Like two weeks after doing the bomber traverse, Drew left again for another week long ski tour. This time he did the Eklutna traverse. More glaciers, which means more skiing while roped to other people, which was understandably a little more difficult. Less experience, a bigger group, and not the nicest weather made it perhaps not quite as fun as his first trip, but he still loved it so I guess that's what counts.
They did group dinners on this trip. They voted on what to eat each night. If your dinner sounded good than you got to cook it sooner and then you had less to carry for the rest of the trip. So Drew spent the whole week before the trip dehydrating different things and buying already dehydrated peanut butter and everything else. He really wanted to create a lightweight but good meal for backpacking. I got to try everything and let him know what was best. In the end he made pasta carbonara, tomato basil soup, and these little chocolate and peanut butter pudding layered desserts.
I'm glad he went on these two trips because before he went on them he was so upset that it was getting lighter, upset that the snow was starting to melt, etc etc. He hadn't had enough of winter yet. Skiing for 7 and 8 straight days seems to have gotten him the fill he needed to make it until next year. Now he is all about the kayaking season. And just in time too, he went and dug the boats out of the snow this past Saturday. A few pictures from his trip:
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| Spring is coming! |
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| Planes landing on the glacier below. |
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| Rest day with mini avalanches in the background. |
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| Their last day they were trying to descend in severe wind and white out conditions. You can just barely see 4 little black marks on the hill. That's the second rope team making their way down. |
