Hi, I'm from Alaska

[firebanex]

Long time lurker of mostly the gear section on here. Born and raised in Fairbanks, Alaska. My parents stuck me on skis at age 3 in the driveway of our home and I've been skiing for the 28 years since. I was a race kid till I was 16 and finally realized that I really wasn't good at racing and joined the Ski Patrol instead. I'm working on my 15th year of volunteer patrolling and was elected Patrol Director 2 seasons ago. I've been patrolling for so long that it is difficult to adapt to skiing without a backpack full of stuff on my back or not watch every single person on the mountain in case something were to happen to them.

I spend 99% of my weekend ski time patrolling at Moose Mountain Ski Resort (resort is used pretty fast and loose..) we have the most unique lift in the country that I'm aware of. We use big yellow school buses as our lift, 40 people at a time every 10 minutes or when the bus is full. Skis are put in racks on the side of the bus and snowboards come inside. It's a system that has been working well since 1992. Our area is pretty big but doesn't have the population to support the cost of a proper chairlift and that chairlift would be slower than the current 10 minute WARM bus ride to the top. If your bored check out #shredthemoose on instagram or www.shredthemoose.com.

I'm really into gear and I currently have 8 pairs of skis in the house and another on order, only 2 of those pair belong to my wife. My addiction to gear is primarily what brings me to pugski, as does the lack of whatever makes TGR such a toxic place. Since I like bragging about my gears.. here is a list!

NSP edition 17/18Black Diamond Boundary Pro 107 184cm
Nordica 15/16 Enforcer 100 185cm
Head 17/18 SuperShape iTitan 177cm
Icelantic Pioneer 109 Ski Patrol Edition 190cm (On order, to be delivered in October)
RAMP Bigbambooskis 179cm (no binding)
RAMP Kumoniwannaskiya 179cm (no binding)
Lange XT 130's
Salomon MTN s/lab

--The Wife's skis--
Nordica Santa Anna 93
J-Skis Whipit (the unicorn ones!)
RAMP Groundhogs (no binding)

The Ramp skis are retired and are going to become wall art when I get time for it. Everything else gets used as conditions demand.

I'll leave you with a gopro PoV video of one of my fav runs of this last season. It's a run called B-Line and 2 Trees, skied it with about 12inches of fresh dry powder about an hour after opening, first tracks all day that day

 

[Philpug]

Welcome, I just had the great opportunity to spend a couple of days with Roger Evans at the Ski & Snowboard Hall of Fame ceremonies in Squaw Valley.

 

[newboots]

Welcome! What a beautiful ski area!

I wanna ride up on a warm school bus!

 

[Bad Bob]

Welcome!

Is Moose Mountain up off of Chenna Ridge? In the dark ages I skied Cleary Summit for a season, this looks farther south, much better location.

Out of curiosity, is there still a ski shop in Fairbanks?

 

[socalgal]

welcome What a great "getting to know you" post!

 

[firebanex]

Welcome, I just had the great opportunity to spend a couple of days with Roger Evans at the Ski & Snowboard Hall of Fame ceremonies in Squaw Valley.

He's an interesting guy, has/had a golf course in town and a ski area plus I think he was actually kinda a big deal back in the day for skiing (way before I was even born) I don't know his history that well but there is a picture of him in the base lodge doing a backflip with fighter jets flying above him. If that is any indication of his history anyways.

I learned to ski at Cleary Summit but moved over to moose in 92 (I was 5) cause my parents started the ski patrol at Moose. Moose is pretty much on the opposite side of Fairbanks from Cleary and Skiland. We are in the western side of the Goldstream valley about 15 minutes northwest out Fairbanks. We get more snow, more sun, and less wind than the other areas.

Fairbanks doesn't have a dedicated ski shop anymore, but local outdoor store Beaver Sports has been providing ski gear since at least 1990ish and REI opened it's doors about 2 years ago. We've got a thriving used sports gear store and two pretty big swaps each fall. Anchorage and girdwood have dedicated shops, the boot fitter I use is based out Girdwood at Powderhound ski shop.

Thanks for the welcomes,I'm glad to have finally hit the join button.

 

[Philpug]

I think he was actually kinda a big deal back in the day for skiing (way before I was even born) I don't know his history that well but there is a picture of him in the base lodge doing a backflip with fighter jets flying above him. If that is any indication of his history anyways.

Yeah, you could say that.

 

[Jim Kenney]

You had me 5 seconds into your video with that hand printed trail sign! That run featured my kind of tree spacing - wide

 

[firebanex]

You had me 5 seconds into your video with that hand printed trail sign! That run featured my kind of tree spacing - wide

When we Moose first opened we had real signs. Then expansion of the number of runs and time took most of them away, the majority of the signs are now old white rental snowboards cut in half and hand painted with the names! I quite like that section of the mountain, its got 5 named runs/zones and quite a bit of space to ski whatever you like once the snow covers all the brush and rocks.

 

[va_deb]

Welcome! You’ve found the right place for gear head heaven, and more.

 

[PisteOff]

Welcome to PugSki. Great post!