Powder Photo Archives
For more shots, check out Ian Coble Imaging at iancoble.com.
"In the last 3 weeks Southcentral Alaska has experienced an unusual warm spell. Due to the snow line hovering around 1,800', lower mountain skiing has been marginal to say the least.
Last week Clint Butler, Josh Hegna and I headed north for some higher elevation skiing at Hatcher's Pass. This area was experiencing the warm weather but not as much rain as the southern region. There was definitely evidence of snow loss but because it hadn't really frozen again we found creamy, quality turns considering.
The next attempt was to give Alyeska a shot. Simon Evans and I hit the resort on Christmas Eve. A couple of weeks ago the Girdwood area was served 6" of rain in 24 hours with winds exceeding 80 mph at 3,200'. Because the majority of our skiing is close to sea level, it created serious concerns. You can only imagine what this temperature change did to the avalanche activity. Alyeska Resort and Turnagain Pass experienced several natural and skier triggered slides ripping to the ground. The resort turned out to be pretty good skiing up high.
Today I saw a positive turn in regards to a healing snowpack and low elevation snow accumulation. Simon Evans and I decided to do some storm skiing at Turnagain Pass. The last couple days temps have dropped slightly- enough to bring substantial wet snow at the base of Turnagain Pass- (1,000'). Approximately 18" of new snow fell in the last few days at Turnagain Pass and Alyeska's higher elevations. We found some good pow turns in the trees. Dark days are getting lighter and hopefully rain is turning to snow." -Jason Scheben
Colin lives in Les Terrasses, France, a small village 1,500 feet above La Grave and spends a large portion of his time near his favorite peak, La Meije. Here's a sampling of his photography.
Photos from Steamboat's epic November.
Photos by Larry Pierce
Another quality day in the backcountry has hopes high for a good season. Clint Butler, Simon Evans, and I skied Turnagain Pass on Sunday, December 4. In the last week 12"-14" of new snow fell in the Girdwood and Turnagain area. Recently temperatures have ranged from –10 F to 10F. There’s a healthy supply of nice light snow but the low temps have also created a substantial surface hoar in the area.
Our long-term outlook regarding this snowpack is a little sketchy. Snowpack layers consist of depth hoar, wet snow, surface hoar, rain crust, and now a couple feet of cold, light snow. Add some wind and things could get interesting. Yesterday we got lucky with weather and line selection. It bluebird with no wind and we skied a fairly stable aspect. Conditions are thin, I hit a couple rocks but it's still early in the season. Overall, a quality day free of incident.
- Jason Scheben