Words By: Andy Cochrane
After months of scheming, Mallory Duncan and I flew north to Sitka, Alaska, to board an Open 60 sailboat named DOGBARK! along with its captain, Graeme. We spent our first day in the small port town filling shopping carts with provisions at the local grocery store, then carefully loading all our gear below deck, making for a complicated game of tetris. The next morning we set sail towards our first objective, a volcano across the sound called Mount Edgecumbe, and hours later were standing on the summit, looking into its small caldera.
Our goal, over the next 10 days, was to circumnavigate Barnoff Island, anchoring in different inlets and bays along the way to ski corn thousands of feet above. This meant, at times, bushwacking for hours through dense Alaskan temperate forests, following animal trails up steep ravines before finally reaching snow. Without beta from past groups or well established ski lines in the area, we were on our own, making it up as we went. There's a joy in this type of adventure, one that often comes with large ups and downs along the way.
In the end, we successfully sailed around the island, skiing in a handful of spots while taking breaks at Barnoff Warm Springs and Goddard Hot Springs for mid-trip recovery. The wilderness in Alaska is rugged and wild, which slowed our travel and kept us from skiing as much as we would have liked, but perhaps that is the best lesson of all. Mother Nature is more powerful than any of us and it'll be a sad day if that ever rings untrue.
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