November 6, 2011

Crack Fix

Posted by dongshow under backcountry, Skiing, Turnagain, video | Tags: , |
[2] Comments 

Fall is an awful season, I’m so glad its over.   As with every year, each fall season that I don’t leave the country my accomplishments consist of driving my self crazy over tedium, and boredom.  The skiing has been pretty good the last couple of weeks though, and I’ve been feeling better, but today was absolutely fantastic, I feel like I got put back on my medicine.  I went up to Goldpan with Andy this morning, and enjoyed a nice ridge walk along Magnum with the Viking before dropping in to Superbowl.  Some other folks had beat us up there, but no one had skied the line I was planning on taking, so it was all good.  A little wind affected up top, but absolute pow down bellow.  I didn’t ski so well, as I’m not really in shape yet and embarassingly my legs were gassed halfway down.  From there, Andy and I headed up Cornbiscuit and skied the corner-pocket chute before bushwhacking our way back to the road.  Our run down Superbowl has had me in a permagrin since I got to the bottom.  After last years horrible season it felt so so nice to finally ski something steep and interesting. Video bellow.

 

October 30, 2011

Early Season Tin Can Crowds

Posted by dongshow under backcountry, Skiing | Tags: , |
[3] Comments 

Andy and I tried to go elsewhere, but as we drove further the rain only increased, so we retreated and parked at Tin Can along with another 20 cars.  I do love seeing the regional bro’s early season enthusiasm, which gets people out walking through creeks and post holing in the rain for some low visibility turns in some very super sticky snow.  I guess it goes to explain why so many people are burnt out by march, but who cares.  Great times, the circus like atmosphere and drinking beers in blowing snow on Tin Can really made it feel like winter was back.  So pleased

 

October 23, 2011

Snow Always Looks More Plentiful From A Distance

Posted by dongshow under Front Range, Skiing | Tags: |
Leave a Comment 

A malfunctioning Subaru forced Andy and I to abandon our plans to ski Hatcher Pass and opt instead to head up to Arctic Valley, as it was looking pretty well covered from town all week.  It was a good reminder of the phenomenon that snow always looks a lot thicker and more plentiful from 7 to 8 miles away.  Anyway, the skiing was a lot better then it looked from the parking lot, and it was really nice just to skin up something.

 

 

September 27, 2011

More September Skiing

Posted by dongshow under Skiing | Tags: |
Leave a Comment 

Crow PassAfter a cycle of cold rain and higher snow we had a nice weather window late last week.  4 or 5 sunny days, it wasn’t until Sunday that I was able to get out and ski.  With my cousin Brian we made it up to the snow line in about an hour and forty-five, and found some fantastic conditions.  Saturdays winds had hardened the snow quite a bit, but some high grade smooth dust on crust this early in the season was actually quite fun.  I’m really hoping the weather swings back towards the wet and of its range and we get some more snow.

 

September 12, 2011

Jewel Glacier Skiing

Posted by dongshow under backcountry, Skiing, video | Tags: , , |
[2] Comments 

Friday I was out in Eagle River with Graham to work on skis  and was surprised by the amount of snow on the surrounding peaks.  Tentative plans were made to go skiing on Sunday, but I had very little faith that things would actually work out.  However, Sunday turned out to be gorgeous, easily the nicest day in weeks, and Graham called early that morning to let me know he was on his way.  The parking lot at Crow Pass was packed, but we were the only skiers, and after a little over an hour of hiking, and some serious doubts as to if we’d find anything worth skiing, we eventually came around a corner to find the Jewel with covered with a healthy blanket of warm wet snow.  Getting some turns in under the sunshine was fantastic, it feels so so good to be skiing again.  A little video bellow, not really anything special, but I figured I might as well put something up to commemorate the beginning of a new year.

 

September 7, 2011

Wedding Activities Off All Sorts: 6 Mile Creek Rafting and Model Rocket Failures

Posted by dongshow under alcohol, mitigated disasters, video | Tags: , , |
Leave a Comment 

No actual pictures or video of last weekends wedding, but a couple videos of some of the weeks festivities have  made it online so I might as well put them up as relief from the recent sailing theme around these parts.  Above is a video Scott put together of our trip down 6 Mile Creek  with Chugach Outdoor Center.  Bellow are Wilsons’ attempts to break up our post wedding hangovers with some homemade model rockets (plastic water bottles and duct tape) which struggled to make it 100 feet in the air.  Good times.

