What do you do when there's no snow to ski?!

Winter hiking of course!  Conditions have been near perfect, as long as you take your Katoolah's (otherwise known as spikies, but not the non-aggressive, help-you-across-the-parking-lot kind --- the substantial ones!  Last weekend we took a hike with Lance, our former landlord, on the Middle Fork Loop trail, from the Prospect Heights trailhead.  A loop that we did a month or two ago, it's described in "Hiking Alaska" as "A Chugach Mountain sampler - a lower elevation and therefore good marginal-weather hike" with moderate difficulty.  The total elevation gain is about 1300 feet, and it is a 9 mile loop - it took us about 4 hours and 15 minutes.

The day was MUCH warmer than we had expected, especially the first half of the day - about 46 degrees when we started.  About halfway through the hike a breeze started up, and a welcome one, as we were all over-dressed!  We had half-expected rain, so the hike overall was a huge success - a dry day, hardly anyone on the trail, and we even had partial sun!  You can see how little snow there is though - highly unusual for this time in February!  You can't see well in the picture, but there is water running across the frozen ice field here, so it was kind of an unusual spot.  Four hours is a long enough hike that we were happy enough to stop, but it was another glorious day to be outdoors! 

A couple of winter weekends!

Back to work and our "excursions" have been much more modest!  And, the snow has continued to be unpredictable, promising a few inches and giving too little!  We did ski last weekend, but the trails are packed down pretty well by snow bikes and unsatisfactory -- we need to go for the "ski only" trails now, as too many people have switched over to snow bikes.  It was SO COLD last weekend, we wimped out and just went close by - in fact, I ran inside on Saturday and skied outside on Sunday.

Brian liked this picture next to the airstrip at Campbell Creek for the novelty of skiing next to an active airstrip!  It was such a beautiful, sunny day and very comfortable in the sun until you got back into the woods - the temperature must have dropped 15 degrees, and it was barely above zero to begin with!

This weekend, Brian rented a snow bike to me, as there was no new snow . . . and if you can't beat 'em, join 'em!  Brian has been biking much more than usual this winter, and he has studded snow tires on his mountain bike.  He rented a fat tire bike for me, my first time on it, and we rode on the Campbell Creek trails for about an hour and a half - enough for me - it's pretty aerobic, as it takes something even with packed trails to move those heavy bikes with the fat tires!

Last night we had symphony tickets, and as usual, we loved walking up there with Lance & Mary, our former landlords, and enjoying a cello soloist, originally from Fairbanks.  And a very rousing Mahler's 5th Symphony in C Sharp Minor to complete the evening . . . I couldn't go to sleep for hours!

Brian is off to San Diego this week for his niece Suzanne's 40th birthday, and I'm hoping for more snow this week . . . just a little?  Please?

Our Last Hurrah of Winter Break

We do love living in Alaska! What to do when the weather turns colder and the snow is still meager for local skiing?  A hike that we've been wanting to attempt, even checked out a week or so ago to the notch of Hunter's Pass to see if it was hike-able out of South Fork Eagle River Trail, the ridge climb to Rendezvous.  We anticipated it being about 5+ hours and had intended to get an earlier start, but, well, we started climbing about 11:45 am - even at that, sunrise was only 10:12 am yesterday morning, and the sun wasn't up over the mountain and shining on the top of the ridge until almost 1:00 pm!

This picture doesn't entirely express the near tears and a more than a little swearing that went with the considerable climb with much more snow (Brian says a "little more") than there was when we "checked it out!"  Although it doesn't look that deep in these pictures, it was up to my knees at times, and balance was challenging as it got steep.  Still, you can see what a brilliant sunny day it was, and we saw only two other people on the way - 1 skier climbing up to the top of the saddle (less than 1/2 way up for us) and one other hiker who had also set his sights on Rendezvous but turned back because of the deep snow.

As we accessed a couple of "shoulders" on our way up, they had a kind of moonscape feel to them with the frozen weeds in interesting geometrical configurations.

