I have officially spent four full days in Alaska as a committed resident and I think it might quite easily be the best decision I ever made. Staring at the mountain rising up out the sea, I am pretty sure, will never get old.
Friday night Sage and I went to the opening party for Speedway Cycles. An awesome band played with a solid female vocalist and Alex the Lion, AKA the one and only Alex Ede closed the night up with some amazing jams. Techno junkies, store that name away. He is sure to make a name for himself. Highlights were talking to a brewer from Midnight Sun and debating whether their IPA should be listed with higher IBUs. Listed at a 70, my mouth is still puckering thinking about it. Inversion is no where near as bitter and is listed at an 80. He seemed to think it was too high... mmm maybe these Alaskans like it bitter... bitter cold, bitter beer. Another highlight was helping the team get the kegerator back up and working. Messing with CO2 again, one more valuable skill I picked up while working at Deschutes.
Saturday was spent nursing my poor back from the notorious scorpion fall the Friday before at Bachy (heavy snows kills and should be outlawed) and followed up with drinks and delicious apps with the ladies at Spenard Roadhouse. We wrapped it up with a house party, Susan's first I might add in Alaska (Bendites she misses house and dinner parties), and some plans to head to Girdwood in the morning.
At the crack of noon Susan and I met up and headed down to Girdwood. We met Girdwood junkie and back country guide book built into a man, Eph at his place and headed out for a good skin up Max's. Located due south of Alyeska (God, I hope I got that direction right, my directional awareness is a little wacked with the sun so south in the sky), we headed up not sure what to expect in terms of people. Once we skinned through the trees, we were greeted to a fresh bowl of pow. NO ONE had skied it all day! No one but the wolf I spotted with my eagle eye traversing from north to south. He was far enough away that I asked Eph if there were Marmots here. He quickly pulled out his binoculars, yes this guy is for real, and said, "Well, no we don't, but we do have wolves." He handed me the binoculars and set my sights on my first wolf in the wild. He was dark and very curious about us. As the wind blew gently at our backs, he would stop often to stare at us and get a whiff. About 20 minutes later when we crossed his tracks, we noticed his paw prints were about the same size as the powder baskets on my ski poles. That my friends, is one big wolf. And apparently seeing a wolf is a rare treat. My roommate Emma, who has lived in Alaska her whole life, has never seen one.
We finished out the skin with bright blue skies which gave us a panoramic view of the peaks and valleys around us... the north-facing Orca bowls, west over the Turnagain Arm, still packed full of icebergs, set to melt now that it is officially "break up," the Alaskan word for spring; and northwest to the many peaks up Crow Creek road. We were treated to fresh tracks down the south facing bowl and some bush wacking to round out the day.
Monday morning, we took off from Eph's Snow Sugar Shack at the daunting hour of noon and headed to luckily find the sunshine up Crow Creek road. The day before we had taken in the south facing aspect of Ragged Peak and Eph assured Susan and me that the North Bowl was a treat. Indeed! We skinned up through the trees with a Crow Creek resident dog escort. Apparently those dogs really love to ski and will pretty much go with anyone. We finally shook him when we hit the tree line since we weren't really sure if we wanted to be responsible for someone else's dog on potential avi terrain. The skin was a tough one for me and really taught me to dig in those heels and lean back (counter-intuition kicks in again) up some pretty steep skin tracks.
We were again treated to fresh tracks down the bowl and skied directly back to the car. Ahhhh, ski in, ski out. No condo required.
I drove back up the Seward Highway to Anchorage, or as Susan affectionately calls is Ancoraugua with a lot of good thoughts running through my mind and a Cheshire grin across my face. I start my new job tomorrow and while I know I'll have some challenging times ahead of me, I know that is why I came to Alaska- To challenge myself, to try new things. I feel like I am off to a pretty good start.
Pictures to come peeps... Gotta get my zzzzzz's.
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