Sledless Sledding

A week or so ago, I had just gotten up out of bed to find sunshine streaming through our windows. The day was already lovely, and we had a morning of practicing out in the sun to look forward to. Quinn and I were just sitting down to eat some cereal, when he got a phone call. Paul and Abigail had went for an early hike up Eaglecrest not long before, and they had run into a friend of theirs...

The whole ski area (normally very quiet during the summer months) seemed a buzz with people! Upon asking, Paul and Abby learned that Lands End, the clothing line, was doing it's winter photo shoot up on top of the mountain! 

Long story short, someone was not feeling well. No one from the Lands End party could be spared to go all the way into town to get medicine, and so Paul called Quinn asking if he could run up some cold medicine from the house to help someone out for a free ride up the mountain on the chair lift!

Well of course Quinn and I both jumped at the chance to ride up the chair lift during the summer (something that is very unheard of!), so we quickly got the medicine and up the mountain we drove!

After a short wait (and a very thankful man who was NOT feeling well) we were on the chair lift and whisked away! Not being a skier, I had never rode the chair lift - in summer or winter - but Quinn and Abigail had never heard of anyone ever being able to go up it during the summer. It was a real treat!

Quinn had a lot of fun pointing out all his favorite ski spots to me. He couldn't believe how different the mountain looked with hardly any snow on it!

Once up at the top, the view was beautiful, and the lodge was packed full of models, makeup and hair stylists, and racks and rows of clothes and shoes for the photo shoot. We had a lot of fun hanging around and watching the photographers take photos. We didn't want to be in their way though, and since Paul and Abby had wanted to HIKE the mountain (and hadn't yet) we hiked a bit farther from the chair lift to the very tip top - where two summers ago we filmed parts of our Alaska Odyssey DVD. 

Abigail wasn't satisfied with the hike though. 

The snow was soft from the warm sunshine, and the slopes were steep. 

She wanted to go sledding!

Well. We hadn't exactly planned ahead. 

No sleds were to be found, but we made do:

As you can see, we had lots of fun.

Our pants and shorts were totally soaked through and freezing cold, but thankfully the warm sun on our backs helped warm us up on the hike back down the mountain.

It was certainly a day and an experience we wont be forgetting anytime soon. And we look forward to seeing our beloved Eaglecrest in the winter catalog of Lands End!

Our Guide to Juneau - Eaglecrest

We're doing a short little series on our favorite places here in Juneau! So many times up at the tram, we are asked where the locals go, or where the prettiest spots are. 

Well, here are your questions answered! Our favorite places to go to, and the places we think you've just gotta see while you're here!

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As many of you know, this last winter wasn't really a winter by Juneau standards. There was hardly any snow, which greatly affected our local and much loved ski area, Eaglecrest. 

Quinn and Abigail both had gotten season passes, sadly they didn't get to use them.


But Eaglecrest is a wonderful place to go all year-round! Although the skiing and snowboarding draws many people in the winter, the rest of the year locals come from all over Juneau to hike and enjoy the lovely scenery.

A few days ago Quinn and I decided to hike up the mountains with our friend Jacob.

Jacob and Quinn have been friends for probably forever, and they shared stories with me as we hiked about all the trouble they got into as children (and teenagers) on and off the slopes of Eaglecrest.

The sun was shining beautifully, making our hike even more enjoyable. The trail to climb up into the mountains is actually more of an access road for the ski area, so that vehicles can get up to the top to work on the buildings and ski lifts.

Two summers ago we got permission to drive our own big truck up the mountains, but that was for our Alaska Odyssey show movie! 


We may have wished part way up that we could have taken the truck...but where would the fun be in that?

At one of the first ski lifts we passed, the boys decided to show off their strength by climbing around. 

It's easy to tell that these two are best friends, isn't it?

The higher we climbed, 
the more snow we saw. 

Because of the warm winter we had, snow was much higher on the mountains than it was supposed to be. Quinn even said that had the winter been normal, we wouldn't have been able to hike at all, there would have been too much snow. 

At first the snow wasn't that bad...

But it quickly got quite deep, and soon we were a line of hikers, trying not to fall over in the thick snow.

The day was warm, and Quinn had worn shorts. 

Yes, he may have regretted it later.

The cold didn't bother us for long though, we grew hot from hiking, and soon the cold mountain breezes blowing from the peaks were welcomed.

We slowly climbed higher and higher, the snow getting deeper and deeper. 

The sun has been forecasted all this next week, so by next weekend a lot of this snow will be melted away (making this hike a lot easier!).

As we got near the top, we could see tracks from desperate skiers who had hiked up to get some skiing in, even though the ski area was long closed.



And when we finally reached the top, it was hard to believe how much snow we had been walking on!

(It was also a bit hard to get down)

The views were stunning, and well worth the hard hike through the snow:

At the top we rested and soaked up the sunshine.

Jacob also did some flips off of the ski lift into the snow. Causing him to get pretty cold, and causing us to get colder just watching him!

We built a mini snowman before hiking back down, but we hoped to have a bit more fun...

We had brought trash bags for sledding!


The plan was for us to just sled all the way back down the mountain, but unfortunately the snow wasn't soft enough (the sun had set, causing the top layer of snow to harden into ice). That didn't stop us from trying though!

Well...maybe next time.

We had a great time hiking, and (when there's a bit more snow melted) we hope any of you who are coming to Juneau will put this hike on your list of things to do. The views are amazing, and the trail (though steep) is easy and well maintained. We'll be doing this trail again very soon, maybe we'll see some of you along the way!