FLY BY Sweat Equity in Sou east Alaska This is what doing drone stuff looks like: We reach treeline about 7 a.m. and find six inches of fresh. Moving freely up a broad ridge, it turns into a foot. Soon we’re nearing glaciated terrain in an iconic zone that was until recently reserved for heli crews, busting through two feet of blower. The forecast says clouds are coming in the afternoon. Ryland, Adam and Chris set out to break trail up the backside of the zone, another high-output en-deavor, getting the highway in so they can triple up to their lines. Another 15 minutes of bootpacking and they’re on it by 8 a.m., just as the thumping of rotors floats up the valley. Ryland puts up the drone—Chris drops first. They trade off filming duties and Ryland puts in his own tracks, then Adam, and repeat. As the heli laps an adjacent zone, we’ve got this one to ourselves, and by the time the clouds roll in, each rider has stacked three lines. Not bad for a morning’s work in the Chilkat, heli or not. They’ll offer me the option of my own camera-free line, but I’ll decline this time with weather incoming—that can wait for tomorrow, which is supposed to be clear all day. That’s all part of the program too. As Ryland says, “We’re all out here work-ing together, and I’m just as fired up nowadays to get my friends a lap as I am to get one in myself—it’s not that ego-driven race to the goods like when you’re filming a part out of a heli. We’re all working together, having fun filming each other, and getting what we can. It’s nice that way.” That’s not to say they don’t jump in a heli when they can. They just choose their moments. This year, that happened in late April. What had been a thin snow year turned fat with a two-week storm. Most of the itinerant folks had left town by then, me included. Graciously, it all lined up for the locals. Lucas Merle, a featured rider in The Outliers and guide for Haines-based heliboarding op-eration Southeast Alaska Backcountry Adventures (SEABA), had been compiling a hit list all spring. Then came deep stable snow, sunshine and room in the bird for a local crew. Rainery, Ryland, Galvin and Merle jumped at the opportunity. 036 THE SNOWBOARDER’S JOURNAL
The Snowboarder's Journal The Snowboarder's Journal 21.4: Page 36
