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Life in Alaska - part IV


Nanuq

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I went for a climb 3 nights ago and got some great photos. This is the north approach to McHugh Peak above Rabbit lake. This is where I saw the HUGE mama brown bear and the three adolescents that were hanging around my house the last couple days.

Once I got up above treeline and the clouds cleared it was spectacular. I got into knee deep snow and I was wearing shorts and low boots and it started getting dark and traction was bad so I had to turn back.

In order, these are photos of the lower approach, then a shot of the bare ground, the wind blows so hard it has eroded the rocks into "wave" shapes like water. There's a shot of Ptarmigan Peak, to its right is North Suicide Peak and beneath them in the clouds is Rabbit Lake. It was a glorious climb, not a breath of wind and absolutely silent. What a treat!

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Boy I dunno, she can always do the "Freezin for a Reason" polar bear plunge with us, we break the ice off the lake and jump in to benefit Special Olympics.

Think she'd go for that??

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Boy I dunno, she can always do the "Freezin for a Reason" polar bear plunge with us, we break the ice off the lake and jump in to benefit Special Olympics.

Think she'd go for that??

Ummmmm....she thinks San Diego's waters are cold, so I think she'd probably pass on the polar bear plunge :)

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Ummmmm....she thinks San Diego's waters are cold, so I think she'd probably pass on the polar bear plunge :)

What? These waters were positively tropical! :tu: I'm telling ya it's like a warm bath. Honest. :whistling:

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It's like a warm bath because your brain turns off. I've gone swimming-not the right word...I've gone drowning in a just thawed lake (~40 degrees) and my brain couldn't process it. I just kept getting "pins and needles" that would start at my finger tips on one hand and the go up my arm to my ear, across the top of my head, back down to the other fingers and then reverse and do it again. That was a weird experience.

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I think I've got to visit 49th State! I just need to convince the wife that she'll have just as much fun as visiting the 50th...that probably isn't going to happen! Women!

For a more comfortable way to the same vistas .. Do as lhooq is doing right now and go to Glacier National Park in Montana and it's connected sister park in Canada. It truly is magnificent and there are world class hotels there as well ;)

Fly into calgary and take a bus tour of banff and the two parks or take Amtrak directly into the park and rent a car.

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If you try the Photosynth app you'll get a sense of the scale of those mountains. I need to learn to use it better but if you load up the panorama and then pan it slowly, wow! Pretty close to the real thing. Except for the bear breath from mama sneaking up behind you.

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