My Alaska Experience

2010-11-11T09:43:00.000-09:00

       So I bought some used skate gear from Play It Again Sports. All is serviceable, none is quite modern. Bindings are being mounted, boots are being repaired, snow is falling! I hope to get out this weekend, pending the speedy repair of my boots which have a broken zipper and ripped seam. When the sales person noticed the damage on the bright yellow Salomon boots, he was about to remove them from inventory, but I procured them for next to nothing.
       I had never been to a cobbler before, approached the storefront with much anticipation. Shoe repair seemed like a trade of the past in this throw-away age. I was eager to meet the tradesman of this dieing craft. The tiny store was in the middle of a shabby strip mall with a large yellow "Shoe Repair" sign over it in both English and some Asian dialect. It was impeccably tidy and smelled of shoe polish and leather. The walls of the loby were lined with repaired and polished footwear ranging from slinky stilettos, to clunky combat boots. Behind the desk was an assortment of zippers, laces, and polishes. The counter, itself, was a glass display case filled with a variety of resole treads. A sewing machine hummed intermittently in the next room. I rang the bell on the counter and the sewing machine stopped. A short man emerged from the next room. His hair was thinning and well groomed. He wore pleated khakis and a pressed white button-down shirt under a blue denim apron. A wholesome smile beamed beneath his thick framed, coke-bottle glasses.
       Seeing the boots in my arms, his eyes lit up. "Ahh, yes," he exhaled as he carefully took the boots from my hands. He worked his skilled and battered hands delicately around them. His inspection was extremely delicate, as if the boots were brittle artifacts and liable to crumble at a strong a breeze, or a newly hatched chick. His eyes were soft with appreciation, yet sharp with the scrutiny of a craftsman. With that he reached below the counter and produce a coffee can full of zipper heads, which he then poured across the glass display case counter top. Clamping the can between the counter and his body, he filtered the zippers back into it using his fingers, much the way a crab filters water with its mandibles, until he found the morsel he was after: a red, Salomon zipper pull--an exact match! "Yeeees!" His face lit up again, as if he just won at BINGO. "So, me fixy-fixy zippy here...and stitchy-stitchy seam here, yes?" His smile was intoxicatingly energetic. "Sounds great," I was barely able to reply. By now I was as excited as a child. "Okay, Zippy twenty dollar. Stitchy ten dollar. Thirty Dollar! Cashy only! No checky! How sounds Monday?" He wrote out a receipt and thanked me kindly as I made my way to the door. I left the cobbler feeling happy and warm. It was great. For less than a third of the cost of new boots, I have purchased and repaired a perfectly good pair of used boots that were about to be thrown away.
       Such dedication and contentment with a trade seems lost in this world where we are ever seeking for something better. Something more. Discontent seems to be an aspiration. We are taught to constantly seek advancement. To never be content. That no matter what we do, what we achieve, there is always something better, if we just keep our options open. What happened to dedication to a single course? Those I have met who seem most happy and content are those who have stopped searching. Who have left the race and run on their own--simply seeking the perfection of what they currently do.

Winter is Back!

2010-11-09T09:06:00.000-09:00

Well, its true. Winter is, indeed, back. up AK way we have anywhere from 8 inches to 2 feet of snow in the greater Anchorage area. With all this, sliding is on the mind. I've decided to get into cross country skiing this season. Being right across from Kincaid park, it was an obvious choice. Plus it gives me the chance to read up on (and oogle over) new gear! Skate or classic...or both? I have some very light weight tele-touring gear already that I think will suffice as heavy classic gear, so its on to skate. I always figured I would get into it. Its the natural winter extension of distance running. I'm pretty excited and am looking forward to spending some more time away from the resort this year. I'm starting to realize that I can only spend so much time in the tourist industry. Its starting to ware on me. I love when my work is my play, but when play starts to resemble work, its time to change direction.

Talkeetna, AK

2010-05-03T14:43:00.002-08:00

Greetings from Talkeetna! This is our new home for the summer and we are VERY excited about it! Our cabin rests eight miles outside of the village and is nestled in the woods on a high hill that overlooks the a slow, winding river and the Alaska Railroad. Mining trains run daily and commuter trains run on the weekends on their way from Anchorage to Denali National Park. Beyond that, we have views of the Alaska Range and Mount Foraker (17,400 ft). We travel by bicycle and a shuttle van that runs up and down the fifteen mile Talkeetna Spur Road. We have no electricity or running water. There is a water tap a couple hundred yards down the path from our house to the Talkeetna Guest Cabin (also owned by our landlords) and we fill a five gallon water tank every other day, or so. We have a propane stove and three propane lights, though we rarely use the lights, as it is bright out from about 5 am to 11 pm. We also have a wood stove which keeps us quite toasty at night. Our wood pile is also down by the Guest Cabin, and we have been slowly hauling it up by sled and splitting it by the house. The outhouse is a little..."rustic" and I'm hoping to convince Joe and Nancy to spring for materials to re-build it. We did a little trail maintenance between the cabin and the outhouse. Devil's Club is abundant and very nasty. You barely have to brush against it to get pretty pricked up. The Fiddlehead Ferns are starting to come up and I can't wait to pick some to roast up for dinner.

