Spoke Too Soon (RE: Last Snow)

So I think I jinxed the entire southcentral region of Alaska. I just wrote a post on our "last snow" of the year. Of course that lead to about 8 inches of snow (update: more like 16-22 inches) getting dumped on us today. It's beautiful outside. Our front yard was completely free of snow yesterday evening. Here's some pictures I just took today:

Peak 3 Skiing

So far this year I've been hitting the backcountry snow on my snowboard. I'd use my snowshoes to hike up with my board strapped to my back. Then I'd ride down. It's been a lot of fun. However, the problem is that the board is heavy and the snowshoes sink more than skis with skins. Because most of my friends are on skis and skin up the mountain, I end up falling behind. So I hit the end of ski season sales and put together an Alpine Touring (a.k.a. Randonee) kit.

Once I had everything together I jumped at the first chance to get out: Monday the 21st after work. Callie, Anne Gore and I headed straight from downtown to Peak 3. Peak 3 is the 3rd peak heading east from Flattop Mountain along Powerline Pass in the Chugach. It took us about 30 minutes to drive to South Anchorage and then up into the Chugach.

We parked Callie's car, loaded up and headed out. The day was sunny and warm. We hiked up in short sleeves with all vents open.

When hiking up we used skins on the bottom of our skis for traction. Skins are strips of fabric with a very pronounced "grain" to the face so they slide forward but the "hairs" grab the snow as they slip back. They give great traction. The skins attach to your skis through an adhesive on the bottom and clips at the front and back. Alpine Touring (or Randonee) bindings allow you to lift your heel free of the ski for a more natural walking motion (essentially like snowshoeing) and then clip the heel in for going downhill. The difference between AT and Telemark skiing is that with tele skis you don't clip the heel in on the way down.

Hiking up was hard work but lots of fun. As we ascended we had great views across Potter Marsh and out across Cook Inlet.

Skiing down was a bit hairy at first, but it quickly became fun. It was my very first time on downhill skis since freshman year of college (in 1998) when I switched to snowboarding. The first few turns led to some spectacular tumbles. But I quickly remembered how to link turns and we skied the rest of the way down and out. It went way too fast.


PICTURES: http://picasaweb.google.com/jack.r.mckenna/Peak3Skiing

Lebowskifest - Arctic Edition

A number of my friends are devotees of The Dude. We share a common belief that "this aggression will not stand", nihilism must be exhausting, and, above all, that the Dude abides. If that doesn't make sense to you, then you should go watch The Big Lebowski as soon as you can. It's the Coen Brothers best film (that's saying something considering they also made Fargo, O Brother, and No Country For Old Men, to name a few).

Lebowskifest consisted of bowling and watching the movie. Center Lanes was our choice for rolling. A few of us dressed up. I was the Stranger. Mike came as a member of Autobahn. Katy was Walter. Jess, Greg, Jeff and K2 rounded out our bowling crew. Greg hit the high score and did it while looking good (check out the picture above).

After we had bowled, we retired to my house for a night of Thai food (In-n-out would have been more appropriate, but they don't have any restaurants up here) and White Russians. The night was well attended and all agreed that it was a tremendous success.

Last Snow

At the beginning of April we had what should be our last good snow storm. We had just had several weeks of clear and sunny weather. Most of the winter's snow had melted. So our last good storm gave us about a foot or so of snow. It made everything fresh and white for a few more days before the soggy muddiness of breakup (the breakup of the ice and snow) continued in earnest.

Icicles hung from our eaves and lights as the snow on the roof melted.