Tincan Proper and the Library

1/29/25

After rain battered Anchorage for weeks and snow caked the Chugach at upper elevations for 3 weeks, the storm finally showed signs of breaking up. Along with blue skies in the forecast, stable snow was found across the Turnagain zone. While the lighting and snow conditions lined up well, the temperature looked like it was going to be the crux of our day with the high forecasted for -5 fahrenheit at the road in the pass. Knowing this, Jordan, Raven, Truman, and I packed our heaviest puffy layers and met in Girdwood to take the early morning drive into the pass together.

We reached the Tincan parking lot before the sun rose and were pleased to find no other cars in the lot. We put our boots on in the car to enjoy the last bits of artificial heat for some time. With our down layers properly preheated, we took our first steps into the cold. Luckily, down low there was no wind which helped stave off the 90% humidity that was trying its best to steal any heat remaining in the loft of our down. From the moment we stepped out of the car, we began moving, ever aware of the consequences of stopping and cooling off. 

We followed the skinner to the top of Tincan, only stopping to adjust layers in order to prevent any buildup of sweat while maintaining enough heat to keep our bodies comfortable and functioning at the level we needed to ski the lines we were looking at: Tincan Proper and the Library. As we broke through the last of the trees and headed up the ridge of Common Bowl, we started to feel the mountain-top winds building. With each gust, the winds would strip away any bits of warmth buried within our layers and all we could do to fit it was continue onwards, trying to outpace the cold by keeping our bodies moving. 

As we reached the top of Common Bowl, we transitioned to our verts. As we were transitioning it became apparent that the winds were going to make retaining any body heat a real challenge. As we began verting up the corniced ridge towards the summit of Tincan Proper, I realized how much heat was leaking out of my boots without my skis on. As we came near the top of our line, I announced the decision that I would be bailing back to the car after our first lap due to fear of frostbitten toes. Everyone else in the group supported my decision, but planned on pushing further for a couple laps in the library after we skied Proper. 

At the top of Proper, we all chose our lines and transitioned as hastily as we could in order to keep from shivering before dropping into our lines. I put on my biggest puffy as I watched my three partners drop in front of me, and soon enough it was my turn. I traversed through a steep gully that I planned on dumping the sluff off my right footers into and found my way onto my spine. While I had a good place to dump sluff on my right, my left side was less protected. The upper part of the run was slightly variable with largely high quality blower and spots of wind affected snow. At the top of my run I popped a small wind slab on my left side and watched it build speed until it caught up to me and whizzed past me. With this in mind, I picked up speed to stay ahead of any sluff until I reached an island of safety beneath me. I found a pleasant rhythm connecting hip dragging powder turns on the steep terrain until a glide crack forced me to break my rhythm and point my skis downhill to help me gap the crack. A few turns under the crack led me to an island of safety where I let my sluff run past me on either side. While Jordan skied to the valley floor, Raven and Truman were also stopped at similar spots waiting to drop into the lower spines. 

After those two took off down their respective lines, I traversed over to the most pillow filled spine I could find. I enjoyed more turns on soft snow with a few small drops on my way down. At the bottom of the exit spine I blindly went off the final pillow and found an uphill landing waiting for me. I got a nice taste of my knees as I landed the drop, but all things considered I was thrilled with the line I had just scored. I skied the runout beneath the spines to meet up with the rest of the crew who were all transitioning. 

I was not shocked to hear that everyone else in the group had decided to call the day early in hopes of preserving their toes for another day. I joined them in transitioning, and we quickly made our way up the south face of Tincan and geared up for a fun lap through the trees. As we prepared to ski, we found that the snow was about as deep and rightside up as it comes–a delight to any snowsports athlete. 

We pointed our skis and snowboards downhill, and took our turns seeing if anyone could find the bottom of the soft snow. To none of our surprise, we came nowhere close to finding anything but perfect powder. Delightful turns led us all the way to the car where temperatures were more bearable and the smell of gasoline ensured we were going to make it home with all our digits. After appreciating our quiet day on Tincan, we loaded up and made the drive back to town where we checked the weather stations to find -15 degree fahrenheit temperatures at ridgetop which when compiled with 90% humidity made for one of the coldest days out I’ve experienced.