The other two peaks that are prominent on the Alaska Range skyline from Talkeetna are Mount Denali, (20,320 ft) and the Moose's Tooth (10,335 ft). We have seen quite a bit of wildlife since arriving. Alayne met a moose looking in the front window. On the river we have seen, beaver, otter, fox, and ducks. The swans trumpet quite loudly in the morning and evening and the red squirrels are always chattering away. The rumors are true! The mosquitoes are the size of honey bees! They are not abundant yet, but they will be soon. The bug net over the bed will be a life savor, for sure.

The Changing Seasons

2010-03-16T19:19:00.000-08:00

It is amazing how quickly we are gaining sun light now! Today we had 12 hours! It was another blue bird day with lots of snow under foot. The temperature has been in the 20s for a while, but the past few days have been a lot warmer. The forecast calls for the upper thirties all week. Avalanche danger is going down and longer days are allowing for more back country exploration!

Contemplative Education

2010-02-13T22:59:00.003-09:00

I have been thinking about furthering my education recently. I really enjoy what I am doing. I love sharing my understanding of the world and philosophy with my students and clients, but would like to be able to reach more people. I have long wanted to be an educator. I could never decide at what level, though I suppose it does not matter. It has been hard for me to choose a path that is really meaningful to me. Environmental science is fascinating, but I don't really want a career directly in that field. Even from the beginning of my college experience I have had an interest in philosophy, but could not find a tangible application to a degree in it. Social justice and advocacy is very compelling, but I had been scared off that path by corruption, stereotypes, and single-minded zealots.

But looking at Naropa University, I think I have finally found a school that offers meaningful avenues into all of these disciplines. Naropa utilizes contemplative education techniques to foster discipline and deeper understanding. Their Peace Studies major is very compelling. It takes on both personal and social conflict and looks into the roots of violence and war, with a focus on engagement and conflict resolution. I see practical applications in every walk of life. All of their departments look fascinating and I would love to minor in all of them. But I especially like their environmental studies program. Further on, their Masters in Contemplative Education is an exciting program to hone teaching techniques that encourage a more holistic approach to education.

I'm pretty excited about finding a school that is a little more mindful and spiritually oriented. I think this is a place I could really fit in.

The month since I last posted:

2010-02-10T22:52:00.013-09:00

Hmm...I gave myself a lot to work with that title. There have been, well, quite a few noteworthy events since my last post. Here I am operating the "magic carpet" conveyor belt at the bunny hill.

January was a fun month to work at Alyeska. I had the privilege of teaching a number of area school groups how to snowboard. I like school groups because, unlike my normal, one-time, two hour lessons, with a school group, I have the same students for six lessons. For the first lesson, they are all excited and nervous. They can barely stand on the bunny hill. By the sixth lesson, we are all standing confidently at the summit. It is so incredible to to watch them grow.

I spend more time teaching breathing, relaxation and smiling, than I do teaching body movement or snowboard performance.

I have three priorities as an instructor. In order of importance: keep it safe, keep it fun, teach something. The first two are by far the most important to foster learning. If the riding environment is safe and fun, I have very little to teach in the beginning. They mostly learn from intuition and experience. As they progress past basic turns and stops, structured instruction helps to refine performance.

The Alyeska Snow School and Girdwood all raise a glass to our late friend Tall Paul Wiersema. Paul was in a car wreck the evening of the 29th on the Seward Highway and later died of his injuries. He was a brilliant painter, elegant snowboarder, Doctor of Philosophy, and passionate friend to us all. We held a torch light parade in his honor down Alyeska on Monday. There was a line of 60 flairs skiing and riding down the mountain, followed by a memorial party at the base. He will be happily remembered.

I have now been on this earth twenty-six years. Before you ask, I didn't feel any older that day than I did the day before. I am in a beautiful place, living my dream and it keeps me young! From my parents I very gratefully received an avalanche beacon, probe, and shovel for safe back country travel and snowboarding. I put it to the test the day I got it and very fortunately did not need to use it. Avalanche gear is like a rain jacket. It is purchased with the hope of never having to use it. Ariane sent me a beard head! This is the greatest face mask I have ever worn, and gets a lot of looks. Thank you all.

My friends Alayne, Jeremiah, Krista, and myself, went riding on Sunburst Mountain in Turnagain Pass. It took us about 2.5 hours to climb 2300 feet of elevation...and about 20 minutes to ride back down! Wow was it fun, though! And the view was amazing! Oh, and thats not snow below us, its clouds!

Jeremiah is a fellow snowboard instructor at Alyeska. He previously worked as an instructor and ski patroler at Taos Ski Valley, NM and moved to Alaska this past summer. Krista is a tram operator at the resort and has been in Alaska for some time now.

