The other day I was talking to a friend back East and he told me how they just had a beautiful Indian Summer.  Sunny October days, temperatures in the sixties.  I replied that we too were having beautiful sunny days, but our temperatures were in the twenties.  I guess we should call it Eskimo Summer.

I used to hate this time of year.  An Autumn of cool, rainy weather would always raise the hope of a early ski season.  But inevitably a high-pressure system would move in, the sky would clear, and the temperature would drop.  And it would stay like that.  Everything is cold and frozen, but no snow.  Very frustrating for someone who lives to ski.  

Recently, though, my interests have diversified, and I’m less of a ski-at-all-costs kind of guy.   I’ve embraced biking and running on the frozen trails.  I got studded tires for my mountain bike and it opened up a lot of new options.    I even found myself hoping that we wouldn’t get snow after the lakes began to freeze up, so that we could enjoy some ice skating.  I went skating at Potter Marsh both days last weekend and it was fantastic.  

I love the maze of ice created by the cattail vegetation.  You can skate for hours and never get bored.  And when the skiing jones kick in, I can always drive up to Hatcher Pass for beautiful skiing, which I did on Sunday morning.   (There is skiing nearby at Glen Alps, but it wasn’t very good the last time I went, and with all the other recreation options, I haven’t been back yet.)

As I was ice skating yesterday, I was thinking about all the ice skating trips I would like to do.  Nancy Lakes, Swan Lakes, Jim Creek.  Don’t get me wrong, as soon as it snows, I will be on my skis and loving it.  But yesterday, I was in no rush.  I could go for another week or two of snow-free lakes and trails.  

So, naturally, it snowed today.  Just enough to hamper the ice skating but not enough to ski.  Oh well, plenty of other options during our beautiful Eskimo Summer.

A couple of years ago, Scott and I tried to ski up Willow Mountain looking for crust. That time we didn’t make it, but this time Tim and I used classic skis and had better luck. Tim’s video of this ski:

We’ve skied at Hatcher Pass lots of times - all on day-trips. But on Thanksgiving weekend, Linda & I decided to make a weekend of it and stay at the Hatcher Pass lodge. Three days of skiing!

On Saturday, April 9, Scott and I went searching for crust. I did a recon mission south of Anchorage yesterday and found no crust, so this time we headed north to Willow and the Hatcher Pass road.

Mark it down…on September 25, I went skiing!

On August 27, Linda and I went for a run/hike to the Reed Lakes in the Talkeetna Mtns near Hatcher Pass.

Hammer Adventure Race held on July 10, 2004

On Saturday April 10, Scott, Martin and I headed to Hatcher Pass in search of some crust skiing. The crust was a bit spotty, but the snowmobile trail was in great shape for skiing.