Discussion Topic |
|
This thread has been locked |
mhay
climber
Reno, NV
|
|
|
Feb 11, 2013 - 01:26pm PT
|
|
|
johnkelley
climber
Anchorage Alaska
|
|
|
Feb 11, 2013 - 02:00pm PT
|
an expired bush man
|
|
mhay
climber
Reno, NV
|
|
|
Feb 11, 2013 - 02:06pm PT
|
|
|
bergbryce
Mountain climber
California
|
|
|
Feb 11, 2013 - 02:23pm PT
|
Neighbors
Nobody within a hundred miles
|
|
donini
Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
|
|
|
Feb 11, 2013 - 02:40pm PT
|
For me Alaska is the epitome of the saying "it's a great place to visit but i wouldn't want to live there."
I've been to Alaska many, many times and to quite a few different areas as a sales rep for Patagonia and as a climber......17 trips to the Alaska Range.
Some of my most memorable climbs were there as well as my MOST memorable wildlife sighting. I skied within 40 feet of a wolverine on a snowy day in the Ruth Gorge. The wolverine stopped, gave me the evil eye for a solid minute and then ambled off towards a crevasse field.
I've done climbs on the Moose's Tooth, Hunter, Thunder Mtn., Wake, Bradley, Foraker, Barrille, the Kichatana Spires and few others....oops missed Denali. Every climb has been memorable, a number almost too much so.
There are some absolutely great, outdoors people up there who choose to live on a frontier.
If you live in Los Anchorage as half of Alaskans do, the joke is...."the good thing about Anchorage is it's only five minutes from Alaska."
587,000 sq. miles of mostly wilderness, that's more than six times the size of Great Britain,
and only 630,000 people. Yep, there is a lot to love about Alaska, but no, i wouldn't want to live there.....i'm too much of a softy.
The cities and towns have a dour, unfinished, frontier feel to them.....Petersburg excepted. The politics are way to right of center for me and the climate is pretty damn harsh, but for me, the show stopper is the incredibly short days and long nights of Winter. Not a surprise that alcoholism and spousal abuse are so common.
I definetly salute people who can stick it out for a full year but i'll continue to time my visits to this beautiful, exciting place for when the flowers are riotous and the days seemingly endless.
|
|
the Fet
climber
Tu-Tok-A-Nu-La
|
|
|
Feb 11, 2013 - 02:42pm PT
|
A great place to visit, but...
I lived in Anchorage for a year, and spent a few months traveling around. So much wilderness, it's awesome.
My stock answer when people ask me about it is: "Winters aren't too bad for me, I grew up in New England and lived in Truckee, so I'm used to cold and snow. What I couldn't deal with is the lack of summer. You get two months of partial summer. You get a day that's partly cloudy and 72 and people are saying what a beautiful day!"
I really got to get back for some adventures.
|
|
survival
Big Wall climber
Terrapin Station
|
|
|
Feb 11, 2013 - 03:07pm PT
|
Alaska = Incredible
Living there = 30 years
Dark/snow/ice/chinooks etc = enough already
I've spent a majority of my life in Alaska. I've been to every corner of the state including Barrow, Kotzebue. Nome, Bethel, Kodiak, Sitka, Petersburg, Ketchikan, McCarthy, Valdez, etc etc etc.
MAJOR PROBLEM is that for the average guy if you don't have money, plane, boat etc, 99% of the state is out of your grasp.
Still one of the greatest places on Earth, but with an asterisk.....
|
|
Inner City
Trad climber
East Bay
|
|
|
Feb 11, 2013 - 03:34pm PT
|
Only one visit to the Pika glacier for some glacier living and rock scrambling. The flight out from there featured a tour of Denali that I will never forget. Absolutely awesome vistas. The sheer size of things is amazing!
