I ran out the Iditarod trail on Saturday afternoon starting at the Eagle River Nature Center and heading toward Crow Pass. It was a good trail for running since it was mostly flat. Maybe some people would claim that made it a bad trail for running.



The rain must have gotten worse throughout the run because it doesn't look that rainy in these photos which I took near the beginning but by the end of the run it had turned into a true storm and I was soaked. Between the falling rain and the dousing from the underbrush crowding the last hour was pretty much like running through a car wash.

Labels: alaska, photos

Ky Eiben, Laura Valaas, Katie Ronsse, Becca Rorabaugh, Matt Johnson was our photographer.

I think I'll have to add the mud flats to my list of top ten reasons to live in Alaska. I have never had better mu in which to play. After our rollerski intervals in the morning we colluded to take advantage of the one nice day we've had in July to put together a picnic and play outside all day. If you had told me that I would ever be swimming in the Pacific Ocean when the ambient temperature was 65° I would have denied the possibility but somehow it seemed like a reasonable thing to do. I was also pretty impressed with the picnic we managed to put together-- salmon, mint basmati rice, brie, grapes, pears, salad with lots of color, hot chocolate, chocolate almond clusters. It was a pretty good way to spend the afternoon

Labels: alaska, photos

...that would be perfectly fine by me. I'd gotten spoiled by my entirely moose-free glacier-maroc-glacier month and running in Kincaid this morning was constantly irked by the forgotten presence of moose scattered throughout the trails. They're such nuisances, like over-sized rodents that can seriously obstruct your forward momentum. And I'll tell you what's wrong with moose these days, they lack respect, that's what. Fear me, moose, FEAR ME. I probably spent a solid five minutes this morning yelling at moose. I was only successful at getting them to move about half the time. No respect for their human elders, that's the problem. I come from the species that harnessed FIRE, invented the WHEEL, walked on the MOON. I am IMPORTANT. This is a fact that those moose don't seem to appreciate. It deflates my ego and it pisses me off. If you're not Alaskan and think that moose are a novelty; if you think, "oh, let's take a cruise up to Alaska and buy a cute little stuffed animal moose to bring home as a memento." Don't think that, come up to Alaska, bring a gun, and take home an entire full-sized moose. Better yet, take home a couple. Because I am so over moose.

Labels: alaska, animals

Jeff Ellis put together this sweet video from our ski on Wednesday to Skookum & Spencer glaciers!

And then we got a TON of snow on Friday:

14" of fresh snow on April 25th

Labels: alaska, photos, video

Becca Rorabaugh & Taz Mannix in front of Mt. Williwaw.
Sally Johnson making a traverse after we found ourselves a little higher up on the hillside than we wanted to be.
Diana & Sally Johnson approaching Williwaw Lake

I'm not sure what they were looking at, but there is a pretty sweet little icefall behind and between Sally & Diana.

Labels: alaska, photos

Jeff Ellis
Kate Fitzgerald staying hydrated in front of the Spencer glacier.


Skookum
to the right of previous pic

I need to quit being so greedy with my panoramic attempts. The Skookum glacier struck me immediately as an oversized playground. Huge rolling hills, drop-offs, valleys... fun, fun, fun!

Skookum

This is the dumping ground of the Skookum glacier... huge piles of snow from avalanches... wow. I think I've added "avalanche" to my list of things I want to see, just definitely from a distance.

Skookum also had a sweet ice cave but I got reprimanded when I tried to go inside it. I'll have to come back without a coach. Sometimes having someone else feeling responsible for your safety can infringe on your style.

The fake Erik.
What Erik looks like when he's NOT posing for a picture.

Labels: alaska, photos

I got a huge kick out of the frozen-into-the-lake icebergs. They were bobbing around happily all summer and then one wicked cold night and all their fun was over for the next six months. Poor guys



I think glaciers are some of the coolest forms of water so I was pretty much jumping up and down with glee skiing around the Spencer glacier terminus.



It's hard to get a sense of scale from pictures so I'll trust you to realize that the terminus is of sufficient size to be Awe Inspiring.



Glacier blue is my new favorite color.



There was even a glacier cave to explore!

Looking in.

Looking straight up through a skylight.

Looking back out.


psyched to be here.

Labels: alaska, photos

Sally Burkholder

The Burkys were skiing at down by Portage on Monday and invited me to come with them. The perks that come with renting from the Burkys are not to be mocked. We parked by the turn-off to Whittier and skied up along the railroad tracks toward Skookum and Spencer Glaciers. When I say "along" here I mean "in the general vicinity of" I actually ranged far and wide across the valley away from the tracks. There were a few places where the streams were wide enough that there wasn't a snow bridge to cross and we had to walk across on the railroad trestles. I hear Skookum glacier is rockin' right now but we saved that for another day and kept on going toward Spencer glacier.

Sally Burkholder

Burky found some wolf tracks. I followed in hopes of catching them, stealthily stalking, even though we determined they were tracks from yesterday evening, until the wolves decided to cross one of the much wider streams. I did not want to wade, so I gave up on the wolves and returned to hunting down good trees.





The skiing was perfect, the day was perfect, and then we found A GLACIER. I split my photos into two posts and am going to save raving about glaciers until my next post...

Laura Valaas, Spencer Glacier

Laura Valaas, Spencer Glacier

Labels: alaska, photos

When you get the following email from your coach at 8:30pm on Friday you know it's going to be a good Saturday...




"Let's meet at Glenn Alps at 8:15 AM



Skate-classic-touring... bring it all!





Looks like it will be cold overnight and warm tomorrow



We will ski 2-4 hrs... bring a little food-H20




Van will depart 7:45



See you in the AM





Erik"



(if anyone has some good rules of thumb for when NOT to stand under a cornice I'm ready to hear 'em.)

This is where I was stalking a ptarmigin in my stealthiest tuck. Then I hit a soft patch of snow and did a very not stealthy face plant. Next time, ptarmigan, you will be mine, you succulent little chicken of the snow.
The view looking out over Ship Lake.

Labels: alaska, photos