Some fresh 20 below air

High so far today: -24
Low so far today:-46

I got a new accessory for my bike for winter riding - some poagies! What are poagies you ask? Well, they are basically giant mittens that attach to your handlebars to keep the brake levers, gear shifters, and your hands protected from the cold and wind. And in Steelers colors.. all the better!
Rocky the Rockhopper and I went for a longer stroll today - I am gradually getting into this winter riding thing. Trying to work with the sunlight and my school/work schedule is the trouble, otherwise I'd go at 10pm.. Unfortunately my lightning system isn't up to par for night riding in the winter (yet.) I know from driving that the visual range of obstacles is a lot lot crummier in the winter because of icy windows, ice fog, exhaust of other cars, etc, so decent lights are a must.
I found a new route close to home to ride today which was completely car-less and the roads were in good, packed down shape. I ALMOST have the dressing system down -my feet got fairly numb even while wearing my winter boots, but other than that all was toasty. But it was a great great ride - gotta figure out that keeping the feet warm thing, and I'll be good to go. It would be great to have a riding buddy too, but I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon. There has to be come sort of organized young cyclists/skiers/exciting people/etc that aren't pros but love to just be outside doing stuff but I can't seem to find them. Times like these I remember why Happy Valley has it's name.. and I sure do miss those reasons.

Happy 35th Val Mal!

Special Happy Birthday shoutout to my eldest sister who is 5,000 miles away!!

Having too much fun at work

High today: -31
Low today: -47

Today I got to train on the forecasting desk with Kelly. First thing we did was launch boiling coffee into the -37 degree air back on the trail. Then we saw a moose from the office. No big systems moving in - just a huge ridge of high pressure making it cold and foggy. You probably think of fog as crummy, but ice fog is pretty and makes cool optical phenomena. Sunrise this morning again was awesome. The time is starting to really fly by up here, before you know it the sun will be up 22 hours a day and the temperature will be 75 degrees. Hard to believe, hmm?

Great ball of fire!

High today: -29
Low this morning: -46

This morning it was cold. I mean, you look outside and there is a THICK layer of ice fog and you just KNOW it's cold. You wonder if your car will start.. and it does, unwilling, but does. The shifter barely moves, but it does. All it needs is to do, not necessarily do well, but just do. And it did. Did I just sound like Confucius? In any case, I thought about the old '89 Jetta this morning and wondered what it would have done. Probably just sat there and not try.. not even a wince.. maybe make some disgruntled noises. Kelly made an interesting observation about the temperature sensor on her car - hers shuts off and shows an error past 40 below. Mine shows nothing past ~25 below - just blank lines like my GPS showed on the 'sunrise/sunset' times when I was above the Arctic Circle last June. This morning was the first morning I found the thermometer at home to be at 40 below. We are always a little bit warmer than the airport because of the temperature inversion. 40 below is the temperature at which water absolutely cannot sustain liquid form - everything is ice crystals from there downward. I do wonder though, if you experience 65 below like the Taylor Hwy did this morning, does that make 40 below feel warm??

Watching the sun come up this morning was uber cool with the ice fog.

A 6000 degree C ball of fire rising above the 40 below air.

My day in pictures

High today: -29
Low today so far: -44

9:26am:

9:35am:

2:53pm:

4:56pm:

Nice night for the aurora

Well, I finally got to see the aurora again! I am slightly bummed out because none of the pictures I attempted to take came out. I should have tried more options but was so tired and needed to get home. How cool though to just look up and have someone casually say, "hey, there's the aurora!" Thanks to Jim's notice call about the northern lights being out, I was able to get outside and see what I could see. It's funny though because you look up and for a second think it's a cloud, but then realize it's green and just speeding along on its own path. I look forward to seeing the aurora in full capacity someday.. there is just too much light and pollution from town to be able to get the full effect from anywhere I exist in Fairbanks. But I will say one thing, I think the aurora is something that will NEVER get old. Not if you're me, and still get excited for thunderstorm after thunderstorm. No - there's something about the mystery that makes you wonder how and why it's there, and then all of a sudden it's gone. Just like that.

Can't the weekend last forever?

High today: -8
Low today: -30

For lunch today I met up with Micole, a girl who I went to high school with for a year and is teaching up here after spending a semester student teaching. We found out that we were both in Fairbanks and wanted to get reacquainted. It was really cool talking to her and finding out about how she got "sucked up here" as I guess the story goes. You know, people saying "oh, you'll be back" that neither of us believed when told that upon leaving the first time. And here we are.. working in Fairbanks starting our post-undergrad lives! After lunch I decided to go on a little stroll on the two wheels to get some fresh air and test out my new biking shoes.

