Bright Sunny Day

 

It was a glorious weekend.  On Friday the storm ended with a dusting of snow at the house and then it was sunny and crisp for both Saturday and Sunday.  Stuey played in basketball games Friday and Saturday night, and Nora and I went downhill skiing on Saturday and Sunday.

There was good powder to be found on the mountain, but the conditions were a little variable.  Things were a bit windblown and it was crusty in places. Still it was kinda hard to beat the sunshine and all the snow on the trees.  Rime frosted all the bushes white.

And starting tonight another storm rolls in.  But I fear this one will be warm and wet.  The rest of the week will be a little blah.  So it is a good thing we got in our sunshine while the getting was good.

Patrick

Deep Snow

 

These are some snow landscapes from yesterday's ski.  It was still snowing.  Up there it basically snowed from Wednesday morning right through Friday evening.  It mostly rained at my house but up there it was all snow - A LOT of snow.  Like almost 3 feet at the mid mountain.  Down lower on the mountain the snow was wetter and more condensed while on high it was drifted and blown away.  So the middle of the mountain is where you wanted to ski.  And it was very deep!

Patrick

Mountain seals

Perry (with snowboard) jumps into the passing lane to get by the SEALS

On Thursday it snowed a lot - like two to three feet of snow on the mountain. The road to the pass is not considered 'essential' by DOT so I was pretty sure it would not be plowed when so many other roads still needed to be cleared.  But when I got to the golf course I was happy to discover that rather than by DOT the road had been plowed by the Navy SEALs.  So rather than starting my ski in the rain at the golf course I got to drive to the pass where it was still snowing hard.  At the pass the Navy SEALs were doing one of their exercises where they climb up the mountain with all their gear and then do some winter camping.

Shortly after I arrived another 'regular' on the mountain Perry showed up with his snowboard.  All the SEALs were stretched out in a long line on the trail ahead of us.  All wearing their white camo and with rifles and radios - the whole kit and caboodle. It was an impressive site.  They all had on heavy packs and were trudging through the deep snow up the mountain.  Perry and I did not have heavy packs so we left the trail and passed the entire SEAL team.  It made me feel young.

Up on high it was a total whiteout but the skiing was good. I went to the top and skied down and ran into the SEALs again.  I was amazed that they were on their way to the top too.  It was a total blizzard up there, but brutal conditions is good training!

Patrick

Views of the Mountain

 

These photos are all from earlier in the week.  Sunday's storm was warm and wet and afterwards it froze.  So it got pretty icy down low.  But overall it was a good storm because we finally got some snow that stuck high on the mountain..

I went skate skiing above the ski chalet across the valley from Pyramid.  It was too bumpy and icy for good crust cruising, but I've always loved the view from over there of Pyramid.  It was also my first time skiing on that side of the pass this year.  So I took far too many pictures of Pyramid.  

My camera lens was a fixed 41mm so it was hard to catch the whole scene and most of these pictures are panoramics. Funnily enough, I actually think stitched together panoramics from this lens look much better and less warped than if I had used a wide angle lens.  The more zoomed in lens keeps things close, and it looks flatter when you stitch it all together rather than 'fish eyed'.  

Patrick

Huge Spiders

 

Friday night I got gifted 10 HUGE and very much alive tanner crabs.  After the requisite 'put them on the lawn and see what Bode makes of them' - he was intrigued.  It was my turn.  How do I turn a live tanner crab into a meal? I've only cooked 'pre-cooked' and cleaned ones in the past.  

So I learned to hold the crab by the claw and legs on one side - WATCH the pincers! - and rip the shell off the top with the other hand. This is tough to do.  Then I broke the crab in half and knocked it on the bucket to remove the guts.  Then cleaned off the gills and other untoward parts and I was done with one crab.  By the time I cleaned ten crabs my hands hurt!  I later learned you can remove the shell by putting them on their back and prying off the shell with a boot.  I'll try this next time.

Then I used my crab cooker - I've only ever used it in the past to heat the tub water on Afognak - and boiled up a huge pot of seawater.  Mike P came over and had a big steamer.  So we cooked 2/3 of them in the steamer and boiled the rest.  Both took 20 minutes after coming back to a boil.  At that point you are supposed to 'shock' them with cold water (makes them easier to clean) but we did not know this - another trick for next time. We then shucked and picked crab for hours and because we had not rinsed them in cold water at the end they were a little 'sticky' in the shells.  But I noticed that as they cooled they got easier and easier to clean.

I ended up with a lot of crab and ate crab all weekend.  This was not an issue!  Crab salad, crab with rice crackers, bowls of just pure crab.  Mmmmmmmm! I finished all the crab by Monday.

Patrick

Hit? or Miss?

 

When I drive to the pass to ski I never know exactly what I'll find.  Sometimes it is raining in town but I find it is snowing by the time I get to the Golf course and the road is good (top photo).  Sometimes I get to the golf course and the road is a sheet of ice with water on top (immediately below).  I actually carry 3 different types of skis in the car - classic and skate cross country and downhill.  Sometimes if the road is too icy I cross country ski at the golf course - and classic if the snow is deep or the crust soft.  If there is a good crust and I'll skate ski on top.

On Friday it poured, and I knew the road was bad (below is from Friday).  So come Saturday I was thinking I'd cross country ski at the golf.  But it was raining and I really was not happy about it.  Then a friend offered to drive me up to the pass in a truck with chains on it.  I jumped at the opportunity.  Nora came along too.  We did not think it was going to be good skiing though.

So I picked up Nora and we drove to the golf course to meet our ride up to the pass.  And when we got to the golf course we found that the ice had been 'scarified' - scraped by the grader.  It was easy to just drive up to the pass - no chains required.  And once at the pass the clouds cleared off and it stopped raining.  We climbed up the mountain and found spring corn skiing conditions.  It was excellent skiing.  And the sunset was beautiful.

I'll admit it goes the other way too - I drive to the pass expecting powder and find breakable crust or a sheet of ice.  On Kodiak you never really know what you find - so you just got to go! 

Patrick