Training Seriously, as always, with No Fun
When Erik tells me to go for a 90 min L1 ski this morning he means ditch the trail, crust ski up Power Line, talk about nothing ski related with my friends, stop to shoot the strange weather station with Katie's slingshot, play on strange weather station, practice telemark turns back down the valley, stop for a quick geology lesson, and skate when the kick wax doesn't work... right?
Ky Eiben
Laura Valaas
Katie Ronsse
A very nice icicle.
Dylan Watts
Katie Ronsse
Laura Valaas
Katie Ronsse climbing the ice volcano.
There's a lake here in the summer and the water froze over. Then the water level lowered and the ice came down and broke over the rock. I don't know if there's a technical term for this, but maybe somebody else knows and can tell me? Ronsse & I also determined on this ski that Dylan is basically omniscient. Which is pretty impressive considering he's the same age as I.
Ky Eiben
Laura Valaas
Katie Ronsse
A very nice icicle.
Dylan Watts
Katie Ronsse
Laura Valaas
Katie Ronsse climbing the ice volcano.There's a lake here in the summer and the water froze over. Then the water level lowered and the ice came down and broke over the rock. I don't know if there's a technical term for this, but maybe somebody else knows and can tell me? Ronsse & I also determined on this ski that Dylan is basically omniscient. Which is pretty impressive considering he's the same age as I.
posted by LAV at 13:29
8 Comments:
So … you like racing around and having fun on skis in Powerline Pass on crust, you know where the old weather station is, you like taking pictures, you have a web site … so hey, why don’t you, Katie, Dylan and friends put on the next World Championships of the World Spring Skiing Championships?!?! If you don’t know what this is – search the web or ask folks about it. Cory Smith and I took turns “organizing” it (hint: un-organization is key to the event) in the past. But because we did that we are banned for life for every organizing it again (based on fuzzy rules for an event that has no rules). So you, or anyone else that has a web or blog site (or has access to one), could resurrect the WSSW. WSSW is usually held in the month of May when spring crust is at its peak … so you have plenty of time to muse about the World Championships of the World over the winter ....
I believe there is a technical term for the lake ice phenomenon you saw … it’s called “ice acne”. ;-)
That would sound like a worthy uphill answer to Silver Skis on Rainier.
Good luck getting through the incredible drudgery of training clearly manifested here.
tim-
We did decide that we should have our time trial today crust skiing at Glen Alps but we raced at Hilltop instead. I'll have to consider resurrecting the WSSW. We'll see what else is going on this spring.
If you want to know a technical term for something similar to the ice formation you saw – go look up aufeis on the web. Aufeis forms when rivers freeze over and then the river runs dry. You can find it around here, but it’s really prevalent in the Brooks Range. In the summer when the river starts running again the water cuts canyons through the aufeis and this makes for some tricky navigating for Brooks Range rafters.
Want another cool ice related term – look up the Icelandic word jokulhaup. Quiz: When was the last jokulhaup in Alaska?
aufeis & jokulhaup... very nice ice words.
Dylan answered your quiz for me... 1994 jokulhaup at Bering glacier.
I think chances of me being able to work aufeis into a conversation are much better then jokulhaup's chances. Although we were talking about jokulhaups on our ski this morning. By the way, the skiing at Glen Alps is excellent.
Laura, The 1994 Bering Glacier jokulhaup indeed caught a lot of attention. But there have been several jokulhaups in Alaska since then. About 40 miles north of Seward the Snow River Glacier has an ice-damned lake that outbursts on a 3 to 5 year cycle. A little over a month ago, around October 28th, this Snow River jokulhaup occurred. See: http://pafc.arh.noaa.gov/tgdproducts.php?fcst=FGAK88PAFC So that’s the latest jokulhaup in Alaska that I know of.
If you want to see a picture of the Snow Glacier (from on top of a peak that a bunch of skiers did the first recorded ascent of and named ‘Jokulhaup Peak’), see near the bottom of this web page: http://www.outlookalaska.com/KenaiMtns2005/
Speaking of aufeis: I bet you have or one day you will ski race on “artificial aufeis”. Man-made snow after it goes through a number of thaws and refreezes looks just like its wild aufeis cousin (especially in late spring).
well, I (and Dylan) stand corrected.
Nice pic of snow glacier, looks like that was a pretty sweet trip.
by the way, cwm is my new second favorite three letter word for scrabble (after qat) I haven't gotten a chance to play it yet but I will!
I'm way late to the party, but there are jokulhaups occurring regularly in Alaska. The Lemon Creek Glacier jokulhaup is small and is at least annual (July 19, 2008, and coincidentally, July 19, 2007). The Tuselquah jokulhaup is actually in Canada, I suppose, but it is big, and make the Taku River rise several feet.
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