Some of This, That, and Other Things

HS 100

2011-07-19T05:44:00.000-08:00

The Hot Springs 100 is an adventure race that begins at Chena Hot Springs, AK and ends at Circle Hot Springs, AK. A few months ago Julia's old ski coach mentioned he was interested in making a go of it. I immediately expressed my desire to try it as well. So we started planning for it.

Below is the driving route.

View Larger Map

Because we had to go by foot, Scott and I took a shorter route. Prior to the race we had many conversations while planning our route. We spent hours looking at quadrangle maps and google earth. I created a series of waypoints for my GPS unit that we could use to navigate when our direction became obscured by weather, foliage, or terrain. Scott brought maps of the areas we planned to pass through. We were darn ready for a challenging race.

In the 4-5 days leading up to the race, I ate a lot of food. Four boxes of macaroni and cheese, four lbs of cereal, nearly two lbs of dry pasta, and all sorts of other stuff disappeared from the shelves.

Two days before the race I started to consume my secret weapon.
I ate an entire pie in 24 hours.

We had a goal of finishing in less than 30 hours. This seemed reasonable but we knew that a lot had to go right for us to make it. A long stretch of up and down from the Far Mountain Trail to Birch Creek was difficult to interpret on the maps and satellite photos. Water was not particularly abundant on our route. But the weather was slightly overcast and cool and we were optimistic.

Pre-race photo courtesy of Mike Welsh.

Leaving Chena Hot Springs at the start of the race. We were never
really in the lead.

We got ourselves up onto the Far Mountain Trail and pushed along at a very good pace, nearly 3 mph, considering the number of climbs along the trail that exceeded 500 feet. After about 2 hours we had completely dropped all the racers who had decided to take the same route as we had. That was encouraging.

Scott making the last climb before we left the Far Mountain Trail
and headed off into the unknown.

The top of Far Mountain Trail looking NNE.

Dropping off the Far Mountain Trails was not a little steep and my feet began to hurt. Blisters. Neat. This was a bit disappointing since all of the previous hikes in the months leading up had produced no blisters whatsoever. Whatever. I had decided not to take off my backpack for the first 30 miles, until we reached Birch Creek. A quick adjustment of the socks and catch back up to Scott. Backpack was still on 11 miles in.

Around 1:00 PM as we started into the first area below the tree line that did not include a man-marked trail, we came across one of the more exciting discoveries of the route we had decided to take. There were game trails everywhere! And they were heading in more or less the same direction we were hoping to go. Some trails were better than others. We found that caribou trails were far superior to moose trails. But most reduced the amount of bushwhacking so significantly that a finish time of less than 30 hours was not so difficult to imagine. We were making incredible time through what I anticipated to be the roughest parts of the trip.

Game trail! Caribou make the finest trails around.

For the next six to eight miles we followed the ridge between two drainages, following game trails through the brush and enjoying the tundra above the tree line on the exposed ridge.

Above tree line with the wild flowers.

For the next several hours we moved along quickly, up and down between forrest and exposed tundra. This was an incredible few hours. The breeze cooled us off as we moved along at a 2-3 mph pace, the views were wonderful, and the game trails were a joy. The trails would appear and disappear in the brush and finding and keeping them was a wonderful mental challenge that diverted attention away from sore feet and tired legs.

One of my favorite moments of the trip.

Scott and I discussed the route often, making both macro- and microscale decisions. We also had plenty of time for silent trudging. Though there was a possibility that the guys we saw during the first two hours of the hike were only a few miles behind us, there was a distinct feeling that we were isolated and alone. On quiet moments throughout the duration of the trip I recited a wonderful Easter poem I recently memorized and several other songs describing how great God is, most from Hope College chapel services. There was enough time for four or five recitations of each song I could remember. A happy time on the trail.

And there was a continuous breath of very fresh air. There are more spectacular adventure race courses and routes but the satisfaction of being out in the wilderness was overwhelming. We did not see many rocky cliffs but what we did see caused me to lift my hands in joy and appreciation.

Enjoyable terrain. Spectacular even.

The game trail below marked a profound high point around 8:00 PM. We were hours ahead of where we planned to be and what we could see ahead appeared to offer fast travel where 2-3 mph was not unreasonable.

Finding a unobstructed game trail caused me to shout and laugh with happiness.

We were reaching about 12 hours of constant moving and coming up to 27 miles of travel. I had not stopped to take off my backpack (Ha!). Around 10:00 PM, I started to think about strange things to keep my brain going. Such as what the overall effect of the mosquito that I had just sucked down had on my hiking performance. Should I try to spit out a mosquito if it finds itself in my maw? Is eating it going to lead to faster hiking or slower hiking? I know there is at least a little bit of caloric value in a mosquito. But would that energy from the mosquito be useless as more energy is required to process the mosquito and move the undesirable pieces out the other end? Mosquito eating: helpful or hurtful?

We followed an ancient two track put in along a ridge, possibly involved in wildland fire fighting in decades past, where Scott found a useful moose trail that offered good footing. The two track/moose trail spit us out into a field tussocks that appeared very long, 1-2 miles. Not ideal. Tussocks are pretty much cursed at by any backcountry traveler, before, during, and after any experience with them. They generally involve twisted ankles and soaking wet feet. We plodded on, still holding onto a moose trail headed in the same direction we were attempting to head.

*;^%$#$%^%^*;. It's all tussocks. Tussucks.

Also at this point Scott was running low on water. We had found small patches of water along the trail but had been repulsed by the caribou feces and mosquito larvae floating and swimming about. Near this first tussock field, Scott had an excruciating experience with hamstring cramps. He stopped walking, started screaming in pain, fell on the ground, and laid there until the cramps let up. Interesting development.

Working through the first field of tussocks. Not encouraging.

Keep on.

A small wildland fire from the tussock ridge. Kind of neat.

Around 12:00 PM we were ready to dive into the next tussock field. As we worked towards the border of the field through an old burned out stand of small spruce trees all the crap that could hit the fan seemed to hit it. In addition to having a few more debilitating hamstring cramps, Scott was starting to feel nauseous. Food was not appealing at all and very little potable water was left between the two of us, which was about the only thing he appear to be able to keep down.

Right about then I notice that my GPS unit was not in its pocket on my backpack belt.

%^!@$^*;*@^!$%^;*I()(*^%$!?!!?!?

I had dropped it within the last 10-15 minutes. We were picking our way through a maze of burned out trees and tussocks. Our previous path was essentially invisible. I mentioned to Scott my idiocy. He laid down in a grassy spot and didn't move for the next 45 minutes while I attempted to retrace our steps. I took off my backpack for the first time since shouldering at the start of the race 14 hours earlier. Dang it.

This was helpful for Scott. I asked him to blow a rescue whistle he had every minute or so to help give me a reference point as I searched for my GPS. Later he told me that it took everything in him just to take a deep breath and blow the whistle. Things were not going well at this point. The loss of the GPS was not a race breaker (and we couldn't really turn around and retrace our steps anyway). The weather and visibility were both very good and we knew our route well. But we needed some water sooner rather than later.

I surrendered my GPS to the wilderness and returned to Scott sprawled in the tussocks. He hadn't moved at all for nearly an hour except to blow the whistle. We put the packs back on and began to move on to the next great field of tussocks.

Almost immediately Scott experienced another hamstring cramps, falling back to the ground and screaming in pain.

Time for a change of plans. Down off the ridge we planned to follow all the way to Birch Creek to our southeast was more flowing water called Clums Creek. Instead of shooting for Birch Creek we decided to head for the closest water possible. Scott believed he could make it the mile or so down to the water. I picked through the brush and tried to find a route that involved as little use of the hamstrings as possible. This was difficult to do.

After traveling less than a quarter mile Scott had a few more cramps. I had been praying silently that his cramps would hold off long enough for us to get to Clums Creek. Finally I said aloud something to the effect of, "God please keep Scott from cramping so that we can get to the creek." I gave him all the water I had and he got up and we started started moving down the slope. No more cramps for the next half mile or so and we were dunking our water bottles in the nice clear creek and sucking down as much water as we could hold. Thank you God.

Thankfully the type of crap that hits the fan involving dangerously close animal encounters had not hit the fan, and it never did throughout the entire trip. That's sweet. Kind of. It would have been fun to see something or other. Some racers did run into a few large mammals.

Our put in on Clums Creek. Somewhere around 2:00 AM.

We took our time on the banks of Clums Creek. Earlier we were discussing 15 minute stops to get the boats inflated and off down the river. We ended up spending about an hour getting water and food put in ourselves and the boats loaded up and ready to go. Scott felt much better after drinking as much water as he could handle.

Eventually we bundled up, hopped in the boats, started downstream, and got out of the boats at the first snarl of sweepers 50 yards downstream. Neat. We played this game for about 3 hours. We also found ourselves regularly bouncing along rock bars as we worked our way downstream, trying to find the deepest route down Clums to Birch Creek. It was kind of cold too. Ice formed as water splashed on our backpacks strapped to the bow. We scraped our way down, finally arriving at the confluence and entering Birch Creek around 5:00 AM.

Larger creek!

We learned later that this was one of the lowest water years in the past decade. Thus, not only were we were dragging butt on the rocks, it was relatively slow moving. We scraped our boats along, searching for a nice deep channel, getting out and soaking our feet in the creek for a while when we got stuck.

A few exciting spots on the river kept us awake. Just before the obvious Shotgun Rapids were two large boulders with a bit of a drop that we bounced past. That kept us awake. Also, we saw a couple of racers asleep in their boats just before the rapids. Aside from some folks waiting for racers to come down the road about one mile from finish line, they were the only humans we saw the entire race. Heck yeah we were passing them.

Shotgun Rapids. Portage river left.

I was kind of cold. When we portaged Shotgun Rapids I found that getting out of the nice warm boat with a spray skirt was unpleasantly cold. I sat in a puddle of water that completely soaked my lower body while in the boat but taking off the spray skirt and getting out was the most difficult part of the morning. My legs were shaking uncontrollably, muscles throughout my body were contracting randomly, I had a lot of trouble staying upright while walking on the uneven rocks on the bank of the creek, and the mental process of putting my boat in the water and then getting in it was really hard to put together in the right order. I guess that is what some people call moderate hypothermia. I call it part of the deal. Spray skirt closed, problem solved. Is that stupid or tough?

Scott hopping in the boat after portaging Shotgun Rapids.

We bounced along for another three or four hours after the rapids. On one particularly straight calm portion of the river I fell asleep for what seemed to be about 10 seconds. At that point I suggested to Scott that we set a goal for when we wanted to reach our takeout. He agreed and I started paddling hard, trying to reach our take out by around 11:00 AM or something like that.

Birch Creek paddling.

Eventually we bounced the 20 or so miles down Birch Creek to Pitka's Bar where we hopped out of the boats and onto dry land.

Tak for turen!

Kind of dry land. My feet had been soaked for the past 12 hours. Also, they were a bit blistered. Time for a large dose of mild anti-inflammatory medication.

We collected our completely soaked items into our packs and headed up towards the ridge we planned to follow in order to avoid a bushwhack up a creek that most racers take. As soon as we crested the bank, we noticed a tussock field about a mile long. Neat. We crossed the tussock field and started to climb through the woods to the exposed ridge. Many thanks were again due to the caribou for carving trails through the woods.

The wispy clouds of the previous day gave way to rain clouds blowing in from the west. So the camera went away for a while. This was relatively challenging hiking. Though we had changed socks at the takeout, everything was soggy. We followed a four-wheeler trail for about 5 miles along the ridge, eventually making a final bushwhack to a gravel road that marked the final stretch. At this point, both feet were feeling pretty well shredded. Since taking out at Pitka's Bar, both heels and the balls of my feet felt like they were completely covered by a blister; one big one on the heel, one big one on the ball of my foot.

I convinced Scott that I heard voices on the road behind us (kind of true; I heard something) and that we needed to keep a brisk pace to stay ahead. A bit more than four more miles of walking put us at the finish line.

Finish line in sight.

We signed in on the finish line sheet and called it good.

Done.

Scott had arranged for some of Julia's old teammates to pick us up between the hours of 6 and 8 PM. We had joked on the last hour of hiking that it would be a bit disheartening to be just a bit too late, see them pulling away, leaving us to figure out a way home that night. Didn't happen. Good thing too. Dry shirt, pants, and socks have never felt so good. Also the folks at the Steese Roadhouse offered free burgers to race finishers. That was good too. We finished in 32 hours 18 minutes, about the middle of the pack. The winner beat us by about 12 hours.

Whatever. We had fun.

In general, adventure racers generally discuss the sorry condition of their feet following the completion of the race. In fact there is a book about it that Julia's roommate just gave her that I am excited to read. My experience is no different. My feet hurt a lot. Also a few days later my feet swelled up and I suddenly developed cankles. That was weird.

