When I got up this morning, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it had just started snowing very heavily (note snow on trees outside our house). I had been planning on rollerskiing in the Hatcher Pass area today, but I figured I might as well bring m
Date: 09/25/2004
Views: 789
When I drove through Palmer, I thought I would be rollerskiing for sure. The snow had stopped once I left Anchorage and the roads were dry. But as I climed the road to Hatcher Pass, the precipitation picked up again and soon it was dumping snow. No rol
Date: 09/25/2004
Views: 800
I started skiing right from the Hatcher Pass lodge, where there was about 4 inches on the ground. I skied up the access road to the Gold Cord mine, where ski trails are usually groomed in late October/early November.
Date: 09/25/2004
Views: 773
Date: 09/25/2004
Views: 804
As I climbed, the snow quickly got deeper and deeper. At the mine, it was over a foot deep and when I got off the road it quickly became very soft and unskiable. So I turned around and headed down.
Date: 09/25/2004
Views: 754
Measuring snow depth at the Gold Cord with my ski. When I put my ski all the way into the snow, it came up to where my thumb is - that looks like 12-14 inches to me!
Date: 09/25/2004
Views: 738
I turned around and headed back down to the lodge, then went up the Hatcher Pass road the other way to the actual pass and Summit Lake. Snow on this road was very good for skiing up, but coming down it was a little thin. My rock skis now have a few more
Date: 09/25/2004
Views: 801
A view of the Hatcher Pass Lodge and cabins from the road up to the pass
Date: 09/25/2004
Views: 771
Date: 09/25/2004
Views: 806
The smile still hasn't left my face - I was skiing!!
