Massive Alaska: The Slow Roast Begins

We don’t know who coined the term “slow-roasting” in relation to the ski film industry, but making a journey to Alaska is a sure fire way to understand what it fully means. We flew into Juneau, Alaska’s capital city, a few days ago with the Massive crew and, after seeing a dude wearing a full-on wolf pelt for a jacket, promptly boarded a ferry for a cruise to the heli Mecca of Haines. Four leisurely hours, and a few naps later, we landed at our destination.

Pulling into the Captain’s Choice Motel, our home for the next three and half weeks, it was obvious the slow-roasting was already well in effect for the crews that had been there for a while. We met up with big mountain shredder Dana Flahr. Being a three-week veteran of the 2008 heli-season already, Dana was posted up in his hotel room with all the essentials: speakers to plug the laptop into, nudie mags, and a balance board made out of an old skate deck and section of PVC pipe. Tanner Hall flew into Haines the same day, and with his Alaska trip only hours old had already landed a kickflip onto the pipe. A tournament is planned for later in the week.

With one full day to rest and prepare for the elusive bluebirds, we made our way out to Mile 33 for safety briefings. There’s one highway out of Haines and the chopper operation is run out of the thirty-third mile, hence the name. Alaska Heli Skiing is probably the last roadside, cowboy heli op in Alaska. Basically some shacks in a mud swamp, Mile 33 is littered with dudes, dogs, and enough dank gore-tex to fill a dump truck.  Snowboarding super legend, Tom Burt, rolled up in his truck and hopped out. We are fortunate enough to have Tom along as our guide in Haines. Aside from being a snowboarding pioneer from way back in the day, Tom Burt is probably the best heli guide in Haines, if not Alaska.

Today was our first official day to fly. We piled in the A-Star with Tanner and Dana knowing full well the first run would more than likely be a warm-up with the clouds the way they were. Sure enough, it was pretty socked in up high, but it’s always good to pop your AK cherry and get the jitters out. AK is the real deal. Tanner and Dana found a sick wind lip and made plans to come back to hit it when the light was better. We snaked our way down a long drainage, legs burning, shredding alongside tracks laid down by Tom Burt. Not bad for quick first run in AK.

Keep checking into www.redbullskiing.com for frequent updates from Alaska. Tanner is chomping at the bit, so once the sun pops it’s on!

Check out the photo gallery here!