Alaska is a snow paradise. Resort skiing, Heli-Ski, Snow Cat-skiing, and backcountry trekking. Look here for all the local beta and to find your guide!
These are not thoughts you want to have crashing around inside your skull as you tentatively traverse out across a 4,000-foot elevator shaft of hardpacked snow. But the subconscious whispers were hard to beat back.
Noting the fear in my voice, one of my helicopter mates, John Alfond, of Vail, calmly advised me to be aggressive, then executed a series of solid jump turns, triggering a mini-slide of loose snow before ducking into a "safe" zone below a rock outcropping several hundred feet below.