Back Country Skiing

Hi everyone. So I know it's been a while, but it's not because there is nothing going on up here, believe me. I just struggle with time and when the time is there, I struggle with finding the energy, but I know that I have a band of people eagerly waiting to hear my next adventure, struggle, experience, or conundrum up here in Alaska.

Well I went out skiing with Kevin, a friend of mine here in the village and his dog, Foster. It was a beautiful day and we skied up the snow machine trails to the top of the hill where the stone people or little people live. We got a nice view of Tununak on the other side of the hill and then headed back down on the back side of the mountain where there are not any snow machine trails, which means the snow is very inconsistent and difficult to ski. Picture a wind blown field with areas of ice, areas of 2 - 3 foot drifts of snow, the whole thing randomly dotted with chunks of ice to manuever around. It was a little sketchy to say the least. We made it down eventually and I only suffered a couple of bruises, including my ego, and some sore muscles. I almost bent one of my poles from falling on it so hard.

It was a great day on the mountain, very rare in deed. There was no wind blowing on the top, which is unheard of here in the village. Skiing along the coast is nice also. There is more protection from the wind and there is nice snow that sweeps over the bluff to climb and make a couple of turns on the way down. I did not have my camera with me for that trip, so you will just have to believe me that we came within about 70 feet of a red fox that was checking us out. Pretty amazing.

Thanks for reading.
Dirk

Tasting the night life

Well, I'm sitting here in the school waiting to hear from our plane to see if they will fly in the current weather. I kind of feel like I'm in an airport. Most people leave from the school when they fly. My first flight was already canceled, so we are waiting for the next one. Might have to wait until tomorrow morning.

Last night I went out to look at the night sky and met up with my friend Brett (guy with the dog team). The Aurora Borealis was showing itself in the late night sky and Brett actually got some descent pictures of it. It was about 15 degrees outside, so I didn't stay outside too long in order to not freeze my keister.
The Aurora isn't usually very visible this far west, but we had a pretty good show last night. A few shooting stars as well, but we didn't get any pictures of those.

In case I don't get another posting up before christmas, I hope everyone has a fantastic holiday season and a wonderful new year. I'll be back in Toksook by Dec. 30th hopefully. Thanks to everyone for all the support you have given me through this first part of my 1st year. I think of you often.
Happy Holidays,
Dirk

sled dog pics

Here are the pictures of my friend's dog sled team that I meant to attach to a previous posting. He has nine dogs total, but has only been running six of them for now. Brett has taken them out about three times now. The dogs love to run and it helps keep him sane.

It is a pretty expensive hobby, but it looks worth it. Brett usually draws a small crowd when he is hooking up the team. He usually is just trying to keep people from reving their snow machines around the dogs.


Here is a picture of my house. It might not look like much on the outside, but it is warm and spacious inside. The plumbing system however, has been a little bit of a nightmare. I recently had my water turned off again because we discovered a leak. Turning your water off in Alaska is a risky deal, because if your pipes freeze, you are looking at being without water until summer. You just can't thaw pipes in 0 degree weather.

Overall, it has been a great living space for me though. I have my mountain bike set up on the wind trainer in my bed room with my TV, so that I can watch classic cycling races while I ride. It's a little too snowy for biking outside right now. I'm told that the snow is going to be in six to seven foot drifts in front of my door. Nothing like a little manual labor to relieve some stress.

It's about time I get to experience a real winter though. I'm psyched! Willamette Valley, eat your heart out.

Dirk

Finding my ski legs

Well, I have almost made it through the first part of year number 1 here in the village. I tell it hasn't been easy and sometimes I feel like it's my first week of work. This week should be a little lighter with Christmas celebrations going on in the school and all. Friday will include some movies and we have Santa's workshop on Thursday. I also get a break from the after school program this week, which is a huge relief.

I''ve been really enjoying my new x-country skis lately. I've been out three times in two weeks and look forward to many more adventures to come in the new year. Yesterday was absolutely beautiful in the morning with perfect snow, but I decided to get some work done before I played. By the time I got outside the weather had turned my beautiful day into a windy, frozen, low visibility, ominous day to be out of view from the village. People get lost in bad weather and literally disappear up here every year.

I didn't get lost though. I am still trying to master my downhill turns on x-country skis. The snow gets so inconsistent when the wind starts cranking at 20 - 30 mph and drifting snow in some places and uncovering ice in other places. Any secrets you may know, please email me your advice.

Hope everyone is doing well.
Dirk

snow machines and dog sleds

Well, winter is officially here. Most of the four wheelers have been replaced with snow machines (mobiles). The snow machines are considerably louder and people drive them a lot faster. I'm not sure if there is a legal age for driving a snow machine, but it seems like it is around 7 or 8 years old here in the village. People go tearing up the hill with snow boards and sleds all day and most of the night, especially on the weekends.

