It’s easy for ose of us in a low tax bracket to fall into BACKGROUND An incoming storm peels powder off the Haines alpine—the beginning of the end of 2022’s heliski season. Photo: Colin Wiseman CLOCKWISE FROM TOP 35 Mile Lodge as seen from above. A modest-yet-functional abode equipped for good times. Photo: Colin Wiseman One of the 35 Mile dogs bred with a mys-tery canine over the winter. The resulting litter was recently confirmed as part wolf. Mystery solved. Photo: Colin Wiseman TK Kromer gets a haircut in the kitchen of the 35 Mile A-frame before his return to the lower 48. Kaylin Carvey with the sharp scissors, Kyle Scott supervising, sort of. Photo: Colin Wiseman SO, ON A DRIZZLY EARLY APRIL DAY —April 8 to be exact—we find ourselves in a dual-prop 12-seater aircraft buzzing up the Lynn Canal. Approaching Haines, the Chilkat River cuts through ribbons of spines built by an influx of moisture off the North Pacific meeting cool Arctic air. Brief glimpses through the clouds are enough to keep me focused on the terrain more than the airborne speedbumps of an outgoing weather system. Upon landing, we stuff board bags and camera gear atop assorted power tools and discarded Red Bull cans in a weathered blue Chrysler Town & Country that waits at the airport parking lot, keys cleverly stashed in a location I shall not disclose. It’s got studded snow tires and doors that don’t close properly. Blair takes the wheel and points us up-river to 35 Mile Lodge Heliport and the Alaska Heliskiing camp. Haines has its own character that stands apart from more easily ac-cessed heli-famous locales like Val-dez and Girdwood. It’s a little rougher around the edges, but homier, at least for me. They’re all their own thing—none better nor worse, more a matter of taste. In Haines, SeanDog’s spot fits right in. Two bright red A-Star helicopters sit in front of a converted school bus with a stovepipe sticking out its roof. A hand-built, three-story A-frame, still under construction, fronts a mellow hillside. To its right sits a snowboard-plastered shed that functions as the guide’s hut, and, to the left, there’s a mellow groomer cut through the trees with a few little jibs built out of fishing flotsam. Powdah Mountain, they call it. Sean bought this property about 18 years ago “after a very good fish-ing season,” he says. It wasn’t until the past few years that they started build-ing their on-hill accoms, which are rustic but functional. The 4,500-square-foot A-frame is built (and is still being finished) from wood cut and milled on the property. There’s a kitchen and communal gathering space below and a few bunk rooms up top, supplemented by heated tents, which sit both on the decks and up the hill next to the garden. We’re greeted by familiar faces: Baker folk Zoë Vernon, Todd Kelly Kromer, Kyle Scott and Erik Gronvold have been camped out for weeks, waiting for weather windows and the occasional bump into the moun-tains. This is Zoë and TK’s second year at the extended-stay 35 Mile. Last year, after the heli season ended, Sean hired the pair for some postseason production work on an Alaskan reality show. Something to do with gold mining. It helped them pay their heli bills and encouraged a repeat visit. Shawn Freyer, another Baker local, helps us pack our luggage onto a skid and tow it from the parking lot to the A-frame. He’s a carpenter by trade and has been putting in work on the property while he studies to be a guide. It’s a familial vibe that goes well beyond the highbrow pre-tense of a typical heliski operation. It’s easy for those of us in a lower tax bracket to fall into the fold. It helps that all-inclusive A-frame accoms are quite affordable—cheap enough that one can wait out the notorious Alaskan weather holds without going hungry, or too deep into debt. Yet we’re not here to linger. We’re here on the promise of incoming high pressure. And, as we settle into 35 Mile, the skies clear. There, across the Chilkat, we can see the mountains in full. There’s snow to the valley and a few gentle rollers, while steep, compact peaks litter the back-ground, catching alpenglow. e fold. 058 THE SNOWBOARDER’S JOURNAL
The Snowboarder's Journal The Snowboarder's Journal 20.3: Page 58
