Anchorage Daily News

GIRDWOOD -- Fresh fluffies piled knee-high greeted snow lovers on Thanksgiving eve as the Alyeska Resort in Girdwood kicked off its ski and snowboard season.

Given some of the best-ever opening day conditions a day before a holiday, skiers and snowboarders turned out in force.

A line to get on the Alyeska Tramway started forming at 8 a.m., even though the lift wasn't slated to run for another two and a half hours. By the time Steve Kruse arrived from Eagle River at 9:20 a.m., the line snaked into the corridors of the Hotel Alyeska.

The hour-early arrival "was only good enough for second tram,'' he said, and it was a very packed second tram. Kruse said a wave of skiers and snowboarders literally ejected him when it stopped at the top of the mountain.

"I got extruded,'' the 20-year Alyeska veteran said.

He was shot out into a winter wonderland.

"Second tram was good enough,'' he said. "I got plenty of face shots.''

"Face shots'' come when a skier hits deep, untracked powder snow at speed and it blows up all around him. The snow at Alyeska Wednesday was light enough to kick up as dust in this manner, but heavy enough that once cut up, it took on the consistency of powdered sugar.

For some, that was too much.

At midday, young Steve Sutton of Anchorage was searching for a ski that popped off after he rocketed from groomed trail into cut-up snow that threw him off balance before a patch of uncut powder grabbed his lower legs and slapped him down on his face.

The good thing was that the binding on the ski safely released, so Sutton didn't get hurt. The bad thing was that the ski that came free was buried somewhere under a foot or two of snow.

Sutton and a friend spent a good 15 minutes looking for it before the friend decided to go see if he could borrow a metal detector from the ski patrol to aid in the search.

"It was only my second run of the day,'' Sutton said. "I think I'll stay out of this powder. I should have brought my snowboard.''

Maybe.

Behind him on the hill, Stephen Allen from Peters Creek was thinking just the opposite. A skier on a board for the first time, he'd gone off the groomed trail into deep snow and face planted.

He was having one heck of a time digging out. A friend directed him to release his feet from the binding and crawl back out onto a firmer surface.

Allen wallowed around like a giant salmon in a river of white until he finally found packed snow on which he could stand. Downhill, friend Kevin Sandberg -- who'd talked Allen into the day's misadventure -- could only laugh. Sandberg was on a cell phone chatting with his dad as he waited for his buddy to dig out.

He reported excellent skiing with superb opening-day conditions, but protested that this was not meant to tease the older Sandberg.

"My dad's on his way to a cruise in the Caribbean,'' said Kevin.

Fine as the conditions were at Alyeska, they weren't quite that fine. The sun tried to peek out now and then, but mainly it was hidden in gray clouds and swirling snow. Early on, the light on the slopes was good. But it went flat later in the day, making the skiing more difficult.

Flat light eliminates definition in the terrain. In flat light, it is possible to ski into the side of hill while thinking you're going down a hill. The result is that you stop fast and, usually, face plant. There was a lot of face planting going on given the difficult combination of conditions -- flat light, deep snow and out-of-shape, start-of-the-season skiers.

"I'd like to be in better shape,'' 21-year-old Jeff Requist said as he rode the lift back to the top of the mountain. "I thought all that hiking and cross-country skiing would help. (But) I don't know how many more laps I can take.''

A recent immigrant from Grand Lake, Colo., Requist was living one of those classic Alaska stories.

"I came up for the summer and decided I like it,'' he said. "I've been living out of the back of my truck for four months.''

Now, though, he has a job as a lift operator at Alyeska, a warm place to stay and -- best of all -- the lift ticket that is one of the perks of working at a ski resort.

When you're young, carefree and hooked on skiing or boarding, can it get much better than that?

Find Craig Medred online at adn.com/contact/cmedred or call 257-4588.

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