11/11/2026

After a few days of evaluating the snow from a storm at the beginning of the month, Tony and I felt ready to step it up into steeper terrain. We had a combined six days of skiing the storm snow between the two of us, and the biggest red flags we witnessed were a few small and isolated wind slabs near ridges. With this information, we made a plan to head back to the library to see if any of the spines had enough snow to ski. To get there, we would ski Tincan Proper before heading up the valley to the steeper skiing. We made quick work to the top of Hippie Bowl where we switched to ascent plates and began following the elusive Tincan goats’ trail along the ridge. After a short boot, we were able to skin all the way to the top of the main spine down from Proper which we intended to ride.

Tony skied first in beautiful fashion; a few cuts on the top didn’t result in any moving snow which encouraged him to set his skis down the fall line and make large GS turns down the upper half of the spine. About halfway down, he pulled over onto another spine where he could watch me tackle the upper half of the descent. I followed with confidence after watching Tony slay the line with so much aggression. The snow was all you could ask for: soft, deep, and stable. After 1000 feet of steep, delightful skiing I stopped near Tony and encouraged him to enjoy the rest of his run. He took off and didn’t stop until reaching the valley. I set off after he came to a stop; taking a different spine than him to find untouched snow. Unfortunately, my run did not end with as much grace due to getting cliffed out. I put my skis on my back and donned my whippet to help me climb the 15 vertical feet it took to reach a place that I could ski around the cliff. After the brief detour, I skied down to Tony where we put our skins on our skis and began heading towards the Library.

We walked and walked, seeing many spines with sparse snow and exposed rocks. Plenty of those that had enough snow to ski had large glide cracks or scary cornices guarding them from a safe descent. Eventually as we began to near Kickstep, we saw a panel that checked all the boxes we needed to give it an attempt. We skinned as far as we could before switching over to plates. Soon into our boot, we found ourselves stemmed out with front points scratching rock in order to navigate over a 3 foot wide glide crack spanning the entirety of the panel we were climbing. After making the exciting move and stepping off of the sagging panel of snow, we felt more comfortable; however, this wouldn’t last long. We continued to make progress and quickly gained visibility of a large cornice hiding in the details of the ridge that we could not see from below. With this in the back of our heads, we hurried to the top of the ridge, the only truly safe place on the wall. 

As we discussed our entry into our line, we both were sure to take in the views of the Eddies Spines, Kickstep, and the upper reaches of Tincan and Lyon creeks. We both made a few steep turns and found a good launching point for the rest of the line. From here, Tony offered the line to me since he skied first on Proper. I did not argue, and took off charging down the face before checking my speed. I continued with a good rhythm but soon saw cracks shooting around me. Knowing I had just popped off a small slab, I made an attempt to ski towards safety but it was too late. I felt the snow begin to take me off my feet and with no hopes of skiing out of it, I quickly fell to my side and dug my whippet into the snow searching for the bed surface through the avalanching slab. Luckily, the slab was not too deep and I was able to arrest through it to bring myself to a stop in the middle of the path, only getting carried 50-100 feet. In the slide, I dropped a pole which led to my second mid-descent bootpack of the day. As I climbed through the shallow debris, I took notes on the avalanche. After recovering my pole, I timidly skied the remainder of the face before waving Tony along. Tony followed me, sure to stay high on the spines to avoid getting caught in anything similar. He made it down without incident and at the bottom we collected ourselves and began making our way back to the car feeling lucky to have made it down without a scratch.

The walk back provided ample time to debrief the situation and talk about what we could learn from the day. Two times throughout the day I came off the high point of the spines, and both times I found myself hiking back uphill. When skiing such steep terrain, remaining on the spines provides some protection from moving snow; it also helps keep options open when reaching a decision point. The other takeaway was that regardless of how stability seems, when venturing into as steep of terrain that the Tincan ridge offers, you never know what micro-features you may find in the snow. After days of skiing the surrounding terrain including a lap down similar terrain to start the day, we were surprised to find the problem we did, but on such complex terrain you must be aware that small pockets of unstable snow could always exist and only require the weight of a skier to release.