Fairbanks is still snowy, but the sun has returned with a vengeance! The snowpack won't stick around for long if we don't get any fresh snowfall. Daylight lasts until 9 pm as we speed towards spring.
I found a pattern left from a raven - it looks like he landed in the snow, then brushed the ground with his wings as he took flight. To me it looks like a bird totem!
Creature Tunnel, acrylic, pen, and watercolor
This past weekend I traveled to Talkeetna for the Oosik Classic ski race, staying at a friend's cabin near Willow for the weekend. There was still a respectable snowpack in Talkeetna despite the warm weather. The night before the race they had freezing rain which turned into snow, forming a crusty icy sheen over the whole course. Needless to say it was one of the trickier ski races I have competed in! Kick wax means nothing when the hill you are scaling is sheer ice. And forget having control when you are zooming downhill on a slick and windy trail!
Lichen on birches looks like tropical reef corals
Tree huggers
The mountains were out!
A lake … sort of flat and frozen
This illustration provides a glimpse of what the skiing conditions were like. I wrote a limerick to accompany my drawing:
"There once were some kids from Fairbanks,
Who were stoic and strong as pine planks.
The very next morning,
On a ski, without warning -
Snow sharks attacked from the snowbanks!"
After the eventful Oosik, we headed to Hatcher Pass to get in some backcountry snowboarding and more nordic skiing. The sun was out, the temperatures were ideal, and the wide open snowfields beckon!
We started out on this bunny hill, then ventured higher up. We skied to the top of the pass and over to Summit Lake.
Looking south towards Palmer
The hills were very steep - deceptively so.
At the bottom of the valley are a couple of cabins that can be rented if you want to stay closer to the skiing action.
It felt surreal to be skiing in the wide open alpine, when I spend so much time living in the trees in Fairbanks!
At the top of Hatcher Pass there is an old mining town
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