I helped my friend Bret get his dogs hooked up for their first venture out in Toksook Bay this year. It was pretty awesome to watch his team of six take off across the tundra towards the frozen bay. Pictures coming soon!

After Bret took off with his dogs, I headed out for my first x-country ski venture in about six years. I was pretty psyched to be breaking trail across the Alaskan tundra to get back into my form, which is pretty sloppy. I only went about 1/3 of the way up the hill (please refer to previous blog postings and imagine snow everywhere), and I had a pretty good wipe out as I tried to negotiate the terrain coming back down.

Teaching is a constant struggle but going well in general. I'm looking forward to getting down in the lower 48 for a couple of weeks. It doesn't seem like I've been up here for 4 months already. The year is about 1/2 over. I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying their winter.

Dirk

Home visit PTC

I thought I might as well make up for slacking on the blog, by making two entries in one night. So this was a big first for me too. We recently had parent teacher conferences (PTC) this past week and I had some students that weren't able to make it, so I had to reschedule. One parent had another obligation, butchering a seal, so I decided to stop by the house for a visit and possibly take care of the conference at the same time.

I walked into the house and sure enough there was a dead harbor seal lying on the kitchen floor. Someone in the family had killed it a couple of days earlier and after letting age for a couple of days, they butcher it. The women generally do this work after the men hunt the animals and bring them home. Women use a special knife called an Uluk that was designed has been used for centuries by the Yup'ik people. It is basically a large curved blade with an ivory or wooden handle directly on top of the blade and you hold it in your palm. A well sharpened Uluk can cut through fish, seal, elk, or musk ox in no time.

She was going to work on this seal beside us on the kitchen floor while we were talking about my students school work and attitude in class. It was a little distracting and amazing at the same time.

People generally cut the seal blubber away from the animal first and remove any pieces of meat from the blubber. The blubber is then cut into smaller pieces and allowed to drain of the seal oil, which is used for everything. I had a chance to try some a couple of weeks ago when I was visiting one of the elders in the village. I was offered some moose soup, which I eagerly agreed to and told that I should try a little (very little) seal oil in the soup. It is very very strong, but kind of tasty. Word of advice, a little bit goes a long way. The seal meat is sometimes used in soups, but most often cut into strips and hung to dry like beef jerky. I haven't tried any yet, but I look forward to it.

Hope everyone is hungry after this, cause you're all getting seal jerky for christmas.

Thanks for reading.
Dirk

Native Youth Olympics

Hello! Yes, I'm still here and kicking. Sorry it's been a little while. I've been sort of tied up with this whole teaching gig.

Two weekends I got to be a part of history as Nelson Island High School hosted yet another Native Youth Olympics meet on Oct. 27th and 28th. Personally I have a good bit of experience with what most lower 48ers would call track and field, but this event/meet gave me a whole new appreciation for middle school and high school athletes. Let me just name a few of the events and then I'll go into greater detail about a couple of them.

The meet started off with the Kneel jump, then to one hand reach, two foot high kick, Eskimo stick pull, one foot high kick, Alaskan high kick, wrist carry, Indian stick pull, toe kick, and finally the seal hop, which was held on the second day. The kneel jump is pretty self explanatory. Athletes kneel on a line and see how far they can jump forward onto their feet without falling over, very similar to the standing broad jump. The one hand reach was pretty amazing to watch. Athletes arrange themselves pretty low to the ground and balance on two hands at first, but then they have to reach up with one of their hands to touch a ball suspended from a string above their head. If an athlete can touch the ball and come back down on two hands and stay balanced, they move on to the next height. The ball gets higher and higher with each successful round until no one can reach it. Some girls were reaching 50 inches up in the air on one hand. Pretty awesome.

Two foot high kick involves athletes trying to kick a suspended ball with both feet, toes even, and land back onto their feet again with out seperating feet or falling over. Some of the guys were kicking 92 inches high, which to me is totally mind boggling. One foot high kick is kicking the suspended ball with one foot and landing on that same foot. I think 96 inches won that event for highschool men.

The attached photo is of the Eskimo stick pull. Athletes are trying to pull the stick out of the other persons hands. And yes, that is yours truly acting as the judge. Indian stick pull is kind of similar, only the stick they use is tapered at both ends and completely covered with Crisco. That's right, don't let your mind wander too much on that thought. This event took the high school girls 3 hours to complete. It was rather mind numbing. The toe kick is probably one of the more challenging events. Athletes have to do a standing broad jump and while in the air, use only the tips of their toes to kick a 1 inch dowel rod backwards and then land on their feet. It will take me many moons to perfect this event or even do it successfully without breaking my legs.

Well, there you go. I don't write for months and then you get the mega blog entry. I hope you enjoyed. Wait until the next one. Coming soon!
Dirk