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Charlie took these three pictures Saturday while I was watching football in my bedroom, and despite feeling quite pleased with the decision at the time, it’s hard to look at these and not feel a slight tinge of regret. So I’m posting these for three reasons, first to highlight how amazing the current conditions are, second to prove that you always regret not going skiing, and third to convince the rare Anchorage reader to buy a print from Charlie at his first friday at the Upstairs Studio.  I might post some of my stuff from the weekend later, but it’s nothing compared to these shots.  Later

I’ve been realizing that while I have posted hundreds of pictures of the places I visit in my free time, I have thusfar failed to post anything that would enlighten the handful of non-Alaskan readers as to what it looks like here in town where I somewhat unfortunately spend most of my time.  This may, if I feel ambitions,  become a continuing series throughout the remainder of the summer.  I’ll start out with a basic rundown of what people drive who live near me drive.

First up is my local liquor store clerk Vinny, who protects his Mustang with a parking cone.  Although his car has been hit on numerous occasion by his own drunken clientele, he still refuses to park behind the store.  He considers the parking cone a double win, not only is it protecting his front bumper, but it also brings increased attention to his beloved car.

The El Camino enjoys enormous popularity amongst my neighbors.  This house,  previously featured around here for their incredible no trespassing sign, always proudly parks their El Camino in their driveway, and commonly stores 4 wheelers, Dirt Bikes, strange plastic vats, or extension ladders in the back bed.  Since taking this picture this house’s inhabitants have acquired an additional El Camino (forest green) that came with a white topper.

Again, here is a pair of dueling El Caminos a 5 minute walk from my house.  The broken early 90s wood trim television in the back is worthy of a couple of extra points.

The El Camino is so loved in this little neighborhood some people have even branched out and purchased a copycat Dodge Rampage 22, a model I never knew existed.

This is the local Ice cream truck that I would love to claim was driven by a pedophile if it wasn’t actually driven by a large women with huge 80s rocker hair.  While listening to this thing as it wanders through the streets near my house playing it’s stupid tune I’ve become convinced that someone driving around blasting metal and selling cigarettes and booze out of a pickup truck would make a lot more money then this women trying to take a couple quarters from the kids.

So, despite having caught all of our fish tuesday afternoon, Kim and I opted to head back down to Kasilof this weekend for some partying and windsurfing.  We figured at the very least we could have fun taunting or friends about their lack of fish from the beach.

Traffic on friday evening was outrageous, and Kim and I only arrived because we avoided the highway closure by taking the Skilak Lake cutoff.  Our friends that left a few hours later weren’t so lucky, and ended up camping on the highway.  Friday evening was gorgeous, but by the time they all arrived early Saturday morning it began to rain, and didn’t quit until sometime Monday.  Early that morning a game of Rye Bocce commenced, and moments after it finished Kim managed to roll Mikey’s four wheeler, impaling his calf, and requiring 19 stitches at the Soldotna Emergency Room.

The fishing was really slow, so very little fishing was done at all, and the rain forced us to spend most of our time beneath a tarp we strung between the trucks.  Nonetheless a good time was had, Max and I even got a little Windsurfing done in the mouth of the river, despite less then co-operative winds.  I managed to have all sorts of issues, and was forced to swim the board back to shore, whereupon I began throwing up.  Great times for sure, and it certainly beats having to get rescued by the Coast Guard or floating out to sea.  Anyway, video bellow, no footage of fish actually being caught, but plenty of the usual beach antics plus some Windsurfing.

As a broken rear axel on the van has delayed my windsurfing progress, I’m going to run some of Politic’s recent motorcycle rides around Salt Lake City this spring and early summer.  The obvious heat and intense sun seem so foreign up here in the rain.  If your looking for something a little more in line with this blogs usual topics check out Guilia Monego’s pictures and stories from skiing in Bolivia along with a fantastic line of Huyana Potosi.

Big line on the east side of Eklutna LakeWilson and Graham skied the Northwest Face of Mt. Bold above Eklutna Lake on Monday while I was stuck in the office working.  So, as I wasn’t there (and am slightly jealous), I don’t have anything particularly interesting to pass along, just the couple of pictures.  Looks like our sunny cycle is over for now, hopefully this storm brings more snow then rain.

Down in Utah, occasional contributor to the site Jason has been trying to launch a line of Shift Grindplates that would allow Skiers to further imitate rollerblading by opening up the possibility of  soul grinds and other nifty rail tricks on skis.  That’s Jason with the early 90s’s Makio in the video above.  And since this is a rare intrusion of rail slides into what is usually a terrain park free zone, I’ll make up for it by posting Jason’s line down Clayton’s Peak at Brighton bellow.  And with the sun shinning on some fresh snow I’m about to sneak out of work  for some afternoon turns, later!

 

With snow still seeming a long ways off,  Max, Wilson and I spent the weekend driving around on snow machines looking for terrain that would be fun when it’s not covered in wind swept ice (as it is now).


So, I just thought I’d mention that posting may be light around these parts, the possibility of online NHLPA 93 battles may keep me from getting anything done for the rest of my life.  This quote is what I’m talking about, from a friend of mine:

just scored 19 in the first period as Boston against Detroit 19-0 then 38-2 final. also scored 30-0 shutout as Boston against Buffalo with Moog as player of the game. incredible day.

Manitoba

Christmas is over.  Although Santa was very generous to me this year he left me with a cold.  However, this did not stop me from taking my fiance – Riley and my long time ski racing buddy Mike out for an easy ski.  Since Mike  grew up in Alaska and has since relocated to sunny so-cal hasn’t done much back country skiing and me being sick we kept it nice and easy.  After driving through turnagain and the weather looking unpredictable, we settled on some familiar tree skiing on the west side of Summit Lake and Fresno Ridge.  The 6-8 inches of 5% moisture content snow that had fallen over night had made for some fantastic blower powder skiing.  The winds aloft were high as you can see in the pictures but there was no wind down low.  Hopefully this next system will come through and be the answer to our snow prayers!

high cirrus clouds above fresno

Picture by Charlie Renfro


Picture by Charlie Renfro

I got a bit lazy, and this is 3 days and an entire weather system too late, but I figure I bothered to make the video, so I might as well post it.  Again the music is courtesy of DJ Indo, a long time friend of the site.  This clips music is from his Pleasure Riddim Mix; I’ll likely just keep using his stuff for the rest of the season if there aren’t any objections, its fantastic and saves me the hassle of choosing something.  Anyway, this post is becoming aimless so it’s time to move on.

Another fantastic Thanksgiving of powder skiing.  I think it’s been 4 years in a row now that a large storm has delivered; powder turns in the trees is becoming a far better tradition then unevenly cooked turkey.   Graham and I headed to Summit Lake in the van this morning, the driving was a little wild (some GMC truck with a plow nearly run me into the ditch), then it took a few minutes to find a plowed pull out in Summit Lake, and once there we weren’t exactly sure where to begin skinning, but after getting situated and cruising down the road a bit everything became quite clear.  The conditions were fantastic today, not too deep and a little heavy, but that just allowed us to go faster which was fantastic with the widely spaced deciduous trees on the west side of the highway.   The music in the video is from DJ Indo’s Gregory Issacs tribute over at Strictly Blazin.

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