May 29, 2007

Skiing is done. Kris made it to 50 days for the season. We skied Sunday and Monday to finish the season. It was a little drizzly on Sunday and the snow was sticky like peanut butter in places. The well tracked lines were nice, though. Monday was a sunny and bright. The sticky snow disappeared. Giant bumps formed on moderate slopes. The steeper slopes sloughed down the hill with every turn. We skied until our legs could take no more. Kris crashed on the last run, face planting on a steep slope, sliding down tens of feet to a flat area below. She laughed and knocked the snow off her sunglasses before we continued on our way. My aching legs made me look like a beginner in the final stretch of bumps.

We didn’t ski on Saturday because we were walking on a glacier. It was part of our glacier hiking class. We had a classroom session on Thursday and the on-glacier session on Saturday. It was a reasonable education on the hazards and nature of glaciers. I am a little more comfortable walking on a glacier without a guide, although we are not equipped for it at this point. Some of our future adventures may necessitate some glacier travel so it is good to know a little more. The instructor was not overly helpful on glacier. He didn’t keep the group together very well, stretching us out with a fast pace and then separating us with a challenging slope. It wasn’t hard to see the terrain and know where everyone was at any given time, but Kris was a bit annoyed. My expectations were probably just lower.

It was nice to get back on a glacier. The sites are spectacular and the experience of having pointy metal strapped to your feet is fun. It makes you feel a little like spiderman, walking on the sides of steep slopes without any slippage. We even got to enter a small ice cave, a strange tunnel of various shades of blue.

We tried our new camping gear on Friday night. Our new tent went up easily, even in the strong breeze in the Matanuska Valley. Our new chairs were comfortable. Our new stove grilled the Italian sausage while the pasta boiled. Our new sleeping bags were warm and cozy, in spite of the 40 degree temperatures over night. We both could have used another layer, agreeing that we were feeling cold throughout the night, but not cold enough to motivate us to get up and do something about it.

We camped at a nice campground along the river at the base of King Mountain. We had scoped this campground out last year and knew it looked promising. We had a few options along the road. We passed the first location as it was too early on the trip. King Mountain was the second option. It was dinner time and only a half hour from the glacier. Since sites were available, we decided to stop there and finish the drive in the morning.

We had a neat earthquake last week. It was small, like a 3.4, but it had a strange characteristic. It felt like the earth moved several inches one way and then back. It was quick. We both felt it and we both were sure it was an earthquake.