> Glorious light Ken, bravo !
Thank you!
> And speaking of light, this reminds me of one of my African students, who,
> aged 25 or so, was spending her first winter further North here. After I had
> asked them who didn’t like the sunshine, answered me : Oh Sir, the sun here,
> it is like, it’s like the light in the fridge, it glows, but it’s Ssooo cold …
Yes, I understand that sentiment.
We've had a reasonably warm winter here this year (so far). It got
below zero (F) for a week or two, but it's mostly been pretty average.
But Anchorage is usually pretty temperate as compared to most of
Alaska. Fairbanks has absolutely no redeeming value, if you ask me. It
gets brutally cold AND hot in Fairbanks. And it's so close to the
Arctic Circle that mid winter noon is about as bright as that 15 watt
refrigerator lightbulb.
The weather has been a bit dreary for the past several weeks and this
sunset was just what we needed. I think everybody got out last night
to watch the sunset. But with the fresh snow, everybody was also out
on skis or snowboards anyway. Had I gotten up to Arctic Valley earlier
in the afternoon, I would have snowshoed one of the trails. Avalanche
risk was extreme (solid ice covered by lots of fresh snow), but there
are safer areas to enjoy. They had shot the hills early in the day
before anybody arrived, because everything is off-piste (even the
on-piste is off-piste there, as grooming is minimal). You could see
where a few slides were triggered. Warnings were everywhere and
dangerous areas flagged. Where I normally hike (back side of Arctic
Valley) is not "managed" and was far too dangerous to hike yesterday.
(hiking is relative, because that location got enough fresh snow that
it's either cross-country skiing or snowshoeing).
The beauty here just never ends. That location where I took this
picture is a bit interesting. When you hike up from the parking lots,
the view of Anchorage and the Cook Inlet disappears around a bend and
is replaced by 100% alpine ruggedness. The peaks are jagged valleys
deep. All this is literally just 20 minutes (or so) away from the
house.
AG
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