It's been a cold March in Alaska

 

Fairbanks weather forecast Wednesday morning 

Last week I went to Fairbanks for work (post to come) and it got down to almost 40 degrees below zero at night. Yesterday morning back here on Kodiak it got down to 8 degrees. It's late March but it's cold here in Alaska. And it has been like this for a few weeks now. 

There has been a massive high over the Bering Sea and a week low in the Gulf of Alaska. The high is so massive that on the SAT imagery loop you can see it spinning clockwise. Generally on SAT views you can only see the lows spinning counter clockwise. Anyway, it is a very stable weather pattern and all the warm storms and air have been shunted off to the South and East. The storms can't get to Kodiak! Basically there is a HUGE dome of cold air over all of Alaska that is keeping all the warm air out.

In the SAT photo below (pressure map and SAT image both from yesterday morning) you can see the 'gap' winds blowing from the Bering Sea through all the mountain passes on the Alaska Peninsula towards the low pressure in the Gulf of Alaska. It's been very windy practically all month here on Kodiak.

Up at Fairbanks I went cross country skiing every day after work, but the cold temperatures made for some very slow skiing. The snow was basically like sand and would go squeak, squeak when the skis slid on it. I knew it was going to be slow snow when I left Kodiak and I did not even bother with bringing my skate skis.  I just went classic skiing - and it was very nice to have perfectly groomed ski trails to ski on.

Patrick

Wednesday morning's car thermometer in Fairbanks

Flying out of Anchorage to Fairbanks

Fairbanks birch trees

University XC ski trails at Fairbanks

At -5 degrees the snow is very slow for XC skiing and goes squeak (snow temperature is even colder!)

Sunset - this was a cold ski! I went classic because the snow was so cold

Upper Buskin Canyon in 1980 and 2026

 

I was going through some old photos at work and found these picture from circa 1980 of archaeologists surveying in the Upper Buskin canyon where I have been cross country skiing. The archaeologists were surveying the area prior to the construction of the Terror Lake hydro project. They were locating and identifying archaeological sites in the areas that would be impacted by the project. The Buskin River canyon is under the power lines that bring the electricity back from the dam to town - hence they needed to survey it.

It was the project that brought the notice of archaeologists back to Kodiak. Kodiak had been the locus of a lot of archaeology in the 1960's and early 1970's, but by 1980 there was not a lot of on-going archaeology. While the Terror Bay archaeologists were in town they saw amazing wood artifacts from the Karluk One site, and this piqued their interest. Eventually this lead to the Bryn Mawr College surveys and the archaeological excavations at Karluk. My introduction to Kodiak Archaeology was at the Karluk One excavation in 1985.

Anyway, because I ski up the Upper Buskin Canyon a lot I recognized exactly where the old survey photos were taken. And so earlier this week I decided to go back and take photos at the same place. Unfortunately, I did not take the actual photos with me and so had to do them from memory. I also realized later that they had about a 50mm lens on their camera and this made things look a bit different. The ones I took are a bit wider angle. 

I love the top picture of the archaeologists at work. It captures the era quite well - the shotgun in the grass, hip waders, an old school camera. I am actually sort of amazed that they got to that place and I notice that the guys pants aren't even wet. I suspect that they got dropped off in the field above the canyon by helicopter, and then hiked on down into the canyon to look for sites. A lot of the other photographs they took show the helicopter and aerial views taken from it. I am also amazed that they went up the canyon all the way to the waterfall - it is over a kilometer up river from the top photo and it is deep in places with cliffs and very rocky. Also there clearly would be no sites in the canyon. Maybe they knew this but decided it was just a cool place to explore? Or maybe the helicopter dropped them off up there too?

In any case I almost always think of them on survey so long ago when I ski past these places.

Patrick

And the other photos at the bottom of the post show how badly the ski conditions have deteriorated as the snow has sublimated in the dry air and overflow has turned to ice. We need new snow!

2026 the same view as above but just a little upriver

the waterfall in 1980

waterfall in 2026

Birthday Ski

 

In the old days on my birthday I'd always go on some sort of ski adventure. Ski to some place like Sharatin Mountain or Reservoir Ridge where I do not ordinarily go.  But I have not been doing this so much the last few years.

So on my birthday when Ryan messaged and asked if I'd like to go skiing, rather than go to Pyramid for downhill or Upper Buskin for XC, we went up to Heitman Lake. Admittedly, this is not so much of an adventure, but I don't go there all that often either.

It's a 1/2 hour hike up to the lake from the car, and leaving the car we did not know what ski conditions to expect up at the lake. Deep soft snow for classic cross country skiing, or thin snow for skate skiing. What we did not want to find was deep snow with a breakable crust because that would have been terrible for both techniques. And so we carried up the gear for both disciplines. I carried up 2 pairs of skis while Ryan carried up a pair suitable for both.

And at the lake we found . .. . Skate skiing!

The temperatures were in the mid 20's but the sun off of the snow made it feel far warmer. Ryan and I both agreed it was sort of like being at the beach. We flew around the lake doing laps until the doggies got a little tired. And then we hiked on back down to the car. Birthday ski adventure complete!

Patrick

carrying both classic and skate gear - who knew what to expect!

Later my co workers and friends celebrated my birthday at the Brewery

Sunshine in the trees

 

arrival at the frozen river

A few more scenic pictures from last week of the Upper Buskin. We have had very little snow, but what little we do have has stuck around. 

We have had an amazing run of good weather lately - clear and cold. This is very unlike typical Kodiak weather and more like what you'd expect in interior Alaska where the weather tends to be more stable.  Kodiak weather is usually much more dynamic with storms and wild fluctuations. But lately there is a huge high pressure system over Alaska and all the storms are skirting off to the East of Kodiak.

Patrick

kinda scary decoration I found beside the trail

Red in Bunny heaven

More XC skiing with dogs

 

After losing all that video earlier in the week (see last post below), I decided I'd go back and re take the video and make a long movie. And so I did. But I actually think the shorter video might be better. I guess shorter is sweeter maybe. 

In any case, I do know that it makes me happy to watch myself skiing with all the dogs following me. And I also love skiing up into the Upper Buskin canyon. I love the sunshine, the high canyon walls, and the water gurgling under the snow. And it is not every year that we can even ski up into the canyon. So now I have a video to watch that captures the moment - something I can watch during a warm winter or even in the summer that'll take me back to early March 2026 and the Upper Buskin canyon.

The video is at the bottom - I tried a new way of putting it on there directly from Youtube.

Patrick