Went up to Hatcher with Rob & Sierra today. Of course, after spending time making sure I could properly fasten my snowshoes to my pack, I promptly forgot my snowboard boots, thus making it wholly impossible for me to test my pack out. In the end, this dilemma turned out to be alright, and I was pleasantly surprised at how fun jumping down a mountainside with snowshoes on could be. It was pretty insane, you would just jump through the air and take 4 – 5 ft. leaps down through the fluffy stuff. The picture and short video I’ve posted are from our little avalanche pit we dug at the top.

On the drive up, the snow looked decent enough, but upon ascending the ridge we came across multiple signs of potentially high avalanche danger. Luckily, we were on a pretty low angled slope and could choose better options down. Near the top there was a large slab of wind and sun crust. This didn’t seem too bad until rob saw a propagating crack in the snow pack that started at sierra’s foot and ran about 20 ft. down the slope.

Sierra beginning to dig a pit. Notice the top layer.

Crack of settling snowpack under our weight

Holding a block of slab material

Size reference

This slab equals bad news. We had 3 weeks of frigid conditions with no snow. The snow turned mostly to facets (sugar snow), which would have been great skiing. Then it warmed for a week and wet heavy snow and rain fell on the mountains. This wet snow froze, became windblown and now has sun crust as well. The faceted snow from the cold weather has almost no support capability and acts like balls bearings under the solid slab of frozen snow on top. This leads to high avalanche danger. It was a good day to practice our avanlanche skills, that’s for sure.

Notice the sugar snow falling from the block:

This block from under my feet weighed about 30 pounds.

Rob holding the same piece. Close to 6 solid inches of slab!

Holding a piece of slab in one hand, and a handful of ball bearing like sugar snow in the other.

Sierra & Rob inspecting the chunk

The video shows how the hard layer on top has very bad support from the faceted layer of sugar snow beneath it.

Beauty in the eye of the beholden

The snow is blowing in from the Northeast in drifting white versions of dust devils. The mist of snow is picked up by the cold winter wind and blown clear across the frozen fields of hay, only to land god knows where; in a gully, against a tree, pulverized and sucked of all moisture until it evaporates completely. The sky is a deep gray haze, a blustery winter day if I’ve ever seen one. The winds are howling at around 30 miles per hour, and the blowing snow has increased to blowing snow and precipitation. While the grayness is dreary, it adds a sigh of relief to nature, a return to precipitation and a quick respite from bitter cold and moisture sucking arctic sunlight.

The snow is beautiful, no matter the color of the sky, but what’s even more beautiful is the way a snow drift piles against bails of hay, hiding from the wind behind other snowflakes, building up until the snowflakes make a windblown, semi-wind proof barrier. A cornice of sorts, yet only set behind rolled bails of hay. The deep brown of the hay, lingering through the coldest winter days, has been frosted ever so slightly by a layer of white fluffy snow, resembling confectioner’s sugar coated on top of a tasty cinnamon roll. The whole scene of blowing snow is backdropped by dark, tall and foreboding stands of spruce/hardwood mix forest, the tall trees swaying in the wind like divinely made metronomes swinging to the beat of some distant drum.

It is a beautiful day. God bless!

Copyright Art by Erin 2008

Well, for some reason that I don’t know I decided to give skiing a try today. As a pretty die hard board sports fan, I really hate to admit it but skiing was so much fun. It was more muscle intensive, better balanced on my knees and felt way faster. The technicality was very surprising to me. I will definitely keep snowboarding, but I’d like to try skiing more as well. For the deep powder stuff it’s a snowboard all the way, but for groomers and minimal snow, the skis are killer!! I somehow managed to pull off a few black runs in my first day. Hey, I guess the skis count as boards too right?

The weather was amazing with clear skies, misting crystals of snow and plenty of sunshine to warm up the snow into a buttery pleasantness. I’ll let the pictures do the rest of the story telling!

Girdwood, AK

Rob in the Glacier Bowl

View of Upper mountain from chair 6

Carrie not looking and Sierra making a weird face

Snow or Ice Crystals...either way it looked cool

View from bottom of High Traverse

Top of Chair 6 looking north

Elusive Florida Skunk Ape

To top off the day, on the last run we saw a rainbow rising vertically out of the center of town above a single light cloud dropping snow on the valley. The Rainbow had no arch but shot straight up into the sky. I thought about taking a picture, but figured that a photo would never do something so beautiful any justice…it just never does. Tomorrow back to the daily grind.

