A random couple of photos from Alaska last fall. It first I thought this was just a terminal morraine with piles of gravel and debris that the glacier had pushed out and then vegetation had grown over. Except that the glacier was still there, there were trees growing on top of ice hills and streams cutting through the ice. These are not small features either. And these trees are normal sized trees. Isn't the world amazing?



Those hills in the background... made of ice. covered in full-sized treed and brush.

Labels: alaska, photos

The start line of the women's 20k. On the left of the photo is a gap. Yep, that's where I was supposed to be. Apparently everyone else operates on a be-at-the-line-five-min-to-start. I'm more on the two minute schedule. If you don't feel a little panic, you're too early.


If you look closely Liz is in the middle with her foot up having someone chip the snow out of her boot. I really wish there was a solution to that problem... hmmm. (I'm still not on the line yet.)

And we're off, skiing into the darkness.

Laura Valaas

Kikkan Randall coming in for the win.

Laura Valaas

Racing is hard.

Giving Caitlin Compton a hug-- congrats on the medal!

Morgan Arritola

Labels: alaska, photos, race

Getting some last minute words of advice from Burky: "ski fast"

Kate Fitzegerald

Katie Ronsse

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The start.



Kassandra Rice, Laura Valaas, Becca Rorabaugh

Kassandra Rice, Laura Valaas, Becca Rorabaugh

Labels: alaska, photos, race

The start line.

Laura Valaas

Labels: alaska, photos, race

Katie Ronsse winning the B Final!

Christina Gillis

Labels: alaska, photos, race

Kikkan Randall winning the skate sprint



Laura Valaas

Labels: alaska, photos, race

The Silver Salmon are running near Anchorage. Which means that we hit up the "secret" fishing hole to snag some salmon. This was my first experience catching big, feisty salmon on a line. It was an amazing experience... especially because I had a support crew! From here on out I get to do all the jobs, but on this trip I just caught. In the first ten casts I think we caught eight salmon. And it went fast because I had Jay & Austin to take the fish from my line, retie lures, switch out my rod when I lost a lure. I felt like I was on a premier guided fishing trip.

I am working up to my share of the work though, the kitchen has looked like a fish processing plant the last couple of days. We fillet them in the stream and just bring back the salmon fillets, at home we rinse them, de-bone them, and then vacuum pack them before freezing. The vacuum packer is a very cool machine. In your own home you can watch water boil at room temperature. I don't think I'd actually seen that in person before. I'm trying think up other physics experiments I can do with the zero-pressure space that the vacuum packer creates.

I'm not sure what we're going to do with all this fish. I left a message for my parents to clean a space out of their freezer. I'm on the road all winter so it doesn't really make sense for me to be stockpiling food.

not even a "big" salmon

Labels: alaska, photos

The photographer had this to say about the photo: "you guys look cute, but you're a little ape-like, a little too engrossed in the blueberries."

I had one of my favorite friends up here this week... Miss Cameron, my faithful traveling companion. Cammie's written about some of our adventures on her blog, although I don't think her visit to Alaska ranked on the epic list enough to make it onto her travel blog. Still, neither of us had managed to get in an epic trip yet this summer so a short week of hanging out in Alaska had to suffice. As always there was talk of future travel plans... Laos, anyone?

It was my first time getting to show off my favorite Alaskan places to one of my friends which was especially fun because Cammie's mom lived up here for a long time and has lots of stories from being an Alaskan bush pilot.



Other news: I'm racing the lost lake run down in Seward on saturday, the one day of the year I get to be a runner anymore. Also I did a really bad cartwheel, tore a chunk of skin out of my hand from a rock and decided to do no more gloveless, mountaintop cartwheels.

Labels: alaska, photos

The ash made for some eerie snow-scapes last week.

Labels: alaska, eagle glacier, photos

Valdez is the end of the Alaskan pipeline that starts way up north in Prudhoe Bay. I took one of my days off to check it out...

This statue is made by an artist who has made statues commemorating native americans in all 50 states. Alaska's statues happens to be tucked away in Valdez, AK.

Labels: alaska

Pete Kling coming up through the Williwaw Lakes.

Then Pete decide that he wanted to jump in a lake.

Of course I couldn't let him jump in without doing it also so when he started taking off his shoes I did the same. Pete dove in and then I executed one of my clumsiest dives in a long time... even mid-dive I wasn't convinced I really wanted to hurl myself into the lake. It was cold but quite refreshing. And the sun was out so we warmed up quickly as soon as we got out of the water.

Pete Kling post swim.

I got lost. I got hungry. I ran and ran. (and hiked) It was awesome.

Labels: alaska, photos

Some photos from the last few days of training. We finished off our first week with a 3hr rollerski/hike/run today! It's good to be back at it! Photos courtesy of the burkys' camera. gratzi.

The girls near the top of Bird Ridge. Or as one person commented on our way up, "here come the healthy people."

Laura Valaas, Kikkan Randall, Becca Rorabaugh, Kate Arduser, Kate Fitzgerald, Katie Ronsse at Turnagain.

APU-ers descending from Center Ridge down at Turnagain Pass.

Valaas & 'Duser checking out some real estate with out-the-front-door crust skiing opportunities (and also standing in front of a "No Trespassing" sign).

Kate Arduser walking the straight and narrow alongside the Placer River.

Katie Ronsse skiing the truly straight and narrow. You can't tell from the pic but the snow-path is between 2' and 3m higher than the bridge. What? Do you have a problem with my mixing measurements?

Labels: alaska, photos