Icewind's Ramblings

Waking up this morning after a weekend of constant snowfall it was piled high as one would expect but overnight it was crystal clear with stars shining and an awesome full moon hanging above the horizon.   The moon large on the western sky as I drove to work with temperatures dropping from 14 degrees last evening to about minus seven this morning. My rig struggled to get warm by the time I made my short drive to work.   I had used my auto-start about 10 minutes before leaving home but with the cold temps it takes it a few miles to feel warm inside my auto.   Work was a typical Monday with meetings, working through the logistical problems with getting material shipped to remote villages.   As the day wore on I needed to go to our shipping yard to look at a conex (big metal shipping container) that I was preparing to ship to my project in Larsen Bay.   Today was clear, calm, and cold staying about minus 4 by mid afternoon. This was the calm before the next ...

It started snowing heavily today giving us a fresh coating of beautiful white snow for the Holidays making sure we will have the story book “White Christmas”.   It seems like it is nearly waist high and is continues to fall all afternoon and probably all night long. The temperature continues to drop and could be below zero tonight and the north wind is howling once again blowing snow all over the place and drifting in those nooks and crannies. My ex-wife has done nothing but look through the living room window most of the day . . .   if it gets much worse, I may have to let her in. Ice

Traveling around Alaska with my job I have the pleasure/pain of flying all over the state in various aircraft.   Most days I have an early morning departure from the main Anchorage airport, Ted Stevens International Airport flying Alaska Airlines from my base in Anchorage to one of several ‘hub’ airports.   It has been from the southern end of the Alaska in Ketchikan, Sitka, or Juneau to the “island”; Kodiak or out to the delta area of western Alaska to Bethel or Dillingham.   For my trips farther north it has been to Fairbanks, Barrow or Kotzebue in the arctic regions of the state. Once I arrive in a hub airport I go over to one of several smaller carriers which are the typical “bush” plane operations which may use both float planes and more conventional small aircraft.   Some carriers use turbine engine planes which carry more passengers or more cargo depending on the pilot’s mission for that particular flight.   Most days the pilot will make multiple flig...

There is a funny scene in the Tom Cruise movie, “RiskyBusiness”  where Tom Cruise has his father’s Porsche 928 out for a drive with his “girlfriend” and sinks it in Lake Michigan.   I had an incident Thursday where I felt much the same way as I realized I was not where I thought I was and ended up falling through the ice on an ATV with a passenger, with me.   Well sort of the same way as T.C. minus the girlfriend and the Porsche. It’s quite funny now writing about it but in the darkness, cold, and blizzard conditions it was not.   I would not rank it in the ‘deadly serious’ category as no one was in real danger (or seemed to be) but gives me another reminder that the arctic can be deadly if not prepared or ready for anything. Here’s what happened starting the night before the early morning incident. It was nighttime in Kipnuk Alaska, the coffee pot was almost empty and the conversation between several of us was pretty well finished.   I had arrived earlier...

We all hear it . . . we see it in the changes as we walk through our daily routines.   Sometimes it subtle when it lasts for several weeks but here in Alaska things seem to be in a much faster progression and sometimes it just jumps out at you. I have been thinking a lot about change lately and what brings on those variances that make up our lives.   Do we bring it on ourselves or by chance did we allow it to just happen unaware that in an instant (or over a longer period) things changed. In my life music has always taken me to many places and in my ipod I have a collection of things that I constantly listen to during my travels or just in my car going between places.   I have certain music that I listen to every morning that hopefully sets the mood of my day and others that I pull up from times gone by that bring back certain memories or events in my life and the music that was associated with those times. Music is dear to us and we tend to hold onto it while techn...

It has been hard to find time to post lately as many things are happening right now so finding time to sit and let the writing flow has been hard for me.   Not writers block by any means but I just haven’t felt like putting words to paper or in the digital age we live in type or text to some machine. I traveled to a couple of villages last week and seeing them in an unfrozen state with children playing and jumping off the bridges into the water (freezing cold to many of us) and swimming in the river enjoying life in a much simpler way than many in the modern cities. I enjoy my time in the villages and talking with the people and children who always seem to come out to see me when I am there.   I do not know if it is because a ‘stranger’ is in town or they are curious to this dude with Hawaiian shirts and baseball cap riding around on a 4 wheeler.   They come out and want to ride or see if I have anything for them, like kids all over the world have done in my travels. ...

Or The Alaskan Adventure of a Steinway B This is taken from a newspaper notice last week and I thought it may be a fun thing to see some of the unique fun of springtime in Alaska.  I hope you enjoy!  Check out the short video On Monday, April 18th we made a bit of history as Peter Halstead, classical pianist < http://www.pianistlost.com/peter-halstead/ > and I set out with Keith & Deb Essex of Alpine Air, < http://www.alpineairalaska.com /  Mickey Houlihan of Wind Over the Earth Productions plus crew to fulfill Peter’s dream of performing piano upon one of the most remote wilderness peaks on earth. About 40 miles helicopter flight from Girdwood, Alaska we landed upon one of the most incredible sites I have ever seen about 6000 feet in altitude overlooking the Marcus-Baker glacier and icefield, thunder rolling through the mountains as avalanches broke loose in the spring sunshine, no wind at all and about 45 degrees. As the music began we all stood in awed...

Alaska is receiving Japans newest export . . . Iodine- 131 that much hyped radioactive fallout from the Fukushima nuclear reactor 2,700 miles away from Dutch Harbor whose monitors caught three times the levels from any other monitor in the United States. Maybe we can get many miles per gallon out of that mess. Ice

Aliy Zirkle who has ran the Iditarod since 2001 when I first moved to Alaska.   She was the first woman to win the Yukon Quest Sled Dog Race in 2000 a similar long distance race held in February that covers the expanse from Whitehorse, in the Yukon Territories of Canada to Fairbanks.   She has been one of my favorites to watch and follow since I came to Alaska. She and her husband run SP Kennel (Skunk’s Place) a premier sled dog racing kennel in Two Rivers, Alaska.   Aliy Zirkle (runs Team Red) & her husband musher Allen Moore (runs Team Black) on their website, and have videos on YouTube.   Last year she ran the race with a video camera mounted to her sled and gave a totally unique view of what it is like to run dogs over 1100 miles through some of Alaska’s most beautiful and rugged landscape.   Saturday Morning’s Ceremonial start in downtown Anchorage is a 15 mile run beginning on Fourth Avenue and then making a right turn onto “A” Street where it lea...

It was a beautiful day in Anchorage today, left for work at 0 dark 30 with a big moon setting to the NW of the city.   It was about the size of a half dollar held at arms length.   A moose was feeding on alders at the entrance ramp from Muldoon to the Glen Hwy.   Now there is a great sunset with orange and pink Alpenglow reflecting on the mountains. I do not have a long drive to and from work only a couple miles each way but it seems there is always something interesting to see almost everyday.   I have written about the mixture of birds soaring in the heat of the electrical plant not far from my house.   They circle and climb in and out of the steam plume topping out several thousand feet above the ground.   They are smart to seek out the warmth during subzero days and share space with other species.   The main flock is ravens, big fat ones and can number several hundred on any given afternoon.   I have seen the ravens and bald eagles fly from...