Winter 10/11 Lift Crew Slide Show

Lifties back at the Lifts

The ski club has bought some time on the mountain for early season training. Lift crew is more than glad to oblige! Lifties got thier first lift accessed turns of the season, and all is well again.

Fun Run with Fun Folks

The participants for the first annual Tram-to-Tram Fun Run (Sunday):

Matt P. smiles as we admire the super pipe on the way up the tram.
Chris and Cody have been working on the bullwheel liner at the top of 1.
And this one is from Saturday's North Face Vertical Challenge. Burntski made 10 laps this year and says he looks forward to working, rather then running in, the event next year.

3rd Annual Alyeska Vertical Challenge

Sunny Days - Race Camp

The weather these past few days has been fantastic. Summer is off to a very nice start!

The High Traverse was open for a little bit on Sunday. You can see the tracks here:
Chris and Finn - Living the dream at the base of chair 6.

End of 7 Day Ops - 09/10

The 3rd Annual Lifty Ski Down took place Sunday afternoon after closing.

Sadly, Lift Crew didn't have a dummy in the Dummy Race, but we had one the base of 4.
Chauncey and Rama got some runs on closing day.
Dusty, Joe and Todd were some of my solids this winter.
Ski patrol with their rooster dummy before the competition.
And here is the rooster after it landed the jump and continued down the mountain. Good thing the fence was there!

Super Snow

Some lift crew shoveled the ice off the chair 1/ chalet decking before heading up to their stations.

This photo of Jim Kennedy, Alyeska's Snow Safety Director, was taken yesterday at the mid mountain weather station.
Danny K., this season's King of Tanaka. He keeps the Mighty Mites safely loaded on the chairs and gives everyone a laugh.
"Tower Swing!"
Skiing has been great! There were a lot of great turns taken, and I'm sure there are quite a few tired people right now.

Management is working on re-scheduling the North Face Challenge, possibly next week.

Surprise Pow Afternoon

It snowed 4-6" this morning, then cleared in the afternoon. Karl came out and groomed race trail for tonight's town league races.

While skiing with friend (and former lifty/ trammy) Sarah, we ran into Katie and Sam from night crew.
The sunset was amazing.
It was fun to get out for some runs with my friend, and the conditions were superb.
Watch Karl drive the cat right under us:

Mellow Weekend

Riding chair 6 to go to the top of 1 with some of the night crew (Sam, Jeremy & Molly) Saturday afternoon.

It was a busy day on Tanaka today. You can see the slide on Max's from a few days ago in the background.

Out & About

Thanks to Chris on ski patrol, who helped us take advantage of a photo op this morning.

Some tracks on Ragged top this morning.
Race crew set up for a race this morning.
Patrol setting up for High Silver opening this morning.
The weather was nice, especially at the top where the temps were in the mid-20s.

Last Day of FIS Races at Alyeska

Lift Crew Slideshow

Slush Cup 2009!

I am so excited to bring you footage of today's Slush Cup at Alyeska Resort.

Thanks to all the participants, as well as Ben, who took all of these photos.

Alpine Championships Photos

Local professional photographer Eric Teela took some great photos during the races last week, AND they are for sale!

I'll post some of my photos later today.

Last Day of Nationals; Telepaloza starts tomorrow

Another Day at the Office

An athlete pushes her way through the starting gate.

Most of race trail was taken up by the course, but the North Face and South side were skiing superbly
You can see the ash layer in the snowpack. 
If you look closely, you can see some athletes heading down chair 3 road.
It was snowing like crazy all morning, but then some blue sky started to appear just before opening.

Nationals, Ash & Freshies

The races went on despite the snow today.

Lots of volunteers & staff slipping the course early this morning.
Looking up the Tanaka lift line.
Ash on the chairpad as I rode down on chair 3, just after opening.
The ash makes the landscape look lunar.
Ski patrol closed the slots to keep public out of the race course.
Sean, always having a good time at chair 6.
To those that care: North Face & High Traverse were closed today.

It takes a lot of people to put on these races.

Redoubt Eruption March 27 2009 from Bretwood Higman on Vimeo.

Ash & Snow

Ashfall on our truck at about 6 tonight.

Ashfall Collection Instructions
What a crazy forecast.  Taken from the Seward Highway:
Obviously a regular slide path-
Click to enlarge and see the fracture lines.
Today's local NBC coverage of the Alpine Championships

News

The Seward Highway will be closed intermittently for control work this morning.

Redoubt erupted around midnight last night, with ash expected to fall in Anchorage today.

Alpine Championships are back on for today.

Skiing lost an icon yesterday.  RIP Shane McConkey.

Redoubt & Snow

First things first: a major eruption of Mt. Redoubt.  More info

There will be a late opening today.

A couple of ski patrollers cross the closed Chuck's line to check conditions. 

The groomers have had their hands full lately.  It has snowed quite a bit, postponing the Alpine National races.
Their help to lift ops has been indispensable.