this and that,

ot much exciting lately.
This has been the view for the most part:

Aside from wildlife viewing a lot got sewn together this week.

I set up to do a batch cutting job with more layers than I'd ever cut with my little electric 3" blade... It got hot fast and reminded me of that smell when you're mixing cookie douugh with a cheap-o mixer... not good.
It was a good excuse to try out my latest ebay impulse purchase. It's a little ahead of it's time for sure but I like buying cool industrial equipment.  Think chop saw with a razor blade for fabric:

It worked but it was like gardening with a bulldozer... over gunned, needed more layers and weight. Back to smokin' little blue.

Did I mention it's Friday?

Enough shop stuff.  I got some fun Press lately. The first was west coast based Momentum magazine, they got wind of the pugsley beach trips and did a little blurb. Here is the web link.


Alaska Airlines magazine also did a breif profile of Epic Designs this month with a few other local business big and small.  It's short and sweet, but I had to laugh however at the caption for the photo.
If you're flying this month you'll see what I mean.

Congradulations Mike!

photo pulled from Phil's blog.
Totally self sufficient Knik to Nome.
I don't see any processed sugar left in those bottles - Pretty lean looking fella ain't he!

Carpe Diem

one of the advantages you hear about of being self employed is being able to skip out on weekdays all the time. This actually is not true and you will find yourself working most weekends as well. As Julie pointed out "you're self employed.. get the hell out of here!" When the Yellow Orb in the forecast calls, in March, it must be heeded.

Jeebs, Page and I went to Turnagin with Pastorial peak on the docket. It's been a year since I've been back there (a good day it was) I was hell bent with way too much jitter juice flowing to say the least.

Started with a run off of the top of Sunburst:

Sun crust forced warp factor 11 speeds... crazy fast! Page is the dot near the top for scale.

Back to Taylor Pass.. thanks skin trail.

Up Pastorial

 a bit windy at the pass and along the ridge for sure...

You simply can't top the view from Pastorial Peak on a clear day. Huge mountains in all directions beckon.

Top to lower valley run.. no photos,  broke a nice skin track back up to the glacier.

Killer pow, must repeat. all the way back up to the top.

Manta ray cornice.

Thanks Pastorial.. we did the runs just left of the summit, this view is fore-shortened and deletes the whole middle part.

by popular demand.. The swallowtail cam!

back up out of the basin, up over sunburst to get back. Page is the most ripping tele skier I've ever seen, with about 7,500' vertical of climbing under her boots she was pretty happy.

Thanks Ladies!

Jeff's B-day

Jeff got what he wanted for his birthday, blue skies, incredibly fresh blower cold smoke snow, and no body out there. Felt like we had the place to our selves.

Up To PMS bowl on magnum. Breaking trail from the car all the way to the ridgeline. The cornice up there is the biggest I've seen it.

 

Crazy cornice.. looked like a head down battering ram.

 

A group heading to Taylor pass:

3 runs on Magnum, then busted up the valley and did Super bowl.




A group on the wild ridge heading up to Gold Pan that Billy Yvonne and I did a while back.

Best snow all year!

Marlin's ice drums

Marlin's been cooking up this for a while and got some good press this morning. Follow this link .
Fat tire bike expeditioning on the great lakes with packraft safety sled for personal scientific studys. Awesome.

Surgery

Big Brother is finally back in action. I learned a lot in the process. Had one key snafu which had me mystified for hours.. but a fresh start today (and a run up Wolverine looping over to Near point) helped volumes with the patience factor.

First - taking everything apart. Feet off, trimming knives off, broken hook assembly removed.

 Old hook.... new hook..  remind me later to open a machine shop in Japan to make millions on these things.

Timing and opener adjustments.. key.

 

Everything back in place... 

back in business.

Extreme!

shit, you better put your beacon on if driving to Seward..

This says it all

Thinking about crust skating up the placer when this crap re-freezes.

drats...

This was one mistake I'll not repeat again.

Ship Pass Emergency Overnighter

Headed over Ship Pass and spent the night up near the north side of Bird Ridge Overlook Peak. This will be a photo essay. enjoy.

 

  

When touring in the Chugash.. one must select the proper skis...

 

  

These next few are for Gnat.. who request time exposures this weekend. These are 15-40 seconds.

  

 

  

Weather rolled in as forecasted - woke up to wind and snow.

 

  

Back up to Ship Pass..

 

  

  

pretty windy now..

back to town.

lots of this:

with a decent helping of this...

Been really enjoying short jaunts up in the front range this winter. The night above's 35 minute rager descent of near point has had me sore for days. Good sore though. Its never too early to get into summer time mountain shape right?