As to living off the grid in the harsh climate of Alaska, I enjoyed Richard Leo's book, "Way Out Here"
http://www.amazon.com/Way-Out-Here-Modern-Ice-Age/dp/1570610614
Maybe my friend "Dolomite" can offer some of his current-dweller thoughts?
|
|
dave goodwin
climber
carson city, nv
|
|
|
Feb 11, 2013 - 04:20pm PT
|
Angoon boat harbor.
|
|
survival
Big Wall climber
Terrapin Station
|
|
|
Feb 11, 2013 - 04:29pm PT
|
Hmmm, mention of Angoon. Anybody guess why I carved a mask called Tears Of Angoon, without looking it up?
Similar to this one, but not mine.
|
|
dave goodwin
climber
carson city, nv
|
|
|
Feb 11, 2013 - 04:36pm PT
|
Survival-
That's pretty cool. My uncle lived in Angoon for nearly 30 years, and I spent many summers there. Here is a sunset shot looking above Angoon looking across Chattam Straits towards Baranof Isalnd.
and one of town
curious to know more about the mask?
|
|
survival
Big Wall climber
Terrapin Station
|
|
|
Feb 11, 2013 - 05:40pm PT
|
I'll be happy to tell you if we don't get a successful guess!
|
|
SCseagoat
Trad climber
Santa Cruz
|
|
|
Feb 11, 2013 - 06:02pm PT
|
Little cabin in Tallkeetna
Ferretlegger (Michael) on the porch.
Susan
|
|
dave goodwin
climber
carson city, nv
|
|
|
Feb 11, 2013 - 06:13pm PT
|
remote cabin-
Everything in Alaska is bigger....
|
|
Friedo
Trad climber
South Lake Tahoe
|
|
|
Feb 11, 2013 - 06:40pm PT
|
I miss the AK pretty much every day!!!
|
|
Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
|
|
|
Feb 11, 2013 - 06:43pm PT
|
Talkeetna, where the odds are good but the goods are odder.
|
|
dave goodwin
climber
carson city, nv
|
|
|
Feb 11, 2013 - 06:44pm PT
|
|
|
Brandon-
climber
The Granite State.
|
|
|
Feb 11, 2013 - 06:46pm PT
|
I was hitching around the Kenai a few years ago and got a ride from a girl who waited tables at the West Rib Bar. Crashed at her cabin in Talkeetna for a few days, and damn, they can party there.
Same goes for the denizens of the hippie campground in Homer.
|
|
dave goodwin
climber
carson city, nv
|
|
|
Feb 11, 2013 - 06:46pm PT
|
humpback whales bubble feeding. They were really close, you can see our float line visible in the picture.
|
|
MisterE
Social climber
|
|
|
Feb 11, 2013 - 07:04pm PT
|
All I got is stories from Alaska...and just one picture left. Friends at a potluck at our house in Juneau:
I first went to Alaska at the age if 12 - my parents bought a troller to try their hand. We caught ONE Chinook in 2 weeks, and they sold the boat and we drove down the Alcan Highway (1974, almost all dirt road).
I went back 10 years later for a period of 4 summers - two working on fish-tenders in Southeast, and two as a long-lining deck-hand.
Then some friends from Bend moved to Juneau in the late 90's, and I moved up there with them for another year and a half, working various jobs: Log-home builder, window-installer, bottler on the Alaskan Brewery line and other things.
The best part of Alaska for me is the 5 times I have done the round-trip up and down the Inside Passage - once by ferry and the other 4 on tenders or fishing boats.
Being on land in Alaska is kind of ho-hum to me - I loved being at sea, catching fish, cruising around the amazing marine landscape and exploring remote islands, hot-springs and native places.
I have almost died and/or been in crazy situations in Alaska well over a half-a dozen times. Seen drunks frozen to the ground, partied with Long-liners for 3 days straight, saw people die in bars.
It is a different kind of madness up there in the towns - at least at sea, one has some sense of regulated behavior among the crew, since there was ALWAYS no drinking allowed.
All that being said, I would go back in a heart-beat if I had the chance/time-off/resources for a summer visit with friends.
|
|
|
SuperTopo on the Web
|
Let us know!