Alaska’s Chugach Mountains, surrounding the small town of Valdez, have been an extreme-skiing mecca since the 1990s, particularly via helicopter. Boasting massive vertical, incredible snow and some of the burliest lines on the planet, in the preceding decades it has become big mountain skiing’s ultimate proving ground. Dean Cummings of H20 Guides takes us through those early years, documenting what it took to get skiers into the Chugach in the first place.