Post-race. I didn't even notice the open blister on my achilles
during the race.

Post-race. That's a new look.

A few weeks after the race I looked at my pinky toe and noticed that about a square inch of skin was falling off. Also, it turns out that I was correct when I thought that a good portion of my heel pad was a blister.

Three weeks after.

We traveled a long way, about 66 miles. Plenty of climbing up and down too.

Wikimapia is fun.

But I guess we didn't really cross Alaska.

Alaska is big. Much to cross.

The race was 32 hours of wild. This photo represents the approximate 14 hours of mosquito interactions we had.

I decided not to bring a head net. 100% Deet is only partially
effective in these conditions.

Scott and I were two of many first-timers trying the race. But we made a pretty good go of it. Here is a writeup from the local paper. The pep talk he mentions that I remember was something to the effect of, "Well, we have to keep going. When can you move again?"

I have found that there is a profound difference between misery and pain. I really enjoy making that distinction. The race was painful, no doubt, but I recall very little, if any, misery. Remembering the Gospel gives me hope for a life spotted with pain but devoid of misery. May it be so. As the race promoter, Mark Ross, says, "Be free." It would be my pleasure.

The iMovie templates are silly but efficient. This only took about 30 minutes to put together. And it made me chuckle to myself a lot.

Also, some unedited video with an interview immediately following the race.

Well, that was enjoyable. I hope I have the opportunity to do something similar again.

April and May

2011-07-01T15:41:00.001-08:00

In April, Julia had the wonderful opportunity to head home to Michigan and do fun things like this:

Real eggs!

Plastic eggs!!!!

Looking good wife.

While Julia was in Michigan, I was in Alaska doing fun stuff like this:

Getting towed up the lateral moraine of Canwell Glacier.
Photo by Erik.

Making tracks up and down the slopes south of the
Canwell. Photo by Nick.

Skiing back down the lateral moraine on the Canwell.
Photo by Nick.

That was so much fun I decided to take Julia out there the next weekend to try to ski in the same area. We spent the night in a friend's cabin on Fielding Lake and woke up early the next morning to head to the mountains. Alaska is a spectacular place, both in terms of the people we have met and places we have seen.

We have stopped and taken pictures at this spot nearly every time we have
driven down the Richardson Highway. This time we had wonderful light.

We weren't able to get up there with downhill skiing equipment. So we switched to skate skis and scooted along the same trail I had taken a week earlier. Though we didn't have cloudless skies and we didn't put in any new skin tracks up the hill, it was still a spectacular outing.

Julia above the Canwell.

On the way back I found a soft spot in the trail.

An outline of my face was visible in the snow.

Julia entering the canyon where our car was parked.

Before Julia headed to Michigan, her old ski coach and I had begun planning for competing in the Hot Springs 100 adventure race (also referred to as AlaskAcross). This was helpful when Julia was gone as it provided something to distract me from missing my lovely wife (though it wasn't even close to being adequately effective). We did a few hikes and long runs on weekends during April and May. One weekend we checked out the first nine miles of the route we planned to take. A walk on the Angel Rocks Trail, hike down to the river, and float back to a bike stashed in the woods was also enjoyable.

Angel Rocks

Looking down the Upper Chena River from near the top of the
Angel Rocks Trail.

Floating the Middle Fork of the Chena River.

When Julia had to leave Alaska again in May, I started to do all sorts of weird things, such as crying myself to sleep, eating only pasta and olive oil with a glass of water for a meal, and eating six pounds of Cocoa Crunchies and Magic Stars. I also started doing a few abnormal things to prepare for the race, like walking to and from a teacher inservice in Fairbanks and hiking all night to train for the race. On the second to last day of work at Ben Eielson Jr./Sr. High School, I walked to work and it took all night. I ferried across the raging Chena River at 2:30 AM in the morning. I very much by chance avoided an encounter with a pipeline service truck at 2:00 AM. I definitely didn't want to explain myself. He didn't see me, I wasn't going to wave. It probably wasn't the wisest adventure to go on, but whatever. I had lots of fun anyway. I followed an owl for about 45 minutes along the pipeline as I chased it from tree to tree. I sang nice and loud and nobody told me to shut it. It was good to be alone for a while.

The pipeline at twilight. The first ten piles of bear scat along
the pipeline service road weren't that disconcerting. But that
eleventh one really got me thinking.

Dawn breaking on very quiet Chena Lakes.

Finish line.

Tak for turen!

WikiMapia is fun.

After walking to work, there were less than two weeks left before the race. My tapering period began, mostly because my heel hurt from walking 27 miles on gravel and pavement. Thankfully everything was ready to roll for the race.

It's a very good thing when Julia is present. I eat and sleep far better than when she is around. Also Julia doesn't think my adventure choosing mechanism has enough checks and balances. But I'm still alive!

Ha!

Finally Alive on Silvertip

2011-04-20T22:42:00.002-08:00

The day we went after getting to the top of Silvertip, we left camp at about 6:30 AM and tumbled into the truck at about 11:00 PM. After singing "How Great Thou Art" a few times, I had some time to sing a different song. "Finally Alive" came out.

But I'm Finally Alive

I've been made new

I'm satisfied in You

And these dead bones live

And this new heart beats

For You

The song is about the new birth. The wonderful work of God where He acts and people who reject Him are changed. Instead of ignoring or even hating God, becoming "finally alive" causes a person to embrace God as their most precious treasure. But my mind drifted. I wanted to think about how I was finally alive and running around Alaska after being perpetually exhausted by a dysfunctional brain and a lazy metabolism. That was easier to think about and easier to see. But that wasn't all that the song was pointing to.

Max and Hank above the Jarvis Glacier.

I joined an experienced group of climbers on a trip to make an attempt on Mount Silvertip. We got a good view of it on our trip along the ridge leading to Item Peak two weeks earlier. This tremendous panorama was stitched together by one of the members of that trip.

Silvertip panorama by Galen. Item Peak on the right.

Disclaimer: This trip report was written by a former flatlander who gets to explore mountains after growing up on a farm in the Midwest. The most exciting geological features in the Midwest are drumlins left after the most recent period of glacial advance. I had heard of drumlins but never actually observed one since they were only really noticeable from the air. Alaska is very different. Please pardon my excitement.

At 9,400 feet, Mount Silvertip is not even in the top 100 tallest peaks in Alaska. That's OK. It is plenty tall and the third trip of the spring up Michael Creek proved to be the most spectacular.

View Larger Map

We headed up the creek. There was a bit of sun and this time we had a group ahead of us breaking trail. Jeremy had two of his buddies along and he was not going to allow Item Peak to beat him twice. This was very helpful. In the time it took us to barely get out of the valley last week, we had made it to our campsite near the headwall.

Up Michael Creek on another beautiful day.

We got a couple good looks at a group of dall sheep. They got some good looks at us.

Impressive animals.

Photo by Max.

Good day, easy traveling. Photo by Hank.

Ahhh. Skin track already in place.

View from our campsite. Track out to the loo on the right. The
john offered a pretty nice view.

Max and Hank scouted a route to the top of the headwall and decreased the amount of trail breaking we would need to do in the morning while Steve and I stayed at camp and melted snow. They enjoyed a low visibility but pleasant ski off the headwall back to camp. We decided to wake up around 4 AM, prepare breakfast and water, and be heading up the headwall around 6 AM.

Evening time.

Then the fun began.

Thanks to the trail breaking from the guys the night before, getting over the headwall from camp was not difficult. We got our first look at where we were heading.

Objective!

On the headwall looking towards Item Peak and the zone
of accumulation of the Jarvis Glacier.

There was a pretty steep spot just getting off the headwall so we took off our skis and strapped them to our packs. I was very pleased about this. Unless we are on a flat or going up, I dislike having my skis on my feet. Previously I had read something about skiing in mountaineering boots and spiral fractures. Also the bindings that I am using have never released on any fall that I have taken (and there have been many). Maybe I should check that out.

Deciding to boot down the headwall onto the Jarvis. Photo by Max.

Hank descending the headwall onto the Jarvis. Windy on Item.

After a few minutes, it made sense to put skis on again. I was not excited. For a while I just stood there while the other guys were changing back to skis from crampons. Then Max, the leader, said something to the effect of, "Let's go Joel. We've got to make these transitions quickly." This was no place to be a wuss, that was certain. Mental breakthrough. Quick transition from, "Well, I bet we could get there" to "Let's get there." Thanks Max.

Time to go back to skis. Photo by Max.

So we skied down. I only fell 14 times even though I going very slowly and I had the stance of a four-year-old girl.

Hank gracefully skiing down to the Jarvis. Photo by Max.

Once off the headwall, we roped up for safety to cross the Jarvis Glacier.

This part was for safety. Photo by Max.

Crossing the Jarvis Glacier was cool. An hour-and-a-half of plodding along surrounded by peaks and ridges on a smooth glacier. I'd do it again.

We made our way to the slopes of Silvertip, unroped, and started up. We kept our skis on due to the unusual amounts of snow on the route. Max and Hank stopped and dug a snow pit and conducted a Rutschblock test to see if there were any significant avalanche dangers. Most of the layers of snow were stable and even the unstable layers were pretty reliable so we headed up the snow slope.

This activity was for safety.

I broke trail for a while as the other two guys testing. They soon caught up to me and took over breaking trail through the loose snow.

Plenty of up.

Selecting an appropriate route.

Around 8:00 AM that morning we had established a 1:30 PM turnaround time. This was B.S. We planned to turn around at 2:00 PM. As we climbed and got a good look at the weather, we decided if we didn't get to the top from where we were in less than 2 or 3 hours we were wusses and we didn't deserve to get to the top. That was at about 12:30 PM. All of this disregard for the turn around time was possible because of absolutely spotless weather.

My breathe was taken away more than once.

Looking west back toward the headwall from the slopes of Silvertip.

Hank breaking trail.

Above Jarvis Glacier.

We started to get views that made us point and gawk.

Looking west towards the big mountains in the Eastern Alaska Range.

Black Rapids Glacier working its way 25 miles along the Denali Fault.

Looking west towards Mt. Moffit and the rest of the Eastern Alaska Range.
Photo by Max.

We eventually found windblown snow that would allow us to take off our skis and enjoy the bite of a crampon.

Just below the two smallish rock bands is where we dumped our skis in
favor of crampons.

Hank and I heading across the snowfield. Photo by Max.

Looking west some more.

Eventually we made it above Item Peak.

Looking southwest towards Item Peak.

We worked our way around small rock ledges and past gullies leading down to the arms of the Jarvis Glacier that descend off the south and west flanks of Silvertip.

Another look at the headwall we had ascended and descended
earlier in the morning.

Max and Hank coming up.

It was cloudless in every direction so we had spectacular views of the Delta Range east of the Richardson Highway as well.

Black Cap on the left and White Princess on the right.

Eventually the Castner Glacier came into view. The main body of the Castner flows from left to right behind the ridge in the photo below. The visible glacier is the M'Ladies Branch of the Castner flowing north. This was another beautiful place to camp last year.

White Princess on the left and Triangle Peak on the right.

Working on some V1 technique. Photo by Max.

One bit of rock climbing made my heart pound but there were no falls.

That was exciting. Photo by Max.

The last bit of trail breaking until the windblown ridge to the top.
Photo by Max.

Looking south, nearing the final ridge to the summit of Silvertip.

Soaking up the views from the ridge. Summit on the left. Photo by Max.

We are going up there. Photo by Max.

More cramponing. False summit just visible. Photo by Max.

Easy slopes for the push to the summit. Time for singing.

I was dead and depraved and I loved my sin

I was lifeless in the grave of hopelessness

But I'm Finally Alive

I've been made new

I'm satisfied in You

And these dead bones live

And this new heart beats

For You

You, in Your loving kindness healed my blindness and let me see.

Now I can see and savor, enjoy forever Your majesty!

I was certainly enjoying God's majesty in the context of what He has created. The day was so beautiful that we hardly thought about a turnaround time. We could see 100 miles in every direction and the nearest wisps of clouds were completely friendly looking. It was a great day in the Deltas.

It was so easy to compare the lyrics of the song to my body feeling broken and nearly dead but then a bit of medication giving me new energy and making me feel alive again. I could have had a seizure driving a car or floating a river or any other precarious spot and been quite literally dead. Now I feel alive enough to attempt Mount Silvertip. But that wasn't what the song was referring to.

And then we were at the top.

Summit high five! Nothing to it! Photo by Max.

We reached the top just after 3 PM and soaked in the views in every direction.

The view to the northwest. The Delta River and Donnelly Dome below.
Photo by Max.

Looking northeast. Mount Hajdukovich in the distance.

Tak for the summit snack Anna. Tak for turen too. Tak you.
Photo by Max.

Summit photo. Photo by Hank's Camera.

After about 20 minutes enjoying the top, it was time to dismount. In general we were laughing and smiling the entire way down.

