Turnagain Arm Trail

Jes and I took a morning hike along the Turnagain Arm Trail. The weather was a bit spotty but it was good to get outside for a walk about. 

The trail ascended to a ridge about halfway up the mountain, great views out to the Arm with some pretty steep drop-offs.

A well placed bench.

View looking south towards Hope.

The sun seemed to want to come out but couldn't quite make it. 

Cheers, 

Portage crust skiing

I had heard that the Portage Lake up to Portage Glacier was in good shape for crust skiing so Ben and I headed down there early Saturday morning to check it out. We found the whole lake in great shape to ski on and the scenery was some of the best yet...

We started out just as the sun was cresting the mountains to the east. 

Check out the skiiers in the distance, we followed their tracks...

We turned a corner and Portage Glacier was right there. 

Ben taking a picture of the glacier. The picture also gives a good impression of the crust snow, it was like skiing on wax paper, very fast with lots of crackling. 

We skiied up closer...

and a bit closer.

We skiied west away from the Glacier and up to a saddle. After a bit of work, we were rewarded with an incredible view of Whittier and Prince William Sound.

It was a fantastic view for what felt like only a bit of effort.

Another view.

Some fun skiing on the descent back to Portage Lake with a couple stops for food and water.

And then we were on our way back to Portage. The trip surpassed expectations with great skiing, scenery, and weather. 

Cheers, 

Evening Walk

The sun is out longer everyday and Jes and I went for a walk at 9 last night on the Coastal Trail. It was still light when we got home after 10.

Snow almost all melted off in spots...

Taking the Coastal Trail towards downtown.

Fish Creek cutting through the ice to get to Cook Inlet.

Sun setting, Mt. Susitna to the right of the sun, is also called the Sleeping Lady due to the mountains profile. There's a good local brewery with the same name. 

Shadow hugging. 

Cheers, 

Crust Skiing

This morning I got up early and drove up to Powerline Pass to try out crust skiing. I'm not very well versed in how the snow gets 'crusty', it has something to do with rising temperatures, getting baked by the sun and then freezing the next night. How and why it happens matters not, I'm just glad it does. Powerline was coated in crust snow and I was able to ski all over the valley for a solid hour before I had to head back for work. The pictures below don't quite convey how awesome the conditions were.

Looking at the Middle Fork drainage.

Straight down Powerline.

Cheers, 

Sushi and kitchen pong

This past weekend we had some friends over to make sushi and play some kitchen pong, good times were had.

Game in progress...

Genuine Japanese chopsticks rest surrounded by the fixings for sushi.

Cheers,

A log cabin...

Our good friends recently bought a home in the Spenard neighborhood of Anchorage. It's a great neighborhood but even cooler is the fact that the house is a log cabin. The house was built in the 50's and it's really neat.

A corner of the house with exposed logs...

Close-up view

The storage shed out back

Some of the original siding and eaves

And of course, everyone hard at work moving, ha. 

Cheers, 

A bit of activity...

Jes wrapped up the basketball season with the end of the year awards banquet. She got to talk about the team, each of the players, and present year-end awards. The event went off very well and Jes was really happy she got to see her girls one more time. 

I didn't get too many pictures of the event, bummer.

We stopped by a friend's house early on Sunday and got to see the unique re-use of a sauna. 

I suppose it's called a hot-library. 

Neat stained-glass window in the same house. 

Cheers,