Apr 4
Video and Photos of the Day -- Fat Kid Goes Skiing
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.