From the summit to the false summit, looking south. Photo by Max

A good view of the Silvertip (foreground) and M'Ladies branches of the
Castner Glacier. White Princess on the left. Photo by Max.

Enjoying the descent, looking west towards the Delta River. The
glacier descending the western slopes of Silvertip is ahead. Photo by Max.

Working around the rocks. Tracks from the ascent visible below.
Photo by Max.

We returned to our skis. I started to get nervous. This is not a place to get a leg twisted up underneath me nor is it a good place to hit any kind of rock. Max and Hank were excited for a ski descent of the lower slopes of Silvertip.

Hank is a good skier.

Photo by Max.

Max is also a good skier.

I am not a good skier.

Scouting out where to carve my turns*.
*Fall and then point the other direction.
Photo by Max.

"Ha! He's moving again! Watch!" Photo by Max.

Try to distinguish my tracks from the tracks of the skilled skiers.
Photo by Max.

Catching up to the rest of the party and enjoying the gentle slopes
of the Jarvis. Photo by Max.

Tackling the headwall again. Photo by Max.

After following our tracks back up the headwall from our descent earlier in the day, we eventually ran into some slopes that had become loaded with snow by the wind throughout the day and increased the opportunity for avalanches. This put the crampons back on our feet and we followed a windblown rock band with no unstable snow back up to the top of the headwall.

Camp in view. Fatigue beginning to set in. Photo by Max.

Our camp was in sight and we charged down to pack up and head out the canyon.

Our tents are tucked into the snow on the bump in the lower left.
Photo by Max.

Ha! Last steep slope to the camp. Photo by Max.

We reached the camp a little after 8 PM. Fourteen hours of go. But there was plenty to do before we could head home. We packed up camp, filled water bottles, and started down the valley into the canyon as twilight settled in.

Just a few more hours to the car. Photo by Max.

We reached the car and happily piled in for the drive home just after 11 PM.

It was a good day.

Accomplished objective. Photo by Max.

I was feeling very much alive. But after the trip I wanted to go back to the sermon that had helped me make sense of the dysfunction of my brain. I landed on this excerpt.

Why did God subject the natural order to such horrific realities when nature did nothing wrong?...Why is the earth bursting with volcanoes and earthquakes?... What's the deal with this universal subjection to corruption when one man and one women sin one time and the whole natural order goes wrong? Disorder everywhere in the most horrible ways that most of us are protected from most of the time. What a kaleidoscope of suffering in this world. Century after century.

Here is my answer. I don't know any other answer biblically. God put the natural world under a curse so that physical horrors would become vivid pictures of the horror of moral evil. That's it. I don't know any other reason.

Cancer, tuberculosis, malformations, floods, car accidents happen so that we would get some dim idea of the outrage of moral evil flowing from our hearts. Why did he do it that way? Ask yourself just an honest question. How intensely outraged over your belittling of God compared to the engagement of your emotion when your child is hurt, or your leg is cut off, or you lose your job, or some physical thing happens? Everything in you rises, "NO!" How often does your heart say "NO!" with the same emotional engagement at your own sin? Not very often. Not very often.

Therefore what God is doing is saying, "Alright. I know that about fallen man. I will display the horror of his sin in a way that he can feel." That is why Jesus, when the tower fell on the 18, said simply, "Unless you repent you will all likewise perish." [Luke 13.1-5] What was that? The point of the falling of the tower and killing 18 people was your moral evil. That was the point.

All physical evil has one point: Sin is like that [!] morally and we don't have the wherewithal to feel it appropriately therefore we're going to get some help from the physical order. That's the point of the world we live in. It's pointing to the horror of moral evil. Oh that we would see how repugnant and offensive and abominable it is to prefer anything to God. We do it every day almost. I do.

Adam and Eve brought the universe into this present condition by preferring their own way and fruit to God. All the physical evil in the universe is not as bad as that one act of treason. All of it summed up for all the centuries that exists is not as bad as that.

You can see how this history, if that's true, this history that we live in, these millennia of pain, this conveyor belt of corpses, is all about the magnitude of that sin which is all about magnifying the worth of the One who screamed so we wouldn't have to bear it. It's all about Christ. Cancer is about Christ. Tsunamis are about Christ...

Why was the song so easy to think about in the context of my own health? Because God, in His mercy, allowed me to see the weight of my sin as I reflected on epilepsy and me newfound energy. He allowed me to see, just a little bit more clearly, the magnitude of the spiritual reality of sin.

I was dead and depraved and I loved my sin

I was lifeless in the grave of hopelessness

But it does not end there! I am finally alive! My body has been "made new" and I feel well enough to explore places I only dreamed about. And so it is my standing with God. God did not design the physical evil of the world to draw attention to moral evil just so He can tell us that we are morally evil. There is Gospel!

"For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." 2 Corinthians 5:21

But I'm Finally Alive

I've been made new

I'm satisfied in You

And these dead bones live

And this new heart beats

For You

The great "making new" that God accomplishes through Christ is the apex of history. The present physical condition of the world is providing a picture of the present moral condition of the people in the world and it is horrendous. We boast in Christ's physical suffering on the cross because a great and infinitely beautiful God sent His Son, who embodied everything that God is, to bear wrath that our sin deserves. And if we would believe in Jesus we would be finally alive.

Oh, that we would see the beauty of being finally alive and the beauty of the One who has accomplished everything to make it so.

Michael Creek Tour

2011-04-17T17:46:00.001-08:00

In very many ways, my wife is amazing. On a trip up Michael Creek she proved once again that she is a sport and pretty dang tough. "Hey wife! Let's go do something fun!" does not always lead to fun. Julia is very patient.

After making a run at Item Peak the weekend before, I got all excited and decided that we could make it to the top in one day if we started early enough and had good conditions. So Julia and I called some friends and headed down to Michael Creek to see how far we could get.

Julia and Ella were a bit green when it came to mountaineering so before we left we strapped on the crampons for 20 minutes of fun.

Getting ready to crampon on snow piles at UAF.

We drove down to Michael Creek Friday night and the four of us piled into our 1- err 3-season tent around midnight with some occasional gusts of wind. The view from the tent in the morning did not indicate good weather.

Crud. Clouds and blowing snow.

But things cleared sufficiently as we made breakfast and put away the tent. I briefly chastised Julia for the choices she made related to the food she wanted to bring along in her pack. Celery is not a common mountaineering snack. But she was patient with my impatience and we slapped skins on our skis and took off.

Up the creek.

After a few minutes of breaking trail, blue skies appeared and we were feeling good.

Looking west towards the Delta River and Richardson Highway.

What was not looking good was the lack of trail. The weekend before there had been no loose snow in any portion of the canyon. Now there was a new foot of snow and more blowing snow collecting in the canyon as we moved through. With no groups ahead of us that morning we broke trail through the length of the canyon, paying close attention to areas of avalanche danger.

"Further in and farther up!"

Getting out of the canyon and into the valley.

It took us five hours of significant effort to travel as far as we had gone in two hours the previous week. Around 1 PM a pair of skiers passed us as we rested. We started following their trail but our expedition began to unravel. Julia's ski boots were treating her very poorly. Five hours of slogging through a foot of snow is very different than an hour and a half of skinning and skiing in the dark at Moose Mountain. The weather began to deteriorate. Lenticular clouds were developing on small knobs on the ridge we planned to follow and spin drift was coming off the ridge as well. The new snow was beginning to do exciting things as well as we moved through it. Jeremy mentioned enthusiastically, "Whompf means the climb is on!" I agreed but the girls were less than excited about reaching our objective.

So we called it good. Julia's countenance changed immediately and even though her feet were very sore, she began to enjoy skiing again because we were pointing ourselves towards the car rather than away from it.

Everybody look at your skis! Nice.

Jeremy maintained a positive attitude for the duration of the trip.

So we turned around and headed back. I wandered ahead of the group to take some pictures of the descent out of the valley. Julia fell down.

Expressing sympathy for Julia.

A little further down after they had passed me, Julia fell down again.

My turn to express sympathy for Julia.
"Hey, get up."

A little further on down, Julia fell again.

Ella's turn to express sympathy.

At this point Julia's feet hurt very bad. Bruises on her toes were developing. But she kept on.

Look at that smile.

Also, the view was gorgeous.

Heading back into the canyon.

Most of our tracks had disappeared due to blowing snow. We kept on, careful to avoid the open water from the flowing creek below us.

Waiting for the downhill section to clear.

Happy to be out of doors.

Shortly after this, Julia fell down again and started to whimper a bit. This was by far the most spectacular of the four crashes. But we dug her out of the snow and she picked herself up and continued on. I happened to get it on video. Let me know if you would like to see it. It is maybe a little bit humorous.

Scooting down one of the more difficult portions of the canyon
shortly after her big face plant.

We got out of the canyon, loaded up the car, and headed back to Fairbanks a bit earlier than expected. But we had wandered around in a beautiful place on skis for about 7 hours and enjoyed time with good friends.

*I should mention that Jeremy is a very experienced climber/mountaineer. He would not concede defeat and the next week he teamed up with his climbing buddy from the Muldrow Route on Denali and another uber athlete and they charged their way up to Item Peak in one day. They broke trail like we did in our first attempt for approximately 11-12 hours and made it to Item at 7 PM.

In the car on the way home (On the way home! Not even a few days later!) Julia mentioned that she had fun and would like to do something similar again. She even seemed sincere. She had cried twice and her feet were throbbing but she wanted to try it again. I suppose we should try to find boots that fit a little better.

My wife is pretty. And tough. And awesome.

Girdwood

2011-04-17T15:39:00.000-08:00

Following the Kenai Peninsula adventures, we parked ourselves in Girdwood, a little ski resort town surrounded by large mountains. While Julia taught young skiers how to work hard, I wandered around the Chugach Mountains trying to do fun stuff.

The first endeavor was to check out a little trail that followed Winner Creek. Very pleasant.

Looking east up the Winner Creek Valley.

Winner Creek

Winner Creek sneaks through some tight spots and down a waterfall into Glacier Creek. There is a bit of a canyon and a tram has been installed crossing Glacier Creek. It is kind of fun to cross. I had heard this creek was good for packrafting so I scouting things out a bit.

Looking down Glacier Creek from the tram towards to the Winner
Creek confluence coming in on river left.

I ended up getting to packraft Glacier Creek from the tram down to the Girdwood library. It was really fun. A video is provided in another post that gives a pretty clear picture of what I got to do. I had to dump my boat out a few times due to a dysfunctional spray skirt but I was laughing and enjoying the whole process. About an hour of exhilaration/fear/amazement.

Next up was a run/hike on the Crow Pass Trail with a spare afternoon. Julia got sucked into coaching so I was on my own for this one. Boo. It's more fun when she is along. Also, no bears spotted. That is good.

Looking south down towards Girdwood and Crow Creek.

Old mining equipment.

A public use cabin at Crow Pass. On sunny day I can only imagine the views.

Raven Glacier from a moraine just below Crow Pass.

On the way out there were a few clouds on both sides of the pass.

Looking north down Raven Creek towards its confluence with
Eagle River.

At one point on the trail it is necessary to cross a little tributary that meets up with Raven Creek. Hiking in Alaska often involves wet feet. It's just part of the deal. Thankfully I learned not to wear cotton socks while hiking a while back.

Cold.

A little waterfall on Raven Creek.

Hello moose. He was pretty content. No aggressive behavior observed.

On the trip back the sun came out on the north side of the pass.

Flowers along the trail just before the creek crossing.

Still cold.

The south side of Crow Pass on the way back to the car.

Great hike. There is a marathon that follows this trail from Girdwood to Eagle River. Apparently people tend to hurt themselves by tripping a lot. Understandable.

One more adventure was involved in this trip but I forgot the camera. With a new confidence in my packrafting ability after Glacier Creek, I joined a group of packrafters for a trip down the South Fork of Eagle River. I am not a skilled enough paddler for that one yet. Also, within 15 seconds of getting in my boat at the put in I hit a rock, cut a hole in the bottom and punctured the seat. That made navigating around rocks and brush pretty tough, though I probably couldn't have pulled it off anyway. The hike was pretty nice though.

Hooray for South Central Alaska. And we hardly even began to explore.

Kenai Peninsula Fun

2011-04-17T14:38:00.000-08:00

More summer fun!

Camping on the Homer Spit

Before spending a week in Girdwood, AK, Julia and I first headed down towards Homer, AK to try to see some beautiful places. Along the way we where able to see some sights that Midwesterners don't often have a chance to see.

Apparently there are often beluga whales spotted in the Turnagain Arm. We stopped at Beluga Point to make an attempt to spot some. Julia said she did. I think they were whitecaps from a seriously powerful tide. Either way it was a great place for a stretch of the legs.

"I think I see a whale!" "I think it's a wave." "Whale."
"Wave." "It's a whale!"

