Posts tagged #2014

Fall.

I have been missing in action once again. Sometimes I feel like I want to write a blogpost but I am not really sure what to write about. I have all these pictures I want to show but I have a hard time composing a story about them. This summer felt (and I am pretty sure it was) shorter than usual. At this point today we have already gotten our first frost. This endless summer that just seemed to rain away anyway is gone. It has been really really rainy. The headwater streams in the watershed I am working in have had flows up to 10 times the normal.

Even though this summer has been wet, it was still really beautiful, in its own way.

And now fall has arrived. But I love fall. I do feel cheated though, what happened to the summer? I guess I have a hard time appreciating fall when summer didn't really happen...

Hence they went wavering northward over icy Alaska, brave spruce and fir, poplar and birch, by the coasts and the rivers

Quite recently the Alaska Mountain Wilderness Classic of summer 2014 happened. Like any other race in Alaska this is one where you are on your own. There isn't any life support and as most races you sign a liability form. Most parts of Alaska don't have any cell service, because you are far out in the wilderness. Where self rescue, as stated on the wilderness classic blog mean: Self-rescue does not mean that you know how to dial a sat phone for a rescue. Self-rescue means that you know how to stabilize serious injuries enough that you can walk (or crawl) dozens of miles to a possible fly-out zone. You are on your own and you have to take care of yourself. Most people will never acquire the experience necessary to run a Classic

As W says, this is stupid and selfish, why would anyone ever do that? Well as a human we are born to challenge ourselves. Some people are of a "different breed" as the wilderness classic blog call it. Some humans want to experience the impossible, some people want to experience the wild, but you don't need to do the wilderness classic to do that. In fact, you only need to take your hiking boots, backpack, tent and sleeping bag and venture off to some backcountry creek or alike and just start to hike. There are plenty of land to explore in Alaska, but there are also plenty of obstacles, or challenges that you might not have thought about prior to your wilderness experience.

A couple of weeks ago one of the veterans in the Alaska Mountain Wilderness Classic died. He died just after putting in into the Tana river which is described by the park ranger Peter Christian: "The Tanana River is known for extremely cold, swift, large water and difficult rapids, when the water is high it's big water. "As soon as Rob put in, he was swept into big, boiling hydraulic". You can read the rest of the story in Alaska Dispatch which has a detailed article about it. We have had so much rain in large parts of the state, so a lot of rivers in the interior at leas are swelled. Our small streams are about 10 times as big as they usually are, I would for sure be scared putting into the big rivers now. But then again, if you already had your mind set to do it, would you call it off?

A lot of people just want to live a little, they feel more alive and get that specific rush when they do something they are afraid of, I think most people feel the same. Weather its braving to pet a spider or a snake at the zoo, or conquer the Grand Canyon in a kayak. This is how all extreme sports are born, and along the way some people loose their life's, just by chance, just like we could die walking down to street in a car accident. Either way it's sad, but it happens.

Posted on August 28, 2014 by Ann Rumbleinthearctic and filed under Alaska, Nature, The great wide open and tagged Alaska Alaska Mountain Wilderness Classic Fun Happiness reflections 2014 Adventure Nature Mountains Adventuring Adventures.

Solstice Hiking - Rainbow Ridge

July 16th

Screen Shot 2018-02-18 at 6.16.06 PM.png

Hiking

I went hiking for solstice weekend, because what better way is there to celebrate the longest day of the year, than to be outside in the mountains. It had been raining for days, and actually I just heard that Fairbanks broke the record in precipitation for the month of June since 1945, and the most rainfall during a 24 hr period, even breaking a record from 1967 just a couple of days ago. We received about half of the annual precipitation in just around 2 weeks, 6.63 inches....that is a lot of water. And it still rains.

Surrounded by Mountain views

As we were driving south-ish, it started to clear up a bit. And you could finally see the mountains again. At the trailhead, we had the issue of actually finding the trailhead. We thought we kind of found the trail, but were soon bushwhacking up a steep hill. Little did we know, but on the way down the next day we saw that we basically missed the real trail by half a meter...but when we finally got up, the view was amazing of course, nothing to complain about.

As we continued up the sun hit the ridge just right, and all I could grab was my iphone to snap this lovely picture below:

Feeling like the luckiest person on earth

The rain could be seen in the distance as we put up our tents and ate a snack. The view from our food storage place was amazing. And I felt complete, surrounded by mountains and braided streams. As the evening progressed the clouds and mountains put on a show for us, a solstice show. It never started to pour down, just a little drizzling. I could say goodnight watching my braided stream and the mountains.

Clear blue skies

We didn't know what weather to expect the next day, in the mountains anything can happen. But we were surprised to find a mostly clear blue sky. As my friends decided to conquer a steep scree slope, I decided to go on my own little hike along the ridge we were on. I have done enough scree slope hiking to know that I don't appreciate it.

Ridgeline

The ridgeline was pretty, and I was smiling my whole way. The solstice weekend was one of the best weekends I have had so far, mostly because I tend to work every single weekend. Getting out in the mountains can do miracles for a tired brain. And who doesn't like mountains anyway? Happy Week!!