Sledding at the pass

After reading Zoya's post below I feel compelled to add that this is my little slice of heaven. Sledding with the kiddos on the hills up by the ski chalet was pure Heaven. Or at least it was up until Stuey crashed into a creek and got soaked. Weirdly enough it has been sunny for the last couple of days and is supposed to be sunny tomorrow, but while we were up sledding we got slammed by a freak snow squall. By the time we drove home it was sunny again.

This is my favorite time of the year on Kodiak. The snow pack is getting deep (peak depth is usually in late April) and the days are getting long enough so that you have the time and sunlight to enjoy it. Yesterday I went skate skiing in short sleeves and my face actually got sunburnt from the reflected sunlight off of the snow.

Stuey and Nora loved sledding up on the BIG hills. WAY BIGGER than the little hill we've been sledding on in our back yard. On the way home they pointed to all the mountains (Barometer and Erskine) they wanted to climb up and sled down. On Nora's first run I kind of under estimated the size of the hill and was horrified at how quickly she picked up speed and all the little jumps she took - and she went a LONG way. But at the bottom she was shrieking with delight.

And then there was Stuey's run. Mid slope his sled suddenly turned about 60 degrees and went straight for an open hole in the snow where there is a small creek. He crashed right before the hole and then fell into the creek. It filled one of his boots with water. However, to his credit he did not want to quit sledding. So we emptied the water out of his boot and did several more runs on the hill across the road by the ski chalet (where there are no creeks to run into). Eventually Stuey's foot got cold so we had to quit. I had to promise Nora that we'd be coming back lots just to get her to leave.

Pretty soon they'll be joining me for my climbs up Pyramid on skiis. I can't wait. Patrick