Lotus Flower Tower, Meteorite, The Sphinx and CAB

The phone rings and it’s my friend Christain CAB, Cabanilla! He is one of a kind. I met him in the early days in Valdez. He came to Valdez Heli Ski Guides to get a job and get his foot in the mountains of the Chugach via helicopter. We only had some office work for […]

Bear Bite

I’ve been bitten by quite a few animals in my life. There was the cat in Bangkok, the dog in Peru, the horse in Columbia, the scorpion in Kenya, and my bunny in California; but the best bite story was the bear in Alaska. This story takes place on The Talkeetna River sometime in the […]

Reflections of 2016

My calendar year has been revolving around the heli ski season in Alaska for the past 20 years. In February, I make my migration back to Alaska to prepare for the fast and furious heli ski season. It is a strange addiction, I struggle with on several levels. Skiing has defined me and my life […]

Bringing in The New Year 2017

Tim and I were off to the start of a winter of ice climbing and skiing spurred on by early season guide training with VHSG in Driggs, Idaho in early December. We drove our home on wheels over to Bozeman to catch the end of the Ice Fest and catch up with our friends, Glen […]

March 2016 Valdez Heli Ski Guides

This has been an amazing start! For the past 23 years I have been skiing on Thompson Pass during the months of March and April. It is hard for me to believe that this is year 20 working with Valdez Heli Ski Guides. Of course, I started fueling the helicopters when I was six […]

PATAGONIA 2016

January was a beautiful month in Patagonia and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Media Luna was a great warm up, but I was ready for a more user friendly hiking approach. We opted for Piedra Negra camp. I had spent time here with Janet Bergman Wilkinson 8 years ago. I remember making rock walls back then […]

New Year 2016 Lucky Start

December was pretty tough. (Moods of Patagonia, my last post sums up the first three weeks) After the Poincenot adventure, we left Lago de Tres with our broken tent and wet souls. We had to return for the rest of our gear the following day. We had become quite familiar with this trail […]

Moods of Patagonia: An experience on Poincenot!

After a few weeks of mostly poor weather in the mountains and several camping trips up to Lago De Tres on The Fitz Roy Sendero, Tim and I decided to go up and fetch our cache from the boulders. We had hoped to base out of this camp and climb the stellar […]

El Esfinge. The Sphinx. Peru

On July 30, 2015, Tim and I took an incredible taxi ride up The Paron Valley in The Cordillera Blanca. The road climbed relentlessly up the cliff laden valley. I craned my neck out both windows gaping at the giant cliffs above, and crossed my fingers that we wouldn’t be taken out by rockfall on […]

2015 Ski Dream

El Niño, El Niño … I’m sitting here in Miami, Florida celebrating Thanksgiving with Tim’s family and watching posts of fresh powder skiing all over the Internet. Being an avid skier, I can’t help feeling like I might miss out. We are leaving here directly to Buenos Aires heading to Patagonia for December and January […]