Sunburst Saturday

Poking out of clouds on the climb up

The clouds below

One last run before the sun sets

Today, while Anchorage and the surrounding areas were under a thick layer of clouds I headed up high to see if the visibility was any better above 3000' with a few friends - Rachel, Chris and Rob. After climbing about 1200' we found sun, warmth, and a windless day of backcountry skiing. It almost felt like skiing in Colorado when we were on the ridgetops. Although as soon as we dropped into the shadow of a ridge after a long, powdery descent we were reminded that it was in fact Alaska and the temps out of the sun weren't much higher than zero degrees. The opportunity to be back in the sun was a great motivator to climb back up and do it all again. The snow felt bottomless and we squeezed every last drop of sunshine from the day. (Thanks to Rob for the first and third photos)

Sea change

Sea change: noun
1
archaic : a change brought about by the sea
2
a marked change : transformation.

Sea change has been on my mind lately. The term comes from Shakespeare's The Tempest:

Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.

I jumped into the ocean about a month ago, off a dock on an island that I was visiting with good friends. The water was full of bioluminescence and the moon shone down through patches of glowing clouds. The water made me feel alive.

Pumpkins carved with good friends

(note that the pumpkin is larger than my head)