Towards Homer, the mountains were peeking out on the west side of the Cook Inlet. Very large volcanoes are fun to look at.

Mt. Augestine

After making arrangements with a water taxi for a trip across Kachemak Bay the next morning, we set up camp on a beach on the Homer Spit. This was a good decision.

Sunset on the Homer Spit.

Preparing dinner.

The next morning we woke up to a bit of wind. There were plenty of waves and our tent and rainfly were making attempts to free themselves from the rocks we had attached them to. But the day was spectacular.

Preparing breakfast.

After adjusting our adventure plans with the water taxi due to a stiff wind from the southwest, we headed across the bay to a place called Halibut Cove. We brought along packrafts so we could see the glacier from a bit closer up and give ourselves a few more options when it came to trails we could wander. From Halibut Cove, we hiked up over a little saddle and headed towards Grewingk Lake.

Halibut Cove

On the trail to Grewingk Lake.

We paddled out to a rocky peninsula that endured the advance of Grewingk Glacier and was left as the glacier has retreated.

Putting in.

The view of Grewingk Glacier from the little peninsula.

We had a breezy lunch.

How excited is Julia to be outdoors on glacier smoothed peninsula?
Not very excited.

We paddled back along the east shore of the lake and found another trail that wraps around back to west side of the lake and Halibut Cove. There was at least two piles of bear skat on the trail but it appears that Julia has adjusted to Alaska hiking quite well. We continued on without incident.

A creek to cross (float?).

We need to cross the creek that flowed out of Grewingk Lake and into Kachemak Bay on our way back to the trailhead. Thankfully there was a convenient tram to use. I have since read about a few folks who have packrafted this creek down to the ocean and Glacier Spit to meet up with another trail. That sounds like a lot of fun. Hope to try it soon.

Useful.

On the way back up to Girdwood, we camped in a pleasant campsite with a nice gurgling creek nearby. That evening we had one of the more satisfying campfires and several of the tastiest s'mores ever.

We also took a detour to Whittier, AK. This was uninspiring due to significant amounts of rain. But it's easy to see how Whittier could offer some great views. It was very exciting to drive through a mountain via a long and narrow tunnel.

Windy and rainy but kind of nice.

"Hey! I like trees too!"

And then on to Girdwood for more fun...

Item Ridge

2011-03-31T12:08:00.000-08:00

In the past few years I have come to understand that emotions are an essential part of the Christian life. These emotions are not primarily moments of intense religious experience. The emotions that are often described in the Bible are related to sustaining a love for God that is not altered or destroyed by any specific circumstance or experience.

Affections for God arise from understanding something about God and enjoying it. The emotion arises from seeing and responding to a reality. Just as we see a reality and respond with emotions in our relationships with each other, we can see a reality about God and respond with emotion. Feelings of happiness and awe rise out of me as I consider what I understand about God.

Heading back to our camp after attempting to reach Item Peak, I started singing. One way to think about Christians singing is that we are remembering God's word, we responding to God's grace, and we reflecting on God's glory. The song that my emotions produced as I was walking along a snow covered ridge and considering what I know about God was "How Great Thou Art."

Oh Lord, my God, when I in awesome wonder

Consider all the worlds thy hands have made...

...When I look down, from lofty mountain grandeur

I hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze.

Glory!

And when I think that God, His Son not sparing,

Sent him to die, I scarce can take it in.

That on the Cross, my burden gladly bearing,

He bled and died to take away my sin.

Grace!

It was a pleasant trip.

The Alaska Alpine Club puts together weekend trips each spring into the Eastern Alaska Range and the Delta Mountains. A group of us attempted Item Peak last weekend. We drove to Michael Creek along the Richardson Highway Saturday morning and made our way up to "the headwall," where we set up camp.

Skiing up Michael Creek past some open water.

Setting up camp below the headwall.

We decided that the window of mostly sunny skies on the Saturday should be taken advantage of. The original plan was to make camp and attempt to reach the summit the following day but the weather report called for mostly cloudy skies with snow likely on Sunday. We strapped on the crampons and headed up the headwall towards the ridge in the sun.

Looking south towards the head of the Delta River. One of many
rock formations called Devil's Thumb.

Moving upward along the ridge. Photo by Nick.

We came to a bump on the ridge and quickly realized we would not be making it to the top of Item Peak. Another half mile across a saddle and our turn around time 15 minutes away kept us from the top. We stopped at this knob on the ridge and took in the views.

At our high point (not Item Peak). Photo by Nick.

Item Peak further up the ridge.

Looking north towards the Jarvis Glacier and the slopes of
Mount Silvertip.

Looking down on ridge we ascended. Our tracks are barely visible
just below the rock line.

Returning to camp. (Photo by Nick)

Grant and Nick moving down.

Crampons are useful at this point.

We were all pleased with the effort, even though we didn't reach the summit. The last stretch back to our camp involved several hundred feet of cramponing down the headwall that was not difficult. So we waited on the ridge above camp and watched the sun go down.

Glory!

The next morning we slept in and returned to the cars. By about noon the clouds had rolled in and snow was falling, which was encouraging as the morning had presented few clouds and I was wondering if we could have made the summit. But had it been a spotless sunny day, we all would have been content. We agreed that the evening before was so enjoyable that it was worth missing the top.

Then sings my soul my savior God to thee!

How great Thou art! How great Thou art!

Glory

2011-03-26T00:08:00.000-08:00

From "a serious book about being happy in God."

Glory is not easy to define. It is like beauty. How would you define beauty? Some things we have to point at rather than define. But let me try. God's glory is the beauty of His manifold perfections. It can refer to the bright and awesome radiance that sometimes breaks forth in visible manifestations. Or it can refer to the infinite moral excellence of His character. In either case it signifies a reality of infinite greatness and worth. C.S. Lewis helps us with his own effort to point at it:

"Nature never taught me that there exists a God of glory and of infinite majesty. I had to learn that in other ways. But nature gave the word glory a meaning for me. I still do not know where else I could have found one. I do not see how the 'fear' of God could have ever meant to me anything but the lowest prudential efforts to be safe, if I had never seen certain ominous ravines and unapproachable crags."

Beginning up the main couloir on the south side of Panorama Peak.

Resting and enjoying the sun.

Continuing up. Looking south toward the Jack River and Nenana
River confluence.

Denali in the distance.

At the top of the main couloir with summit above.

The last push to the summit.

Looking east from near the true summit.

The true summit looking north down the Nenana River valley
toward the Denali National Park entrance.

Working our way back to the summit ridge using a safer route
than our ascent.

Descending the summit ridge.

Descending the couloir.

Western Alaska Range in the distance.

Panorama Peak from the road.

The upper end of the couloir and the summit from the road.

Ah, the spectacular and merciful display of God. A glimpse of the glory of God and the sense of "the fear of the LORD [that] is the beginning of knowledge."

Precious Moments: Oosik Classic

2011-03-21T09:40:00.001-08:00

The Oosik weekend was very enjoyable. Here are a few snapshots of the fun.

Ella doing some strange pre-race limbering up exercises.

"And when we get together, we give the beaver call!
Ah vuh vah vuh vah vuh vah, vah vah vah vuh vah vah. "

Ella giving Julia a congratulatory post-race whack on the
head with ski poles.

I guess I was sweating a little bit during the race.

The race and the weekend was very fun.

A Marathon of a Year

2011-03-17T22:27:00.000-08:00

The Oosik!

This weekend Joel and I are headed to Talkeetna, AK to race in the Oosik classic 50km ski race. For those of you who aren't familiar with ski races the 50 km distances is considered a "marathon" for skiing. The Oosik is considered the funnest ski marathon in AK with the best awards ceremony and after party. We'll find out if this is true this weekend.

As I headed to Freddy's, the store that has everything (groceries included), I thought back on the races that were completed by the Coulter clan and its counterparts (Pierson and Aas') in 2010 and the beginning of 2011. I came to the conclusion that we are a pretty accomplished family in terms of marathon races. Here are some highlights:

February 2010: Mom and Dad and Melzar ski in the Vasa and or White Pine Stampede either 25 or 50km

Spring 2010: My first ever 50 km, Anchorage AK

September 2010: Julia runs a relay leg of the Equinox Marathon

October 2010: Anna and Harald kick butt in the Oslo marathon ( the week before getting married and running away together)*

October 2010: Nina runs the Chicago marathon (with a personal record)*

January 2011: Anna skis in a 70km race (I think?)

February 2011: Mom and Dad and Melzar ski in the 25 or 50km white pine and vasa

March 2011: Aurelia skis in the Norwegian Biriki (she's not part of the family, but one of my best friends...)

March 2011: Joel and I race in the Oosik in Talkeetna, AK (hopefully.....)

* Nina and Anna and Harald have run many other races probably half marathons included, but they do so many I can't keep track.

For my Christmas present Harald signed Joel and I up for the Oosik. Signing each other up for races is becoming a tradition in our family. Its a great way to make sure we're all staying in shape and it allows for one more reason to travel local and distant destinations. Joel and I have never sent time in Talkeetna, but I hear the views of Denali are spectacular. We are looking forward to partly cloud with temps in the mid 20's to 30's. Sounds like a great place and day to race.

Thanks for the Christmas present Harald, I'll try to give you some photo updates when we're back in Fairbanks.

40-Mile Fun

2011-03-16T16:10:00.001-08:00

The nights were cool and clear and our humble home had everdang sep a heppy tar swang.

Our pleasant camp site. The Arctic Oven tucked into a nice
patch of spruce.

Recently my friend Greg invited me to come along for a caribou hunting trip. He hoped to complement his freezer full of moose meat with some tasty caribou. After considering a rather complex and slightly dangerous attempt at caribou on the North Slope, he ended up settling on making a go at the 40-Mile herd that is often found along the Steese Highway, at a spot about 100 miles from Fairbanks. I was happy to have the chance to get of doors, see some beautiful country, and get my heart rate up. We were able to do all three.

We did not go light. The sled I borrowed to haul stuff with weighed about 20 pounds empty. The wonderful Arctic Oven tent and stove weight about 30 pounds. If we wanted to transport all of our stuff, the heart rate was elevated.

Two people camping in the winter requires all sorts of stuff.

We loaded up and headed down a valley that drained into Birch Creek searching for caribou and a campsite. We saw plenty of tracks and trails created by caribou along the way. Greg found a suitable campsite along a smaller drainage that had evidence of caribou. We definitely knew where the caribou had been previously.

We set up camp, chopped some wood, and Greg glassed the hills looking for animals to shoot. The Arctic Oven is a wonderful place to spend -20 nights. It has a windproof outer fly that is buried in the snow and an inner layer that allows water molecules to pass through. In the morning the inner part of the tent was completely dry. Also it has a small wood stove and chimney. Nicest and warmest tent I'll ever sleep in. It was likely near -20 or so at night but I was never uncomfortably cold. The idea that it weighed 30 pounds or so was only not fun for however long it took us to ski in and out of where we set up camp. The rest of the time, the 30 pound tent was awesome.

The next morning, Greg thought we ought to try to go up the small drainage that we were camped on and see if we could get above tree line.

We were heading toward the white part a ways away.

I ended up getting my butt kicked. I had brought along heavy, wide skis that could stay up on top of snow and climb hills quite well. But going long distances on flat ground was not comfortable for the feet so I was wearing a different pair of skis that were better for flats and hoping that snowshoes could keep me from sinking into the waist deep snow. That approach didn't work. Greg's wide skis allowed him to mostly stay on the surface of the snow but I could not. We ended up struggling upwards through the trees, alders, and deep snow for about an hour and making it about half way between the floor of the valley and above tree line. Then we turned around. My bad.

Admitting defeat and skiing back down the drainage
towards camp. Nice day though.

We returned to camp, started a fire in the stove, cooked up some very good beans and rice for lunch, and warmed up the feet.

The next plan was to stay on the snowmachine trails that we had followed along the main valley and head towards Birch Creek, about 4.5 miles away. We headed out towing two sleds, eventually dropping both along the trail as we tired.

The moon looked neat.

We saw footprints, defecation, and micturition from caribou on the snowmachine trail we were traveling on. There were trails on the hillsides where caribou had climbed in and out of the valley. There was even a spot where eight or nine caribou had bedded down for a while along the trail. But no caribou. We came to where Birch Creek runs into the creek we were following, paused to take in the pleasant views, and started back.

Looking down the valley toward Birch Creek.

Looking back up the valley towards the trail head.

No caribou. Crud. Well, we definitely had a nice day of skiing. We decided that tomorrow would be the last day. We would briefly take a look around in the morning, pack up, and try to be back to the trail head by 3 or 4 and head home. We were hungry so we ate a lot of food. Sodium soup, mashed potatoes, and chocolate. Also, before we took off on the trip, Julia helped put together some wonderful smash-proof, hand-held, fist-sized, hyphen-requiring balls of food called bierocks. We had three varieties: pizza, apple, and ham and egg. We ate these happily throughout the trip. The breakfast bierocks in the morning were quite a treat. My wife is wonderful.

