Monday, January 25, 2010

Skiing

Well, these pics are duplicates for all those of you on Facebook, but for those of you who have lives (ha ha, just kidding!), I thought you would like to see some ski pictures.

Anchorage has 1 major downhill ski resort nearby -- Mt. Alyeska, in Girdwood. Personally, I think it has one of the best views in the country -- when you aren't skiing in fog.

This is me at the top of the topmost lift. You can hike further up, but I don't because I'm lazy and I'm not good enough to ski down.
Ethan in the same spot. He's in the volunteer ski patrol. I'm very proud to be his wife when I see him skiing down the mountain.
A view of the patrol shack. We were standing directly to the right of the shack in the previous pictures.


This is what we call the alpenglow -- it's the reflection of the setting sun on snow covered mountains. You can see a line where someone hiked up on the left. Obviously, not me.

The view skiing down one of my favorite runs at the end of the day.

Awesome sunset.

I took this picture on the drive home. It has nothing to do with Alyeska or skiing, but I included it because I thought it was so cool. There was about 1/4 moon out -- just enough to light up the snow covered mountains but not enough to wash out the stars. My only regret is that I didn't get more of the constellation Orion.

So that's what skiing here is like -- at least at the resort. Loads of people will tell you backcountry is even better, but I'm just not that good of a skier and I'm afraid of avalanches to boot. I'm pretty happy sticking to the groomed slopes, myself. And who wouldn't be, on a day like Saturday?

2 comments:

craftosaurus said...

Wow! That last photo in particular is just gorgeous.

Alpha Monkey said...

It looks beautiful! I think Rob and I visited Girdwood in the summer, and it looked totally different.