New Year's Eve

Hi all. Well after a tough week in Fairbanks, Ben and I are headed to Anchorage for New Year's. We are going back country skiing at Hatcher Pass. It is incredible beautiful place in the Talkeetna mountains and we are very excited to head down and ski for a few days. There is also great skate skiing in the valley, so we we are bringing all the gear. Here is the the winter cabin as I am packing up for the trip today. Have a happy new year! Dea

Christmas Dinner

We had a great dinner at the bed and breakfast that Laura and Brad are taking care of. This is part of the crew:


Stacia and Tim


Sadly, life long family friend and neighbor,Stan passed away suddenly on Christmas Day. Our thoughts are with their family and our neighborhood in Orland Park, everyone is very close.


Dea and Ben

Merry Christmas Eve

Pella and her new sweater! Thank you everyone for the generous gifts. Our first Christmas in Alaska and we miss you all. Dea, Ben and Pella

Winter Solstice River Bike Ride

Stacia and I went on a great river mtn. bike ride yesterday.Solstice was at 9:35am on Dec. 21 this year(but the sun rose around noon). We did the sunset ride instead around 1:45pm. We are hoping to do a 60 mile river ride to Nenana and few more people are on board(stacia's idea of course, you can ski or bike). Tark, Beth? Maybe you can skip Santa Barbara and come to Fairbanks to train(just kidding).

It is much colder than skate skiing and I was unprepared for the extra wind chill. Luckily, I was riding Stacia's uber winter mtn bike with snowcat rims made by local bike guru Simon. Also down pogies for your hands to stay warm. Her new snowcat rims are super wide with new holes drilled out for lighter weight, the custom job comes with animal print ribbon. Pretty sweet, check them out below.



Stacia and the dogs having a blast on the highway river.


Dea learning ins and outs of winter riding!

we saw the sun today!

the fog stayed low, and to the south today, and yielded a fantastic mid day sun. i had to put the visor down in the car for the first time in quite a while. it was so therapeutic to feel the sun on my face. it only lasts a couple hours, and lingers tauntingly close to the horizon. the sunset was long and wonderful..


sunset over mt. deborah

dea had to grade papers all day, but martin and i skied the uaf trails this afternoon. we have been trying to coordinate getting out during the day to get some shots of him skiing. we left it a little late, and the sun had dipped, but we had a good time. the lack of light led to long exposures and some serious over exposing, but is was a good time. kind of a wash as far as results go, but good to shoot. got some laughs as i lay on my side in the snow to shoot martin for a good angle. a couple outtakes..


martin climbing on calypso


now that's fast.


ben

skate skiing the river

dea and i skiied the river today. the snow was a bit crunchy from the freeze up after our stange warm spell last week. the snow machines cut nice tracks for the mushers and skiers to play on. it was foggy for most of the trip, so the sun hid from us, but it was good to be out. a few pics:


dea gliding in at dawn


the strips of fog engulf the homes on the river


dea - frozen

ben

Stacia's house sitting!

We had a great dinner party at Stacia's housesitting gig. It is a beautiful very very modern house with all glass windows facing the frozen river. Of course there was dancing to Ani, a little climbing and Stacia bartending. Stacia makes the best Margs in Alaska (yes Jen you make the best Margs in Colorado). Usually the running water makes it great, but this was above and beyond, radiant slate floor, stainless steel apps.,marble bathroom.....

The girls in Kitchen for once and Stacia making the Margs.


Martin and Julie

skijoring with Pella!

It was an exciting lunchtime ski today. I took Pella skijoring. We chased Ted with his two dogs sky and lucy. It was a blast, Pella did pretty good. Frist I skied with veteran Sky, who pulled like crazy, it was so fast. Here are some pics. Dea


Starting out with Pella.


After our ski.

Triplets of Bellville Party

The cabin limit for dogs was exceeded last night, but it was very very entertaining!
We had a great party watching the film and some cycling talk..
It was more of a dog party and they were our Alaska dishwashers too.


Can you see Sky, Ty, Lucy, Zeta and Pella?
-Dea

Gulliver's Christmas Party

We had a great time at Ben's christmas party yesterday. It was at a fancy smancy restaurant, Ben and I had to re-adjust from cabin life for the night. They had a white elephant present game, but you had to guess the authors name on the gifts, Ben really knows his literary authors. I was sooo clueless. I even had Jane Austin, Ben enjoyed being the smartie pants :-)

Ben's glacier shots are in the new Matter Literary Journal this month from Wolverine Publishing in Ft.Collins. We just recieved our copy in the mail. They may carry it at Gullivers, this month there is story about Todd biking his way around alaska. Check it out if you are in Colorado, they sell it at Boulder Book Store and Borders.

Ben's new pastime, he reads a ton. Pella is still recovering from our white mtn. ski. Today she is "skin'in" the Moose Mountain with Ben, she is going to be one tired dog.


Charlie in our neighborhood had a dinner party and we skied over, ski commuting is great. All the pictures are pretty grim these days, it's gray for few hours and dark as heck for the rest. With the sun rising about noon, we have done some serious sleeping in on the weekends.
-Dea

skiing in the white mountains

big ski today in the white mountains, this is Erin and Dan starting off....

skate skiing

After skiing for days in the -20's and -30's, the this warm front is great. My old skate skis finally cracked and my friend Erin is selling me a pair of her used skis. She skied these skate skis in the college world championships in Italy!
The warm weather and skis really help, but her lessons have been incredible. I have been pulling some really long nights this week with finals, but still skate skiing everyday. Ben and I skied Midnight Express last night and it was a blast! -Dea


the commuter ski room at work


The dog mushers are so busy too, this is a bad picture of a sled and dogs going thru the drive thru in front of me.

