Blue Ice Aviation - Blog

This photo makes me happy. If I were rich I would buy a helicopter and hire a pilot. Then I would just ride around looking for places to ski. I mean really, the Chugach Mts. are a gold mine. We just got a couple more inches of snow down here at sea level today, and I am wondering what the high country looks like. I think this weather is going to be improving, and the engine is almost back on my super cub so it might be time to go looking for some more fresh snow. I'll keep you posted with what I find. I will also post some pictures of the engine overhaul. With the new baby, the engine overhaul, and the house, I am a little behind right now. I have been working on the engine non-stop but it's tough to focus when there is a little wrinkly, 6 pound, bundle of love just waiting to get held by dad.

The light was fading fast. This is the same mountain from the picture on the 16th and the two photos were taken only about 30 minutes apart. During the month of April our weather is either terribly fickle or totally amazing. This year it has been fickle and today was no exception. It was cloudy, then sunny, then rainy, then sunny. It's tough to head for the mountains when the weather is changing every 30 minutes, but in Alaska if you don' t try you will never go.

You can see the ski tracks coming down from the ridge. A helicopter was working in this same valley where I was landing, and they were leaving some pretty awesome tracks all over the hill side. I could never compete with a helicopter for easy access, but anybody who wants to earn their turns in the back country ... Super Cub access is for you, and it's a lot cheaper too.

I dropped these guys off on a small glacier up the Knik River drainage. There was about 8 inches of fresh snow that fell last night, and conditions this afternoon were amazing. These guys have been waiting since Monday to get dropped off. The storm that rolled in Saturday night lasted about 4 days and the weather finally cleared today.

In the first image you can see the guys standing out on the glacier with my ski tracks running down hill, but you have to look close. I had never landed here before and I did not even know this spot existed, but our first option was fogged in. So we went looking for alternatives, and found a nice slope with a decent landing site on the ridge. But there was a fog bank that blew in as I was circling to land. So we improvised a plan "C" and found the spot pictured above. A helicopter was working in the same glacial drainage hauling skiers, and it was reassuring to see some of the slopes they had been skiing with little sign of avalanches. The Chugach is world renowned for it's skiing potential, and I was reminded of that today as we saw countless untracked slopes just waiting for a skier.

I don't like being cold. I was born and raised in Alaska, and that means I am smart enough to know how to stay warm. Thus, I thought a large tent with a wood stove would be the perfect solution for a backcountry base-camp for skiers. I have a Weather Port and it makes an excellent portable shelter that would be large enough to service a company of four skiers (10'x12'). I have been planning this for some time, and I loaded the plane on Friday with the Weather Port and appropriate gear. I also managed to squeeze in my VERY pregnant, and awesome wife, to help me set it up. Samantha loves getting outside even more than I do, so she is always happy to jump on-board.

We headed into the mountains and arrived at the spot that I had calculated most suitable for my operation. Much to my dismay there were all ready ski tracks all over the slope with several happy skiers cuttin' freshies right before my eyes. I almost threw-up. I was bummed, actually, I was totally depressed. Samantha was very understanding, and helped me work through my ill-feelings as she explained to me that, "they weren't bad people just because they took my ski spot". I did not totally agree. I motored back towards the house with a super cub still heavily laden with my temporary shelter, an understanding wife, and a depressed pilot/skier.

I unloaded the Cub and went to work on my house, and tried not to think about it. There are lots of places to ski in the mountains surrounding us, but this place really was perfect, and I did not have the gas to go motoring around looking for new spots. Also, the Cub was heavily loaded, and in no configuration to go pioneering new spots. I almost gave the whole idea up as I pounded nails, cut boards, and penciled measurements. Then my buddy Rhett called and all the emotions came back and before I knew what was happening I was loading the Weather Port back into the Super Cub and we were headed for a new spot that had never seen a ski track.

