Vera Janssen Alaska experience.

19/05/2011

once again the trip of my life. Words by Vera Janssen.

After sticking to my beloved Whistler Mountain all season, it was time
for me to do some traveling and Alaska was calling my name in April -
so I headed up North to go on what would be the best snowboard trip of
my life! Three weeks in Alaska gave me six feet of powder and 12 days of
perfect bluebird conditions. It was, once again, the trip of a lifetime!

Back in Whistler for only one week, I got blessed with four really fun
backcountry days before heading out to Iceland to do a travel feature
for the new Alterna movie, as well as a magazine story for Snowboard
Canada. Matt Belzile and Craig Beaulieu joined me on this epic trip up
to the 66th parallel, to Iceland's 2nd biggest city Akureyri. For a
week we used the long days (it barely gets dark up there around this
time of the year) to bag shots with beautiful Fjord-backgrounds
(weather-permitting of course, the Atlantic ocean is often foggy). We
went heliing one day with Arctic Heli Skiing and were hiking around
lots!

We also hit up some sick hotsprings in a cave that are formed by the
shift of the tectonic plates - as the continents are pulling apart,
geothermal energy is released and creates volcanic activity and the
amazing sulfur-laden hot water! This amazing experience was topped off
with the sighting of some young Humpback Whales in the Fjord! We sat
down on the grass to watch the whales fish and it felt like the
Humpbacks were putting on a show for us: some big blows from the
airhole, a couple of tailfins like in the movies, and a JUMP OUT OF
THE WATER as teh grand finale before they disappeared into the wide
ocean...

To end the trip, Nikita let us stay at their downtown store/apartment
and had a BBQ at their miniramp for us on our last day! The night
ended up being quite legendary, partying in the light night of
Reykjavik's main street...

Vera Janssen rides the Empire Lara