It's Official.

weekend

another cold one here in the interior. we were able to get out for a short hike today down in the valley. during the warmer months it's more difficult to access this are as it's really boggy terrain. good blueberry picking during the summer though.



there was a signing at the bookstore yesterday. jill fredsten is an internationally known avalance expert from anchorage, and she has just published a new book - snowstruck. she presented slides, and led a question/answer discussion. the event went really well, and she sold more books that we had expected. dea and julie came by as well, as julie wanted jill to sign her copy of rowing to latitiude- a previously published sea kayaking book.

all for now.
ben

a great run in the cold sun today...

a lazy Saturday morning and missing the snow shoe race because I was feeling tired today(sorry matias). It is -31F and Julie and I decided to go for run in the valley behind her cabin on the dog mushing trails.

Kai and Pella in their warm gear, Pella is getting used to her booties and made it with almost all of them on. Notice the shadows of the sun setting at 1:30pm.

This is a ruff picture of my frozen face, hair and eyelashes after the run.


Pella tried on Kai's coat and she loved it, just layed around on Julie's couch. I think this is what she wants for christmas.

Ben and I are headed back to valley tomorrow to hike and shoot photos. It is supposed to be in the -20's and -30's again, so no glide on the skate skis.
-dea

all play, no work

Here is the grad school research I have been working on.
The instrument we are working on in the lab is outside and running. The CRDS (cavity ring down spectroscopy) measures the nitrate radical from N2O5 at night. It is now testing the air on top the GI building on campus. Here are a few pics....
Randy who also in my lab group and has been working on this instrument for years is settting up.
Up and running
Being the new graduate student, here are some of my duties :-)

-31F

this morning is the coldest we have had yet. the reports were that the snow would end, the skies would open and the cold would take hold- it appears as this is the case. the reality of cold here is sobering. the advent of cold is always here. the conditions are right, as we lose seven minutes of light a day. cloud cover gives us our warmth, trapping heat and pollution for us to enjoy. it's gray when it's warm, but the upside is the snow.

the clear skies of cold however, are magnificent. the pink hues at the horizon line are only seen at this latitude. the color of severe, deadly, cold is one of the most beautiful sites i've seen. the man made heat hovers close to the ground. homes with wood burning stoves sit on the side of hills, wrapped tightly in the smoke from their chimneys. your breath exits your depths with great force, only to stall before your eyes, sort of mocking you.

i've begun reading barry lopez's arctic dreams this week. perfect timing for a truly unique voice to speak to me. this is a land where the sun rising in the east and setting in the west is the lore of far off lands. where sunrise and sunset are a seasonal reality, not daily. it's one of the most unique, and misunderstood, places on earth. this is a land i now call home. i'm inspired..and cold.


it's never too cold for fetch.


arctic beauty.

ben

Turkey Dinner at the Frontier Cabin

Hi all. Just a few pics from our great Thanksgiving dinner that Stacia invited us to at Rebecca and Torsten's cabin. It was built in the 1870's and they still live close to the same way, no electricity, running water or even a fridge(there is a traditional one built into the ground to keep food cold). It makes our cabin look ultra modern. It is a very nice cabin, lots of tradition, even a piano. There was great singing, good food and Torsten's (from Denmark) and his friend homemade Mead. Tomoki is visiting from Japan to do research with us on our spectroscopy instrument and he wanted to visit a cain, he had a good time (we think), even took Stacia's bunny boots for the very long walk to the outhouse. -Dea

After the Turkey....

Happy Thanksgiving

dea and i took a drive north today to get out of town. we went and scoped out skiland though- the northern most ski 'resort' in the world. they will be opening in another week or so.

tonight we are heading up into the woods to have dinner with some friends. they live in a cabin without electricity or running water. dea just finished making kapusta (not sure if i spelled that right) and we are on our way out the door. hope everyone has a joyful, and safe, evening.


state of the art lift chair (1) and rental shop! They are open Saturday and Sunday and have bathroom facilities.



ben and dea

sick snow

i'm home sick today. dea's been sick for days too- i think she got the worst of it, but she's been plugging away at school regardless.

i, however, am at home double fisting tea, looking at job postings on line, and staring out the window at a huge dumping. it's snowed every night now for days. it's not like colorado- it comes a lot slower and steadier, but once it's here...it's here.

a couple pics from around the cabin today:


this trail is right next to our house. notice the snow machine tracks- mushers will be using this trail soon.


it's going to be quite some time before we lounge on the deck again.

all for now,
ben

good day off

i had the day off today- it was good to see the sun for a change. the daily sunlight is down to about 5 hours a day right now, and i took full advantage of the daylight hours. i was ablto to shoot a little in town..


this was taken around 11:30 this morning. yep, that's as high as the sun gets right now- just above the horizon.

also, pella got a package from mom and dad in iowa. apparently, they are afraid she isn't tough enough for the alaska winter, so they sent her some boots. she HATED having them on - below is the only photo where she is sitting still. i wish we had video- pretty classic stuff...


"please get these things off me...pleeeeeese"

all for now.
ben

still snowing....and we are skiing a ton.

Wow, as I am writing this blog, a snowmachine just went flying by the side of the cabin, the trail is a mile or so from here, I guess they got lost. Ben and I are enjoying all the snow! It is not like a colorado dump, just slow and steady...we skied Moose Mtn. again afterwork. Ben really loves having a ski hill this close and all to himself! They are only open Fri-Sun with the busses. So during the week it is skintasktic! Dea

It's snowing!!....Stacia's cabin last night

Julie's Defense Party, Yeah!!

We all went to the Pump House after Julie's defense. Of course with Stacia there it was a little crazy! Apparently Ben and Balshi were ruling the Pool table, too? Way to go Julie!
Komi, Stacia and Julie



Part of the Crew