I biked up a road that I went up a ton of times this summer to get a view of the Chena running through town. After a certain part I couldn't go any farther because I was slipping all over the place in unpacked snow. The white stripe in the background is the frozen Chena.

Yessss I love my obnoxiously bright orange jacket - thanks Patty! The cars could all see me very well!

Just because it's so pretty laying on the snow...

It was a really good bike ride to really get to understand what parts of my body needed more/less coverage in the extreme cold. Funny thing is, the coldest thing besides my feet was my behind! Not sure what to do about that.. wear shorts underneath my ski pants??? Maybe that would work..

This evening, the atmos. science grad students and physics grad students had a "bowling competition", which was entertaining since none of us can bowl well. Michel shows us how to launch the bowling ball down the lane...

After bowling we decided to hit up the pub ON CAMPUS. That is right, there is a pub on campus. How great is that??? We were having fun tossing M&Ms and goldfish into each others mouths.. ahh the cheap entertainment!

Dave decided to educate us on living in a dry cabin and going in the outhouse at 40 below. It was quite the conversation... I haven't laughed so hard since New Year's Eve playing Malarky at Patty and Reed's house...


Can't the weekend continue forever?

Ice Ice Baby

High today so far: -18

Low today: -28

Today was a superly fun and productive day. I got to go ice drilling with Ed and Austin for work - measuring the ice depths of some of the local lakes and rivers. I looooove just driving around the area and love field work. It was weird driving onto rivers and lakes that I knew this summer as fast flowing waters, or had kayaked on. All of the water bodies had 22-30 inches of ice depth.. incredible!

Austin and Ed drilling into one of the lakes.. I couldn't keep track of which place was which in my pics. When we got back into the truck, "Ice Ice Baby" by Vanilla Ice was playing on the radio.. we were entertained by that.

Go ice auger, go!

A little moosie along the Rich Hwy.. there is another moose hanging out in my backyard as I type... pictures aren't coming out though because it is too dark!

Wintry and slick on CHSR.

Here's another picture - from yesterday - we get sundogs up here constantly.

Why Did The Moose Cross The Road?

High today: -12
Low today: -43

The moose didn't actually cross the road, thank goodness. But I saw one which was very exciting. She was mighty large and was wandering through my neighbors' yard as I was driving by. I proceeded to the animal shelter to see some pups with the cousins, just for fun. What a bad idea. I wanted to take them all home!!! This was a very energetic little pooch that I bet would be fun to go riding with.. too bad dogs are so much responsibility though!! A little kitty wanted to come home with me too but Jim told me no kitties in the house. I don't want to be homeless any sooner than I have to be. :-)

I swear though, you walk in there and there are 20 needy eyes staring at you knowing that you're a sucker and want to take them all home. Ahhh...

I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike.

High today so far: -26
Low today so far: -42

I don't think I've gone more than 2 or 3 weeks (i.e. Christmas break) within the last 4 years without riding my bike. Recently I've been using my time to ski instead since I'd like to get good at that. But I've had an awful itch that makes me think about my bike several times a day. (ok, maybe not THAT often) So just for fun, I decided to go out in the 20 below to just say I've experienced biking in this weather. We'll see how cold I feel like dealing with. It was great getting out on the wheels. I very much prefer riding my bike around than driving. I'm already planning out places to ride once the snow disappears in May.

The first half was great. I could feel all fingers and toes. The snow is packed down enough on the streets that it was way easier than making your path through heavy snow in PA. On my way back, the fingers started getting a little bit cold. Other than that and the freezing eyelashes it wasn't too bad. The gear shifters were a little bit clunky after awhile too. I'd like to do the Susitna 100 next year. I just realized that they have the "Little Su" too.. I was seriously considering doing that until I found out that registration was full already - boo!

Long live fat tires.

Grad school day 2

High today: 0
Low so far today: -21

Things are still easy in the grad school world and I am enjoying the slowness as long as possible. Today I finally got my Alaska driver's license (woo!!) and went for a ski around the campus trails. It was 10 below when I went and got to finally experience the frozen eyelash syndrome, haha. The temp really wasn't too bad to ski in. An hour was long enough though.

It's amazing how easy it is to get out of the hustle and bustle of town just like State College was.

I figured I'd post the picture with crazy frost all over my balaclava! You can see imprints of my noise and mouth.. ha!!

View of IARC and sunset from the Geophysical Institute building.