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Still catching up and digging out from all the snow.. We went out for a walk on Mendenhall Lake back on March 18, and there was a great snowman someone had built in the middle of the lake. Joe McCabe was talking some photos, and we came this close to getting Torsten interested in taking a family photo (he’s not much into posing for photos most of the time these days). In the end, no family photo, but Joe sent these two awesome photos from the day. Enjoy.
It is the week of folkfest! Torsten has had a blast on both Monday and Tuesday evenings. You should be tuning in on Rain Country Radio. And we’ve got a short video trying to capture some of Torsten’s dancing.
On a sunny day of yore (back on Feb 23.. we’re trying to catch up here at t-h blog), we went out skiing across Auke Lake with Abbey. David, Dylan, and Jill joined us. It was a glorious day of skiing, and several more pictures are at the gallery from that day.
T knows snow.
This is all in our driveway, maybe 30 meters above sea level! Think of what an interesting year this will be for Mendenhall Glacier mass balance! And Eaglecrest (Juneau ski area).
Just hangin’ out with a big pile of snow:
That red house across the street has no hill between our driveway and their driveway–that’s just the piles of snow from the plowing.
We had a short gap (even blue skies this morning–it must have been really nice up at Eaglecrest), and the city snow removal tried to prepare for the next onslaught–they even came and widened our road back out so it is no longer less than one lane and almost two full lanes! (And anyone with an unbroken shovel was able to get a contract from the city to help with snow removal!)
The weather service tells us:
HEAVY SNOW WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 3 PM AST THIS AFTERNOON TO 4 AM ADT SUNDAY
Rest Of Today…Mostly cloudy in the morning…Snow developing in the afternoon. Breezy. Snow accumulation 1 to 2 inches. Highs around 35. East wind 15 to 25 mph.
Tonight…Snow…Heavy at Times….Diminishing late. Snow accumulation 5 to 9 inches. Lows around 29. Southeast wind 15 mph. Chance of snow 100 percent.
Eaglecrest has some great skiing, and some great blue sky days recently. It is cloudy today, but with that we have the hopes of another foot of snow. It has been rather cool, so there is actually *gasp* powder! We hear reports of thigh or even waist deep powder on some of the ridges hikable from Eaglecrest (as Terry pointed out, they must be short people!). At any rate, Carrie is finding her skis (?), that is gaining confidence, and she made it up to the top of Eaglecrest on the Ptarmigan chair lift (see the map here) for the first time last Sunday (a blue sky day, and the wind didn’t kick up until the afternoon, and we were up there early). WAHOO!
We went out for some sledding at Mendenhall Glacier. Torsten was more interested in hiking around the (frozen) lake. We found a great rock with a perfectly slanted side for a good slide down so played on that a while. Matt got Torsten’s attention by disappearing down the far side of the rock backwards with his feet up in the air (check out the small gallery of photos from the day for that one!).
Torsten, Carrie, Matt, Suka, and Kita went for a ski on Mendenhall Lake. We got there and the Mendenhall wolf (Romeo, people have named him) was there, looking for some dog playmates. It was a bit strange and also a neat experience. Suka was ready to play chase, but Romeo was a bit big and heavy to want to do so much sprinting. Here the wolf is checking out Torsten and photographer:
We watched the wolf for a while, then Carrie went off for a ski while Torsten and Matt skied then walked around in the snow. The wolf followed Carrie (and the dogs) very closely (wanting to play!). While watching, Matt wondered what he might say to the wolf in that situation “Go home wolf!” doesn’t quite seem right when the wolf is home. Carrie said the wolf was a little too close, so she came back. Here’s the wolf and Kita “shadowing” each other.
Here’s Carrie skiing off towards the glacier. Kita is near her, and the wolf is over to the right.
Check out the whole photo gallery of the afternoon.
This is the same wolf who came to visit us at the John Muir cabin back in 2004 when Torsten was only 5-6 weeks old. (No photos of the wolf, but the gallery of the John Muir trip (Torsten’s first camping trip) is fun to look at. It is hard to believe Torsten was ever that small!)
Torsten’s latest way of being a great help around the house is helping dad shovel the snow in the driveway and on the porch. He’s already graduated up from the avalanche shovel.
Torsten gives dad a hand with grilling up dinner. We’ve been lucky with all the snow this year and are sure enjoying it!
