By mid-May, I had basically given up on any more crust skiing. With the record-setting winter, there was still snow to be found, but the weather hadn’t been aligning with my schedule, and I figured it wasn’t healthy to stew about it, best just to move on to summer. But then Tim and I got an email from Benji saying that Reed Lakes was still really good. Ed Strabel and the Mat-Su ski club had been grooming the Archangel Road in Hatcher Pass for late season skiing. The grooming ended in early May, but according to Benji, the road was still good enough to get you to primo crust. The weather for the next day (Saturday!) looked good. So game on!
My pictures are below, but you should definitely check out Tim’s photos. His pictures are better, and the first shot is one of my favorite pictures of me on skinny skis. I almost look like I’m shredding it!
Some good climbing to get to the lakes
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Above lower Reed Lake
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Tim (lower left) checks out some snow rollers
Upper Reed Lake
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Not a black and white photo – it just looks like it. Lots of white for May 19th!
Not nearly as good as the photo Tim took of me in the same spot. Need to keep working on my shutter skills.
A long, fun ride down!
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Panoramic near upper Reed Lake
What a great ski! Both Tim and I were a little dumbfounded that we’d never crust skied up this valley before. It is definitely one of the best.
GPS track went a little haywire, but here it is.
Upper Reed Lake – Pan around or click here for a full screen version.
