Another birthday, another day, whatever. Birthdays don't mean much to me. I guess they can be amusing at times, but my mood is not affected by the calendar. Everyday is a great day to be alive. Everyday has the same potential to be filled with uncontrollable conflict and the resulting stress. Everyday provides the opportunity to pause and reflect. A birthday is just another day. We did go out for dinner. We went to the Southside Bistro, a new restaurant for us. It was an excellent dinner. I guess I owe the calendar for providing an excuse or perhaps a motivation to go out and splurge on a nice dinner.

Sunday was awesome. The temperature creeped up to the low teens. It was unexpectedly warm. In fact, we were probably overdressed for the temperatures. It had been brutally cold. We didn't ski on Saturday because it just seemed unrealistic. There is no way for me to keep my toes warm when the temperatures drop below zero. So the temperature on Sunday was warmer than expected. The Alyeska website also indicated poor visibility. We took our time getting there, not arriving until almost one. The visibility was poor at the top to start, but after a few runs, the skies brightened and the visibility improved. We skied hard for several hours. The snow was soft and nice. It was a great day of skiing.

They opened the North Face run all the way to the bottom. This is the slope under the tram that is the longest double black diamond run in North America with over 2000 feet of vertical drop. The conditions were very nice and the steepness didn't seem that bad. I guess we are getting pretty good when we don't consider something like that too steep anymore. We skied it twice. Kris fell both times, once landing in a group of shrubberies that were filled with soft deep snow. It took her quite a bit of time and effort to extract herself from that situation. I fell once on the second run when I hit a big pile heavy snow at high speed that felt like I was slamming on the brakes.

Monday evening we went to a lecture at UAA (University of Alaska at Anchorage). A wildlife biologist gave a presentation on bear safety. He was a good speaker and an intelligent person. So much of what you hear about bears is extrapolation of experiences where cause and effect are completely indeterminate. His advice fit with our approach very well. You protect yourself by understanding the risks and bear behavior. You protect yourself by paying attention. In very rare cases, you might have to interact with a bear. In these situations, he felt it is critical to decide if the bear is acting defensively or not. A non-defensive bear is the worst case scenario. Most interactions are situations were the bear feels threatened and is acting defensively. Adjusting your attitude to the bear's is usually all that is required to end the interaction. Even rarer are the cases where your interaction becomes physical. A defensive bear will often be satisfied by someone playing dead, but this is exactly the wrong thing to do with a non-defensive bear. The biologist also felt that pepper spray and firearms were a good thing, even if for no other reason than to provide the person with a little extra confidence. It is strange to hear a speaker recommending carrying a gun to a room full of people and not hearing expressions of outrage. Guns are still an accepted part of life in Alaska, even in Anchorage.

We both agreed that we didn't really learn anything from the lecture, but sometimes it is the lack of new information that makes it worthwhile. It reaffirmed our approach in dealing with the relatively low risk of encountering a dangerous bear.

The volcanoe continues to erupt, but the ash is not getting high enough to catch a breeze toward Anchorage. It seems to be a non-event here. There have been a few more instances of cancelled flights, but that has mostly been a precautionary measure during the hours of darkness.