock I wanted to ski around, so I just continued fall line and found a little patch of rocks I could jump off.

Paige - photo: Jon Gurry

I continued through the debris and suncrusted snow to the finish.

Paige - photo: James Brady

Paige crossing the finish

I was very tired at the bottom of the run and excited to make it through the finish.

Me, my brother Mark, and my mom. My dad taking the photo

It was really cool to have the whole family out there watching the event!

Conor dealing with a bloody nose

When Conor Davis was skiing his second run (first; telemark, second; alpine) he buried his tip under the crust and then started tomahawking.  After he came to a rest he wasn’t moving so it was a little worrisome, but a patroller skied down to him and then he was able to slowly ski to the bottom of the venue.  It turned out he had a tip to the face and his nose was bleeding uncontrollably.  Luckily that was the worst of the crashes this year and most of the competitors escaped uninjured.

When everyone was done we skied a few more laps and then had the awards that night at the Sitzmark.

Lizet Christiansen 3rd, Paige Brady 1st, Megan Michaelson 2nd

I was really excited to find out I had won the title again on my home turf!!

Ryan Davis 3rd, Paul Kimbrough 1st, Jake Sakon 2nd

Final Results:

Alyeska World Comp

Well, the comp started out with a slight delay on Thursday due to poor visibility on the Headwall at Alyeska.  But by the time we all met at the base of Chair 4 at 11:00am the sky’s were clear and the competitors were psyched!  We found out then that we were going to be doing two runs that day and they wanted to start by 12:30pm.  We all got ready and headed up towards the High Traverse to do our final inspection of the Wedge from below before we started the boot pack up the Headwall.

Competitors inspecting the Wedge

Megan & Conor inspecting their line close-up from the camera view finder

I decided to ski a similar line to what I had done the year before which got me into some rocks lookers right of the Wedge with a small air out the bottom.

Day 1 venue - the Wedge

Luckily the telemark girls were running first so I didn’t have to wait at the top for too long and get really nervous.  When I started my run I had a couple powder turns and then I crossed a fracture line and was skiing the hard pack bed surface.  I found my entrance just above the Diving Board rock, skied through it clean and then skied down to the finish.

Competitors getting ready above the Wedge

All the telemark girls waited and watched the boys before we headed back up to hike the Headwall for our second run.  On our hike up we were able to see the junior boys ski the venue and completely dominate.  They were launching off the big cliff in the Wedge.  One hit the Diving Board rock, another front flipped off a cliff and they all stuck their landings like it was nothing.  Everyone was impressed.

Brooke and Lizet hiking the Headwall for round two

We all skied pretty similar lines the second time around but were a bit more tired.  I felt like I couldn’t complain though because Paul Kimbrough, Jake Sakson, and Conor Davis all skied in both the Telemark and the Alpine competitions, so they were headed up the Headwall for their forth time!

Mark Sanders and Corky Still announcing the comp

After our 2nd runs - Conor, Paul, Brooke, Candy, Paige, Megan, and Jake

It wasn’t until 7ish that we were all done and headed to the Sitzmark to grab some food before the meeting and results.

Results after Day 1:

View from top of Pastorial Peak

I headed out to Turnagain Pass with Najeeby and Eric hoping to ski Pastorial Peak.  We started the morning off with skiing down Sunburst before we continued up the valley.

Najeeby making the suncrust look good

The suncrust wasn’t the most inspiring, but still a good warm-up.

Najeeby and Eric skinning towards Tailor Pass

We continued up and over Tailor Pass toward Pastorial.

Najeeby and I approaching the summit ridge

The last bit to the summit of Pastorial

Najeeby and I on the summit!

Najeeby and Eric getting ready to ski!

Eric dropping in

Paige at the bottom of run 1

After an amazing decent to the valley floor with perfect snow we desided we had to do it agin.  So we skinned the whole way back up to the top for another killer run.  Then we skinned up over the pass and skied out.

tired Paige

I was a little tired after our 8 hour and 7,500′ day.

Icefall Lodge

The Tele Girls take a 15 minute heli ride outside of Golden, BC to backcountry ski out of the Icefall Lodge for a week. Martha Burly, Paige Brady, Shaun Raskin, and Candy Froerer with photographer Re Wikstrom have a great time skiing powder, jumping off cliffs, playing around on the pillow lines, and exploring some new terrain.