The next morning we toured down the valley again, but saw no caribou.

Greg looking for animals to shoot.

We packed up the camp, hitched ourselves to sleds, endured/enjoyed the unpleasant part of packing heavy, packed up the truck and headed home.

In general, we saw nothing. We didn't even run across a moose. Oh, well. It was a very successful caribou camp. Heart rate elevated, good conversation, no significant injuries, and a whole lot of soaking up sunlight with a good friend.

In Honor of Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T18:05:00.001-09:00

Time to get mentally prepared for the big holiday coming up on February 16. Valentine's Day! What a pleasant time to express appreciation for a special someone.

Back before I met Julia, that special someone was hard to find. The following video was relatively easy to relate to.

(Beware of some pretty heavy duty violence, though it is directed towards stick figures. If you anticipate being offended, pass on the video and head to the happy part on the bottom.)

Several months after being introduced to this video, I was introduced to Julia! The video is now much more difficult to relate to.

Here are just a few of my favorite moments from the past 8 years. But certainly not all of my favorite moments.

Happy Valentine's Day lovely wife!

Change in River

2011-02-13T20:18:00.000-09:00

Oh, the summer in Alaska! Rivers surrounded by mountains can provide a corridor to some spectacular adventures and places. The Delta River, cutting its way north through the Alaska Range, is one way to sneak through the beauty.

Morning on the third day.

Towards the end of July, Julia was invited to head to Anchorage to help some youngsters ski faster. We decided to make a two week trip out of it all and planned a non-direct route to Anchorage so that a Delta River float could be fit in.

Careful food planning for the trip.

We need to create and implement some organizational systems.

My friend had offered to take us along on this float so we got our weekends lined up and headed off with John and his son Steven. Julia and I tried out the packrafts and John and Steven were in a canoe. They definitely had more food than we did. I was pretty intent on being spartan. Everything we brought for three days of floating and camping fit on our 5 foot inflatable boats; lightweight tent, sleeping bags, all of our food, clothing, backpacks, cook pots, and other stuff. They had a couple of frying pans a shotgun, two coolers, and some other high mass items. Thankfully they were willing to share some of the foods they had brought along.

The first day involved wandering through the Tangle Lakes, the headwaters of the Delta River. Julia and I had visited this area on a previous adventure.

This is actually the evening of day three. Day one was a bit overcast.

We settled in on the first evening. John and Steven caught some fish and we conked out on some very comfortable tundra. At this point Julia was nearly entirely at ease regarding bear encounters, thanks to the fishing line trip line perimeter connected to a smoke alarm set up each evening by John. It wasn't entirely reliable but she slept like a baby. Nice work wife! (Thanks John)

Building some dinner. No bears.

Then the river started moving along quite nicely. There is a rather nasty waterfall/rapid where we needed to take out and portage. We had a few less trips through the mud and brush (1) than the guys with the frying pans (47) but we helped out hoping that we could have some of their vegetables with fresh fish. They let us have some of their extra food and they even let us eat some of their fresh caught fish cooked in large amounts of butter. It tasted very good.

Looking back up towards the Tangle Lakes from a bluff at the portage.

John and Steven trying their luck just below the waterfall.

Preparing for the class II and III rapids below the portage.

Immediately after the portage there are a few miles of exciting whitewater. Not "Don't fall out or you'll die" whitewater but "You might fall out on this part so stay ready. It would be extraordinarily exciting and challenging to save your soggy butt as you ping pong down through the rocks" whitewater.

The Delta River just below the portage.

Julia looked at me with a bit of hesitation as we were lining our boats up to head downstream but she was definitely smiling and giggling all the way through the rapids to the flat water below. Don't believe her if she says packrafting really isn't that much fun.

We landed on this beach to set up the camp towards evening on the second day.

Beauty on display.

Julia caught a fish and had lots of fun doing it. I could tell because
she was giggling most of the time. We ate the fish.

Campsite located directly on a "game" (bear) trail.

Three years before, John and Steven had camped in the same spot we settled for the night. Early in the morning a young grizzly bear walked directly through their camp, woke everyone up, made an aggressive move towards the open tent door, and was shot multiple times and killed. That is why John had brought along extra fishing line and a smoke alarm. No worries though. We all slept soundly and woke up to a few wisps of clouds and a beautiful day.

Making the only ripples except for a few beavers.

The weather can change pretty quickly. It rained pretty
hard for about 20 minutes.

Stopping for a break at the Eureka Creek confluence.

A few miles before the take out, Eureka Creek runs into the Delta River and the water turns silty and brown. Eureka Creek originates from the Eureka Glacier and after the confluence the Delta picks up speed as it makes its way towards Black Rapids then slows as it leaves the mountains and meets with the mighty Tanana River.

Julia enjoying views of Rainbow Ridge.

This caribou ran along the bank several hundred yards and swam across the Delta about 20 yards in front of John and Steven's canoe.

We saw several Bald Eagles, this caribou, and no bears.

Mount Silvertip hidden by clouds.

The take out along the Richardson Highway.

John's expertise and experience (and extra cheesecake) helped to make this a very pleasant trip. Julia has mentioned that she would be happy to go on other trips when he is along. She certainly felt safe on the trip and enjoyed the pace as well. I think it's the cheesecake and the frying pans. Sorry wife. Those items probably will not it onto the gear list of an upcoming packrafting trip. Packrafting is still fun right?

Heck yes it is!

Hmmm. Maybe 45 miles on the Tanana River was not a good idea.

Nope. Definitely not a good idea.

Ideas That I Cannot Ignore: Gospel

2011-01-22T15:04:00.004-09:00

Over the past seven or eight years, I have come across a number of ideas about God and His work in the world that have been seemingly impossible to set aside. It is by God's grace that I have come across these ideas initially and been drawn to return to these resources regularly to embrace what they show me about God. I am not inclined to say that I have found out all the important truths of God or even that every idea presented throughout each sermon or article is without error (or my interpretations of the ideas presented has been flawless) and I am happy to discuss objections. I am inclined to say that I have come to a greater knowledge and love and enjoyment of God because of what I have heard and read.

College presented a lot of challenging ideas. New objections to the goodness, sovereignty, and purposes of God that I had never heard before battered my brain. I had read "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things" (Philippians 4:8 ESV).

And I really wanted to do that. In God's great kindness, a random google search brought me to this article here:

The Goal of God's Love May Not Be What You Think It Is

Ultimately, what am I enjoying when I see something like this?

This article marks a wonderful transition in my life where I made a conscious effort to really make sense of the Bible and of the ideas that are presented there. And I could do it happily!

"In the cross of Christ, God rescues us from the house of mirrors and leads us out to the mountains and canyons of his majesty. Nothing satisfies us – or magnifies him – more."

This is an exciting new idea about the Christian life. I ought to be satisfied, happy, and joyful because of all that I know about God and all the splendor He has put on display in creation and in Jesus. If I will experience joy and happiness that I am so desperately searching for (not to be found, ultimately, in anything but God) then God will get what He rightly desires and what He will ultimately get (His own glory in the world).

One of the pastors I have listened to over the years has mentioned the idea of "expository exultation." That is, presenting and expounding on an idea or Biblical text clearly but, in the process of explaining, simultaneously exulting in the beauty and glory of God and what He has accomplished. I think that each one of these resources draws attention to a glorious and perfect and wise and sovereign God and the good news He offers. So what I hope to collect are some examples expository exultation that have been particularly helpful in moving me towards God. Sermons and articles found online here and there have all, in various ways, nudged or even shoved me towards God. And I look back with great gratitude. There are five categories of ideas that I have sorted out thus far and the first is the Gospel.

Gospel

A wizened old pastor was asked, "How would you state the Gospel in thirty seconds or less?"

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
(1 Corinthians 15:3-5 ESV)

I really appreciate the joyful little smile that comes on his face as he recites the verses.

The simplicity is there, but clarification is needed. It is important to answer questions about what that verse means. Embrace the verse and then clarify meaning or clarify meaning and then embrace the verse. Either option works but when the words were written the author intended to convey specific ideas about the Gospel and I want to understand them.

What is sin? ("Doing something bad" or "Doing something God doesn't like" were not definitions that satisfied as I grew older.)

What do I need to do if I have sin and Christ died for it? Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do? And Peter said to them, 'Repent...'” (Acts 2:37 ESV)

What does repentance look like? Simply trying not to do bad things did not seem to be going well. I still did things that God didn't like even though I tried not to. Simply turning from bad behavior did not quite describe all of the trouble with sin I seem to have.

“I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire."
(Matthew 3:11 ESV)

So in addition to repenting, I must consider Jesus? I ought to repent and then allow Jesus to completely immerse me in the Holy Spirit and fire? I was not certain of what that meant.

"When the jailer woke and saw that the prison doors were open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried with a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself, for we are all here.” And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God." (Acts 16:27-34 ESV)

So Jesus presents himself through the Gospel to save if we would believe in Him. And more words and phrases appear that require more clarification.

Believe in Jesus. What does believe mean? How do I believe?
"You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!" (James 2:19 ESV)

Be saved. What do we need to be saved from?
"Do you say, 'Yes, I'm saved.' When? 'Oh, so and so preached, I got baptized, and...' Are you saved? What are you saved from, hell? Are you saved from bitterness? Are you saved from lust? Are you saved from cheating? Are you saved from lying? Are you saved from bad manners? Are you saved from rebelling against your parents? Come on, what are you saved from?!?" Leonard Ravenhill

Have faith in God. What is faith?

Hope in God. What does hoping in God look like? It is not simply hoping that God will give me what I want or what I ask for. Sometimes it is painfully clear that I want something that is sinful. Or even I desire something that is good but I want it at the wrong time. And even when I have it I am not satisfied.
"You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions." (James 4:2-3 ESV)

Be born again. This is a spiritual reality, that is clear. But what brings about this spiritual reality?
Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?” (John 3:4 ESV)

These questions are being slowly answered thanks and phrases and words are being described with greater detail thanks to several faithful teachers that I have been able to listen to, specifically John Piper. "Expository exultation" of a beautiful God shows up in all of these resources. I hope that they cause your heart to treasure God. Even more so than they have cause my heart to see and enjoy a beautiful God.

Faith and Belief
Oh that everyone who hears the description of believing in Christ and story beginning at 32:50 would say, "I saw at once the way of salvation!" (Click on the slider and it will go to a specific part of the sermon. Or watch the whole thing for the wonderful context.)

"Then lifting up his hands, he shouted, as only a primitive Methodists could do, “Young man, look to Jesus. Look! Look! Look! You have nothing to do but to look and live.” I saw at once the way of salvation. I know not what else he said—I did not take much notice of it—I was so possessed with that one thought. Like as when the brazen serpent was lifted up, the people only looked and were healed, so it was with me. I had been waiting to do fifty things, but when I heard that word, “Look!” What a charming word it seemed to me! Oh! I looked until I could have almost looked my eyes away."

Saved
What are we being saved from? Why is the Gospel such good news? A brief description in the context of marriage is at 19:15.

Born Again
God does wonderful and mysterious things.

May the Gospel be heard, understood, and enjoyed.

"Is God a Megalomaniac? Right Answer. Wrong Reason."

2011-01-05T10:41:00.001-09:00

This idea has provided a great deal of help when reading the Bible and trying to figure out what God intends to convey in what can sometimes seem to be a discordant collection of stories and texts, especially in the Psalms. (Thesaurus says discordant is a good word.)

Is God a Megalomaniac? Right Answer. Wrong Reason.

A Winter Solstice Cabin Hop

2010-12-27T00:00:00.000-09:00

Several years ago, a forecast for -20 degrees over Christmas vacation made staying indoors and watching TV sound pretty good. Since then I have enjoyed a few years in Fairbanks, made a couple of clothing and gear purchases, figured out that the outdoors can bring far more delight to a soul than a TV show or sporting event, and met some ambitious adventurers to provide some insight and motivation. Now -20 degrees brings to mind things like, "Well, we could probably pull it off." Or "At least it will likely be a nice clear day."

December 21 was a gloriously clear day. We soaked up all the solstice sun we would get.

Also, we were cold.

Eyal is an ambitious UAF student from Israel that Julia and I met a while back. He was interested in heading out on a backcountry ski trip. After exploring some of the options and taking a look at the weather forecast (somewhere between -15 and -30 on the days we planned to head out), we decided on a Chena Hot Springs Road cabin hop.

The GPS and map software were both very helpful. Below is our route:

This adventure was not too far away that we couldn't get ourselves out of trouble but definitely far enough away that we could feel a sense of separation from civilization. We were out for three days and two nights and we did not see another person until skiing along the road midway through our last day on the trail. It was a great trip.

