Eklutna Traverse

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:

Spring is coming!

Planes landing on the glacier below.

Rest day with mini avalanches in the background.

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.

Bomber Traverse

Wait!  I am going to post at least one post in April!  I promise!  These are going to be largely picture posts, but Drew has been taking some gorgeous ones, so here you go.  Drew went on the Bomber Traverse at the end of March/beginning of April.  It's a ski tour at this time of year so he was basically backpacking but on skis.  He was gone for 8 days and did a really good job of leaving me with lots of Tupperware to keep me eating while he was gone.  He even left me a list on the fridge with ideas for what I could have for different meals.  It lasted me the whole time he was gone and went pretty well.  I worked a lot while he was gone...maybe too much.  But it's nice when you get the paycheck!  So I'll post some pictures from his trip.  I will have to bug him to get some of himself when he exchanges pictures with the other club members.  He had beautiful weather, got along with the group of 5 really well, and came home pretty sunburned.  I know 20 pictures is a lot, but I had to cut it down from 160.  I feel like I'm sorting through wedding pictures or something!  Enjoy:

This is the first hut when they found it...

...and here it is all dug out.

This trip went more or less, ski to a hut one day, spend the next day skiing and hiking around the hut for fun, ski to the next hut the next day, and so on.

Too steep to hike with skis and skins.

Probably the nicest hut out there.  All these supplies have to be helicoptered in or carried in.  

Love the scenic shot with the outhouse.

Yay for downhill!

Drew's new friend John.

Hut #3

Since these are MCA huts and it was an MCA trip, the huts got a little repair work done on the rest days.

Love that our days are getting longer...

John after digging to the door.

An avalanche they set off.

Hanging in the hut.  Seems like they did a lot of reading on their off time.

Alaska in snow...so pretty.