Spring Snow

 

Fog, sunshine, and wet snow in the jibber bowl

It is Spring, but here on Kodiak we are finally getting some snow.  In town the snow has not been sticking around.  I might wake up to a white lawn in the morning, but by evening the lawn is back to brown. On high the snow is building up.  It is still very much a 'low snow' year, but at least we are skiing to the road, and the brush is finally getting buried above 1000 feet.

For the last few days we have been getting little squalls of snow.  It'll snow for an hour or so and then the sun will come back out. I like this weather pattern.

March and early April is historically when we do get most of our snow in the mountains.  Fingers crossed the snow Gods deliver this year!

Patrick

North Bowl powder

Marginal snow at the golf course - this snow was gone by the next day

My aaa experience

 

Last week I was in Anchorage for the 'aaa's' or, as they are known in full, the Alaska Anthropological Association annual meeting.  I have been going to these meetings almost every year for 30 years. As I've written before it is sort of like a high school reunion - I see the same people year after year, and often it is the only place I see these people.  'These people' are also fellow archaeologists and are among the few people in the world who truly 'get' what I do.  I tell them what I've been up to and I get to see what everybody else has been up to.

This year I presented on the Alutiiq Museum's recent work in Kiliuda Bay.  I was also second author on a paper about the museum's recent survey on Shuyak Island.  Our talks were not until the very last day of the conference.

I also had a birthday this year at the conference, and thanks to my co-worker Molly everybody knew about it.  Usually I manage to keep my birthdays incognito, but not this year.  I turned 60 and had 2 parties.  One in the hotel bar where they embarrassed my with a card that had a photo of me and the Baffin Island polar bear from 30 years ago.  And the other was a dinner party with Anchorage friends.  It seemed every time I ran into anyone they were wishing me a happy birthday.

Patrick

Anchorage

 

I spent most of last week in Anchorage.  I was there attending the annual Alaska Anthropology Association meetings (more to come in subsequent post).  Last week when I arrived Anchorage had less snow on the ground than Kodiak.  I was actually bummed to leave Kodiak for the trip because there was snow on the ground at the golf course and Stuey and I had been cross country skiing there.  

On arrival I found a completely brown Anchorage.  It was sort of shocking to see absolutely no snow on the ground.  However, I still went cross country skiing at Kincaid where they have been making snow and had maintained around 5-10K of ski trails. I actually found freshly groomed trails (see below) and excellent XC ski conditions.  The trails were like raised white highways snaking through the brown landscape.  Each trail was raised over 2 feet above the ground on packed man-made snow. I happily skied for over an hour and only saw 3 other skiers.  That is fewer skiers than I saw at the golf course the day before when we had had no groomed trails and had to scamper across the grassy areas. Anchorage skiers are spoiled!

It was not supposed to snow while I was there, but somehow the snow followed me to Anchorage. The first night there was a surprise 6 inches, and it pretty much snowed every subsequent day that I was there.  By the time I left they were grooming all the trails at Kincaid. So for the first time all winter I got to experience a little bit of a winter wonderland.

Patrick

What the skiing looked like on the day I arrived

Finally some new snow

 

We finally got some snow in town!  Enough snow that Stuey and I managed to go skate skiing at the golf course with the dogs - twice!

Of course these days the sun is so strong that by late afternoon all the south facing slopes had lost their snow, but I am hopeful we will continue to get snow.

Patrick

Blizzard on Top

 

Yesterday on the mountain we got the first decent snow in a long time.  There was even a few inches of new snow at the parking lot and I was able to ski right to the tailgate of my Jeep.  It seems like forever since I did not have to climb 700 feet before I even put on my skis.

Of course it was pretty windy on top - like a full on blizzard.  Going up the wind was behind us so it was not so bad.  But going down it was hard to see with the wind blown snow getting in the eyes. I had to put my hand in front of my face and peer between a crack in my fingers to see.  Even then I felt as though I was getting commercially sand blasted - and my eyes were watering all evening after the ski.  

But the dogs did not seem to mind the blowing snow at all.  They even wrestled as usual in the snow on top.  I think they had atavistic wolf or sled dog like thoughts about the whole outing.  This is what they like to do.

Patrick

Altitude = better attitude

 

It has been a pretty dismal winter here on Kodiak.  There has been no snow or even ice down in town.  And yet we have still managed to go skiing practically every day.  No snow down low just means we have to hike to up high to find it. So every day we drive to the pass (530 feet elevation) and then hike another 700 feet or so up to the snow at 1200 feet.  Above 1200 feet the skiing is actually pretty good.

I don't really mind hiking to the snow and even if the skiing is terrible the climb up and the views still put me in a good mood.  It is WAY WAY better than going to a gym or something.  

Patrick