We couldn’t of made a better choice than to come up to AK and the drive was 100% worth it. We just finished up slashing a 48 hour storm cycle that dropped another 40 inches of fresh onto the 200 inch base at Alyeska. Each day has gotten better and better. Luckily we have AK veteran Adam Clark along to photograph our journey. 

A view of the tram from the Hotel Alyeska. The tram is connected to the hotel and is just a few minutes up the mountain. You can either run laps on the tram or stay up high and shred from Chair 6.

This time of year you only get a little bit of light during the day and the mornings are really dark but you don’t notice it. Its a completely surreal experience riding in the deep of snow with that kind of light. All the runs are well lit by the towers which makes it even crazier to jedi your way down the moutnain. Bode,Austen and Phil getting ready to use the force.

Bode slaying the storm that just nuked on Alyeska over the past 48 hours.

Chris Brewster recently transplanted to Salt Lake from Anchorage last season. He heard that we were making the drive up to AK and offered to guide us around Alyeska and Anchorage if we had room…we had room and it was nice to have another person to help drive. Judging by this thread the needle method….Chris has shredded here a few times and knows the mountain well. 

This is what the past 2 mornings have looked like

Within seconds of strapping there are a series of cat tracks that you can chuck off with never ending landings. Phil Damiankes was sitting at a table drinking a cup of java no more than 10 minutes from this shot being taken. Not a bad way to start off your day. 

The tram at Alyeska gets pretty crowded at times. Looks like Bode Merrill stole somebody’s seat.

Bode spinning his way into a AK sunrise. After the 40 inch refill the sun came out and we were finally able to start seeing our surroundings and realized how much more potential this place has. 

This is what Alyeska looks like when it’s not blowing sideways. It’s pretty damn cool when you can see the surroundings here…because there are some serious mountains up here.

There is some pretty rugged terrain up here

Even the bears are getting after it. We woke this bear up and Adam Clark got this shot right as he was waking up…just kidding but it makes for a good story.

Bode found a few cat tracks to send over the past couple of days. There are  way to many hits that are in bounds and just off of the main runs to count. 

Even at night there is no shortage of features to session. Phil Damianakes found this this spot within seconds of leaving our hotel. This was a gnarly drop that Phil had no problem dialing in after a full day of slaying waste deep pow. 

This parking lot to parking lot gap was no easy task to put together. After hours of digging and shaping getting speed became another couple hour project. By the end of the night some of the locals came out to help and get this thing dialed in. Everything from a Rev 800 (thanks Sean) a Jeep Cherokee ( hell yeah Kenny)  and A Dodge 3500 went into getting the speed dialed. It was sketchy and seemed to get more sketchy but Bode still found his way to the landing and cleaned some snow off the branches. Hell Yeah Bode!!!