BACK PACKING IN ALASKA YEARS AGO

We bought ourselves a little device that converts old slides to digital pictures.  Connie has started going through our thousands of slides and we are having a lot of laughs.  Thought I would share a few with you and you will probably be seeing many more.  The quality is not the best, but you will get an idea.  The pictures are of a couple of backpack trips on the Kenai Peninsula in the late 70's or early 80's.

Connie and her dog Ryan on a summer trip.

Our first backpack tent that we used on our trip up to AK and for a number of years.

Backpacking in the fall called for warm and weather proof clothes.

Ryan headed down the trail after a night of rain and snow.

Connie and Pam descending below the snowline.

The views were great though.

The "slobber" dog with his pack.

SKIING SNOWBASIN UTAH

We headed down to the Ogden area where we visited our friends Gary and Georgine who live just out of the little town of Liberty, UT.  They are only about 20 minutes or so from the ski resort Snowbasin.  It was the site for alpine skiing events in the 2002 winter Olympics.  I used to ski at this resort a lot in the 1970s as I was stationed at Hill AFB twice in that period.  It has really changed a lot and expanded since then.  What a nice place it is.  They have around 3000 acres of skiing terrain now, 3 gondolas, and at least 4 chairlifts.  We did not get to ski all the mountain in our two days of skiing as the second day was not the best of days for skiing.  That morning started out with freezing rain, then turned to snow, then back to just rain.  Could not believe I was skiing in the rain in Utah in the month of January!  Also the visibility was reduced to just feet sometimes as we were skiing in a cloud.  It was so bad that I did not even put my camera in my pack that day and Connie did not take any pictures with her little one.  But we had a great time overall.  We have known G &GB for many years and enjoy their company and wit.  Zephyrus went with us and had a great time playing with their two dogs.

Gary making a good turn on the first day.

Top of one of the gondolas.

Getting ready to head down.

View from the top.  Under all that smog is the town of Salt Lake City which is south of Ogden.  They have had some really bad air this month, but with the change in weather, it was all moving out when we left.

G making turns.

Having a cup of cocoa at one of the lodges on top.

This is the entry with the men's bathroom on the other side.  Never been in a lodge that had carpet in the bathrooms before.

This is part way down one of the runs.  Lots of acres to ski.

They could use some more snow though.  We did find quite a few rocks on the runs.  More than I would have liked.

Zeph giving a dog kiss to Connie when we got back to the jeep.

These are truly pot licking dogs.

Zeph making himself at home.

 Getting ready to head back to G & GB's after the second day.

SUNRISE - SUNSET - SKIING

The weather has sure changed around here.  We had a chinook wind come into the valley last night and today.  Our high temperature today was in the 50's up here in the foothills, but was colder down in the valley as the inversion has the temperatures tipped upside down.  We have had some real pretty sunrises and sunsets the last few mornings and evenings.   Not sure what causes these spectacular views, but I sure enjoy them.

Went skiing yesterday with only Brenda as Ike is still under the weather with a pretty bad head cold and could not make it.  There was only a little bit of new snow so it was not a powder day.  But it got us out of the house and some fresh air in our lungs.  Made a number of top to bottom runs to keep the legs in shape. 

Looking west towards Mill Creek canyon for a sunset tonight.

If you let you imagination go, you can see a trout rising up in the clouds as if after a bug on the surface.  This was sunrise yesterday morning.

Connie and Brenda making some turns.

WEATHER WARMING UP

We are starting to warm up here in western Montana.  Today we actually got up in the high 20's - what a nice change!  Actually we did have some melting of the snow in the sunshine but not a lot.  The snow is starting to fall off the trees and it makes quite a bit of noise.  Went for a nice walk up by the powerlines to the east of our place today and Zeph was almost hit by some snow falling off a pine tree.  Sure made him jump.  He turned around and looked at me as if I was to blame for the snow falling off the tree.  That dog sure makes us laugh sometimes.  He had some snow stuck to one of his whiskers and was trying to bite it off yesterday when we were walking.  Both of us were laughing pretty hard.