The first day was all on skis up to Stiles Creek Cabin.

Eyal on the trail.

Stiles Creek Cabin

A nice full moon on the first night. Unfortunately we
conked out 2 hours before a lunar eclipse. Eyal photo.

We woke up the next morning with the intention of making our way up to the Chena Dome (Chena Doom) trail and down into the Angel Creek drainage to Lower Angel Creek Cabin. We used snowshoes the entire day.

We followed a very nice unmaintained trail north off of the Stiles Creek trail for a few miles through the trees.

Towards the tree line. Eyal photo

The trail disappeared above the tree line, which we made just after the sunrise at 11:00 AM.

What a day.

Alaska Range in the morning light. Eyal photo.

Mount Hayes

A solstice sunrise. Eyal photo

A shadow cast at noonday.

Soaking up the view from the ridge. Eyal photo.
"Oh Lord, my God, when I in awesome wonder
Consider all the worlds thy hands have made!"

Above tree line.

We slogged through some pretty deep snow along a minor ridge and finally made our way up to the Chena Dome trail and the highest points on the trip, just in time to watch the sun set at 2:41 PM.

Starting along the ridge.

Through the Dr. Seuss terrain.

Chena Dome across the valley.

One of the climbs along the Chena Dome trail as the sun sets.

Mount Moffit and Mount Hayes in the evening light.

The night was clear and we pushed through some thigh deep snow (unfortunately perpendicular to a difficult to find trail) down into the Angel Creek drainage. We were grateful to have a near full moon to help with the route-finding through the trees. Thankfully we were close enough to the trail to come across Upper Angel Creek Cabin. Because it was dark and cold and no one was using this cabin, we decided to stay in this cabin rather than get to Lower Angel Creek Cabin three miles further down the trail. This was a good decision. A very good stove, relatively dry wood, a pair of slippers, and an unopened MRE were waiting for us at Upper Angel Creek.

Upper Angel Creek Cabin

The trail we couldn't find the night before. We descended
from the ridge in the background.

The next day the skis were back on as we skied down the valley to Chena Hot Springs Road from the cabin. Then we followed a great dog mushing trail along the road to Chena Hot Springs.

Coming down Angel Creek.

Arriving at the gate to Chena Hot Springs. The temperature
was somewhere near -12 degrees.

We arrived at about 5:00 PM at the hot springs, about 2.5 hours before we expected my lovely wife to arrive and shuttle us home. That long wait was not a problem. We had spent much of the past three days outside in temperatures that likely never got above -10 degrees. Three hours soaking in warm water did wonders for the legs. Not even a pinch of sore muscles the next day. Just some tender feet and fingers from a bit of frost nip.

Though I didn't know Eyal when we first started planning, we became well acquainted as the trip progressed. He grew up in Israel and headed home to Haifa for the holidays after our trip. We had plenty of time to get to know each other. Our conversations included discussions of the stuff we were using, route-finding, idiosyncrasies of stoves, life in Isreal, studying chemistry, exploring Alaska, food preparation on backcountry trips, and, my personal favorite, where Jesus shows up in the Old Testament.

The grace of God in the Old Testament points to Christ continuously and we enjoyed that reality in conversation.

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
(John 3:1-15 ESV)

What a joy to discuss Numbers 21 and John 3. All we must do is look to Christ and we escape the just wrath of a loving God! Look!

It was a trip full of joy.

"Look! Look! Look!"

Home Again Home Again Jiggity Jig!

2010-12-14T20:08:00.000-09:00

Where is home I wonder? When I am in Alaska "home" is two places. It's the little hole in the wall where Joel and I live, but home is also Michigan, where my family is. This spring Joel and I were able to go "home"meaning Michigan, for a couple of weeks and here are some things we did there.

However, I first want to share with you some thoughts I have about "home", meaning Michigan. Here are some things I like about being there in the winter and some things that I am missing, in no particular order.

1. The most important one, my family!
2. The winter wind whipping on the old windows in my parents house and the pretty frost patterns that this process creates.
3. Touching the cold wood floor with my feet when I get out of bed on the first day of Christmas vacation while knowing I have a whole month before school begins again. (I think I am going to become a student again...)
4. Waking up to a honey do list from Mom and Dad and mom's credit card so Anna and I can buy whatever groceries we want to cook with.
5. Going skiing with my family and with Milan.
6. Podunk Michigan ski races.
7. TC restaruants including Mary's Kitchen Port, Amical, Potters Bakery, Bubba's, and The Omelette Shoppe.
8. The way my mom and dad smell when they give me hugs.
9. Playing Euchre or Scrabble with anyone from my family
10. Shooting the breeze with the Wunsch's while eat pistachio nuts.
10.5 Aunt Barbs Christmas Cookies (spritzes most importantly, but they're all good).
11. Christmas Eve at the Wunsch's
12. Christmas morning with my parents
13. Wet Snow
14. snuggling and giggling with my sisters
15. My niece and nephews.
16. The U.P.
17. Ingird
18. Uncle Freddy's Maple Syrup.

Things I don't miss:
1. Unlce Freddy's peanut brittle.

Ohh yeah things we did when we were home...

First listen to the song "Home" and ignore the part about loving anything more than Jesus Christ...

This song is one of our favorites aside from that line. We like the idea of thinking we are at home when were a together in our packrafts, on the side of mountains, camping at -10F, in our teeny tiny apartment, and so on...

Mt. Prindle Take 2 (Bagging the peak)

2010-11-27T20:54:00.003-09:00

Joel and I headed to Mt. Prindle the weekend after our first attempt to see if we could reach the summit. We headed to the trail head on Friday night and camped at the trail head so that we could get an early start on Saturday morning.

Here's a picture of our campsite on Saturday morning.

Joel at the beginning of the hike. With in the first couple miles of the hike there were a couple of stream crossings and one in particular where getting your feet wet was inevitable.

Joel hiking starting up the ridge that leads to the summit. We had a nice picnic on the this ridge.

This is a big picture of some of the tors that are on the ridge to the summit. These tors (see link) are formed by slowly cooling igneous rock under the earth's surface that is gradually exposed to the surface over thousands of years as the softer metamorphic and sedimentary rock erodes away. The granite that makes up the tors is more resistant to erosion than the surrounding rock and large spires of the rock protrude from hills and ridges formed by the largely concealed pluton, of which the tors are a part of. These particular tors are famous because they offer a great adventure for rock climbers.

Here are more tors on the ridge leading to the summit. It's hard to see their size, but they are huge and very cool.

Nearing the top of the summit the ridge became more of talus slope. The peak in the background on the left is the actual summit.

This is a view from the ridge.

And another view from the ridge

Proof that we made it to the top

The classic picture that Joel and I like to take at the top of every mountain we reach

Joel framed in between two tors

The valley that we walked up.

Joel finishing the hike through the valley. And look fairly sunny blue skies... success! Ohh yeah it started raining and thundering when we got back to the car...

Julia's Perspective

2010-11-27T17:15:00.001-09:00

Joel and I haven't been so up to date with out blog posts mainly due to lack of internet at our apartment. However, we are housesitting for the next little while and I am planning to take advantage of the internet at our "houses" to add some detail to our blog.

In Joel's last post he quickly recorded the adventures that we had this summer and early fall. I'm going to use some posts to add to those adventures with my perspective. Today I will talk about the Mount Prindle hike.

Joel and I attempted Mount Prindle on a Saturday. The weather forecast was for isolated thunderstorms, but in our Fairbanks experience "isolated thunderstorms" usually means bright blue skies. Thus we made the 1.5ish hour drive to the Mt. Prindle trail head. The hike to the top of Prindle is 9ish miles one way. Joel and I planned to run most/part of the trail and hike the steep parts. The trail was narrow and very wet from late snow melt and we ended up walking most of it. The first 5 miles of the hike is rather flat through a valley and then goes up to a ridge which takes you to the summit.

Here is a picture of the valley that we hiked through. You can see that the trail is a little damp. You can also see that our prediction of "clear blue skies" was a little off.

And these are the clouds that forced us to turn around and end the hike early. I know these clouds don't look too bad, but they were more threatening than they look. Also there was lightning. We also were only prepared for a day hike and didn't have "foul weather gear".

Though we didn't get to the peak we did make the drive worth it by stopping at the Chatanika gold dredge. The dredge is technically on private property, but there is a pretty good beaten down path to it.

There are a couple of dredges around Fairbanks. Most of them are on "private" property, but private is more like a "guideline" here in AK. Needless to say Joel and I have been to two of them. They're huge by the way.

Joel is the little white thing standing on the dredge next to the ladder. It might give you some perspective as to how big it is. You can also see that the graffiti and ladder suggest the how guideline like "private property" signs are. Joel explored inside, but I preferred to sit on the hill and fret about our illegal actions. My nerves were settled more when we ran into a whole family headed out to see the dredge. At least we weren't the only ones who were going to get in trouble for breaking the law...

Needless to say we learned from this trip that "isolated thunderstorms" does not always mean "clear blue skies". Our new perspective on Fairbanks forecast is that you can have "bright blue skies" when the forecast is "isolated thunderstorms"... when you're in the right place at the right time... Is that how it is in your part of the world too?

Summer Activities

2010-09-26T18:20:00.003-08:00

Well, there were lots of things to add to the scrapbook this summer. Here are some favorite photos of a few adventures to get ourselves caught up.

Packrafted a bit on the Mighty Boardman River.

The mighty portage of the Mighty Boardman.

Good day for a float.

Enjoyed some Michigan sunshine. Currently leaning towards an investment in road bikes. This was very pleasant and heart healthy.

Very good.

Also, very good.

This too was very good.

Julia trained a horse. Nice work wife.

She's got a good-looking seat.

Caught salmon in a net near Chitina.

The sunrise on the Copper River.

Einar caught a king salmon. Fun for all members of the party.

Packrafted a bit on the Chena River. We forgot food for this trip. Really. I never thought that would happen with Miss Julia along. Thankfully there is a Hershey bar stashed in the emergency kit. We ate it.

Nice day for a float.

Hiked on Murphy Dome. Complementary hot dogs were provided by kind hiking partners.

That dog was not consumed by hikers.

Climbed Mount Prindle. Julia may have to expound on this trip. I hope she does. A beautiful gift of a day. All the way around.

This is where we had lunch. This cracked the top five favorite picnic spots of all time.

Packrafted a bit on the Delta River. I hope Julia expounds on this trip too (cheesecake!). We get to wander some amazing places up here in Alaska.

Our boats are making the only waves on this calm section of the river. Other sections were class III rapids. Both sections were worth floating.

Explored the Kenai Peninsula. This was incredible too. Describe this trip too please, wife!

Floating Grewingk Lake avoiding icebergs from Grewingk Glacier.

While Julia helped coach some aspiring college skiers, I hiked a portion of the Crow Pass Trail and floated down Glacier Creek in Girdwood. Both quite incredible. One fun part of this 16 or so mile hike on the Crow Pass trail was at the top of the pass mist was flowing down from a small glacier just above the pass. I was standing at the top of the pass watching some of the mist descend to my left, towards the Turnagain Arm, and some of the mist descend to my right, towards the Knik Arm. Eerie but pleasant.

Looking down Raven Creek on the Crow Pass trail.

Raven Glacier, near Crow Pass.

The view from the tram used to cross Glacier Creek. Winner Creek is entering river left.

The video below was taken by another packrafter who had begun his float a bit higher on Glacier Creek. At 2:45 there is a little rock bar on river right where I put in. Above that rock bar is the tram. The waves just past the rock bar but before the confluence of Glacier and Winner Creeks may have induced a very exciting test of my ability to maneuver a packraft. The gauged flows of Glacier Creek for the guy in the video and the trip I took were almost identical (around 24-25 cfs). The only difference I noticed between our two runs was that he had a bit more sun. He probably didn't see a dead dog/wolf washed up on a gravel bar when he went down the river either. In short, this was really fun.

Packrafted a bit on the mighty Tanana River. Julia most certainly has some comments to add about this adventure.

We saw a lot of this...

Picked 15 cubic yards of low bush blueberries. The berries are very good. Raspberries from a local u-pick and low bush blueberries are very good on vanilla ice cream.

Annie and Greg joined us for some of the fun.

The following two pictures are from adventures from the end of the summer that will definitely be described with greater detail in the scrapbook. I hope Julia describes them, but if she doesn't...I'm on it.

"It sure is beautiful here."

Almost to our highest point on the ridge.
"It sure is beautiful here."

OK, three pictures! What a day for ridge walking!

All this summer while we wandered about Alaska, I started to see a little more clearly the weight of Psalm 97. Nature is just one tiny opening where God allows us to look on His greatness. The connection presented in the Bible is that to enjoy the beauty and greatness of nature is to enjoy a brief and incomplete view of the beauty and greatness of God.