We finally got to the highest point and decided we were not going to make it all of the way to Rendezvous and back in daylight (and I for one was unwilling to go further and come back in the dark!)  This looks more like a genuine smile when we stopped for hot tea, and I realized that we were going to turn around!

And this is my favorite picture - of Brian - as we turn to walk back along the ridge.  The sun is on the other side of us now and beginning to set even at 2:30 - sunset was predicted at about 3:45 yesterday.

But . . . we weren't done!  The morning paper had a great picture of the full moon setting over Hatcher's Pass north in Palmer - so we had thrown toothbrushes and dry socks and shirts (and a bottle of wine and cheese and crackers) into the car in the morning, and we continued north to the Valley Hotel in Palmer.  We hung out for a while to warm up and have a snack, then headed to Hatcher's Pass to ski under the full moon about 7:00 pm.  It is my sincere regret that I did not take the camera, as it was beyond description - trails were perfect, ski wax was right on, and the moon over the mountains seemed like a possible once in a lifetime convergence of everything coming together.  The only thing that would have improved it is we were hoping also for the Northern Lights to be out as we skied.  Missed them.  This is a shot of the moon that I took from the car window as we drove north, but it doesn't do it justice.

And there's more!  This morning we skied at Government Peak before heading back to Anchorage!  Another beautiful (but cold - 3 degrees) sunny day - the trails were a little icy and not in as good as shape as Archangel Road, but still fun, and we had the place virtually to ourselves!

 This has been the best winter break - back to work tomorrow!

New Year's Eve and the Start to 2015!

New Year's Eve begins with a new tradition now of an "around the world" Wisdom event on Webex with about 700 people attending from more than 160 locations around the world - Europe, Australia, among others, and many locations all across the United States and Canada.  Brian and I participated in inquiries into our lives, along with everyone else to begin to create 2015.  It's so inspiring to hear that around the world sharing about life and families and work and what people are committed to!

We spent New Year's Eve at our friends, Carl and Diane, at their beautiful home after a long walk in the afternoon.  This is a tradition now, with fireworks and a wonderful spread of appetizers that Diane goes all out for!  I haven't transferred pictures yet from my phone, but it was a great way to end the year!

New Year's Day was the really long hike - well, 4 1/2 hours, which is long for us now!  It was snowing when we started, up in the mountains, but still not at home.  It snowed most of the time we were out, and began with a considerable elevation gain, though gradual.  We met a couple of skiers after a while, then some snow bikers, and towards the end of the hike, more skiers on the Powerline Trail, more bikers, and a few other hikers.

Coming home to a hot bath and a glass of wine was SO great, and then our New Year's dinner - red king crab and a Caesar salad that I made from the recipe I got at the Marx Bros. Cafe course with Van when I did the class just after Thanksgiving.  Food much appreciated after the long hike, and maybe a new tradition for dinner on New Years!

Brian and I managed to talk to or text with at least all of our children, and talking to all of our family members over Christmas and New Year's makes it complete - even if we don't get to be there in person!  Now we have Friday, Saturday, and Sunday before I go back to work - how much more skiing and hiking can we fit in?!

Christmas Vacation

We've been off since December 19th and using the time to get ready for Christmas, cooking special foods and skiing or hiking every chance that we get!    We had "minimal" Christmas decorations, but you can see our mantle here ready for the holiday and our potted Christmas plant supplied the place for presents.

Christmas Eve there still wasn't really sufficient snow to ski, so we took a loooong walk downtown from our house and back around via the trail system - about 2 1/2 hours with a stop for coffee midway.  We had seafood fondue for dinner and snacked on Christmas cookies.  Christmas morning was great, and we woke up to fresh snow falling - not much but enough that we were able to get out and skate ski, once late morning and again early evening!  You can see the moose were out too, and there were people waiting on both sides for this young bull to move away or be more obviously disinterested in us!

