. . . and a Happy New Year. On Christmas Eve, I had my annual ski at Alyeska Resort in Girdwood. When you dress like Santa, your ticket is free, so Gus and I found our red and joined the rest of the Santas on the mountain for the day. Our truck thermometer had a 30 degree temperature swing in 75 miles. The coldest reading was -18 right down by the Knik River and on Turnagain Arm south of Anchorage it read 12 degrees. Most of the day at Alyeska was around 8 degrees. Since it wasn't windy, it was tolerable. This was however, the least amount of snow I have ever seen on the mountain for this time of year. There were trees, bushes and rock cliffs in places I have never seen in any other Santa Ski I participated in or when I worked there eons ago. We had an unusual dry and warm October, and then even though it has been cold through November and December there really hasn't been a whole lot of snow or rain, so surprisingly the mountain that regularly receives over 750" of snowfall yearly is at a meager 146" this year so far. The snowpack itself is at 43", which isn't much for Alyeska, but obviously enough to get us crazies out skiing for the day.
On Christmas morning, we enjoyed beautiful blue skis, amazing mountain views, and the not so nice temperature of -15. Today when I woke up the thermometer read 4 degrees and my first thought was "it's finally getting warm again." Yeah, my perception is a little warped right now.
