Putting someone in the landscape

Yesterday I posted a panoramic landscape picture of Heitman lake.  There was no one in the photo and consequently it was sort of boring. Without anyone in there it was also really hard to assess the scale of things in the picture.  The lake did not look very big.  So yesterday I decided to put someone in the photos, and since I generally ski alone - it had to me.  More self timer, ski selfies!

But for these pictures I created a number of pictures to stitch together and used the one with me in it for just one of the frames.  I set the camera to take 3 photos in succession and I was kind of hoping that if I stitched all of them together you would see multiple copies of me skiing away in a rapid fire sequence.  But it was not to be - the panoramic stitching software chose the closest picture of me every time and obliterated my clones from the other frames.  Oh well.

The resulting panoramic pictures are still not all that exciting but I think they are more interesting with someone in them!  Patrick

More Snow and Skiing

Shelly Lake cirque

Some more pretty Kodiak snow pictures and a video from the past week.  They make it look like Kodiak is a winter wonderland when it most definitely is NOT.  Not this winter anyway.  All these places took a lot of work to reach.

The bottom photo is of Heitman Lake and I was really happy to discover it has good XC ski conditions. It is only a half hour hike up from the road, and it only takes a 20 minute drive to get there.  So that is actually pretty convenient!  The top two photos are from Sharatin - I went back up there on Sunday.

I also tried to post a 10 second video of Nora skiing on Sharatin Saturday.  I hope it works.  I seem to remember that in the past videos did not work very well on the blog.  I like the video because you can see the sea behind Nora as she skis down.  It looks like she is skiing above Lake Tahoe or something.  Patrick

The big bowl on Sharatin - that's east side side snow trying to get over the summit to the west side

Heitman Lake - and my beat in 'gerbil' XC ski track

Some more from Sharatin

Sharatin on Saturday was such a spectacular place that I could not stop taking pictures.  I took way too many pictures to put into just one post.  So here is a second post!

It is a little sad that with the warmer climate of the last few years Sharatin is where you now have to go to find the snow conditions that used to be so easily accessible on Pyramid.  I fear that these warm winters might be the new normal.  But the good news is that we still do have Sharatin Mountain and a place to go skiing even during warm winters.

I plan on competing in the Tour of Anchorage ski race.  This despite an alarming lack of training for the 50K race.  On Kodiak there is no snow below about 1400 feet and no suitable frozen lakes near town to train on.  I have had to take my training to the mountaintops, and Sharatin has proved to be a Godsend.  I climbed back up there on Sunday and plan on going up there again today for what may prove to be my last time on snow before the big race.  Patrick

Nora leaves the trees behind!

Dad madly training for the Tour of Anchorage

That's me for scale skate skiing in the big bowl

Maybe a little icy for downhill gear, but perfect for skate skiing!

Nora skis towards the ocean in the far distance - that's Whale Pass

Sharatin with the Cousins

Yesterday Nora and I climbed up into the big bowl on Sharatin Mountain with uncle Dicky and cousin Zeke.  The purpose of the trip was to get in some skiing, but we had to carry all our ski gear a long way up through the trees before we got to the snow.  Zeke and Nora kept on asking how much further it was to the snow and Dicky and I kept on saying, 'almost there'.  Only each time it turned out we were 'liars'. It seemed to take forever to get to where we could put on our skis.

Nora and Zeke were ecstatic when we finally did break through the trees and reach the snow.  And limitless horizons! The view was spectacular.  We put on our skis and basically toured up into the big bowl.  The snow was not very good so we opted not to ski any steep stuff.  I even decided to just tour on my XC skate skis.  I have a race next weekend and REALLY need the time on snow.

The sun was so bright we all had to wear sunglasses and on the car ride home Nora and I discovered that we both had 'warm faces'.  We got sunburns in February!

It was a good time and Nora made plans with Zeke and Dicky to 'definitely go again' later in the spring. And later in the spring the downhill skiing will be much better!

Patrick

Evening Hike

These days the evenings are definitely lasting longer and longer.  Every weekday after helping Nora with her paper route I take the dogs for a walk before dinner.  A couple of weeks ago these hikes generally ended in the dark.  These days the sun is not setting until after I finish my hike.  Friday evening the setting sun lit everything up with a golden light.

I'm a little worried spring is arriving a bit too early.  And yet during my hike I checked the blueberry bushes in the park and found no buds.  And no crocuses, rhubarb, or sprouting garlic in my yard . ... yet.
Patrick

Puzzles

Lately, in the evenings, Stuey and I have been working on puzzles (click here for a link to his blog - he wrote about the puzzles too).  Wednesday night we even finished the above pictured whale in one evening!  Puzzles are mildly addicting.  Once you start working on one it is hard to stop.  And the time just seems to fly away.  Last night after Stuey went to bed I continued to work on another puzzle, and suddenly realized it was 11PM!  Where did the time go?
Patrick

Whale Puzzle when we started

The mom's picture puzzle - Vinalhaven, Maine

President's Day Ski

President's Day is one of my favorite Holidays.  No work and the kids are at School.  I dropped them off at St Mary's at the beginning of the sunrise show, went home and packed up, and then enjoyed the sunrise as I drove to Sharatin Mountain.  The low raking light turned all the mountains pink.

I parked at the trailhead and hiked up through the trees carrying all my gear.  Once on snow I skinned in my downhill gear up to the big bowl.  I was a little worried that I'd get there and it would be all ice, and not suitable for skate skiing.  And, indeed, it did not look good as I skinned up the mountain.  It was all ice.  But when I did reach the big bowl I found that it was just soft enough on top for good skate skiing.

And then the light broke through and it was perfect.  I ripped all around the bowl on my skate skis.  It is an amazingly big place.  The dark clouds stayed in place to the West over Afognak Island and provided a dramatic backdrop.  I cross country skied for almost an hour and a half and then it was time to go home.

Going home was quick because I downhill skied to the bottom of the snow and just had a short hike through the trees to the car.  And then the drive home to pick up the kids from St Mary's.  Patrick

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