Bodies and brains.
Bodies and brains.
“Being able to go to Alaska is a dream come true for any skier I think, and definitely for me,” says Rab athlete, freeskier, and AMGA Apprentice Ski Guide, Amy David. “When I learned we were doing it all by human power though, I was a little bit intimidated, because they're huge mountains and we were staying at sea level.”
A human-powered ski touring trip is not the first snow sliding escapade that springs to mind when you think of Alaska. We’re used to seeing airy heli drops atop of snow-caked spines and hearing of backcountry lodges served by snow-cats, but the Rab US ski team had other ideas.
“I think the conscious decision was just to focus on using our bodies and brains to choose exactly where we were going to go,” says Amy. “It’s about enjoying the journey of the uphill as well as the glory of skiing down a beautiful line and it was great to have a team that was all on board and really excited about both the ascent and the descent part of it.” In March 2024, Amy was joined by fellow Rab athletes Jake Hopfinger, Julian Carr, Anna DeMonte, Doug Evans, and Mark Morris, alongside videographer, Gabe Rovick and photographer, Fred Marmsater. The team was certainly more than qualified for both the ups and the downs, with Teton Gravity Research skiers, an X-Games Gold Medal winner, and the fastest woman to climb and descend Mont Blanc on skis, in their midst.
The original plan had been to stay in a newly built lodge in Seward giving them immediate access to backcountry ski adventures in the Kenai Fjords National Park. But after months of trying to align busy schedules, just days before they were due to arrive, the pipes at the new lodge completely froze up and they had to make an abrupt change of plan. They made a quick pivot to an Airbnb in Anchorage, which would give them access to skiing via two mountain passes, Hatcher and Turnagain. For Amy, this trip was one of her first forays into the backcountry since her third ACL surgery (after a backflip landing gone wrong). Known for throwing herself off big cliffs, Amy planned to approach this trip with a little more caution.
“My goal was to have some self-control when I was skiing. I always want to go be extreme and ski aggressively, but trying to manage my own parameters, working out what my knee was ready to do, was something I was personally working on,” she says. Another overarching goal for the team was to get to know everyone on a deeper level and simply share an experience out in the backcountry. Although some of the group had known each other for years, it was the first time the whole team had been able to get together in their natural habitat – big, snowy mountains.
A catalogue of hiccups later, including one missed flight and some delayed luggage, the team finally set out on their first hike into the Alaskan backcountry. “The first day was so amazing because the sun stays up until around nine pm and we got this beautiful sunset and really soft snow. I was in all this mismatched gear because I couldn’t get my luggage until the next day, so I thought it was going to be a challenge, but it was just so cool to see the team finally all together. All of a sudden we were skiing down in an Alaskan sunset.”
Southcentral Alaska experiences significantly milder winters compared to the interior regions, but the snowfall can still be substantial. With just a single week to play with, the Rab team were banking on their ability to move between the two passes that were geographically far enough apart to have consistently different conditions. “I think we had to have a positive attitude of like, we're going to go for it no matter what the weather is,” said Amy. “We lucked out with a couple beautiful sunny days but quite a few rainy days also.”
Access to the mountains was easier than expected. Despite a long daily drive to get up high, the team could start skinning right from the roadside, scoping lines from the parking lot and putting their plans into action. “The mountains in that area are absolutely stunning and they're humongous! They start at the ocean, so you’re down at sea level and then the peaks just go straight up out of the water for thousands of feet. It’s the definition of awe-inspiring.”
Drive south down the Seward Highway from Anchorage and you’ll hit the Kenai Mountains. With their maritime climate they have a deep snowpack and offer some of the most accessible ski touring in Alaska. Alternatively, Hatcher Pass provides access to the Talkeetna Mountains, a region with an inter-mountain climate that will often offer sunny skies when it’s stormy nearer the coast.
“I really liked Hatcher Pass because it reminded me of the mountains where I ski in Idaho quite a bit,” says Amy. “There were a lot more rock features to them, more couloirs and fun, playful freeride features that you could jump off of or ski through. So, I think that was my favourite out of the two.”
The team spent their days waking up at ungodly hours for sunrise hikes and skiing until the light faded, feeling their way back down the mountain. They found everything from boot-top pow turns, to creamy corn, crud and slush. Evenings involved stocking up on calories and hatching plans for the next day of skiing. With a turbulent forecast and touchy avalanche conditions, safe route finding was their utmost priority.
“Having a lot of really educated and skilled skiers coming together and not just defaulting to the person with the most local knowledge was something I was trying to focus on a lot, making sure that everyone had a voice,” says Amy. “The team decision making process must be intentional. I'm the type of person that wants to get everybody's input and then make a shared decision. And so, making sure that I’m not hesitant to initiate a conversation is something I personally have had to overcome.”
Arming herself with knowledge and experience has been Amy’s route to finding her voice in backcountry groups where she’s often the only woman. As a ski guide and avalanche educator, she’s certified by the American Mountain Guides Association (AMGA) and the American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education (AIARE). She lives and works between the Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho and Jackson, Wyoming, spending her winter on skis and her summers on the trail as a backpacking guide. “Aside from working as an athlete it's also important for me to help other people access the outdoors and that's where the guiding and the outdoor education comes in. If I can help others be more active outdoors, then I really care about doing that as well as my own athletic pursuits.”
Despite three wet days in the middle of their trip, the team did everything they could to make the most of their short time in Alaska. “On one of the really wet days we had the mindset of… Let's just go for a walk in the woods and see what we can find. We went up through the forest and there were these cool plants and mushrooms growing on the trees. It was so beautiful in the rain. Once we broke up above tree line, there was this amazing steeper slope above us, but we had some Spidey senses about the snow pack, so we decided we needed to stop and pull our shovels out.”
A key tool for assessing the snow pack in avalanche terrain is digging a pit to examine the different layers of snow that build up across a season. While these tests shouldn’t be used in isolation (there’s all sorts of information you should be gathering while you’re travelling in the backcountry, from the snow conditions to the weather, to the group dynamics), there are a multitude of different tests that allow backcountry travellers to determine the sheer strength and stability of the layers, which can help inform your route choice. After digging a pit and looking at the snow, the Rab team did some stability tests and determined it wasn’t safe to carry on into open terrain. The group turned around and headed back along the way they had come.
“I think that it can be really tricky in the backcountry, especially when you're on a photo shoot because you get so wrapped up in the goal of getting photos and getting some good turns, it's hard to turn around. I was proud of our group making that decision together. The non-instant feedback with these things is tricky. You can get away with a lot on snow and never know what it was you got away with. It can be a slow learning process, until it isn’t.”
The team headed back down, happy with a few wet pow turns and a safe return to base for all. By the end of the week their planning and touring was working like “a well-oiled machine”. By staying flexible and adjusting to the conditions they managed to maximise their time in Alaska despite having to make tough calls on where to go to find the least sketchy conditions.
“The way you can get into trouble is if you're so wrapped up in a plan that you have no visibility on other options. If the stars are not aligning for that plan to happen but you keep forcing it, that's a good way to get into a pickle,” reflects Amy. “Making sure you have flexibility, backup plans, an open mind, and allowing yourselves time to really think it through can sometimes allow for something even more beautiful to evolve and show itself. Whether or not that’s rad skiing, or just a great team effort, I think that’s what we got in the end in Alaska.”
Words by @amywhereoutthere
Images by @Fred Marmsater
