Ice Festival - Matanuska Glacier

The 2007 Ice Climbing Festival on the Matanuska Glacier, organized by the Mountaineering Club of Alaska, was awesome!!!!!!

Climbing without tools is supposed to make you learn to use your feet better. It is pretty hard though. You are only balancing on the ice with a few small spikes on your toes. You cannot grab anything with your hands. If you move wrong, your toe spikes can slip out of the ice.
This is the only picture I have from the bonfire. Carlene and Vlodka looking good. This photo was taken just before I went and started people off doing keg stands. Yay! There was also one of the group leaders who had their 73rd birthday party at the bonfire. Very cool. I hope I'm as active as he is when I'm his age. He looked much younger than 73 and very healthy. Very cool. Carlene had a bunch of cakes for everyone to celebrate. There must have been over 100 people.

This was me trying to do an overhang. I got up the first tricky spot here.
But, I didn't get further than here. Too difficult for me. I didn't know what to do. I'm glad I tried it though, otherwise I'd always wonder if I could have done it and what it is like to try. So, even though I didn't get it done, it was a fun attempt. I think I know better what to do next time.

Dawson City Music Festival

Towards the end of July is a great time of year because it is when the fireweed is out and it is time to drive to Dawson City for the music festival. Traveling with a bunch of friends on a road trip through beautiful Alaska and Canada. The hills that burned a few years ago werefull of fireweed.

Dawson City is a great little town on the Yukon River. In order to get across the river, you have to ride on a ferry boat. There's a great little campground to stay at. There is a casino there with Roulette. And of course, there is great music.
After we all arrived, we went out for a good burger and a beer and got ready for a great night of music.
Getting ready for a great night of music of course included drinking gin and tonic in the parking lot.

Be careful when taking photos in the beer garden. Canadians are very slick at sneaking into your photos and looking hot.

Here's our whole crew of Fairbanksans early on in the night. We were just gettin started.

Somehow the next morning we all got up and either ran or biked up to the top of the big hill behind Dawson City. There is an organized race every music festival weekend up to the top. It's a pretty grueling run up, especially after a late night of partying.

Followed up by another great night of music and partying.
Ashley was the most adventurous and got into the crowd surfing. Pretty awesome! She was up there longer than most people - quite impressive.

A Most Excellent (Kayaking) Adventure

A group of 6 of us drove down from Fairbanks through an old mining tunnel underneath a mountain (10 minutes of driving to get through the tunnel) and into Whittier. We got all our stuff and kayaks loaded onto a sea taxi which took us a couple hours into the Prince William Sound to the mouth of the Harriman Fjord. We spent 3 full days kayaking around to glaciers in the Fjord. A fantastic voyage full of laughter, conversation, camp fires, relaxation and reflection. Weather was perfect and the scenery was inspiring. Check it out below.

Ed brought his clipper, which is a collapsable wooden frame kayak. It is actually somewhat complicated to assemble, but Ted and Ed got it put together in no time.

After everything was loaded up, we all took off. The first day, Ted and I shared a double kayak, while Ed and his nephew Mark shared Ed's Clipper, and Tina and Ali used their single kayaks.

The second day and third day I got to kayak with Mark.

Here we all enjoy our fabulous campsite. It is difficult to imagine a more perfect spot.
Mark and I spent a lot of time on our hair during the trip.

We even took time to do some yoga.

A lunch break...

We were all sad when the boat arrived to pick us up, signifying the end of the trip.
But, luck was on our side when the boat captain took a detour to check his shrimp pots and then shared more than half of the haul with us. We had an amazing feast the next day back in Fairbanks. Fresh shrimp is one of the best things I've ever tasted. mmmmmm...

Delta River Float - Fourth of July

A wonderful Wedding

Lars and Sharon got married!!!! Yay! It was a wonderful wedding. They both did so much work to prepare and it really turned out very nice. Everyone had a great time. Especially the kids cause they had a big moonwalk and some other big carnival type games. There was good music and dancing too. A big dance party took off even through a heavy downpoor. We all got really muddy and wet, but kept on dancing. It was soooo much fun! Thanks Lars and Sharon for a great night!