Ash Skiing

Martin Cassens, of Alyeska's IT department, made this video of some fun late season ash skiing.

The snow line has come down pretty far with the recent precipitation!

Lift Crew Slideshow

Forest Fair, Ash & Noctilucent Clouds

Hula hooping fun at the Forest Fair this weekend.

You can see the ash (from March's eruption of Redoubt) on the glaciers at the head of the valley.
Noctilucent clouds glow above the glaciers at 3 am last Friday night. (click to enlarge)
Interested in upcoming events? Check out the Fungus Fair and mt. bike race.

Volcanic Eruption in Japan

A volcano has been erupting the last few days in Japan. Flights were diverted to Anchorage and we had a full house at the hotel last night. Find out more.

Good Exposure

Did you see today's edition of the Anchorage Daily News? There are some great pictures of this past weekend's snowmachine event. Here is a link to some of the pictures and an article from the online edition.

Also, with the chances of an eruption of Mt Redoubt growing each day, I wanted to repost a link to the ash collection instructions.

Safety, Hair & Smiles

I went to a 10 hour OSHA class the last 2 days.  I learned a lot.  (The answer to the question on the bottom of the screen is: authority to shut down the operation.)

Jeff D. shows off his new haircut in the lift ops office.
Kelly, Molly & I enjoy the late day (post work) sun.
Redoubt has been building a lava dome and the experts are pretty sure an eruption is imminent, time will tell.

DOT is saying the tunnel to Whittier will hopefully be open by Wednesday.

Another Fine Spring Day

Glacier Bowl
Riding up chair 6. It seemed a little hazy, but I don't think it was volcanic. Some people claimed to have smelled sulphur.

Challenge Alaska wrapped up their season last week.
Sean K., loading chairs and enjoying the sun at the base of 3 today.
Chris & Hailey hold it down at the tram this afternoon.
Ski patrol cleaning off the gun platform. (Former summer trammies: the gun is on the mount ;)
Looking over the edge. The hotel & parking lot look small from way up here.
The same view in June.

Spaceweather

Check out this link where NASA quotes me and uses my picture!

Check out this link to www.spaceweather.com.  They used a picture I submitted of ash on the snow (taken while riding Tanaka), and quote me a few times.  I regularly visit this site to see interesting pictures of all things atmospheric, with great northern lights forecasts.

My camera is malfunctioning again, I'll post more pictures when I can.

Another Day at the Office

An athlete pushes her way through the starting gate.

Most of race trail was taken up by the course, but the North Face and South side were skiing superbly
You can see the ash layer in the snowpack. 
If you look closely, you can see some athletes heading down chair 3 road.
It was snowing like crazy all morning, but then some blue sky started to appear just before opening.

Nationals, Ash & Freshies

The races went on despite the snow today.

Lots of volunteers & staff slipping the course early this morning.
Looking up the Tanaka lift line.
Ash on the chairpad as I rode down on chair 3, just after opening.
The ash makes the landscape look lunar.
Ski patrol closed the slots to keep public out of the race course.
Sean, always having a good time at chair 6.
To those that care: North Face & High Traverse were closed today.

It takes a lot of people to put on these races.

Redoubt Eruption March 27 2009 from Bretwood Higman on Vimeo.

Ash & Snow

Ashfall on our truck at about 6 tonight.

Ashfall Collection Instructions
What a crazy forecast.  Taken from the Seward Highway:
Obviously a regular slide path-
Click to enlarge and see the fracture lines.
Today's local NBC coverage of the Alpine Championships

News

The Seward Highway will be closed intermittently for control work this morning.

Redoubt erupted around midnight last night, with ash expected to fall in Anchorage today.

Alpine Championships are back on for today.

Skiing lost an icon yesterday.  RIP Shane McConkey.

Redoubt & Snow

First things first: a major eruption of Mt. Redoubt.  More info

There will be a late opening today.

A couple of ski patrollers cross the closed Chuck's line to check conditions. 

The groomers have had their hands full lately.  It has snowed quite a bit, postponing the Alpine National races.
Their help to lift ops has been indispensable.