Sun and Moon

Well school started this week and again I have been extremely busy juggling with school and working as a substitute teacher. I have a job interview on Monday with AK Fish and Game, so perhaps my days as a sub are numbered…we will see. On another possible high point, Erin and I might get the cottage up by Hatcher Pass that I went to look at. I think I’ll find out some time next week.

While I’m not extremely enthused that I have to spend all day in Anchorage for my rock climbing class, it could be a lot worse. I think the best part of the day occurred on my drive home, about 10 miles outside of Palmer. As you come down from the foothills of the Chugach Mountains, you cross the Knik and Matanuska rivers and then enter an area known as the Palmer Hay Flats. This seems to be some type of tidal estuary or marsh, but most of the time it is not really going through huge tidal changes. Geologists think the land used to be lower, but when the Chugach Terrane ran into the continental shelf of what is now the Talkeetna mountains something like 30 million years ago, the land rose quite a bit, leaving stunted black spruce and meandering creeks in its wake. The area used to flood every spring, but decreasing snowfall since the 1960’s have left less melt water or mountain runoff.

Ok, back to my drive. So these Hay Flats sit at the edge of the Cook Inlet, and looking due south, the horizon is open with no mountains except for the Chugach and Talkeetnas on the sides of the valley. It’s amazing how perfectly these two mountain ranges frame a sunset, which just so happens to occur right in the middle of the valley to the south. All of a sudden I looked left across the hay flats and to my amazement, I saw the most beautiful twilight scene I’ve ever seen in possibly my whole life. The sun had already set leaving the sky a dampened pinkish orange. To the left or southeast side of the valley, a sliver of moon had risen just of the peaks of the Chugach. This sliver of moon had a background of bluish-purple sky melding into the orange and pink in the center of the valley. Rising in uniform parallel formation from the horizon and stacked into infinity were line of cirrus clouds, rising ever higher and only widening with the valley as your eyes gained elevation. It was as if a giant V of clouds was filling up the entire Matsu Valley. These clouds had the background of orange and pink, and as I looked time seemed to stop so that I could sit their, mouth agape, staring at this beautiful display of god’s infinitely great wisdom and choice of location.

Perhaps it’s just the way we as human beings perceive what is beautiful, but I can’t help thinking that this place was created by a higher power. Everything here is in motion, working together, and in a way that it all fits into the scheme of subarctic winter weather cycles, which will eventually give way to summer and high sundogs in the sky, and then again turn into the beautiful harvest moon of September. All of this perpetual motion of nature and change must have been planned, at least at some point by someone or some thing; it’s just all too perfect...and fragile. I only hope it stays that way. I don’t know if I could stand to see what has happened to my beautiful home state happen here.

Thanks a lot Punxatonie Phil

“Dude, it warmed up to 5 degrees, let’s head up to Hatcher!” These are words I never thought I would hear myself say, let alone live out. You see, this morning started out a balmy 20 below, but in all honestly it felt as cold as it did yesterday. They say that once it drops below zero you don’t notice the temperature change, just the effects on your skin. It really wasn’t so bad. Our plans to head to Girdwood for a Superbowl 2 for 1 lift ticket day were quickly heading down the drain. It was going to be cold, windy and there was no new snow. So, instead of heading south to the Gird, I made some rounds around the farm, stopping in for a chat with Steve in the moose cabin and discussing numerous things, then off to say hellos to Kelly and Jonathon who were dog sitting for Steve and Anne Corinne. This quick jaunt hi with everyone turned into a 3 hour morning of delightful conversation among many cups of coffee.

Talkeetnas & Chugach Ranges

All the while the sun was making its perpetual cycle, slowly increasing its brightness and intensity due to the low angle sub arctic latitude. By the time we were ready to even think about heading out, the sun had cleared high above pioneer peak and was heating everything in sight. The thermometer, which happened to be in direct glorious sunlight, jumped quickly to 10 degrees above freezing. Not a temperature for a picnic or a dip in the river, but certainly agreeable for a nice ski or snowboard, albeit with 2 layers, and full facial protection (at least for my face…beardless).

