April 22, 2007

I went from one end of the spectrum of civilization to the other. After spending three nights in King Cove last week, and the weekend in Anchorage, I left Monday morning for Seattle. I attended a meeting for EPA’s Northwest Region. Representatives from 4 states, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Alaska, got together to discuss issues. It was fun to meet other people dealing with similar issues. Over 70 people attended, six from Alaska.

Seattle is a big city. I hate big cities. We stayed downtown. It wasn’t horrible. It was nice to be able to walk anywhere we needed to go, but there were so many people and so many cars. It was nice to be reminded that Anchorage is really pretty small. I was very happy to get back on Wednesday night.

The first thing I noticed when I got back was that it wasn’t really dark even though it was after ten. It was a clear evening and comfortable temperatures. The clear skies were definitely cooling things off. As I drove home I thought the frost on the grass looked unusual. I checked the temperature and it was still almost 40, but knowing that the grass would ice up first didn’t explain my sense of abnormality. Then it occurred to me. It wasn’t the frost that was unusual, it was the grass. The snow pack in Anchorage has practically disappeared.

Returning to the office after seven days out was tough. I survived the last two days of the week and arrived at the weekend. We got off to a slow start on Saturday. I worked on the truck and built in a high shelf in the back of the truck. It is one of those wire closet shelves that provides lots of places to hang things like fishing poles or skis. The shelf is up high enough that it is above my line of sight for the rearview mirror. I am still working on a lower shelf to better organize gear for our weekend trips this summer, but it was good to get a first step completed.

We did go skiing in the afternoon. It was the last day for the North Face. We tried it and it was tough. The snow was heavy and lumpy. When we got pretty low, I found a field of untracked snow that I barreled into only to find it to be untracked slush that felt like slamming on the brakes. We spent the rest of the afternoon making laps on the lower mountain as it was nice slushy bumps. Some days the skis just don’t feel right. I fought with my form, working much harder than necessary. When they closed the lower lift early, we called it quits.

Today started similarly. I was fighting to get back to reasonable form. I finally won the battle after a couple of hours. I started finding smarter lines through the soft bumps. I narrowed my stance. I got both feet working together. We made lap after lap on the lower mountain making zippy turns through deep troughs around large moguls. I will be lucky to be able to walk tomorrow.

Today was the big spring celebration at the ski resort. The day ended with the ‘Slush Cup’, the annual pond skimming competition. I had never seen one in person so we watched for a few competitors. Most slowed and sank as they crossed the water. Some crashed spectacularly. One actually made it across. It was amusing. Oddly it was a very popular event. There were more spectators than were at the national races last month. I guess people enjoy watching skiers submerge into icy water more than testing the limits of human ability on skis.