We left early the next morning, and even before we took off I was leery about the winds aloft forecast, and the storm that was supposed to be moving in later in the day. I got a pi-rep from a Cessna 182 pilot who claimed calm air at 5000', so I went for it. It was a smooth climb up to 7,000 feet, but as we approached the knife edge ridge I was going to land behind I saw snow ripping off the cornice as the wind pounded the ground below us. It was a no-brainer, easy decision, as I pointed the nose of the plane away from the granite and toward calmer air as a massive down-draft forced us to loose 800 feet. Doggone-it! Shot down AGAIN! I was running on minimum fuel to save weight, and we did not have enough for a plan "B".

Then I remembered there was a spot in the Talkeetna Mountains that I had landed at earlier in the week and thought the skiing might be decent. So, I punched it into the GPS and it showed 18 minutes to destination. I triple checked our fuel and decided we had enough to make it there, and then home, with reserve.  So, we flew directly to my old landing site. The sky was clear blue and the winds were less than 5 mph. We left the Weather Port in the plane and headed out for some fun.

We had landed at 6000' and the conditions were actually really fun. It was an easy skin up, and only required boot packing in a few short spots. On top of the mountain the wind was blowing about 25 mph and it made me wonder what the winds were doing down at the plane. We made one run and decided it would be utter foolishness to turn around now so we skinned up for another. We made it back down to the plane at about 1430 and the winds were still calm there, so we headed out for another run. As we headed up on the 3rd run the sun went behind a high cloud layer and we started loosing our light. We enjoyed the view from the ridge for a few minutes and then headed for the plane. The wind was picking-up and it was evident that it was time to go home.

We took off still loaded with the Weather Port and gear and headed for the windy city. The winds at Palmer had shifted 90 degrees and were blowing out of 110 at 20 knots gusting 30 and it was a little turbulent on final. I dropped Rhett off in Palmer and then headed for my house with the plane. There was a weather advisory in affect for sever turbulence at low levels, and I'll admit it was a bumpy 5 minute flight, and the landing at my house was ... interesting.

I'm done with the Weather Port idea... for now. But I still think it would be a lot of fun and if anyone is interested let me know. I am going to spend as much time as I can working on my house as I eagerly anticipating meeting our first child. Samantha is due this week. Boy or Girl? What's it gonna be? I change my mind everyday.

The video from the day of skiing.

More details tomorrow. I'm tired, now.

I plopped these guys down on a glacier in the Chugach yesterday, and then took this picture as I flew away. They are in there right now enjoying the aches and pains after a long day of tearing up totally untracked terrain. On the glacier where I landed it was a solid base with 6-8 inches of powder that looked ideal for carving some steep lines. As I think about it I'm getting more jealous... maybe tomorrow I will play.

Yesterday all I could think about was skiing. I called my friends, but they were all busy. At 4 pm I could no longer make sense of my framing calculator so I dropped what I was doing, turned off the generator, and headed for the Super Cub. My runway is getting a little muddy in the afternoon as the ice melts, so it took a bit of thrash to get out of my parking spot.

I landed on the toe of a small glacier in the Talkeetna Mts. It was so steep that once I turned the Cub around I could not stop it from sliding. I will occasionally jump out and hang on a wing strut to stop the plane, but if it doesn't work things get REALLY stressful. I did not want to shut the engine off because then I have little directional control. So I applied full power for take-off, and tried again. On the second landing I found a portion of glacier that was a bit flatter and parked sideways on it. I boot-packed it to the top of the glacier and realized how fat and out of shape I am. I was stuck boot-packing, because I forgot my skins in the truck. The snow was not the greatest, but it was still a lot of fun to get out and enjoy the wilderness all by myself. If you are interested in doing any backcountry skiing I recommend the Chugach because the Talkeetna's are wind scoured. Here is a video of yesterday's trip.

First of all, the bright pink thing is a sled for hauling gear. Lots of mountaineers use them, but only the toughest ones use pink.

Secondly I am sorry for not getting a photo of the day up yesterday. We had an electrical problem on one of the other super cubs in the morning and I had to fill-in at the last second. I flew until I was low on daylight, so I just spent the night up at the cabin.

I picked these guys up yesterday afternoon and they had done an excellent job of laying track, the mountain was covered with turns and it looked good. The weather has been great all week and they skied under sunny skies for much of the time.