I had first met Points North owner Kevin Quinn at the L.A. ski show in 2002. But Kevin was on the 2011 Antarctic cruise with some of his guides and several of his customers, one of whom Tom Hicks was in my ski group. Kevin also helped Liz out and gave her a powder lesson one afternoon in Antarctica.

Points North has been offering the last week of April after a few years after observing that conditions often remained good after they were done. In 2012 spring arrived in full force the week before mine. This resulted in unstable and/or rain-soaked snow at low elevation. Kevin felt we needed clear weather above 4,000 feet for good skiing and we did not get that for the first 3 days. Sunday and Monday were just cloudy but Tuesday was drizzly at PNH's Orca Lodge, which is at sea level 2 miles outside Cordova.

Wednesday was clear so we finally got out about 10:30AM. We were in the second group. PNH is the largest operation in Alaska with 3 A-Stars usually serving 4 groups of 4 each though there were only 3 groups per heli this week. The Orca Lodge is 10-12 minutes flight time from most of the ski terrain so it takes an hour to get everyone out there. They had not flown for 5 days so we had to assess conditions. There was about 2 inches new snow, but it was dense and had bonded to the old snow so there was almost never a hard subsurface. Intermediate pitches like our first run in Super Bowl skied almost like packed powder groomers much of the time. There was occasional thin zipper crust but it did not impede skiing.

We had our safety drills on Sunday and guide Tom Walker inquired about our skiing. All of us were first time at Points North. Michael and Julia had immigrated from Russia in the late 1980's and now live in the Bay Area and ski mostly at Squaw. Tom and Jeannine were from a rural area in southeast Idaho and had not skied all season due to lack of snow at their local ski area Pebble Creek. Guide Tom said later he had some concerns there but Idaho Tom had ski bummed ~150 days a year when he was in college in Utah and also has a racing background. Jeannine skied well enough but she got tired and went in after 7 runs when the heli had to refuel. If we had a full week Jeannine was scheduled to ski one day and Tom the rest, but after 3 down days PNH took them both out Wednesday. The remaining 4 of us turned out to be quite compatible in how and what we could ski.

Thursday was clear also, but in the morning the remote weather stations reported 30+MPH winds, which are unacceptable for heli landing. Fortunately the winds came down and after noon the first groups went out. We were in the last group and left the lodge at 1PM. This turned out for the best due to snow conditions.

It was logical to start Thursday near where we left off Wednesday, a bit farther up the Cordova Glacier. But the high winds overnight had left some slab and sastrugi.

There's a bergschrund below us, so guide Tom traverses over to where he wants us to start skiing.


The snow was a bit slabby, and also being the first run of the day I'm skiing very defensively here.


The middle of the run was a bench, and here we're looking back up at another group.


There was a steep sheltered pitch at the bottom, no doubt a prime area in powder. But it was low enough that the sun had softened it and it was easy to set off big sluffs. Guide Tom and Michael set off the ones at looker's right here.


Per guide recommendation I went looker's left and found the sluffing more manageable. Points North requires that customers bring a 20-channel Motorola radio. Each ski group is on its own channel and the guide can ski over steep rollovers out of sight and radio instructions back to the group about snow conditions, hazards etc. as in this example.

While the overnight and morning wind had been strong, it had completely stopped by 2PM and by now it was very warm. So yesterday's strategy to look for sheltered powder was not going to work. At this point the helicopters relocated northeast to seek sun-softened corn. Here's a good overview of the north facing terrain dropped into the Cordova Glacier that we had skied yesterday.


We first landed on top of a moderately steep west pitch a bit over 4,000 feet which guide Tom tested and found crusty.


We waited, ate lunch and then slipped down the ridgeline to a more southwest aspect that had softened to corn.


The valley moderated to intermediate pitch but with the same aspect of excellent corn down to about 1,500 feet. The last 500 vertical to the pickup was gloppy.


Our 3rd drop resulted in a slabby sideslip down a longer west face.


Now Tom decided to traverse around to a direct south line into Rollie's, which would deliver perfect corn the rest of the afternoon. We had a short break on our 5th drop and saw the heli landing another group on the next peak south of us.

Cordova's inlet is in the background. Short steep descent from that drop is again slabby.


But there's 2,000 vertical of corn like this below.


Our 6th drop was on a broader landing near another group. Julie is chatting with Ingrid Backstrom here.


Michael is here at at a regroup spot partway down. We started from the flat line of snow at top center.


By this time it was 5:30 and guide Tom thought we might have a shot at JJ's, a long steep pitch in the afternoon sun. The landing was on a tight ridge with this view off the back.


PNH likes to have a set routine for loading and unloading the helicopter. My role as first out and last in was to hold the door open while Tom unloaded the skis and packs. With the heli’s skids on the ridge and nose overhanging I asked, "Where do I hold the door?" I was relieved to hear that we would all get out with Tom holding the door and he would then unload the gear. Here's where we're going.


But first Tom shoveled out a flat landing in case he found that the snowpack was unsafe and we would have to be picked up where we were. Tom traversed out a bit before dropping in.


He skied the upper steep part and then radioed for us to come one at a time. I was first on this one. The upper steepest quarter was smooth, sluffed a little but was great skiing. The second quarter had a more irregular surface which Tom had smoothed out some if you could stay in his line. Shortly after I passed him I saw that a fan of smooth corn had started just to my left. So I moved over there and the rest of the descent was nearly effortless. Per radio instruction I skied down to the flats, a total of 1,900 vertical. Looking back up at my track.


Others coming down. Guide Tom is the middle speck at the end of the rocks to looker's left with Idaho Tom just above him and Julia below in the smooth corn.


Julia setting a corn track next to mine.


This area drained to the same low point as our second run for a total of 3,800 vertical. As before only the bottom 500 was mushy. Our last run was a long but mellow glacier descent. From our landing we can see above us some of the steep Chugach flutes we've all seen in the ski movies.


We went the other way in windbuff at the top.


This transitioned into a somewhat resistant zipper crust, but at the gentle pitch it was manageable with gradual turns. Eventually it turned south where Tom got last pictures of us. I'm here cruising the corn.


We finished skiing at 7PM, 8 runs and 21,900 vertical. Sunset this week was about 9:30PM.