I got new classical skis for Christmas, so a couple of days after Christmas, we drove up to Hatcher's Pass again to ski on Archangel Road - great conditions, nicely groomed.  We had been intent on getting further than we did on Brian's birthday when we ran out of daylight, but the snow was a little slower, so our attempt to get all of the way to the end of the road (to the gate) failed once again -- the trail goes uphill the entire way and especially after the first half hour or so - it gets laborious towards the end! - the downhill is fun but almost too fast and a lot of snowplowing to be under control.  Beautiful day!  

On the 30th, we did a 2 hour hike on the South Fork Rim Trail out of Prospect Heights for something different - still no new snow locally, and what's there is dirty and minimal.  The weather has been so warm, in the low to mid 30s that the hiking has been one of the best choices!  That gave us the idea of doing a longer hike taking the entire Middle Fork Trail doing an 8.5+ mile loop on New Year's Day.  

A Wisdom Course Week in Puerto Vallarta

From December 4-12, Brian and I were in Puerto Vallarta with the Wisdom Course at the Grand Velas, a 5 star resort that earned every bit of its rating.  From the time we arrived, we were so totally taken care of by the staff at the resort!  The course was fun and designed for a high performance life. Listening for the Knock was the theme of the week . . . the inquiry into how we listen and what we listen for was productive for the week and was the perfect way to begin to wrap up 2014 and prepare for 2015!  About 360 of us in the resort all in the same conversations for the week and taking up the entire resort was fun and an exquisite environment for growing and developing all week long!

Brian got re-certified for scuba diving and had a 2 tank dive while I was working at the course.  We had wonderful dinners every night, body surfing in the waves, and the pools were wonderful.  Loved being with all of the other Wisdom Course Leaders and Wisdom graduates.

An Alaskan Thanksgiving Weekend

I was going to say that I would start with the best part, but it's hard to decide what the best part was!  The "finally" snow that came down on Saturday, beginning early in the morning and lasting through most of the day?  Snow that was so fine it still only resulted in about 2 1/2 inches after all of that time?  Enough though so that yesterday, Sunday, we were able to take the skis out in the barely, minimally sufficient snow and ski for a little more than an hour -- and it was even really good!  No pictures though, you'll have to take our word for it!

Funny thing, when we got home, sans house keys, intending to come in through our garage, the power was off in the entire neighborhood and many blocks beyond, for an as yet unknown reason, and we were locked out of our house for about 3 1/2 hours.  Many errands and 3 trips back to the house to check later, it magically came back on.  So we got our flu shots, books for traveling later this week, and a new monitor and other supplies from Best Buy in the meantime.  Time to get an extra key to hide for emergencies!

Thursday morning we ran a 5k race, which was my first time in WELL over a decade.  I've run a 9 minute mile in a marathon (26.2 miles), and here I ran about an 11 minute mile for 3.1 miles -- time to get in better shape again.  And I was grateful to be running, since it's been ten years after a car accident that left my neck in chronic pain for several years and not wanting to be pounding the pavement again.  It seems to have improved enough just this year to take some of that!

Although the time was embarrassing, I was 7th in my age group out of 24 women, so I guess getting older has some advantages!  Maybe that will even inspire me to move up!  Brian and Lance, our former landlord ran with me, and we're pictured here with Lance and Mary's NEW tenant, who also ran.  Then it was back to Lance and Mary's for pumpkin pie - it turns out to be a good trick to eat the pie BEFORE Thanksgiving dinner - when I actually have room for it!

Dinner was great - as usual.  Creamed fennel was a new dish this year, and I made new recipes for brussel sprouts with balsamic vinegar and sweet potatoes with thyme and garlic - love the food at Thanksgiving!

Friday night we went to the movies to see The Theory of Everything about Stephen Hawking - excellent!  And Saturday, after 4 years of trying to get into Van's class for Caesar Salad at The Marx Brothers Cafe, I finally made it - Brian, Lance, Mary & I went at noon, ended at 3, with 5 different wines, 4 different Caesar Salads, and tastings for balsamics, olive oils, cheeses, and anchovies - it was excellent, and we were glad that we went.

And now, it's back to work but only for 3 days, as very early Thursday morning (more like late Wed. night!) we leave for Mexico and a year-end course with Landmark Wisdom Division.