Return to TT43 - 1.5.2019

Note: updated below the original post to include a Gulch Creek link-up in January 2022.
Watching old school GoPro video of Jimmy Kase ripping the TT43 spines on teles in midwinter light sold me on Alaska. After years of waiting for snow, stability, and weather to align we finally got to experience it.

As we drove south thru the pass, the bottom fell out of the thermometer. By the time we parked at Bertha Creek it was -8 degrees. Next up, was finding a way across the creek. Matt found a crossing and lead the charge across the cold water creek. Eventually the twig he was standing on collapsed, but he hovered over the water and kept his feet dry.


In retrospect, parking at Cornbiscuit and using the bridge would have been straightforward. Still, it was drier than skiing TT43 with Matt and Nick years ago:


We followed ptarmigan and hare tracks across the valley and up the climb to Seattle Ridge. Above the valley inversion the temperature rose to 10 degrees. Tropical.

TT43 Ski - 4.4.2013

Last winter, when we began to research skiing in Alaska, one of the first things we found was a Youtube video of someone skiing a sustained pitch of 1,300 vertical meters of spines, flutes, and ramps. Named TT43 for the number of terrain traps on the face, this zone has been on our hit list ever since. 

Last Thursday we headed out to finally check it out. With downright hot temperatures in the forecast, we decided to approach it from the southwest instead of the more standard southeast route. We quickly realized why this approach is unusual:

Matt, being a real Alaskan, ripped off his boots and was soon watching us barefoot from the far snowbank.


Nick and I, who are of a far less hearty breed, went back to the car for my rubber boots. Which Nick then returned for my use: