Doggy Fun in the Snow

Tanky wants to go home

 It froze hard last night so I decided to take the doggies up pyramid with me for my afternoon ski.  I like the snowpack to be firm when I take the doggies up so that they can run along on top of the crust rather than constantly bog down breaking through the crust.  And today the crust was firm, but barely.

At dawn it was sunny and a crisp 30 degrees, but by the time I went skiing it was raining and 42 degrees in town.  But on Pyramid it was still snowing up above 1000 feet elevation.  And very, very windy.  Sheba did not like the blowing snow and would put her head down into old footprint holes so as to give her eyes a rest from the blowing snow.

It turned into a total whiteout with blowing snow and shrieking winds and I think the doggies were a little miffed.  I could sense their thought pattern, 'this is not Abercrombie'.  Also it helped that 2 of the dogs are black.  It gave the whiteout some perspective to see black moving dogs out bounding around in the periphery of the white, white picture.

Up on top Tank sat down right next to me while I took off my climbing skins and got ready to ski on down back to the car.  Sheba and Brewster ran around barking.  Everybody was super excited.  And then we were off - I had to point it and go super fast to stay ahead of Sheba and Brewster.  And then every once in a while stop and let Tank catch up.  I was worried he'd lose sight of us in the whiteout.

Anyway I took a video of the scene just before I removed my climbing skins.  18 seconds of doggie mayhem in a whiteout.  Patrick

 

Sheba wonders why we are up where there is blowing snow

Kodiak Outdoor Film Festival

This Friday (April 8th) at 5:30 at the Harbor Convention Center (by the only stop light in town) the doors open at 5:30 for the Kodiak Outdoor Film Festival.  Then at 6:30 the films begin.  Between 5:30 and 6:30 is when you grab some Big Als Pizza, check out the silent auction items, and get ready for the films. Or, alternatively, you can eat battered cod at the St Mary's Fish Fry, and show up at 6:15 for just the movies.  The event is free for ITN members (click here for link to ITN) and you can become a member at the door.

The films highlight Kodiak and us, the Kodiak people.  At most film festivals you get to see other people's adventures - people who usually live far away.  But not at the Kodiak film festival - you should know some of the people in the films and will definitely recognize some of the places.  The films are all about us!  Patrick

Still from one of the movies that made the cut

South Bowl Ground Ripper

The south bowl avalanche as seen zoomed in from the road

This winter has been weird with the sharp snowline and lots of precipitation.  The steep slopes up high have a lot of snow on them.  Whereas the usual dry powder just sloughs off of them, this year the wet stuff has been sticking.  Then during our rain events these steep slopes have been catastrophically releasing as huge avalanches - right to the ground underneath.  The snowpack gets super heavy with all the water and it just can't hold onto the steep slopes and so releases all the way down to the ground.

This has been happening all winter.  A big one occurred back in January in the bowl behind the antenna field.  And in the last few weeks there have been more in that bowl and everywhere else it seems.  Just look up into the mountains and you'll see the brown stains where the avalanches have slid.  Where they haven't slid you can see huge cracks at the tops of the slopes.  These are called 'glide' cracks and represent the snow pack trying to slide and cracking.  Once the ground on the slope under the snowpack gets 'greased' with water it acts like a lubricant and the avalanche releases.  This happens with glaciers too - once there is unfrozen water on the bottom they speed up.

Anyway for the last couple of weeks there have been huge glide cracks on the face of Pyramid above the south bowl (click here to see them behind me and Stuey).  They looked like gaping knife wounds.  Then last Tuesday when I climbed up Pyramid in the fog I was surprised to see black on the face where ordinarily I see white.  I suspected an avalanche but it was too foggy and misty to tell for sure.  On Friday as I drove up to the pass it was finally clear enough that I could see the avalanche debris.  It was a big one.

Yesterday Lisa and I climbed up to check it out.  WOW!  An avalanche beacon wouldn't help you if you got caught in one of those - you'd be killed instantly not buried.

There is so much dirt and ripped sod that I am worried about increased erosion on the slopes above these bowls.  And what are the bowls going to look like?  Will the wild flowers all be covered with mud?  Patrick

First view of the fracture face as you look over into the south bowl

2 avalanches actually released during last Monday's rain

It looks like no more skiing this year in the south bowl gut

That was one big ground ripper!

Mosquitoes, Icebergs, and Polar bears

Mosquitoes attack - and I am using like 98% DEET on exposed skin

After writing about the Aleutians last week, it piqued my interest to look through my photos from the Canadian Arctic.  In the early 1990s I spent three summers in outer Frobisher Bay, Baffin Island doing archaeology.  Flying up to Iqaluit the first summer I remember looking out the window and seeing that the ocean was totally covered with ice - and this was in early July!  It was a completely different world than I had ever seen.  Temperatures rarely got above 40 degrees, and by late August everything was already starting to freeze up again.

