Ski Doodles

 

These pictures are from a week ago - it's been a week since we got new snow.  But we did get to enjoy this last snowfall as it has also been clear and cold for the last week.  That is supposed to change today with a big storm rolling in.  Hopefully we get more snow than rain.

With the last storm I got 'first tracks' in the South Bowl twice.  First the afternoon after the storm and then a couple of days later after blowing snow obscured my first tracks.  These days there are so many people skiing on Pyramid that it is unusual to find an untracked slope.  And it was shocking that my tracks remained alone for so many days - especially considering how good the skiing was in the south bowl.

I got to admire my tracks driving to and fro from the mountain.  There they were on high - my doodle on the snow covered slopes.  My signature that said I was there - I really loved looking up and seeing my tracks!

Patrick

Happy Birthday Stuey

 

Happy Birthday Stuey!  Yesterday Stuey turned 14.  He requested crepes for breakfast and 'skinny steaks' with cheesecake for dinner.  And so he got them.  Very much a low key birthday party - no big parties this year I am afraid!

After school we also went for a skate ski on a local lake.  We have not had much good skate skiing this year, but right now it is excellent.  Stuey and I had a couple of races, and wore out both the dogs and Stuey!

Patrick

Burma Road in the sunshine

 

This weekend Stuey and I did some cross country skiing on the Burma Road trail below Barometer Mountain.  When I first moved to Kodiak I use to XC ski on this trail a lot, but I stopped using it because my track would always get messed up by ATVs.  The ATVs would leave two ruts with a high area in the middle, and I would have to ski down the high area which was always too narrow.  

But since then the Coast Guard has blocked motorized use on the trail.  It seems it is a place to go to once again! 

The trail climbs very slowly up a hill.  On the first day Stuey did not know this and was discouraged by our long slow slog up the very long hill.  But then we turned around and shot back to the car in a long swoosh.  Whhhooooo wheeee.  The next day Stuey knew what to expect and we even went a little further.  

I think this may become one of my 'go to' XC ski spots once again.

Patrick 

Pyramid on a calm day

Thursday Nora and I climbed up Pyramid to ski and there was not a breath of wind.  So even though the temperature was at or below freezing it felt so warm that we took off our coats and rolled up our shirt sleeves.  

As we climbed up we saw someone way out ahead of us also climbing up the mountain.  Nora exclaimed, 'I think it is uncle Dicky'.  We saw him reach the top and then he waited for us to get there so we could all ski down together.  We even did two runs.  The snow and sun was perfect.  

At the bottom of the post there is an 8 second clip of Nora skiing that shows the snow conditions, But I did not video the perfect snow in the trees.  I was too busy skiing to stop!

Patrick

 

These photos are from a few days ago.  Depending on the light or clouds Pyramid always looks different and I can never resist taking her picture.  I'm documenting her moods.

Ski pictures with Nora

 

It's February and I've been skiing every day - and almost every day with Nora.  So I've been taking almost too many pictures of us skiing.  Too many to post all of them on the blog without getting boring anyway.  But still I can not resist - so here are some pictures from last week of Nora skiing.  

If you go to near the bottom of the post there are pictures of us XC skiing with Bode and Brewster.  On Tuesday we got some new snow and took the dogs to the pass.  It's been a good snow year.  Patrick

Harbor Panoramics

 

Back in 2009 I went to a training on how to use a Gigapan in Pittsburgh.  It was a little robot on a tripod that would hold your camera and take a hundred or so pictures.  You set the camera on highest zoom setting.  Then you uploaded the photos to a website and they created a giant panoramic for you.  Some of the panoramic we made were over a giga byte in size and you could zoom in super close and find people in windows etc.  But they could only be viewed online at the website.

The other day I went hiking on Near Island with my good camera and a telephoto lens for taking close up pictures of birds etc.  It was a gorgeous evening and I decided I wanted to take a picture of the harbor, but since I only had a telephoto I could not fit the harbor in just one picture.  So I took like 20 or so and stitched them together at home with panoramic software I downloaded on the internet (software I have been using to stitch pans for years).  The resulting panoramic came out just like the gigapans of yore!

In fact the files were too large (over 100 MB) to upload onto this blog and I had to resize them and dumb them down.  So you can zoom in super close and look at details only with the files on my home computer.  Still it is amazing what you can do so easily with panoramic images these days.  No need for a robot and super specialized software to make a HUGE pan.

Patrick

Yesterday

 

Yesterday was a spectacular sunny day, and I got to go skiing twice.  In the morning I took the dogs to the Upper Buskin area for a XC ski, and then after a quick lunch I went up Pyramid with Nora.

For the XC ski I used my old wood skis.  With them it does not really matter if you hit a rock or two, and they are perfect for kicking around in the woods on poor trails.  I'd zoom along the trails and the dogs would follow just behind my skis.  

At the first big creek crossing Bode refused to wade across in the cold water.  He ran up and down the creek bank whining as we encouraged him to cross.  So I went on down the trail and stopped just out of sight.  We could hear him yelping and caterwauling back at the crossing.  Brewster just looked back.  I was about to turn around and go back to carry him across when there was silence, and then Bode came sprinting around the corner with his ears going up and down.  On the way home he simply waded across no problem - he has learned about water crossings!

I was a little worried it would be too icy on Pyramid.  It was super windy on Friday and Saturday and I thought the mountain might be blown ice.  But Nora and I found surprisingly good conditions.  Even dust on crust up on high where the winds had been frightful.  It was sunny and there was practically no wind.  There were lots of other skiers and snowboarders on the mountain, and Nora loved to socialize. 

Patrick

Lots of other people on the mountain - we met some snowboarders we know on top!

Dust on crust