Friday, May 13, 2011

Alaska, The Tour, Day 1, The Approach

The day tours were truly phenomenal, but we were in Alaska for adventure, so we headed out for a five day tour of The Valley of the Tusk and The Heiden Glacier.

Since our first minivan had the aforementioned key issue, we thought our second minivan needed more love, or maybe a name. Hence we christened it The Superbeast.

We left The Super Beast at the hairpin turn just south of Thompson Pass and headed up to gain a traverse on the high benches.
This is the view from high on the benches towards the Valley of the Tusk.
and the Heiden Glacier.
Once we descended below 2,000' we once again ran into rotten. collapsing snow.
Which was especially fun with heavy packs and whacking brush.
Views like this of the Tusk kept us moving along, although for several hours we seemed to get no closer.
Alas we were making visible progress.
We set a beautiful camp above the mouth of the Valley of the Tusk.
Steve relaxes in the never ending twilight.
All of us were pretty beat, but the prospect of more big line skiing in this most incredible setting had us excited.

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