Day 1

...( 56K internet up here cant load all the good pictures )

We arrived in Haines on the ferry from Juneau. The ride over was amazing, when the peaks of Alaska finally started to break thru we knew we were in for a real treat. Haines is a tiny little in the middle of nowhere Alaska..

Little slo moving slide that released just after I got to the safety zone..

Once we got checks into the hotel we decided to head out to Mile 33 Road House and the Alaska Helisking opeartion run by Seandog. The drive from town was unreal, we saw Huge moose, so many blad eagles they started to look like ordinarry birds. And just a great way to get out of the hustle and bustle of things.

Alaska Helisking is a trually family owned and operated company. Everyone was so friendly and treated us like we were long lost friends. First up was the beacon test / training. Our training Adam from Australia hit beacons in the snow and we each had to find them within 2 minutes. If someone is barried after 10 minutes the chance of survival goes down tremendously. After taking my Avi 1 course we were tought to find a beacon within 5 minutes. To see these guys making there paying clients find them within 2 made me feel they had the right safety steps in place. Next up was the Helicopter training.

Getting in and out of a Helicopter while ontop of a mountain in powder can be tricky to say the least. So we practised the procedures for proper heli use. You have to always be paying attention, one wrong move near the rotars is all it takes and to top that off your looking at your line, dealing with snow flying around and trying to make sure your gear doesnt blow away.

Then the chopper arrived!!! We were the fist group to go out around 1:00pm. We got linked up with 2 amazing skiers from Taos, Steve and Beth. So with that our group was on the way. Riding in the helicopter was amazing, I was nervous at first and am now Im looking forward to our Heli ride today, as well as the deep snow.

We were dropped at our first run named, Old Faithfull. The run was not the gnarliest I have ever seen but great snow, long terrain and did I mention 3 feet of fresh pow? The first day is to test the clients, to make sure they arent flaying around or getting bogged down in the snow. After I got to the bottom and radioed up it was time for Steve to drop, about 3/4 the way down he setoff a slow moving Avalanche that follwed him down the mountain, he was able to move to the side and get out of the path but the thing was heading straight for me. Thankfully it was slow moving and didnt make it all the way.

Our guide Mike had suspected the slope might slide, dug a pit and asked for another guide to come up. So again, all safety mesures are in place up here. We decide to ride a differnet part of the slope.

After a few warm up runs we started getting bigger lines. The biggest decent yesterday was 2,200 vertical feet in one run. The snow is insane, oh I am supposed to say its wet and heavy up here, actaully its more like Colorado.. Shhh dont tell to many people as this place is sick!!!!

We got 3-4 runs in our first day, today is cloudy and socked in so the Helis arent flying yet. Were going to drive out there and wait it out, I didnt come to Haines to sit on my computer and post blogs, just kidding...

Heliskiing is something I will be doing for the rest of my life, I have already made the decison to come up here for Guide School next Feb do the 2 week course and hopefully start taking clients out Heli Skiing!!!