Recent posts

20Mar 202324 Mar 2023

Trusting Tustumena

Tustumena is the largest lake in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge (and one of the ten largest in Alaska), three…

1Mar 202322 Mar 2023

A battle between great tapes … who will be the last one standing?

A battle of epic proportions! During my first long cross-country ski of the winter, I ended up using both of…

13Feb 202321 Feb 2023

Remote Weather History via visualcrossing.com

My preparation for outings benefits from knowing the recent weather history of remote locations. Remote forecasts are easy, but what…

Trusting Tustumena

20 Mar 202324 Mar 2023

Tustumena is the largest lake in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge (and one of the ten largest in Alaska), three hours south of Anchorage. The Dena'ina name is reported as…

A battle between great tapes … who will be the last one standing?

1 Mar 202322 Mar 2023

A battle of epic proportions! During my first long cross-country ski of the winter, I ended up using both of the MVP tapes in my repair kit. I was skiing…

Remote Weather History via visualcrossing.com

13 Feb 202321 Feb 2023

My preparation for outings benefits from knowing the recent weather history of remote locations. Remote forecasts are easy, but what actually happened? This time of year, I'm most interested in…

Navigating Pressure Ridges at Skilak Lake

We caught a brief window of skating on Skilak Lake last week. The prominent hazards turned out to be pressure ridges—zones of cracked ice under compression. This post contains: The…

One Boot for All: Backcountry Ski Boots For … Everything

2 Feb 20236 Mar 2023

I wear backcountry ski boots in places where folks don't expect to see them—cross-country ski trails, ice skating, and ice climbing. "What's the deal with those big boots?" The deal…

Cosmic support: Pavement, Lofoten, 1999.

23 Jan 202326 Jan 2023

A participant in the Start & End at Home course drew a very creative multisport route (hike, packraft, paraglide, climb) through Lofoten, Norway. The route passes through the region where…

Dead rabbit saves the day!

The wild ice skating season is filled with ephemeral goals—evenings spent monitoring weather forecasts and satellite imagery hoping to catch days on good ice. Days like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlR_Z0iPafc Grewingk Lake…

So that’s what varsity trip planning looks like!

19 Oct 202219 Oct 2022

I want to share a highlight from last year’s Start and End at Home trip planning course. Christian Appel sent a report after a paddling trip he planned during the…

Good Walking and Clear Water in the Baird Mountains

24 Jul 202225 Jul 2022

https://youtu.be/b5kQZs5gWoY In August of 2015, Sarah and I traveled to the villages of Noatak and Kivalina, northwestern Alaska, as part of the Skiku / NanaNordic volunteer program. These programs provide…