When the calendar flips to May, many Alaskans' thoughts turn to fishing, hiking, boating and camping. Or, for the terminally dull, spring cleaning.
But Adam Holzer and five of his Anchorage mates in the loose organization called DOOM/love figured it was too early to give up on snowboarding, so they headed to Whittier on a sunny Sunday in May.
One result is a gorgeous two-minute video, as the sun-dappled Passage Canal looms in the background and a half-dozen boarders jump and carve turns down a short course built with their shovels, their sweat, their vision.
Watch the Whittier video
"It's one of our destinations of choice," Holzer said of Whittier. "We do fish out there in the summertime and navigate the waters. There are limitless ideas."
'Gonna get wet'
On this May day, the group -- which included Kolben Saetre (photographer and rider), Ian Chang (rider), Jay Kuzma (rider), and Josh McKennett (rider) -- hiked about two hours into the mountains, starting at a trail head just above Whittier's old abandoned Buckner Building, with only a general idea of where to go as they ascended toward treeline.
"Navigating through that wet sloppy, trashy snow took a while," Holzer said. "The snow was incredibly soft, that springtime corny snow. I don't care how waterproof your boots are, you're gonna get wet.
"Post-hole hiking is how we characterize it."
In about two hours, they'd reached the 2,500-foot level and they started working on a makeshift course with banked turns and jumps against a Prince William Sound backdrop many snowboarders could only imagine. The sequence: build, ride, catch some air, repeat. The result: "Whittier Spring Riding."
DOOM/love is really little more than a group of friends who chase Alaska adventures, often involving snowboarding, and videotape them. First formed by several boarders who attended the Big Easy Snowboard Camp at Alyeska Resort nearly a decade ago, it took shape when the registration form asked for a team name. Chang wrote the name DOOM. After some debate over whether the name was too dark, another member of the group picked up the pen and followed it with "/love". DOOM/love was coined.
As DOOM/love approaches the end of its first decade, "it's diversified to become really a group of friends who enjoy adventures and being good to our bodies," Holzer said. "If it's snowing out, great. If it's raining, great. If it's sunny, great.
"We don't let weather conditions stop us. We live in a beautiful state and we try to always keep that in mind. Too many people get caught up in the hustle and bustle. We wake up and say, 'Hey, what can we do today?'
"We hope to educate people just by doing it. So many bikes sit in people's garages all year long. All it takes is just doing it."
And Whittier is a familiar site. As Holzer said, "Whittier has a history for us."
'Five Floors of Fury'
Perhaps the group's most-popular video, "Five Floors of Fury", follows snowboarders coming down halls and stairwells in the abandoned and decrepit Buckner Building. Two years ago, Matt Wild, Logan Imlach and DOOM/love friends spent nearly a week creating a ski run in the graffiti-covered building.
The video eventually went viral and earned a shout-out from the popular sports website Deadspin.
Wild, who shot "Five Floors of Fury" said the video originated from an idea that he and Imlach hatched. They spent six days creating the line inside Buckner and shooting. The bulk of that time was spent on the many takes required to shoot at the many angles required by the cramped spaces of the Buckner building.
"It looks like a lot more work than it was, because if you've ever been inside the Buckner Building in the wintertime, a lot of snow blows inside," Wild said.
The massive Buckner Building, completed by the U.S. military in 1953, was dubbed "the city under one roof" because in addition to 1,000 apartments, it contained a hospital, bowling alley, theater, gym, swimming pool, and shops for Army personnel. Intended to house most of the city's population when it was finished, it was abandoned by the military more than a decade later after sustaining serious damage in 1964's infamous 9.2-magnitude Good Friday earthquake. The majority of the city's population now resides in the Begich Towers, another large complex.
Contact Mike Campbell at mcampbell(at)alaskadispatch.com