Pioneer Peak over Mat Valley

The thermometer lied a bit, but by the time we got the crew together up at Hatcher, it was a steady 4 or 5 degrees above zero. Carry, Kelly, Jonathon, Sierra, Rob and I ran about 5 or 6 runs at the mile 16 roads runs. It was pretty fun, the left side of lower marmot was pretty tracked up and skied out, but farther to the north there was untouched powder and great trails through low alder and willow thickets. It was a blast and the cold was no big deal at all, especially with the glaring sun to deal with. In fact, I’m almost positive my ears are sunburned from skinning up the triple benches at Murphy road yesterday, and having to remove gloves, hat, jacket and vest due to a serious sweat I worked up. I mean, it was 10 degree and I was hatless and gloveless, I was seriously that warm from the trek.

Anywho, it was a great day, the Pats lost, and Pat Williams won the game for the giants, oops, I mean Eli Manning. Back to work tomorrow subbing at Colony Middle. It’s not so bad, and it’s hilarious to listen to the things the kids say. I'll have some video up tomorrow hopefully, but nothing too great, and perhaps we will have a third night of northern lights, I keep passing out before they shine in all their triumphant neon brightnessThe pictures were taken just before sunset, overlooking the Matanuska River, and as soon as the sun went down, so did the temperature again…it’s going to be a chilly one tonight. BRRRRR!

Moose Range of the Talkeetna Mountains
(Hatcher Pass)

Welcome back to the last frontier!

I’ve made it safely back to the North Country. My flights weren’t too bad, although I did get stuck in front of the exit row where your seat does not recline. I would complain more about this, but I made no concerted effort to move. By the time it started to bother me, we were half way between Seattle and anchorage and I just gave in and slept. The flight was pretty sparsely populated, so it wasn’t all that bad, I just slept on my side.

When we landed I was pleasantly surprised to see a pretty good amount of snow accumulation on the ground in Anchorage, over a foot in some spots. This was not a foot of new snow, but inches piled on top of inches. The difference this time is that it stayed. It wasn’t snowing in the urban metropolis of Anchorage (haha that’s funny) but as soon as we hit Eagle River the snow increased and became steadily thicker as we came closer to the valley. The temperature was about 17 when I landed in Anchorage and 11 when we pulled on to the farm at about 1 in the morning. All in all, considering this is the coldest month I am pleased with the temps I’ve observed.

My roommate had to let me in for lack of key, but she was still awake, therefore I only felt a slight guilt in bothering her. She’s really cool and I think we might head to Alyeska today. I don’t know why, but I really enjoy opening up peoples eyes to the wonder up here. I feel like if I give them a slight push towards all the options, than maybe I can influence them to get out and explore on their own. In the summer time I had minimal guidance in finding and scouting places to head in the outdoors, but I guess I did alright. All I did was get off my butt and head out…into the wild. Well, not really but in a sense of the manner that is what I did. Snow was a little more precarious, so I was really fortunate to have Sierra and Rob give me a heads up on some stuff and I also met a few other people from the mountaineering club that gave me some pointers. That’s what it’s all about, people sharing the desire to be in the outdoors. A tip from a person will only go so far, so I really took it upon myself to explore the option and get dialed in. I’ve learned a ton and I still have so much more to explore.

Perhaps this bug for exploration is what drove Shackleton to tackle the Antarctic, or Hillary to attempt a summit at Everest, or even Magellan to circumnavigate the globe. There’s this strange human instinct to find what’s around the next corner, to always keep going around that next bend. They say that is why people lost in the wilds should stay put, because the constant searching around the next bend just leads you further into the unknown. It’s good to know when to say when. There’s one instance where I’ve explored some of Hatcher with my friend Jonathon, and we began down Reed Lakes Trail and had to turn around. We were 5 miles from the road on cross country skis already, the sun was extremely low on the horizon and all we had for warmth were our fleeces and thermals. We’d left our outer shells back at the car because it was relatively warm (about 25 – 30) and we had no plans to continue past the reed lakes trail head. We carried about 30 ounces of water each and lacked any food to keep the body warm. The trail was calling us and the conditions seemed right for exploration. We headed off the main trail, skimming through low alder and old tracked snow about 1 to 2 ft deep. The trail descended and rose rapidly, and the alpenglow rising rapidly along the mountains in archangel valley meant we needed to make it a quick jaunt. We headed down the trail for a ways and stopped at a step below a massive granite peak. We could see the trail wrapping slowly up the side of the valley and towards the glacier, intermingling among car size boulders and patches of alder, another 5 – 8 miles away. The sun was waning quickly and we therefore decided not to press on, but to wait for another day. This trail leads to an old mine and the reed glacier, so I think I’m going to make it an overnight event. I will update more tomorrow and try and get some pictures up.

