 
Tom Burt is one of the premier big-mountain snowboarders. A Tahoe local by birth, when he is not out there riding the incredible mountain ranges of the world, he can be found ripping it up at Alpine Meadows (where he has earned the title of Snowboard Ambassador). Because of his vast experience and his easy, straightforward manner, his presence is always a comforting reassurance when the limit is being pushed. So he is a welcome member on any crew. He makes everybody feel balanced. Near the end of my visit, I caught up with him heading back from the Helipad.
Keoki: How many years have you been coming up here?
Tom: Since 1989.
Keoki: You've ridden in a number of places around the world. Is this the place the most happening for you?
Tom: Valdez has a unique set-up of mountains, close together with good maritime snow, so there is easy access to a lot of different peaks with a lot of steeps. A lot of other places have bigger distances and cost much more money to fly around.
Keoki: It is my understanding that there is no other ski operation like this in the world ( with this kind of access ( which will allow individuals to come ski this steep stuff. How many first descents did you guys do last week?
Tom: I don't know, I don't count because we're just skiing. There are no real rules, it's definitely wide open. In Alaska, you have to take responsibility for yourself. Although with the whole insurance thing more responsibilities are being put on the guides. A few years ago, there werent any guides here ... there just was no such thing. No one knew any more than anyone else about what could be landed on, and what could be skied. There were a lot of "firsts" all over this place for a wide variety of riders or skiers. Most of these people are still around just because its a fun place to be.
Keoki: How long have people been flying and riding here?
Tom: Since around 1991.
Keoki: Doug Coombs was the first group?
Tom: No, it was some of the local people, and also Scott Schmidt came up and did some stuff up here. The guy who really started all the flying out of the Tsaina lodge on the Pass was Mike Kozad.
Keoki: When it come to gaining access to unparalleled terrain, this place offers so many options! Has it always been this way?
Tom: No, only for the past couple of years. The maximum number of people skiing here used to be about 20, and that was considered crowded. Four or five groups a day was getting crazy at the time, but thats changed. Now, you get four or five groups going out with every heli operation, plus people who get on for the ride who don't ski, plus cat skiing, plus snowmobiles, etc. It's changed a lot in that respect. There's a lot more people who are impacting the area.
Keoki: How has this changed the sport?.
Tom: It hasn't changed the riding any, it just changes the setup It has made it so you can move faster, so you can look for different places to go. It has also made it harder to have access to your own helicopter. So you can move fast and go to the places you want to go without having to take five groups to the same area. When they are dealing with people just heli-skiing, not filming, they move all the groups through the same areas, so it is economical for them. But, it is much too expensive to fly everyone anywhere they want to go. It has become more of an economics issue in flying the helicopters.
Keoki: So everything to do with helicopter access is economically driven.
Tom: Yeah, its expensive no matter how you do it, but you try to minimize the cost as much as possible.
Keoki: Do you feel the type of terrain you guys are accessing and the way it is being skied is changing? Are people stretching the limit?
Tom: I think the riding is "up-stepping" in terms of everyone's general ability. You can get used to the mountains and things like that; but there is a limit to the level of riding that can be pull off, because of what the snow will actually stick to. Most of it is just being comfortable with being on a slope. Then its a matter of being able to successfully put down a run that has the exposure ( when you are in a can't fall situation.
Keoki: How do you define comfortable, and how do you see that definition evolving for yourself?
Tom: Experience always pays off with comfortability. Youll hit bad conditions, good conditions, and mediocre conditions in similar situations ( so you can look at a slope and place yourself there mentally. If it is possible, then you ski it. You go with what you've learned through years and years of experience to make it work ( to not die and still have fun on the run. There is always a chance to die, which we all know and accept when we step out to do our runs. Its a large part of the idea. If people don't know that coming in, they are probably pretty ignorant of the situation, and that it is dangerous.
Keoki: They probably figure it out very quickly. From what I understand, this is a place where people can easily scare themselves.
Tom: I think people scare themselves because they see footage in a movie, a magazine or whatever; they just see someone skiing a line they feel is easily possible or looks really fun. Until you put yourself out there you don't really respect what it really is.
Keoki: When you see the bigger picture, you're not talking about the one little fragment of film that people see ... you're looking at the 360 degrees of up, down and all around ( all the variables of wind, cold, and snow. The chopper takes off, and you are left out there on the mountain alone.
Tom: There's definitely always more to it. People usually come back from
their first trip from here with a lot more respect for what goes on. A lot of people who have seen the movies or magazine photos are not so excited, but once they get into the mountains, they definitely come back with a different attitude about what their limitations and possibilities are. People love this place to play.
Keoki: Its quite a playground, I had my first heli experience yesterday. I didn't start skiing until 8:00 PM at night, and finished at 10:00 PM. I still have visuals of what the light looked like.
Tom: Yeah, the Chugach offer a lot of light. The days are long, you can ski from 6:00 PM until 9:30 PM skiing in good sunlight. You can start riding at 4:00 in the afternoon and still get in enough runs that day to be tired.
Keoki: Where are you going to take this?
Tom: There are always more mountains. There are more mountains on earth than you can visit in a lifetime. Valdez is just one small range and there are hundreds of other ranges throughout this world that havent been ridden yet. One thing about Valdez is that it is so easy to get access to the mountains, but this is a very small part of a big picture. Snowboarding and skiing are breaking new terrain all the time ( that's been happening since its come about. People start heli operations, back country skiing, and resorts, in remote areas and everything starts moving out from there. It is still growing, and we're just part of that growing.
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