[1] The LORD reigns, let the earth rejoice;
let the many coastlands be glad!
[2] Clouds and thick darkness are all around him;
righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
[3] Fire goes before him
and burns up his adversaries all around.
[4] His lightnings light up the world;
the earth sees and trembles.
[5] The mountains melt like wax before the LORD,
before the Lord of all the earth.
[6] The heavens proclaim his righteousness,
and all the peoples see his glory.

If nature is simply one method God uses to put Himself on display, then I want more of God, not just to experience more of nature. Nature only points!

More thoughts on nature by wiser men:

"'Be glad thou sleeper and thy sorrow offcast. I am the gate to all good adventure.'"
C.S. Lewis from That Hideous Strength

Jonathan Edwards

A Second Bike Ride in Denali

2010-09-25T17:16:00.002-08:00

This May we had the good fortune of biking on the Denali Highway in Denali National Park again. We also had the good fortune of pleasant company. It was a bit more cloudy, there was a good amount of snow still on the tundra, and no grizzly bears made their presence known but we were blessed with laughter for the duration of the trip.

Topping out at Sable Pass

"He looks just like Melzar right now!"

This turned out to be a nice place to park the bikes for lunch.

Colorado Creek Cabin

2010-09-16T20:55:00.004-08:00

Ahoy.

Annie and Greg invited us along to visit a cabin. Spring in the Interior is a pleasant time to ski to a cabin in the woods. So we did. Here are some photos.

The pleasant little cabin.

Collecting combustibles.

We had wonderful weather for both days of skiing.

We had fun.

Effective Marketing

2010-04-16T15:51:00.000-08:00

Google has a new advertising campaign. It sucked me right in.

It looked to me like a good way to make my wife smile. Hopefully the end doesn't produce a frown and the comment, "No way." We'll see.

It's fast and easy. And it's creating a pile of commercials for google.

Triangle Peak Climb

2010-04-06T22:02:00.006-08:00

"Top of the world Ma! Woo!"

Well, almost. This picture was actually taken at the false summit of Triangle Peak. The actual summit was about 100 feet higher and 250 yards further south. Upon learning this from the eccentric 50-something-year-old Fairbanksian who had showed a bunch of 20-somethings where the bear went through the buckwheat on the ascent, I informed the leader of the trip through the blustery snow and wind. He scrambled to get his gear together and we went trudging after the group who had already started moving along the snowy and windblown ridge towards the summit.

But before the summit, we had to leave the road, go skiing, set up base camp, sleep, and ascend the ridge. This past weekend I had the opportunity to go with about 15 people on a trip sponsored by the Alaska Alpine Club to attempt to climb Triangle Peak (marked with an 'A'). We camped almost directly north of the peak where the M'Ladies Branch, the larger arm of the glacier extending south, meets up with the rest of the Castner Glacier. We climbed up the north ridge of the peak, somewhere around 3,000 vertical feet from our camp to the summit.

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The first day was spectacular with blue skies and a few wisps of clouds. We skinned up the glacier without much trouble. There were two large medial moraines we had the choice to follow, the southern moraine providing the best approach. We started on the northern moraine. Joey is the small figure on the southern moraine in the picture below. He had been on the route a few times before and was leading the group up to camp.

After slogging along on the bumpy northern moraine, we realized the need to crossover to the other moraine and found a suitable place to cross an ice bridge to the smooth sailing route to the south.

The moraines provide a nice route up the glacier as there is less melting and fewer crevasses to deal with. The picture below is a good representation of what sits between the medial moraines on the body of the glacier.

Moving along with heavy packs.

The view back down the glacier towards the Delta River and the Richardson Highway.

Rolling into camp. We set up tents towards the top of the bump to the right of the picture, just onto the M'Ladies Branch of the Castner, extending south from the main glacier.

Looking down-glacier from our camp.

Looking up the glacier from camp towards the O-Brian Icefall on the Upper Castner.

After sleeping soundly in a very warm double-walled winter tent, we hopped up, put crampons and survival gear in our packs, stepped in the skis, and started up the ridge.

The glacier has lost about 100 feet of elevation over the last 50 years. The most difficult section of climbing was ascending from the gully on the side of the glacier up onto the old lateral moraine. Too steep for skis and skins. Phil, the wise and experienced 50-something who expended the least amount of energy of anyone on the day, put crampons on and walked up. I tried skiing and ended up postholing while trying to carry my skis and poles. I quickly learned to try to do what Phil did or whatever Phil recommended.

Making it to the top of the lateral moraine.

The second challenging stretch of climbing. The slope of the ridge was gradual enough that skins and skis worked quite well. Phil walked the whole way, following a trail that was blazed by another group who climbed Triangle the week before. Phil usually figured out the most efficient and least taxing method for going from one place to the other. For a while, skis and walking were equivalent in terms of energy required.

Looking back towards the intersection between the M'Ladies Branch and the Castner Glacier.

The morning began bright and clear. It was beautiful climbing.

Looking west towards the Delta River and the rest of the Alaska Range.

Big place. Mount Shand, McGinnis Peak, and Mount Moffit from left to right.

"Look where we get to be!"

Clouds began to roll in from the south. The false summit is just barely visible over the nearest ridge.

Time to ditch the skis in a snowbank and strap on the crampons. Visibility began to decrease for the rest of the ascent. I am a bit more conservative than the guys I was with. I probably would have roped up for the rest of the climb, but we were never in terribly dangerous looking areas, just the regular dangerous looking places.

I stuck close to guys who knew what they were doing. There were three guys that I never really got further than shouting distance from. They had all climbed Triangle before. Nothing to it. The wind and snow began to pick up gradually. Never enough to cause fear, but enough to keep us all very cautious. Joey, pictured below, was able to snowboard all the way from the false summit back to the glacier. He is pretty good at snowboarding.

Made it to the false summit! The rest of the group is ascending the ridge and making a tricky step up a little rock ledge.

Here comes Phil! I learned on the way down that Phil has spent several summers in Walloon Lake, MI at a wood carving school of sorts. He loves northern Michigan.

Oh yeah. The actual summit is over there.

Wandering over to the real summit of Triangle Peak.

Phil reaching the summit. In addition to being a lot of fun to talk to, Phil also has interesting clothing and climbing gear. I am pretty sure he fabricated most of it himself.

"Top of the world Ma!"

"Woo!"

The wind was blowing pretty hard at this point. Not "I am going to be blown off the ridge and fall 1,000 feet" blowing but, quoting Phil, "Nature is telling us to descend" blowing. After singing a portion of "How Great Thou Art" that mentions looking down from lofty mountain grandeur and feeling the gentle breeze, I followed the rest of the crew back down the ridge.

We climbed back down with crampons still on, hauling skis all the way back to camp (the cluster of dots at the top of the picture). Instead of falling 100 times because I couldn't see any terrain changes because of the flat light, I fell once after catching a crampon in one of the straps in my pack. It was spectacular. Phil, of course, didn't bother to use skis and also didn't have an extra 8 pounds or so on his back during the descent.

The ski back out was awfully fun. No skins needed for all six miles down the southern medial moraine to Castner Creek and then to the road. I tagged along with Peter, the group leader, and Phil, picking his brain about route finding and kick wax.

As we waited for the rest of the group to come off the glacier, the skies cleared. Spectacular place, the Delta Range is.

Throughout the trip, I couldn't help but also recall a particularly humorous episode of a TV show that involved mountain climbing.

Denali Highway Ski

2010-04-06T11:28:00.012-08:00

Saturday was a spectacular day. And Sunday was even more beautiful.

I got it in my head that we could ski a good portion of the Denali Highway, from Paxson to the Maclaren River Lodge and back, in two days. We did too!

We camped in the car in the thriving metropolis of Paxson on Friday evening. When Julia was packing she decided that grilling our favorite type of bratwurst would be good for dinner. She was very correct.

Friday night was a bit cold, but not too bad.

We had a nice climb out of Paxson to start the morning. The views to the north were spectacular.

We stopped to eat some food along the way. I did not realize how much energy was required to skate ski uphill with a backpack on. I undershot completely in terms of the amount of food we would need for the 83.2 mile ski. Also, Julia was not giving Snickers bars the thumbs up by the end of the trip. We packed about 10 or 12 of them as well as 10 or 12 Cliff bars.

We paused near mile 19 and the Tangle Lakes. These lakes are the headwaters of the Delta River.

About this time Julia mentioned something along the lines of "We should come back here in the summer!" My primary purpose of the weekend was accomplished (and it's only mile 20!).

From the Tangle Lakes, the Denali Highway climbs and drops until a final push to Maclaren Summit. Near mile 27 I realized that the amount of food we had packed was insufficient and I began to eat food that was designated for the return trip. Thankfully the Maclaren River Lodge has a restaurant.

We reached Maclaren Summit near 3:00 PM. Between the Tangle Lakes and Maclaren Summit we ate nearly all of the snacks we had planned on eating over the course of the two day trip. By Maclaren Summit we had also decided that we were going to eat as much dinner and breakfast that we could fit into ourselves at Maclaren Lodge.

We arrived at Maclaren Lodge. We were given a beautiful Saturday evening.

The views of the glacier nearly tempted us to put on our skis again and go exploring the river. Returning to the Maclaren Lodge and skiing up the valley was discussed. That trip would likely require snow machine support.

Dinner #1

Dinner #2

There was no room for us in the lodge. We anticipated this and brought along a lightweight shelter and sleeping bags. They let us set up the shelter under a lean-to they used to protect straw bales. There were several comments from snowmachiners about Mary and Joseph. No virgin births on this winter night. We also decided to name our lightweight shelter "the stable."

It was a tick cold but we were well prepared.

We slept very well and loaded ourselves up with pancakes and bacon for breakfast. We met a snowmachiner from North Pole who was kind enough to offer to carry our sleeping bags on the way back. Apparently we looked that tired.

The return trip weather was just as spectacular. We encountered a few caribou crossing the road ahead of us. They observed us quietly from about 100 yards off the road as we passed by.

Mount Sanford is the tall looking one on the left. It is a picturesque and imposing stratovolcano.

We were pretty tired at mile 70 something. We began to appreciate these types of signs more than the average human being usually does.

Julia's feet were very sore by the end of it all. But she is very kind, resilient, and goodnatured.

The thriving metropolis of Paxson.

The sign indicating that we are in Paxson.

We each ate a pizza on Sunday evening to restore glycogen levels.

The weather was wonderful and the skiing was both spectacular and challenging. A successful and enjoyable ski trip, without a doubt.

The following is a collection of pictures from the trip put to song. The first lines of the two songs are particularly indicative of how we felt driving home to Fairbanks.

Questions

2010-03-21T23:19:00.005-08:00

Recently, Julia and I spent some time hiking and asking ourselves, "Are we crazy?"

Well, there are a lot of connotations for the word "crazy."

Day 1

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Day 2

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Day 1 and 2

We are, without a doubt, slightly abnormal, very tired, and extremely thankful. Details forthcoming.

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Outdoor Classroom: Castner Glacier

2010-03-08T01:27:00.005-09:00

Crevasse rescue! It's for safety!

There was a lot of fun to be had and a lot of learning to do this weekend. The Castner Glacier was the location. Here is a description of the activities.

Before running into the Alaska Range to test out new ski bindings and skins, Greg, who is quite a curler, invited me on Thursday night to run to a ski area that is only open on weekends, skin up, ski down, and run back to Fairbanks before dark (7:00 PM!). We headed out and it was very enjoyable.

On the way up.

Ready for the descent. Goldstream Creek in the background. It was spectacular. Greg is very good at getting up and getting out and fitting in fun things even though there doesn't seem to be enough time. The whole trip lasted about an hour and forty minutes. This was a weeknight! I like his style. He is also a far better skier than me (read: grab skis in the air rather than attempt to stay upright on a jump or, in my case, slowly snowplow past the jump).

On Saturday, I headed out with 15 classmates and three instructors to the Castner Glacier, where Julia and I had visited previously. We were going to attempt to practice crevasse extraction, belaying, repelling, and winter camping.

Food for the trip. Only one Snickers bar of six is left. Homemade oatmeal butter bars (they are what they sound like; 3000 Calories per cubic inch!) were also brought along.

We parked near Castner Creek on the Richardson Highway in the middle of the Delta Mountains in the eastern part of the Alaska Range. The pointy peak to the right is where Julia and I were attempting to get when she slipped, cut her leg, smacked her shin, and asked if I wanted to keep going up. My wife is incredible. I very much enjoy spending time with her.

Incidentally, on the trip down I hopped in the truck of a guy who has reached the summit of Mount Everest and worked on a crab boat in the Bering Sea, both of which are activities documented by the Discovery Channel on TV shows. He is actually featured on season three of "Everest: Beyond the Limit." "The Deadliest Catch" started long after he quit fishing for crab. Apparently the crab fishing business has toned down quite a bit since he left. He had several interesting stories to tell. Fun guy to listen to.