The last few days have been filled with a somber happiness.  Erin and I are married now, but as quickly as it happened I now have to head back to Alaska for school.  I'm looking forward to returning to school in Alaska, to hanging out with friends and playing in snow but I can't help but feel a melancholy cloud sink over me.  I'm leaving Erin again, and there's no other way to say it.  It stinks.

This past week has been filled with joy from seeing old faces, sharing old stories and toasting to good times with friends. but every time I forget the good times will end, some one gives me a hug and reminds me that I won't see them for a long time. It's very sobering and definitely puts a downer on any situation.  I can't be mad at anyone though.  I miss everyone so much, but Erin and I can't put the next phase of our lives on hold to hang out in Orlando.  If there's a caveat to these moments, it's knowing that the good times were so good because we all planned to "move on" or "get out of here."  Erin is extremely ready to get out of Orlando, and any thing I try to stay to focused her on finishing school sounds, well, stupid.  I have full confidence that many people will come visit us up in the north country, and vice versa as well. We've just signed up for the Alaska Airlines frequent flier car, so we've excepted the fate of carbon consuming giants. I don't care though, there's nothing as important as family and friends, and not seeing these people is not even an option.

  

On the topic of family and friends, I was extremely touched that so many people came to be part of our wedding, especially those not in our family.  The Scius' from France, Jesse from Washington, Matt Rossen from Boston, Ryan and Kelly, Joe and Kristen and then the dozens of other people who I had not seen in a very long time.  It meant so much to Erin and I to have all these people at the wedding, I almost started tearing up before the ceremony even started. Ok, damn, I lied...I did tear up. All said and done it was a momentous occasion.  Today I have to begin sending packages up to Alaska, the first of many many packages. Our gifts are piled up in the garage and Im sure they've begun to irk Erin's room mates quite a bit.  

Like I said, I'm ready to return, I'm just not ready to leave Erin.  She's slowly increasing the pleads for me not to leave her, not in a serious manner but more of a; You bastard, you're leaving me here in this dump while you go play in the snow type of manner.  It's ok, I accept this guilt trip with smiles and provide hugs.  If only I could just go play in the snow.  As soon as I get back I need to start working and looking for a better job.  Subbing is great but there's only so much a person can stand. 

Oh yeah, I'm bringing back two things that weren't on the wedding list.  I name them and not wedding gifts because I find it rude to single out wedding gifts on this weblog, especially since all of them were so great.  Sig, Erin grandfather had a bolt action, 12 shot magazine 22 rifle.  Lynn gave it to me because she said it was of no use to her or Mike in Vero.  The rifle looked pretty ancient, so we gave it a look on the old internet and found it to be between 30 - 60 years old.  It's a Mossberg 22-S-LR.  A pretty sweet little shooter if you ask me. It's not going to bag me any moose or bear, but it's a great little gun, and very accurate to boot.  Dustin came over with his cleaning kit, and we shined, oiled and polished her right up. She shoots like a beauty and has the weight and barrel length of a larger caliber and more powerful rifle.  The other gift was a fly fishing rod. Spencer handed this down to me for some unknown reason, and literally would not let me say no.  It's good to have great friends, and I only hope I can return the favor some day.  Fly fishing is not easy, but I like it, it's complicated, technical and takes more effort (I.e. it's not as boring as laying a line out there and reeling it in).  I've been practicing the last couple days and I've almost got the cast down, just need to work on a couple of more techniques.  I can't wait to try this stuff out up in AK.  I'm leaving the rod here until May when Erin and I drive up north, so she'll probably dominate the Fly fishing category in our family.