We have not walked up to this area since we have had all the snow last week.

A lot of the sagebrush is covered up by the snow.

 Looking to the southwest above our place.  You can see the smoke from the wood burning stoves settling in the valley.  We have a high pressure building in the area and with no wind, we will get an inversion here shortly so it will only get worse.

Zeph trying to bite a piece of ice off a whisker.

COLD, SNOW, AND SKIING

We have had a bit of a cold spell the last few days around here as has a lot of the country west of the Mississippi.  It was zero this morning around here, and yesterday it was 2 below zero when we got to the ski resort!  Will be even colder tomorrow morning the weather forecasters are saying.  And the snow has stopped falling as of this afternoon.  We ended up with about 16 inches at our place.  The ski resort got a lot more and we skied some great powder again yesterday.  In fact, in parts of the resort that is not very steep there was about too much.  We had a great day and even skied in the out of bounds area.  I skied a little with a couple of other guys that like to ski fast and in some areas where most don't get out to.  We meet up early and get the first chairs up to make some runs before the powder gets skied out on the main runs before heading out of bounds.

Zeph is getting into posing for pictures.

The horses down in the meadow.  A lot of frost still in the air.

Another old tree has died up in the rocks.

The trees are still pretty loaded with snow.

Connie making a few powder turns.

Dave and Mike at the end of our descent.  Now we have to break trail back to the resort.

Connie making a good turn on one of last runs.

I went back country skiing near our sledding hill today.  Used the old feed truck to take my skis and puppy up to the top of the sledding hill.

Not a lot of cover down through the trees.

WINTER HAS RETURNED - LOTS OF SNOW

The weather forecast was for 1 to 4 inches of snow here in the valley last night and less than inch today.  Well, we have about a foot of new snow outside this evening.  And the ski resort got a lot more than that.  We went skiing and had an outstanding powder day.  Connie had her camera and took a couple of pictures, but most of the time we just skied.  I was on the third chair and made first tracks down a number of runs.  Then we went over to chair 4 after they opened it and skied until our legs gave out.  Both pretty tired tonight, but are going back tomorrow. 

Had to shovel some snow when we got home.  And it is still snowing so will have to get the tractor out when it stops to get it piled up somewhere.  But I am not complaining as long as we can ski powder.

Zeph loves to run in the snow.

The saguaro cactus out of horse shoes has a lot of snow piled up on it. 

Run puppy run.

 Our back yard.

Snowed all day.

 Mustache has a lot of ice on it.

Visibility was a little sparse sometimes.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

We had a real low key New Year's Celebration this year.  Ike and Brenda came over for a hike and a great dinner.  Was in bed early, but that is not unusual for us.  New years day we had our annual sledding party even if we did not have much snow.  Moved the sledding over to the road down the little canyon and that turned out to be a good move.  The riders could take a runner sled about a half mile down the road before gravity gives up.  On the 3rd we took Carl and his son Andrew up to Lost Trail where Andrew took a snow board lesson and Carl went skiing with us while he had his lesson.  There has not been any snow for a couple of weeks so the skiing was just okay.  Groomed runs only.  Had a good time though.

Sunset from the firepit.

Roasting hot dogs at the fire pit on the sledding hill.

Riley making one of the first runs.

Debra, Angie, and Connie on the road.

Debra making a the corner.

Angie making the corner.

Hailey just about to go off course.

Andrew headed down.

Travis and Caleb stopping for a rest.

Trapper Peaks in the first light.

Andrew with his snow board.

Andrew getting his lesson.

Carl on top enjoying the view. Notice how the wind has blown most of the snow off the ridge over to the out of bounds area which is closed for that reason.

Carl and Connie making some nice synchronized turns.

Carl and Connie on the top of the little rope tow that gets you to the other side of the hill.

Lisa the instructor and Andrew.