It's Official!

Courtesy of ADN

We did it! The winter of 2011-2012 if officially the snowiest on record. Forget that it started snowing in the fall and continues to snow in spring, we've accumulated more snow than any other winter on record. In you face "the past!" (fun fact, I often say that at work when finally gaining the upper hand on an archival collection). It's still snowing. We'll likely finish the day with another inch of snow. From what I'm told, it's not unusual to get snow in May.

It was nice seeing our driveway and the occasional swath of grass. Hopefully the sun will come out tomorrow. 14hrs of daylight do wonders in melting snow. I remain fairly confident that one day, maybe soon, the snow will be gone.

MUSH!

Even though I was waving, I had a death grip with my right hand

The weekend I'd be waiting for since we moved to Alaska finally arrived. Dog mushing turned out to be even more awesome than I thought it could be. We started with a 3hr classroom session last Tuesday. We got our itinerary for the weekend, met a former Jr. Iditarod champion and Iditarod finisher, Melissa Owens (please note, there will be A LOT of name dropping in this post). Melissa brought one of her lead dogs - the dogs in the front, and went over how the dogs are harnessed, what qualities make a good mushing dog, a good lead dog, and what it's like on the trail. Our teacher, a retired musher, gave us some background on the race, and everything else involved in mushing. We left class knowing we had a long weekend coming up, but pretty excited to see how things would go.

Just outside of Wasilla, Ak

Saturday morning started well before dawn. We dropped Ellsworth off with some friends and picked up a couple underclassmen in our class who needed a ride. We arrived at the start of the Jr. Iditarod around 830am on Knik Lake, just passed Wasilla. We were there to help out as needed, observe the teams getting ready, and talk to any of the racers or teams that had time for us. Jr. Iditarod racers are some pretty hardcore kids. The race is open to 14 to 17 years-old. The race is 150 total miles and goes overnight. Racers camp out at the halfway point and then finish the next day. Mushers run teams of 10 dogs and came from as far away as Massachusetts.

Checking the gear before the race

The race started on Knik Lake and finished in Willow

By all accounts the weather was perfect the morning of the race. It was clear, sunny, and 3 degrees. The dogs run best when it's below 0. Personally, I would've operated a bit better had it been above 10, but I'm no teenage musher. We followed race officials from team to team, checking to see that each musher had all the required gear. Every musher seemed to have all the optional equipment for the dogs, but had none of the optional stuff for themselves. Crazy kids.
 

Those icicles formed in about an hour

Kelly, in case you can't tell

By far, the two calmest dogs

Once the pre-race checks were done teams started securing their dogs to the sled. It's truly amazing how excited the dogs were to get out and start running. The vast majority of the dogs were barking, howling, or whining in excitement. At the start line a lot of dogs were straining their harnesses, pulling to start. I found out from a race official that you can tell a well-trained dog by whether or not they pull before the start. The better trained dogs conserve their energy for the race and don't strain against the harness. Only 1 team out of 12 had dogs that weren't pulling before the start, but they weren't the winners.

Ready to go!

It's amazing how excited the dogs get

 After all of the racers set out we left for a quick tour of Iditarod headquarters before heading for Eagle River and the home, kennel, and studio of official Iditarod artists Jon and Jona van Zyle. Jon and a  Jona have kennel of Siberian Huskies, the traditional mushing dog. More and more the Alaska Husky (mixed breed) has hound bred into it for speed. The van Zyle's are old school.

The huskies were gorgeous dogs. They also love people

We were able to play with the dogs for a bit before we got a tour of the van Zyle's studio. We got some small prints signed by Jon to finish off the day. Jon and Jona were fantastic hosts and really epitomize the kind of friendliness we've found almost everywhere we've been in Alaska.

The dogs are trained to wait on their houses to be petted

A slightly larger hamster wheel

The second time I've seen a creepy baby doll randomly placed in Alaska

Stay tuned for our actual mushing adventure.

So Much Snow

UAA on a snowy Thursday morning.

The day after we got back from Christmas and New Years on the East Coast, we got another foot of snow. Just as we finished digging out, we got another 8". Nothing like a nice welcome home. That was almost two weeks ago and we haven't had any snow since. It's been a nice little break. Anchorage is already over 90" for the season. The city usually only averages around 80". Supposedly, the snow sometimes melts away.

That pile is now taller than Kelly.

 We haven't seen bare ground since the first snow way back in October. The snow piles surrounding our driveway are now pushing 6' tall. Good thing Kelly and I really love the snow. It's also a good thing we don't live in Cordova or Valdez. Any place that is up to 25' already is just not for me.

The aftermath of our latest snow.

It's been nice having some time off from the snow. Unfortunately, the lack of snow has been accompanied by a deep freeze. Over the last week and a half there have only been one or two times when the temperature has been above 0. We've found the quickest way to tell if the temperature is 0 or below is to see if your nose hairs freeze. If they are frozen after a couple breaths, it's below 0.

Sunset turned the snow on the hillside a bright pink.

Between 0 and -10 is somewhat tolerable, at least for walks to and from the car. Anything below -10 numbs your skin as soon as you step outside. My winter beard has done a decent job of keeping my face warm, but at -15, even the beard fails me. I spent 30 minutes outside at -15 and ended up with ice crystals in my beard from exhaling. Any moisture at these temps freezes. It's amazing to see ice crystals on everything, even things you didn't think could freeze. According to the locals, the amount of snow and this prolonged cold is extremely unusual. Lucky us.

Frozen gate and hinges.

Crystals on the pile along our driveway.