We lived with an Inuit family and pretty much ate seal and caribou every day.  Ooleetua taught me how to butcher a caribou.  He used to make a pack out of the rib cage and carry all the meat inside.  As we'd butcher we'd eat slices of the liver and heart raw.  I remember that on occasion he dipped his pieces in the stomach, but I did not like that particular flavor myself.  For the seal we'd eat the nerve/ligament that goes down the spine, and a particular part of the ear.  It was sort of like chewing gum.  We even ate the tips of the caribou antlers when in velvet.  It was like eating horse-chestnut.

By far the most traumatic event was when the polar bear tried to get in my tent when I was sleeping inside.  That time I was able to pepper spray him in the face and he ran away (with a head dyed bright orange).  But later on that same summer another polar bear came by when I was not in the tent and totally demolished it while rooting around in my sleeping bag looking for me (he destroyed the bag too).  It was dark and I was trying to find my tent and suddenly realized it was gone.  That was when the polar bear stood up on his hind legs from the wreckage of another tent and starting hissing like a cat.  

All ended well except for the bear who got shot by another member of the party.  We even got to eat the bear.  Then more bears started coming in to camp every night to scavenge the first bear's carcass.  It turned into an ugly end of the season with marauding bears almost every night.  It turns out we were on the edge of the ice and the natural jump off place for them to get to land.  Our nickname for on shore sea ice was 'polar bear taxis' - they'd come ashore when the ice was blown to shore and stay away when the ice was blown away off shore.  The crowning low point was when an Inuit crew member died of hypothermia falling into the ocean.  

I remember flying from this straight back to summer in the lower 48.  I think I had a mild case of PTS, and for years I hard a very hard time sleeping alone in tents.

But despite that final week of the last summer I spent on Baffin Island my memories of Baffin are all good.  I was incredibly lucky to be able to experience it.  

Also we generally had no mosquitoes.  The photo above was from when we crossed over to Cumberland Inlet side of the Peninsula to do some work, and were no longer on the open ocean.  With no wind and mostly flat swamp all around the mosquitoes there were the worst I have ever seen - even worse than I later encountered at Penguk on the Alaska Peninsula (click here).  But on Frobisher Bay where it was colder and more exposed mosquitoes were never a problem. Patrick

My tent after getting thrashed by a polar bear - note tie down to boulder with piece of tent still attached

Willows Island Camp - cook tents on right, sleeping tents on left (my tent is furthest upper left)

Dan starting to skin the polar bear that destroyed my tent

That's a BIG paw - polar bears are as big as brown bears and much more athletic

Ooleetua uncovering a caribou liver - best tasting part of the animal

Kiakudla, one of the camp dogs eats the caribou scraps

No pack - no problem

Chef Dan during a quick trip over to the Cumberland Inlet side of things

Frozen Frobisher Bay in mid July - you could have walked across the bay to those distant mountains

Ooleetua processes a ring seal

A true iceberg - I did not take this picture, and such beasts come from ice-fields and glaciers and were rare in Frobisher Bay

Stuey's first Descent Of Pyramid

Stuey with skis at the start of the run - the crowning moment!

 Yesterday after our tide pooling adventures I took Stuey up Pyramid to go skiing while Nora did a box car derby out at the Coast Guard Base with the Girl Scouts.  

At the end of our trip to Alyeska last weekend we bought used downhill gear from the rental shop.  The guys in the shop liked to hear I'd be using the gear to teach my kids to ski without a lift, and gave us a pretty good deal.  As they put it, 'if your kids learn to ski they are more likely to come here'. I like that philosophy - Thank You Alyeska Ski Company!

And having ski gear that fits the kids certainly makes it easier to take them skiing.  So yesterday I took Stuey downhill skiing in the backcountry for the first time.  Last year we tried it on cross country skiis - but that doesn't count (click here for old post).  

It was a perfect day for it.  The snow had frozen up hard the night before and just the top 1/2 inch or so of the crust had thawed out in the sunshine.  I carried Stuey's boots and skis up the mountain and learned why I pay a premium for light backcountry gear - resort downhill gear is HEAVY!

When we arrived at the mountain there was a family with kids a ways up the mountain already.  Stuey saw them up there and raced off to catch up.  Last year I was always waiting for Stuey to catch up - not so this year.  I brought up the rear lugging his gear.  

I think Stuey was impressed with the amount of snow - 'not even any rocks showing', he shouted.  We did one run from the top almost to the bottom of the snow, and then he wanted to do another. That made my day. Those Alyeska ski lessons have certainly paid off.  

Next trip it's Nora's turn.

Patrick

Stuey's Picture of the mountain from the parking lot

Stuey knew some of the other boys on the mountain

It got pretty bright with the sun on the snow

Almost there

And away he goes - he bombed the first part

Stuey does some turns

Climbing back up for another run!

Nudibranches Oh My!

Dorid Nudibranch Montereina nobilis - a 'Sea Lemon'

Yesterday I tried to attend the Democratic caucus - I really did! 