(In case you were wondering, Mom: Yes. I met someone special!) Alayne is a ski instructor at Aspen-Snowmass in Colorado. We met back in the Adirondacks this past fall, about a week before I left for Alaska, while on a camping trip on the Raquette River. I am good friends with her sister Leigh and Leigh's boyfriend, Mark. They are whitewater boaters that I met in Maryland the previous summer. I kept hearing stories and anecdotes about Leigh's fabled crazy sister in Aspen: an artist, telemark skier, Aspen ski instructor...a bit of a hippy. And about how we 'should really meet,' and would 'really get along well.' It turns out they were right. Over the past three months we have written each other letters and spoken often. Alayne even came up to visit this past week. We skied, smiled, mused, dined, and kissed on mountain tops. It was a magical time and we can't wait to see each other again.

Its raining out now =( It does that a lot. My next big purchase will be a pair of XtraTuf boots. Everyone up here (men, women, children) wear them, and for good reason. Slush and mud are the norm. Its funny going into Anchorage and hearing people say, "you must be from Girdwood," when they see the boots! Rubber boots, ice cleats, and head lamps. Never leave home in Alaska with out them!

I'm not good at keeping at this.

2009-12-15T16:44:00.006-09:00

Wow. It's been a while. I now live in a house at the base of Alyeska Mountain with two new friends, Annika and Jessie. Annika grew up here in Girdwood but moved to the lower 48 for a while. She moved back around 2001 and bought the house we live in. She gets very excited about christmas and it looks like an elf threw up in our living room.

I still see my friends at the hostel quite often. Salome and Avi are working at Challenge Alaska while Brenden is a lifty and Amy works at the ski school desk at the mountain. Salome painted a mural of a pine tree with mountians and a river on my helmet

We all celebrated Santi Claus, the saint day of Saint Nicholas, on December 6th at the hostel. This celebration, for us, centered around making bread people, simmilar to gingerbread men, but less cookie like.

In Switzerland, Santi Claus is tall and thin. He drives a sleigh pulled by donkeys and brings chessnuts and other sweets. When he comes you sit on his lap and tell him your sins. If you have been good, he rewards you with sweets, but if you have been especially bad, he empties his sack and shoves you in! Then he takes you back to his home in the Black Forest where you spend a year peeling carrots for his donkeys. That is a little stiffer punnishment than a bit of coal in a sock! Christmas and Saint Nicholas' Day are seperate there, which makes more sense to me.

We have had some beautiful sunsets lately! This picture is from half way up the mountain around 4:00. That bit of Ocean is the Turnagain Arm skirted by the Chugach Mountains and Girdwood is that little bit of light to the right of the sign.

I will have more pictures soon

Avalanche Clinic

2009-11-18T22:22:00.002-09:00

Tonight, I went to a 'Fireside Chat' at the National Forest Service post in Girdwood. It was put on by the Chugach National Forest Avalanche Information Center, in association with Avalanche.org. This is the second of a five part lecture series on avalanche safety and awareness. Tonight's lecture focused on snow pack. I learned about the two major catagories of snow crystals, rounded and faceted, and how they relate to avalanche risk. Rounded crystals fuse together well and create a solid bond (snowball snow), while faceted crystals do not fuse well and create weak layers in the snow pack (sugary snow). I also learned that most avalanches occure on 35 to 45 degree slopes, with 38 degrees being the most dangerous. Next week's lecture is about terrain and route mapping.
Tomorrow I am heading into 'town', as Anchorage is referred to here. This will be my first excursion into the city and I am hoping it is a clear day. I hear that this stretch of the Seward Highway is gorgeous. On my way to Girdwood from the airport, there was a blizzard and we could hardly see 20 yards ahead. I am very excited. More photos coming soon.

Welcome to Girdwood

2009-11-16T17:23:00.009-09:00

I am creating this blog to share my Alaska experience with my friends and family. I have recently moved to Girdwood, Alaska from Saranac Lake, New York to become a snowboard instructor at Alyeska Resort. I am currently staying at the Girdwood Alaska Backpacker's Inn (GABI) until I find more perminant housing. GABI is a hostel in affiliation with Hostelling International, a network of accredited hostels around the world. Amy and Branden are excelent hosts in this relatively new addition to Girdwood's Old Town.

Girdwood is devided into the old town site and the new town site. In 1964 there was a major earthquake in Alaska and half of the old town site subsided below sea level. and is still visible at low tide. New Town is about 2.5 miles inland and a little higher in elevation. It lies at the base of Alyeska Mountain and consists of a grocery store, post office, clinic, fire dept., library, and a few resteraunts and shops. The population is roughly 1700 and many are without electricity or plumbing! Food costs are almost twice those of New York, and nobody seems to mind. It is what it is.

Girdwoodians come from all over and form a very tight knit community. Everybody goes out of their way to help each other in a very physically and financially demanding living environment. The community also includes a large pack of very friendly Town Dogs. Many people here own dogs that wander freely around town and many folk carry treats in their pockts. It is amazing how quickly I am learning all of their names.

I am very excited about becoming a more active member of this community and learning from it's members. Already I have met many people who have opened their arms to me. I have attended the openingn of the Babes In The Woods art gallery and looked into the Challenge Alaska program, an adaptive ski program for those with physical and mental handicaps.

Further reports comming soon!

~Mark