The idea of Alaska has always seemed so enormous and far away. From the vastness of its wilderness to its seemingly infinite mountain ranges, Alaska had felt like a dream that would forever stay a dream. It wasn’t even on my radar until I was given the chance to win an all expense paid trip to the Majestic Heli Ski Lodge in the Chugach Mountains.

One of the many perks of working in a snowboard shop is getting the opportunity to go on awesome trips. This year Strafe Outerwear setup the trip of a lifetime to thank a few lucky sales people. Strafe is an athlete owned snowboard and ski outerwear brand from Aspen, Colorado that offers technical pieces built for any adventure. Headed by Zach Hayes from Strafe, the winners of the trip included Nick Walton, Nic Sears, Colleen Gregory, and myself from Colorado. And finally, coming all the way from Verbier, Switzerland was Johnny Peacock who responded to pre trip emails with his excitement to “ski Arkansas for the first time” and was described to the rest of us as being “super swiss”.

On arrival in Anchorage Zach, Walton, and myself met up with Colleen and Sears who had landed five hours prior. Having spent most of their day walking all over Anchorage Colleen and Sears had found a great bar that they immediately brought us to. While we waited for the shuttle from the Heli Lodge we all drank at Van’s Dive Bar, eating fried chicken and playing Ring King Boxing on a first generation Nintendo. When we had finished we hopped in the shuttle up to the lodge. Johnny Peacock arrived to the lodge a couple hours after the rest of us bearing a 2 kilo bag of Swiss chocolates. Johnny turned out to be an English bloke who was in no part Swiss but had spent his season in Verbier. He also had been completely joking about skiing in Arkansas.

Outside the Lodge

The next three days at Majestic Heli Lodge could not have been more perfect. Each day we woke to the slow pink sunrise hitting the mountains in front of clear skies. Mornings started with a big fresh breakfast buffet before heading to the chopper. Lead by our guide Lynn Kennen we crushed lap after lap of long open pow runs. At the bottom of each pitch the helicopter would swing around and pick us up again, landing inches away from our group crouched in the snow. Flying back up each new run I was able to spot rocks and cliffs that I would be able to hit on the way down. With the helicopter perched on a ridge we moved like a well oiled machine stepping out and gathering our gear, huddling up and waiting for it to takeoff and fly out of sight.

Takeoff

Our Heli Pilot, Ben

Once the shredding was done for the day Ben, our easygoing helicopter piolet, would bring us on a wild ride home. The flight back was filled with yells and hollers as Ben flew through rock outcroppings, skimmed above ridges, and dropped down quick to make us all float out of our seats. The craziest feeling being in the bird was every once in a while watching the horizon line go completely vertical out the window. The scale of the glaciers and peaks we flew over was unfathomable and made the helicopter rides just as special as the shredding.

Back at the lodge the crew soaked in the hot tub or hung out and shared videos from the day while being served fresh seafood appetizers from the kitchen. After amazing meals everyone would hang around drinking before one by one some would fall off to bed, spent from the day. A couple of us stayed up late every night in the hopes of trying to catch the northern lights. When they did come out, around 1am, we watched the green haze out in the distance that had a faint shimmer while we stood in the cold. The slight waves changed into columns as we talked of taking the helicopter for a night ride into the lights.

Nick Walton Dropping in

Before departing from Alaska we spent our last couple hours having dinner in Anchorage and hanging around town. This day happened to be the official kick off of the Iditarod race so town was packed with many characters and events. Our guide Lynn was flying out the same time as us and was able to show us around Anchorage. She brought us to Chilkoot Charlie’s for our last stop, the diviest of dive bars that consisted of nine bars in one building all with different themes, a must go if you’re ever in Anchorage. Finishing off some pitchers at Chilkoot’s, the group that had started as strangers just a couple days before said their goodbyes with newly established friends. When three days feels like a whole week you know you are with good people. With the trip of a lifetime over we all parted ways for our red eye flights home, completely fulfilled from adventure.

Pov Powder Run





Johnny Peacock, Walton, Sears, and myself

Bluebird Days

In the Zone

Looking out the Heli

Some of our lines

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