I went down to Fishermen's Hall with the kids in tow and started to wait in line, but the kids were fractious and it was so darn sunny outside.  Too sunny to go into a gloomy hall to discuss gloomy politicians.  Then someone told me the event would take more than an hour, and so we bailed and went to the beach with the dogs instead. 

I know Nora and Stuey think we made the right decision. 

We collected some kelp for seaweed chips, Brewster found and played keep away with a disgusting sculpin head, and we examined the tide pools for various life forms.  One of the cooler animals that we found were a couple of nudibranches.  I'd never noticed these animals before and they are just so weird looking.  Patrick

Red opuntia Opuntialla californica? I could not find this one in the book to my satisfaction

Close up of eggs on a rock - I wonder what animal left these?

Sheba - but if you look close I really like the boat on the horizon

Stuey cliff climbs

Hiking in the Aleutians

Camping at an alpine lake on the way to Makushin Bay, September 1996

When I first moved to Alaska every September I'd go out to Dutch Harbor to go hiking with my friend Rick K.  I'd help him finish up his archaeological excavations and then away we'd go out on a backcountry excursion of some sort.

The Aleutians are a great place to go hiking because there is practically no bushwhacking.  It is basically alpine tundra from the coast to mountain top.  The only 'bad' brush that I remember was highbush blueberry bushes and in early September they were all covered with blueberries the size of small grapes - no problem there!

Looking back at the camping gear in pictures brings a smile to my face.  That was some primitive gear!  About the only thing I used back then that I still use in the backcountry today is the Xtra Tuff boots.  Those have not been improved upon for amphibious assaults into Alaska's wilderness.

I remember that Rick and I tried to save weight by not bringing pots and pans and a stove.  So we stocked up on cheese and sausage and food that needed no cooking.  We wandered down the aisles of the local Eagle supermarket looking at the food labels.  We picked out the food with the highest calorie count per weight.  A big winner that I still eat on extended  trips is the liverwurst pate with a devil on the label.  Rick thought maybe we should just buy a vat of Crisco and a bottle of Flinstones Chewable Vitamins.  I think he was kidding.

What I can't believe is that we each brought along a 3-person, four-season tent.  Each of those tents weighed on the order of 10 pounds.  On our elk hunt the teepee that sleeps all 5 of us and the woodstove to warm us weighs less than 7 pounds total.  And check out my rain gear - I brought along the heavy duty Grundens! And no ski poles either.

Still it was a glorious place to go hiking and I was young enough to carry all the extra weight.

Patrick

Wrong on so many levels - my backpacking set up circa 1996

Yes I did pack Grundens as rain gear for long hikes back in the day 1996

Makushin Bay - Early September 1996

Akutan Caldera, August 1998

Peace 'o' Mind Cabin - Beaver Inlet 1997

 

Refuge Rock Site and Campsite - Beaver Inlet 1997

Overlooking Kalecta Bay - Becca, Katie, Melia, Don, and Rick

Katie and I on the way to Small Bay - August 1998

Forgot about my birthday

My 51rst birthday party was a very low key affair.  It happened on a school night and we had corned beef with homemade 'beet' sauerkraut on the side for dinner.  Pumpkin pie for desert.  Philip dropped by for the event.  Of course I wore the 'birthday' hat and the kids enjoyed watching me blow out the candles.  My real birthday present was some awesome skiing on Pyramid in the days that followed.  Patrick

Not a birthday ski but Nick, John and I enjoyed some pretty good snow 2 days later

First Salmonberry Blossom

First salmonberry blossom - March 25th!

 It's official - spring is SUPER early this year.  I saw my first salmonberry blossom at the entrance to Abercrombie this afternoon.  Last year I saw my first blossom on April 4rth and even that was almost a month earlier than I had ever seen one before. In the good old days the first salmonberry blossom was typically sometime in the second week of May.  So spring is about 1 1/2 months early this year!

And what's super scary is that it looks like I might have to start mowing my lawn soon.  The back yard it totally green and even starting to look shaggy.  In years past I usually don't start mowing the lawn until late May/Early June.  Patrick

The garlic is looking HUGE too

Melted Snow 'Aint All Bad

Today it was 45 degrees, raining hard and windy.  But when I went into work I still planned on going for a ski afterwards.  And then Jeremy dropped by the museum.  He asked if I wanted to go rafting later in the afternoon. Initially I said no, but every time I looked outside it was just so dismal and wet - so UGLY.  So when he called back at lunchtime I agreed to go.  And boy am I glad I did!

What was I thinking about not wanting to go whitewater rafting? The equivalent ski day would have been a sunny day and 2 feet of dry powder.  Sargent Creek was raging with standing wave trains.  Afterwards I drove directly to St Marys and picked up the kids from school in my wet suit.  Stuey was embarrassed to see me in the wet suit.

Here is a quick 30 second video to give you an idea of what it was like.  Patrick

https://youtu.be/ONY2yxeM5MM