Tincan Proper Ski

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.