Fairbanks

Here in Fairbanks it is currently -31 degrees Fahrenheit.  That's pretty cold!

I am here for the Alaska Anthropological Association Meeting, and today at 9:40 I give my presentation about fish traps.  Later on today I present my poster on the Karluk Lake Excavation from last summer.  But the lecture has me more nervous.  For the poster I just stand there and answer questions while for the talk I have to wing it and pray.  I am up early to practice my talk.

I love Fairbanks.  Every afternoon I have been skipping out for a quick cross country ski at Birch Hill.  Birch hill is aptly named and the low-raking light through the trees and shadows on white snow is hard to describe.  The first day I went skate skiing on the 'White Bear' loop but at 2 degrees (positive!) the snow was pretty slow.  So yesterday I did the same loop on classic gear and I made it around in 45 minutes which is faster than I did it on skate skis!

I can't wait till this afternoon and I am skiing with the talk presentation behind me!
Patrick

Intertidal Fish Trap Talk

In just a few minutes I leave the house to drive to the airport and jet on off to the Alaska Anthropological Association meetings in Fairbanks.  The meetings are a semi annual March event and this year I will be giving a talk all about the intertidal fish traps and petroglyphs that we documented last Spring.  It is my chance to impress my colleagues and to get feedback.

I love attending the meetings - I liken it to a high school reunion.  I hang out with all these people I have been seeing at the same meetings for almost 30 years.  I pretty much do not see them for the rest of the year.  I also generally learn a lot.  I can't wait to get there!

Here are a few of the slides from my talk.
Patrick

Mist & Ice

We lost our powder on Monday, but we haven't lost all that much snow.  It has continued to rain and snow with temperatures below freezing at night and in the upper 30s by day.  The powder has just transformed into something else - it has gotten quite a bit icier.  My driveway is, once again, an ice rink.

I've been doing Stuey's paper route while he is on vacation, and, believe it or not, but my driveway is just about average.  Er maybe a little worse than average, but certainly not the worst.

The lack of powder means the classic cross country and downhill skiing is not all that good.  There is still some soft snow around, but on high it is mostly windblown ice.  But the crusty conditions does mean that the skate skiing is fantastic.  You can skate anywhere on top of the crust.

I made a 30 second video of my cross country ski from Tuesday - linked below and I also tried pasting it below into the post like a normal picture (but this does not always work).  click here for link to the You tube video or go here:
https://youtu.be/D8yTaeVQAoM
The video is much higher resolution on Youtube

Anyway the skate skiing was spectacular with transformed snow on top of a hard crust.  I bombed through the trees and up and down hills.  It is like ice skating on dry land.  I think I might even prefer it to powder skiing!
Patrick

My driveway - pretty icy!

The award winning icy driveway on Stuey's paper route

View of Upper Buskin while crust cruising

Upper Buskin crust cruising

Pyramid on high is NOT good skiing

Last of the Powder

I seem to have fallen behind a bit on my blog.  It is Thursday morning and a misty and rainy day with temperatures in the upper 30's.  The pictures from this post are from the last Sunday - the last day we had powder.

Philip and I knew that by early afternoon it was supposed to be rain/snowing, and so we went cross country skiing early in the morning.  We skied across Buskin Lake and up the Upper Buskin River.  It was beautiful with a few inches of powder on top of a hard crust.  We followed the tracks of a few otters  who were clearly on a 'joy ride'.  You could see from their tracks in the snow where they slid down hills (see bottom photo), explored under the river ice, and even high marked on the banks.  It does not look like they were looking for food - but just joy riding!

That's just what Philip and were up doing too - and it was the perfect day and conditions for a joy ride in the powder.
Patrick

Otter 'joy ride' tracks - a true otter slide!

Skiing the Trees Part II

It's Monday and it's warm, raining and windy. Ughhhhhh.  It's sort of hard to believe I was skiing the trees on Saturday and it looked like a winter wonderland.  These are Philip's pictures from the trip and they sort of document the trip.

