Plenty of snow this winter + recent warm weather and rain + overnight temperatures below freezing = Crust skiing 2007! I kicked off my spring crust cruising season with a trip to Spencer Glacier with Chris, Seth, Chris, and Gary.

A couple of years ago, Scott and I tried to ski up Willow Mountain looking for crust. That time we didn’t make it, but this time Tim and I used classic skis and had better luck. Tim’s video of this ski:

March 11: Ian and I took advantage of a bright sunny day to do the Indian To Arctic ski. Snow conditions were perfect for backcountry touring: hard crust base with 4 inches of powder on top. Plus a large group of about 10 or so had set a track for us!

Feb 18: Wow, three months since I’ve posted any trip photos. Well that about sums up my winter so far - not much fun. The skiing has been great, but I haven’t been out enjoying it much. But on the bright side, I did manage to get a jump on the crust skiing season. Today I joined Tim Kelley and Tim Miller for a ski up the Twentymile River valley.

June 3: Last weekend, I saw that there was still a lot of snow in Turnagain Pass. So even though it only got down to 45 degrees last night, I decided to go skiing - just so I could say I skate skied in June.

On May 7, I skied a loop from Glen Alps to Williaw Lakes up and over to Lost Lake, then up to Near Point and back to Glen Alps via Prospect Heights.

April 29: This was one of those ski routes that I have drooled over for a couple of years. Always wanted to do it, but needed to go with guys who know more about glacier travel than I do. Tim Kelley and Tim Miller gave me that chance on Saturday. As always, you can also see Tim Kelley’s pics from the trip on his website.

April 16: I headed up the Glenn Highway with Tim Miller and Tim Kelley to search for crust skiing along the Matanuska River. You can also see Tim Kelley’s pics from the trip on his website.

April 15: Bill, Toby, Andy, Seth, Erika, and I headed to Turnagain Pass to see if the snow had yet transformed to a skate-worthy crust.

April 14: It seems like I’ve been doing everything twice this spring. Two times up Twentymile, two times across Arctic to Indian. And today I did my second ski up the Placer River valley. This time I went to Spencer Glacier.