Powder with Nora

Yesterday I woke up to a perfect day, and yet knew I had to attend an all day meeting.  Even worse it was supposed to be nasty on Sunday.  Then Nora called and REALLY, REALLY wanted to go skiing.  So I decided I'd leave my meeting an hour early.  I felt super guilty about this, but how often is the snow perfect and your daughter wants to go skiing?  This only happens a few times in a lifetime right?

So I left my meeting an hour early, raced around to pick up Nora and gear, and headed up to the pass.  It was late in the day so we had to 'beat the sunset' and get up the mountain super quick to get our ski in.  At the pass I looked up at the mountain and was a little worried by the conditions.  Deep snow, lots of tracks, and still brush showing - how would Nora handle the difficult conditions?

I need not have worried.  Nora had a blast and handled the conditions with aplomb.  I showed her to my 'secret route' down, and we discovered an un skied powder stash.  It was the perfect steepness with absolutely no other tracks and pretty long too.  Nora ripped it, carving and not skidding her turns, and at the bottom said, 'that was my best run all year'.

On the drive home I was reminded of those credit card ads where the punchline line is 'doing (some activity usually with family and friends) priceless'.  And I thought 'getting out of a meeting early and skiing powder with your daughter - priceless'.  Except I did not have to use a credit card to make it happen!

Patrick

Nearing the bottom of the 'secret powder stash'

Across the lake and up the river

Upper Buskin canyon

Lately my afternoon ski has developed a routine.  I leave work, drive to the outlet of Buskin Lake, and XC ski across the lake and up the Upper Buskin River.  Then I return in my tracks, and pick up the kids from school.  This is one of my favorite skis, and one I have not been able to do for the last few winters. Buskin Lake has not frozen solid in a while.  But it is now!
Patrick

Lake outlet where I start my ski (right at the outlet the running water never freezes)

Buskin River Canyon

Skiing up the dry riverbed

Snow and Ice

The last few years we have been starved for 'in town snow and ice'.  Last winter Lake Gertrude at Fort Abercrombie barely froze (one end of it froze for about 2 weeks).  Consequently, you generally had to drive out of town to get in some snow or ice time.  This winter the lake has frozen hard.  I got in one day of ice skating with Stuey before it got covered in snow.  For the past week I have been taking the dogs on their daily walk on skis.

It is so convenient to be able to just walk out the door and ski - no drive (or a very short one anyway).  It means after dinner skis by moonlight on the lake.  Last night it was so bright I even took some pictures without a flash!  Patrick

DEEP snow

Yup, more snow and skiing!  Now that we got it we are taking advantage of it.  Yesterday afternoon the kids and I drove up to the pass to go skiing and sledding.

I knew the road would be a mess and almost stopped at the golf course, but then we decided to just go for it.  And for a while there we seriously regretted it.  We got to the switchbacks and there were 2 cars off of the road and a gaggle of cars all backed up (see photo below).  We thought about backing up and going back to the golf course.  But Nora looked over the guard rail to the road below and saw that there was already a car off the road below and behind us too, and that the snow plow was stopped behind it.  So no backing up!

Finally all the cars had been pulled from the ditch and our line of cars moved ahead.  There was only one rut to follow and I was terrified about meeting cars coming the other way.  Sort of like a game of 'chicken' - where the loser would have to leave the nice, safe rut for the insecurity of the deep powder.  We made it to the pass and I told the kids that there was no going back until the snow plow arrived.

Elias and Stuey went sledding while Nora and I skinned up the mountain.  We followed a snow machine trail and got to the top pretty quickly.  We could see that where snow machines left the trail they cut in 2-3 foot ruts in the new snow.  Up on top it was all windblown and drifted and, at first, going down on top of the wind pack not a problem.  But then we got to the deep snow and it was too deep to move - even going down the hill!  We needed a steeper slope.  I ended up putting my climbing skins back on and breaking a trail for Nora to ski down in!  Nora would hold back while I broke the trail and then catch up ripping down the broken-in trail.  

We had fun and got down to find Stuey and Elias still sledding.  I gave Stuey a tow on his sled behind me on skis.  Most importantly the road had been plowed!  I looked up the mountain at the other lines and slopes on the mountain where it was steep and the snow not so deep.  Alternative options where Nora and I could have skied instead.  That's where we will ski next time!
Patrick

Gaggle of cars

Snow Day

Dry snow at sea level does not happen very often on Kodiak.  Usually our snow storms start dry and end with a little rain.  So after a typical storm it is either crusty if it gets cold or slushy if it stays warm.  Rarely does a storm end without any rain, and even more rarely does it continue to stay cold afterwards.     But it seems to have happened this year and we are in Heaven.  Snow Heaven.

Friday we got about 10 inches of snow at our house and it seems they got even more out in Bells Flats or at the golf course.  So yesterday the kids and I decided to go skiing and sledding on Pillar Mountain.  This is the hill just behind town, and ordinarily this is not a top ski destination. This was the first time in 10 years that I have gone downhill skiing on Pillar.  Nora and I skinned right up the unplowed road while Stuey and Elias went sledding closer to the car.  The last few years they have gated the road for the winter, and so there are no motorized vehicles on the road.  As Nora put it, 'it's like our own private ski area'.

Later I took the dogs to Abercrombie and cross country skied through the park to Lake Gertrude.  I have not gone cross country skiing on the hiking trails in Abercrombie since the 20th century!  I took the doggies on laps around the lake.

Absolute snow Heaven.

Patrick

Winter

Finally some winter!  My kale has finally died for the first time in years, the lakes are frozen, and there is snow in town. The temperature even dropped below zero a few days ago. Wow!

Somehow according to the weather guys at the airport Kodiak has still only received a few inches all winter, but at my house there is a solid foot on the ground.  Yesterday, when Nora and I drove up to the pass there was already a foot of new dry powder on the ground and it had not even started to snow hard in town.  There is probably 2 feet of new snow up there today.  So much snow that I doubt I could even drive up there (check bottom photo on this post from early afternoon yesterday before it really started to snow).

But there is no need to drive up there anyway - we have snow in town!  This opens up all sorts of options.  I could go XC skiing on Lake Gertrude at Abercrombie, or even skin up the road on Pillar Mountain and ski down the road.  I've never done that one before and just might do it.  My back is out anyway - so Pillar sounds good.

Yesterday the snow was so deep that Nora and I had a hard time moving.  We skinned up the hill behind the ski chalet and the new snow was so deep, and the slope so gentle that we had a hard time getting up to speed to go downhill.  You pretty much had to straight line it.

Whoooooo hooooooooo!  Winter is finally here!
Patrick

Celebrating 2020

We celebrated the arrival of 2020 with fireworks.  We did not stay up late on the 31rst to do so but rather waited until the evening of the 1rst.  At this time of year Alaska it is dark by 5 PM so we did not have stay up very late either.  So much better than fireworks on the 4rth of July when it does not get dark until 1 AM!

But it was cold!  Temperatures were hovering around 10 degrees which is unusually cold for Kodiak.  I took a bunch of pictures with my fancy camera and they all turned out badly.  It turned out that I had the manual focus set on 1 meter distance and all the pictures were out of focus.  Since it was dark I did not know that I was doing it all wrong.  Good thing Mike P had his iPhone!  All but the top photo was taken with his phone.  

Here is to 2020 may it be a GREAT decade.

Patrick