 

August 23, 2011

Alaska Cup Yacht Racing

Posted by dongshow under video, wind sports | Tags: , , |
Leave a Comment 

sailing in seward on ressurection bayI spent the weekend sailing aboard Gary’s boat Maniac down in Seward for the Alaska Cup Regatta this weekend.  We had trouble finding crew as the weather on Saturday was nasty (don’t be fooled, the picture above is from Sunday) and people had work, girlfriend or school commitments that kept them elsewhere.  We sailed all weekend slightly under manned, which kept us from flying our spinnaker the first day, and forced us to sail a race (which we won) with a somewhat improvised reef.   We also sailed on saturday with a Columbian crew member who didn’t speak a word of English.  On our second downwind leg our somewhat novice helmsman accidentally jibed the boat (minute 3:50 in the video bellow) while he was on the boom, pitching him into the life lines, how he avoided being tossed overboard still amazes me.

Despite the challenges we got some incredibly lucky weather, and were able to play the tide to our advantage on a few occasions allowing us to eek out a victory.  We took 2nd in the last race to clinch the win by less then half a boat length.  Coming in to the windward finish on starboard we were completely overpowered, and Norm (our rookie helmsman) had the tiller in his chest trying to keep the boat from rounding up.  Our closest rival barged in on port and fouled us just as we were crossing the line, making for a great finish to the regatta.  All in all a fantastic weekend in Seward.  The WHSYC is an amazing place, and through a fantastic party Saturday night, our crew ended up drinking for a little over 8 hours post race, and were all struggling with hangovers pre-race on Sunday.   The only setback was my GoPro having no end of problems on Sunday, so I have next to no footage of any racing in the sunshine.  That said, enjoy the cold gray racing in the rain from Sunday.  Also, if your looking for any more sailing videos I highly suggest Gary’s Kite-cam footage of sailing around outside of Seward.

 

 

August 10, 2011

Kenai Lake Windsurfing

Posted by dongshow under video, wind sports | Tags: , |
[2] Comments 

Spent the weekend camping and Windsurfing down on Kenai Lake.  We had some fantastic winds on saturday, but it was a little too light on sunday.  Saturday we discovered the little bay at the Quartz Creek boat launch makes for some perfect windsurfing.  A little peninsula just to our east kept a large area sheltered from most of the chop but didn’t kill the winds.  Great times, the best windsurfing I’ve done to date, there was a good 15 minutes where Max and I were crossing back and forth cheering.

 

 

 

August 5, 2011

My Classy Anchorage Neighborhood; Automotive Edition

Posted by dongshow under alcohol, Uncategorized | Tags: , |
[2] Comments 

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.

 

July 29, 2011

Arial Footage of a Giant Caribou Herd

Posted by dongshow under video | Tags: , , |
Leave a Comment 

Our Nunavut corespondent just sent in a little helicopter footage of a massive caribou herd.  Looks to be plenty of animals up there in Canada.

 

July 27, 2011

Lazy Weekend Camping in the Rain

Posted by dongshow under Fish, mitigated disasters, Uncategorized, video, wind sports | Tags: , |
1 Comment 

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.

 

July 21, 2011

Kasilof Red Salmon

Posted by dongshow under Fish | Tags: , , |
Leave a Comment 

With word from Riley that the were  fish hitting hard Kim and I bailed out of town Monday night and headed down to Kasilof to see if we could take advantage of the commercial fishing closure on Tuesday.  I haven’t  had the opportunity to dip net on the Kenai Peninsula on a non weekend or holiday, and the more relaxed atmosphere with the smaller weekday crowd was a definite positive.   The fishing started slow, by 2 pm we had 6 fish and had spent more time grilling, playing petanque or drinking whiskey then we had fishing.   The late afternoon tide was very favorable to us though, during a 45 minute window we were catching a fish every two to three minutes and spent more time untangling and killing the fish then we did in the water.   Once we had reached our limit the fish were packed and we raced back to Anchorage.  I’m pumped to have some fresh fish (the fillets we ate last night were amazing), but I’m equally excited to be relieved of the duty to fish this weekend, allowing me to chill on the beach focusing on windsurfing and petanque.  Till next time…

 

« Previous Page — Next Page »

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.