Skiing in was spectacular. We had blue skies and very little wind. We skied along Castner Creek with a bit of kick wax on alpine skis. It worked pretty well.

We were led by Stan Justice, the facilitator of the class. A little bit about him; he is known as "Mr. Safety" in mountaineering circles in Alaska, he has made much of his own mountaineering clothing (as evidenced by his shirts with velcro-topped-see-through pockets and a rising sun design on the back of his windproof coat), he holds the record for the Equinox Marathon by a lot, and he knows a lot about ski mountaineering. Lesson learned in this picture: While working on skis, if post-holing six or seven times in thigh deep snow is an unpleasant idea, take off skis, post-hole once, then stomp a small area in the snow. Work on the skis from the area and step back onto the skis to begin moving again. This worked very well when taking skins on and off. The big rock in the background is known as a glacial erratic.

Moving off Castner Creek and onto Castner Glacier. We wandered around looking for an appropriate spot to camp and practice glacier safety skills.

We camped in this divot in the glacier, likely caused by a moulin and/or a collapsed glacier cave.

Another angle of the campsite.

Stan putting in ropes and anchors to practice self-rescue from a crevasse using the Texas prusik system.

An ice axe was used in the self belay position to create the steps above Stan in the picture above. The purpose of climbing was to make sure that the slope did not have a large cornice ready to cause a small avalanche and to cause the slope just above the ropes not to slide if the small avalanche occurred due to the exposure of the underlying snow to sunlight, causing the snow to form a stronger bond with the surface of the glacier. At least that is what Stan said.

Ascending the rope out of the "crevasse." My tentmate Evan was kind enough to snap a few pictures.

Getting to the lip of the crevasse. This is the difficult part if there is no one to help out from the top. It requires tying another prusik knot above the lip of the crevasse one-handed while using the foot prusiks and the other hand as support to stay high enough to reach over the lip of the crevasse to tie the knot. Then another carabiner and sling must be clipped to the newly tied and dressed prusik knot, connecting the prusik above the lip to the harness, allowing the prusiks below the lip of the crevasse to be moved above the lip of the crevasse. This is possible because the fallen climber's weight has been transferred to the prusik above the lip of the crevasse, removing the pressure from between the climbing rope and the lip of the crevasse. It's best to practice with a mitten on to simulate real conditions and avoid frostbite. Prusik knots tied and dressed with one mittened hand while perched on the lip of a crevasse are very difficult. Hopefully the rest of the people on the rope team are good at z-pulley systems. We practiced pulling someone out of a crevasse using z-pulley systems. Pulleys are useful.

Success! Triumphantly pulling myself out of the crevasse. Notice the helmet worn for safety (no helmet worn by the young lady on the right!). I then rappelled down the rope using a belay device. I learned that it is wise to wrap the rope around the lower back and hold the rope with both hands in order to create more friction for the rappel. This is especially useful after completely tiring out both arms and hands attempting to tie a dang prusik knot above a crevasse lip.

Another view of the glacier walls surrounding the camp.

Good news! The floorless shelter is wind worthy. The weather produced light wind and snow all night long. The shelter allowed for very comfortable sleeping.

The glacier goes several miles further up the valley. Hopefully another trip to the top of the glacier and to a peak or two in the distance will require none of the skills learned on this trip except winter camping. Nonetheless, learning on a glacier is a lot of fun. The Castner Glacier makes for a spectacular classroom.

A song kept running through my head during class this weekend:

"Oh Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder
Consider all the worlds thy hands have made...

When through the wood and forest glades I wander,
I hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees.
When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur
I hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze.

Then sings my soul, my savior God, to thee!
'How great thou art! How great thou art!'"

Yup. It's good to be in an outside classroom.

Saturday Mornings

2010-03-04T21:49:00.011-09:00

Saturday mornings have a slightly different appearance nowadays. Due to a number of different factors, the last Saturday of February looked like this.

It was a pleasant day.

View from the door of the tent. During a full moon the night before with no wind and 15 miles of visibility, we strapped on the crampons and walked up the snow-almost-filled gully on the right. We made it about 100-200 ft above where the gully widens. At that point we ran out of snow to walk on and could not continue on the talus slope in the gully due to its steepness. Even about 1/5th of the way to the top of the peak, there was a spectacular moonlit view.

The view of the gully from the bottom of the scree slope we scrambled and cramponed up in the moonlight.

Location of tent

I camped with the president and vice-president of the Alaska Alpine Club. That was for safety. They had climbed and winter camped before. Nenana River follows the Parks Highway that connects Fairbanks to Anchorage.

The mountaineering class began to arrive from Fairbanks around 11 AM. We worked on cramponing, roped travel, ice axe arrest, and glissading. It was very fun.

A friend from church, who is also in the class, practices glissading with an ice axe.

Our classroom was different than most classrooms. The day's activities kept us around the area where had camped the night before. Some groups are barely visible finishing up on the slopes in the center of the picture.

Another view of the class from the same spot.

Winter Camping Lessons Learned:
- 0 degree sleeping bags indicate the lowest possible comfortable temperature to sleep in. -10 in a 0 degree bag requires wearing insulated pants, jacket, and boots to stay comfortable.
- Make everything just so. Getting out of a sleeping bag at 4 AM in the winter is unpleasant.
- Stamp out tent/shelter platform early and allow to set up. Take care to avoid large lumps of snow under the shelter(moderately uncomfortable).

Winter camping is not all that bad, especially when a day in the mountains arrives the next morning.

A Romantic Valentines Day Weekend

2010-02-13T21:16:00.002-09:00

The title's purpose is simply to assure the people who know me that I have not forgotten Valentine's Day occurs annually on February 21. I am ready this year.

Because my lovely wife is away for a good portion of January, February, and March, fitting in the UAF recreation course Introduction to Ski Mountaineering seemed like a good idea. Also, going to snow covered places like the upper Castner Glacier and Mount Silvertip look to be pretty spectacular endeavors.

The Castner Glacier is a pretty spot even when it's not snow covered.

In order to participate in ski mountaineering activities, safety and health must be priorities. To borrow a statement from Toyota president, Akio Toyoda, "The people who [ski mountaineering], who cares about [ski mountaineering classes], I'm a little bit worried while they are [skiing], they feel little bit cautious. But believe me, [ski mountaineering classes] is safety." With those primary concerns directing all mountaineering endeavors, I learned today how to:

- build snow anchors for safety

- find buried climbing partners with avalanche beacons for safety

- use simple tools to recognize slopes that are between 30 and 45 degrees that are likely to avalanche for safety (38 degree slopes are "nature's middle finger")

- use an ice axes to slow and stop uncontrolled descents down steep slopes for safety

- and to use a compass and map for safety

The photo below includes mountains that could be visited for safety.

After class I attempted to wander around outside for most of the rest of the daylight hours. It was a good practice staying warm in the out of doors for a relatively long period of time.

This required winter camping preparations for health and safety.

Winter shelter in kitchen: setting up shelter for first time in safe conditions is safety.

Map of Alaska: knowing terrain is safety.

Pack prepared: planning gear list is safety.

Loosening up before departure: stretching is safety.

Getting excited: enthusiasm is safety.

Arrive at campsite on frozen lake in late evening: knowing conditions is safety.

Campsite located between tip of peninsula and western shore of lake: knowing location is safety.

Campsite prepared by stomping down snow with skis: taking pictures of everything is safety.

Set up shelter: strong and anchored shelter is safety. Also, this shelter is not wind worthy as shown. It is quite wind worthy with appropriate anchoring that allow for tightening down straps attached to the anchors. A five inch aluminum deadmen (strong) anchors in granular hoarfrost snow conditions is not ideal for tent anchoring. Improvements to be made in future adventures.

Preparing a warm drink. Notice commitment to health and safety: health and safety is safety.

Relaxing comfortably in the shelter: rest is safety.

Enjoying warm drink in shelter: hydration is safety.

Unused ginger peach green tea packet: camping partner is safety. (Unstated but primary purpose of post: convince lovely wife that winter camping is enjoyable.)

Enjoying sunset from shelter: being outside is safety.

Packing up to return home: heated apartment waiting after first attempt at winter camping is safety.

Returning home:...

Using handrail is safety!

Successful vapor barrier sock: post-adventure gear performance analysis is safety.

Dinner: 60% of saturated fat and 72% of sodium for day is health and safety.

Conclusion: winter camping = fun and health and safety.

Likely future conclusions: ski mountaineering = fun and health and safety.

The Farm

2010-01-17T07:00:00.000-09:00

Joel and I were both fortunate to grow up on country farms. During a trip to Mayo clinic Joel and I were able to visit some of his relatives and return to the farm where he spent much of his first 12 years as a little boy. This farm is where his grandpa raised cattle and pigs, and held a never forgotten corn harvest celebration. Joel's Aunt is now living on the farm with her husband and two children. We feel very blessed to be able to go back an visit from time to time.

This is the farm house. It's super cool with a big wood stove.

The barn.

The Silo

Joel played school with his grandma in the top of this building.

I like this picture

Christmas and More

2010-01-06T21:30:00.001-09:00

Well now that the semester is over and things have gotten a little less stressful I thought it would be a good time to blog. Sorry for the long hiatus since October, this fall became a little hectic.

Here's some of the things we did over Christmas break in no particular order.

1. Made A Turkey.

I cooked, Joel carved.

2. Went skiing (A LOT)

This is Joel on Beaver Slide, My favorite ski trail in Fairbanks.

It's so perfect when the sun shines on the snow covered trees down the tracks.

3. Looked cute in a shirt from Mom and Dad Coulter

I know, not the best picture of Joel, but I like the color of his shirt, and I think he's cute.

4. Joel Kicked Julia's butt in scrabble

Love the mug (TIGGER= Joel's nickname)

5. Julia Kicked Joel's butt in scrabble

Thinking....

No making fun of all the 4 letter words that we use. We're getting better.

6. Took care of some doggies! (joel and I house sat for one of our pastors who has 8 sled dogs)

This is Roxy, she runs up to you and shoves her face in between your legs (not in a dog sniffing your butt kind of way).

This is what the other view looks like. I laugh every time she does this.

This is Olivia, she's my favorite. I call her the Hyena dog.

7. Ate Pizza

PIZZA. Half aloha and half gyro, the gyro was AMAZING!

8. Went skiing some more.

Anna and I are in Anchorage at the US National Ski Championships. Joel and Harald were here, but they had to return home.

A brain is not working right. Why? What should be done?

2010-01-04T19:54:00.000-09:00

I have been leaning on some ideas that have helped direct my thoughts about living in the world as a Christian with a strange hope that people will (by God's grace) ask me about. I'd like to organize them here to help me lean on them and who they point me to even more.

Why?

I very much appreciate the explanatory power of a Christian worldview. I especially appreciate it when faithful and wise people communicate an idea about the Christian worldview well. I don't know if I could come to these conclusions and find these hopes on my own.

What is sin? How bad is it and how can we see how bad it is? (Click to download an audio file) A story about a mother whose son has seizures every few minutes at 20:45 will not leave my mind; preceding the story, starting at 14:00, describes how we can see the horror of preferring anything to God.

What should be done?

If this is why suffering and disease and pain is so prevalent across all of human experience, what should a person who believes in Christ and all that God has done through him do? I love these answers.

What should a Christian do when suffering appears? (Because it inevitably does)

Don't Wast Your Cancer (or your life or your cavernous angioma!)

All of this leads me to this thought: I love God.

Ester Dome

2009-10-02T14:52:00.000-08:00

Every year Scott (our coach) has us do a series of tests to check-up on our fitness. These include but are not limited to push-up, sit-ups, pull-ups, 3000 meter run on the track, and of course, running up Ester Dome. It's a hill. That is 5km long.

We raced as a team last week. It had snowed, so our times weren't as fast as usual, but we were in good sprits because we want to SKI!

These are Anna and Tete's backs. They're starting their cool down. Look at the snow YAY!

There wasn't much snow in the valley of Fairbanks, but when Ester dome is covered with this "termination dust" (termination of summer, that is), then we know it's coming.

The day after the time trial up Ester Dome Aurelia and I decided we'd had enough running and roller skiing, so we went for a ski.

We drove up to Ester dome again for our adventure. What a view, cool clouds.

Aurelia

Aurelia and Me

Aurelia pretending to school ptarmigan. If you look hard you might be able to see them. Those little buggers camouflage really well, despite how stupid they seem. This was so funny to us because Einar went ptarmigan hunting that same day and was adamant that there weren't going to be ptarmigan on Ester Dome, so he had to go to Murphy Dome. Silly boy.

Now, today is 42 and sunny. And I am getting ready to go running.

I guess I can deal with one day less of winter, if I have to.