Hatcher Pass

Last weekend I got to ski in some deep powder.  I spent a couple of days at Hatcher Pass and it was snowing the entire time I was there.  Absolutely beautiful place.  I loved that you could XC ski and explore an old Gold mine.  You could look in the windows and see bottles on the table just like it had been abandoned yesterday.  I gather the gold is still getting mined but just from a different access point. The abandoned part was built between 1906 and 1950 something.

I could not help comparing what I saw with the diamond mine where I worked when I lived in South Africa.  That mine also dated to the same time period but operated on a MUCH larger scale, and had a great big open pit (click here for old post).  I wondered if the differences had to do with the labor used to mine the ore (cheaper in South Africa) or to do with the richness of the pay dirt (probably richer per pound at Hatcher Pass).  Clearly mining is done differently in the 2 countries.

The deep powder was nice to ski in but it was a workout.  I did do some classic skiing but since the Tour of Anchorage is a skate ski race I also did some ungroomed skate skiing in deep powder.  Good training!   Patrick