The steep, often brushy climb up.  The snow was so dry my ski skins often slipped.  I was also having problems with my skins falling off.  Philip was on snowshoes and much happier at the start. ... .

Then we got to the top and the skins came off the skis.  I got in some great powder skiing and had to start waiting for Philip to catch up.  I was amazed at just how quickly Philip did move along on the snowshoes.

Later in the trip we did get to some serious brush and repeated creek crossings.  That's when the snowshoes came into their own again.  But later there was a long run to the car at the end.  Philip and I pondered which would be faster - skis or snowshoes - and decided that it was probably a wash.  To go with what you enjoy.  I like skis and he likes snowshoes!

Patrick

Skiing the Trees Part I

Skiing the trees!

Yesterday I skied powder in the trees back behind Mount Monashka for the first time in years.  Philip T and I did a circuit of Mount Monashka - a big long loop.  Philip used snowshoes while I took my downhill gear.  It was beautiful, and both Philip and I were taking pictures, so I will have to do 2 blog posts.  I'll post my pictures (all except the top one obviously) first and then Philip's in the next post.

This year most of Kodiak's storms have been colder westerly storms.  That's why there is snow at sea level and not very much snow on high.  The wet easterlies off the Gulf go Alaska are when we get the heavy dumps on high.  But westerly storms from the Northwest and off the Mainland also make for 'ocean effect' snow on the North end of the Island.  And this is why we found so much snow in the trees around Mount Monashka - including a fresh 8 inches of very light 'ocean effect' powder.

Deep powder and trees is not something that you associate with Kodiak.  Indeed during the ski I felt like I was at Tahoe Lake or something.  I thought the ocean in the distance could resemble Lake Tahoe. I've never been to Lake Tahoe, and as Philip pointed out, 'There are no alders all around Lake Tahoe'.

More to come in the next post. ...

Patrick

View of Monashka Bay and the North Sister as we make our way up Reservoir Ridge

Lots of new fresh powder made for a tough climb

Philip and Mount Monashka - eventually we will circle around to the other side

Topping out on Reservoir Ridge to the West of Mount Monashka - View North

Bowl behind Resevoir Ridge where we found the best skiing

The view down valley to the sea on the North side of Mount Monashka

Hiking home on the old trail on the flats to the east of Mount Monashka

Waterfall Run

Good snow at the 1000 foot elevation on Pyramid

In town this has been one of the best winters in years.  We have had snow on the ground at sea level for a month and a half - and it is snowing right now! But ironically on high we still do not have very much snow.  Checking back at snow pictures from the last few years and comparing to what I saw yesterday I think that above 1500 feet we have the same amount of snow as last year.  And last year top to bottom was a bad snow year.

This year our storms have been dry and all the snow has blown off of the high mountains.  From 1000 on down to sea level it is an epic snow year.  But we have not had any warm, wet rain/snow storms that stick to the mountains on high.  Up high all the rocks are still showing.  Even at the 1500 foot elevation on Pyramid, on the run we call the 'Cornice Run there is no cornice and you can see all the alders.  This run in the old days was called the 'cornice run' for a reason.

That said we do have a lot of snow down low.  And yesterday for the first time in years I skied the waterfall run.  The run starts at around 1500 feet and drops down to the road at 500 feet in elevation. The last few years this has been just a morass of salmonberry and alder that never got covered with snow.  But this year we have the snow to ski the brush - just not much snow in the alpine tundra.

We usually get most of our snow on high in March and April, and I hope we get some this year.  Otherwise in mid May we will lose all our snow very quickly - right to the very top of the mountains.  Normally by late April our mountains are like ice cream cones topped  deep snow on high while down low there is nothing.  I worry that come May there will not be enough snow on high to let the ski season linger into June like it usually does (but did not last year).  Patrick

Not much snow at 2000 feet on Pyramid