Archangel Road Ski

 I hesitated going up to Hatcher Pass today because of the avalanche warnings. But I was not planning to try to climb up onto avalanche terrain. I decided to cross country ski on Archangel Road, a very popular groomed ski area that is on a road they close in winter. It's been quite warm for February in Alaska, 40 degrees already in the morning. About one mile in on the road I came across a very recent avalanche across the road, likely from yesterday. There were enough ski tracks across it that it obviously had not just happened. I had to kind of pick my way across the avalanche debris. I found it to be a little disconcerting, but I still continued on. I was wearing my avalanche beacon but since I was not traveling with a partner also wearing one, I figured it really wouldn't do much good if another slide came down and buried me and my dog. 

Avalanche debris across the trail

Looking up towards the start of the avalanche

Soon after crossing the avalanche path I ran into a couple of my hiking friends. I ended up skiing the rest of the day with Cindy, who is a very good cross country skier and instructor. The first few miles of this trail are very smooth and also groomed, making for easy travel. Once we reached the bridge over Archangel Creek, where I usually turn around, we were now traveling on multi-use trail well tracked by snow machines. That's where the nice groomed trail ends. Cindy was planning to go farther, so I decided to go too. The conditions were fairly good in spite of the choppy motorized tracks. At one point the tracks had actually left the road and gone off to the right. We could still see the road so followed it over varying conditions. I wondered how tough the trip back down was going to be. I'm fine on downhill with my downhill skis but it gets more challenging on skinny cross country skis where my heel is not locked down. We made it all the way to the gate where summer car travel ends. It was getting kind of late and we were both getting a bit tired. So we turned around at that point and started down. My dog, Bella only weighs 11 pounds but those little legs can really move. She was attached to my waist by her leash and was ready to break all speed records downhill back to the start. My lack of downhill skill on cross country skis immediately showed itself. I did fine on the firm snow but in the rutted breakable crusty areas not so much. I was continually begging Bella to slow down, which just sounded like a bunch of noise to her. I finally crashed into a pile of snow and had a terrible time finally getting myself back upright. By now Cindy and her dog were out of sight. I picked my way down as carefully as I could until suddenly Bella came to a complete stop. She has long hair and had accumulated gigantic icy snowballs the size of golfballs on all of her legs and was busy trying to bite them off. I tried breaking them off myself but with no luck. So at that point I took off my backpack and plopped her into it. At least she wasn't pulling me anymore but my shoulder and back were killing me. I think I smacked my right shoulder pretty hard on the fall. Happily I caught up with Cindy and we eventually reached the nice groomed trail again. I found I did best if I just stayed in the groomed tracks and it was good sailing the rest of the 8 mile round trip back to the car. It was a gorgeous little trip but I think I'd prefer to go that far back on my backcountry skis if I decide to do it again. Then I'd have the luxury of locked down heels and much better downhill control. 

I now have a very tired dog!

The partially buried gate where we turned around