Skiing Turnagain Pass
Current mood: grateful

Ok, so. Totally lame that I wasn't able to post these pics earlier....but this place gets effin busy this time of year.

And my computer blew up. In a manner.

Yea......only two pathetic excuses this time. Anyhow, Cody...you remember him....drove up with me from the lower 48 a few blog postings ago. So. He and I met up with Dave and one of Dave's fishing buddies (again, lame, can't think of his name right now) and skied Turnagain Pass.

Here are the pictures. I'll give you some totally uninteresting narration along the way.

This is the view of the Seward Highway and the west side of the pass from about 1/4 of the way up the hike. Did I mention it was nearly 100 degrees out that day. Or at least nearing 60 degrees.

View from the saddle where we ate lunch. If we'd had a lot more time (and a slightly less whiny woman (thats me)) on the trip....well lets just say this is mostly accessible skinning territory.

I wish the lighting was better on this so you could all clearly see Daves disgusting pediophile mustache. You know that guy that your mom would physically steer you away from in the bus station.....yea, that was Dave.

I'll let everyone use their own imagination to narrate this picture of Cody.

Looking west from our picnic spot.









Then we hiked up to the top of the northern ridgeline.







Cody at the top just before we dropped in.


Tracks!

We ended ups skiing two to three inches of absolutely buttery corn that was sitting on top of a solid, supportable crust. It was pretty much the raddest skiing I 've ever been lucky enough to do in AK.

K, that's all I have for now. I promise I will try not to wait a month before I post the next pics.

Miss ya all!


Oh yea, here's a good one.

Sun....will it never end?
Current mood: silly

I'm pretty sure we are getting screwed by the weather this summer.

Cause it's been pretty damned nice...sunny...for the last week or so. There has been a bit of rain, but nothing to write home about.

Therefore.....the rain is just piling up waiting to nuke on us for weeks on end.

Let's hope I'm wrong. And I usually am, even though I am a self-proclaimed weather genius.

So, paddling. Went again...

Paddled out just shy of Derby Cove....look er up on a Resurrection Bay map if you are so inclined.

Hung out on a beach for a bit. Had sammy's with Cody, enjoyed the view.










Came back and found the Herring had been milting their little brains out in hopes of fertilizing a few eggs. The activity turned the water turquoise...with milt. Ew. But, there were a lot of birds and quite a few sea lions near shore.







An outgoing kayaker was having a run-in with a sea lion as we watched. This was doubly entertaining since we had had the sea lion close encounter a few days ago. If I didn't mention it yet, there were five...the water is very clear right now...and they were rolling less than 10 feet under our kayaks. Awesome...and very scary.


That's all I have for that.....

Upcoming: Skiing in the furnace known as Turnagain Pass.

See ya.

Mt. Marathon....part two. The sun is still here and we're skipping outta work.
Current mood: chipper

K, Went up and skied Mt. Marathon again....This time with Cody and John.

Only this time I ate first, so I thought I'd complain slightly less.

But then John and Cody suggested we boot pack right up the front face.....which made me complain slightly more. I would hazard a guess that we boot packed pretty close to 2,000 vertical feet. But it was done.

So here are the pics! (of course they are all from the top or from skiing...no pictures of boot pack brutality).


So let's shoot for the panorama....get your imagination out kids....

You are standing at just over 3,000 feet in elevation on the racer's summit of Mt. Marathon. You look southwest and are overlooking Resurrection Bay and the islands.


Then you look due south over mountains that make up the west side of Resurrection Bay.


Then you turn north and overlook Resurrection River.


And continuing to turn, you see John and I eating lunch.


Ok, panorama tour over...

Ski tracks down.





Soon to come.....the next kayak and ski (not together) adventure.