Today Tim, Benji and I headed south to Portage hoping to finally find some crust in the Placer River valley. We’d received over two feet of snow at home in the past two weeks (in April!), but the Portage area didn’t get as much. Plus the sun has been out for the past few days, so we were hopeful that we might find some crust. Our goal was to ski up past Spencer Glacier, then up and over the ridge to Grandview. I’d crust skied at Grandview before but I’d never crust skied to Grandview before. Getting there is a little tricky. The train gets there by going through a tunnel next to a river gorge. Not willing to risk our lives by using the train tunnel, we had to go up and over a ridgeline, which actually wasn’t that bad if you know where to go (which is why we go with Tim). It turned out that the crust was bomber most of the way, and the ski was spectacular. If you want proof that I actually was on this trip, check out Tim’s photos.

April 29, 2007: If I had to pick one ski route as the quintessential Southcentral Alaska crust ski - it would be Center Creek.

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.

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.

April 8: The recent weather hasn’t been conducive to crust skiing (cloudy with occasional snow showers). But yesterday afternoon was sunny and it got cold last night, so I decided to give it a go this morning.

On Sunday April 17, Scott, Bill and I planned to explore the crust skiing in Center Creek. If only I could get us there…

April 20. After four days of warm, wet weather we finally got a freeze last night, so Scott and I jumped at the chance to get back out on the crust. This time we heaed to the Placer River Valley. Althouth the terrain here is very flat, there are two impressive glaciers to see.

Thursday April 15. Tim Kelley and Tim Miller invited me to join them for a crust ski up Center Creek, near Johnson Pass. It was a chance I couldn’t pass up, so I skipped work and grabbed the boards. We skied for about 4 hours in some of the best crust skiing terrain you will find anywhere.