After another hard week of teaching, we were rewarded with 8 inches of snow on Thursday night. Yahoo!!!!! Friday we had a half day of school so at 12 noon we hit the cross country ski trails. It was AWESOME with fresh snow. Almost everyone else in Anchorage went downhill skiing at Alyeska Resort in Girdwood, AK so the 5 of us had 25 miles of freshly fallen snow trails all to ourselves. It was so great. 
Beth and I are ready to go but first we must take pictures with the new snow. I forget how short I am most of the time because most of my elementary students are shorter than I am. However, when I get where it is all adults, I realize how short 5 feet 1 inch tall really is compared to other adults!!!!Saturday we headed to Girdwood for some downhill skiing. It was my first ski trip since my knee surgery. This is Alyeska Resort and it is set in the Chugach Mountain Range. This is where you board the tram to take you up to the top 2 chair lifts. They have heli-skiing at Alyeska but on this day the Race teams were having a competition and they don't hel-iski when a race is taking place.
This is the view from the top of Chair 4. There are 8 chair lifts, one tram, and three bunny rugs. I had no idea what a bunny rug was but now I do. This picture shows the top of the mountain. There are many people skiing on the front face but only a handful hiking the saddle of the mountain to ski down in fresh snow.
A tradition is to toss your bra or panties or mardi gras beads on this tree during Mardi Gras week. Thank goodness it wasn't Mardi Gras week for us. I would probably be the first person to toss a training bra on the tree!! What makes this ski resort a little different from the others that I have skied is that since it is in the middle of AK Chugach Forrest, there are about six different areas on the ski slopes that are forests. Yep, real thick wooded trees. Several trails have cat walks through the trees but other trails go between two trails with the trees in the middle.
This is from Chair #5 and we start at the Upper Bowl. Just to the right of the Upper Bowl is the Downhill Ski Team participating in a Ski Race. It was fun to watch them from the chair lift. The race starts at
Chair #6 all the way to the bottom of the hill. The racers ranged from 12 - 18. Quite amazing athletes.
This is a first for me. When you purchase your lift ticket they do not give you a wire and paper to place around your jacket pull. Nope. Up here you get a small individual credit card. You have to place the credit card, or lift card, in your left pocket not near an IPod or phone. Then when you go to enter the chute to board the lift you pass through a metal detector-like machine. If your pass is valid the gates open and you proceed to the chair lift. Pretty darn cleaver. Nothing to get caught on equipment, the chair employees don't have to look to make sure your coat ticket is the correct color. Apparently there were a lot of people making fake passes so the little credit card pass eliminated all sorts of paper work and waste. Once you purchase a lift pass you take it with you on each trip to ski and they will reduce your chair lift ticket by $5 each visit. Not a bad deal!!!
This is a bunny rug. It is basically a heated-plastic moving sidewalk like you would use in an airport. Apparently Alaska skiers could not handle a tow rope so they have these moving mats. This is the baby, bunny rug, and below is the adult moving rug because it is 4 people wide. It looks pretty easy but the first time you get on this moving rug you want to move your feet and body forward. However, you are wearing skies and can't move forward!!!
This is the kiddie mover. After the kiddies take their bunny hill lesson they board this sled behind a snow tracker and take them to the next hill. The ski instructor is towed behind the sled. I want this type of sled to move adults from one ski area to the next chair lift. 
The three amigos, Sheryl, Beth, and Niki. Niki enjoyed skiing until she took a head first fall into a snow pile. She allowed me to take a photo even though she lost a ski, froze her face, and flung her pole in front of another skier.
This is the sun room decor of the famous "Chair 5" restaurant. They make an awesome deep-dish pizza. And for those of you beer lovers, nothing beats the Alaskan Pale!
I had another encounter with a moose at school on Thursday. Unfortunately, it was a few minutes before the kids were to be released to the bus so I was armed with a moose blow horn, walkie-talkie and fluorescent green bib! So what did I do, I sent the kids home on the path near the middle of the soccer field versus near the end where Mr. Moose and I were grazing.
This is a major mode of transportation in AK. This is a snow bike. You will notice the saddlebags and lights. The tires are studded and the bike helmet has a strobe light on top of it.
Just in case you all forgot, but I do work up here among all my play activities. My motto is "Work hard and Play hard" and I live by that. This is my "after school" club - Drum making. We are teaching the Native boys how to make native drums and present their drums with a native dance the end of March. Here we are sanding the round frames so that the poly fiber material doesn't rip. The next two weeks we are designing our drum design and decide the color scheme.
This is my view when we cross country ski a mile from my house. It was a little after 7 pm when I took this photo. We are gaining 1/2 hour of sunlight every week. It is so noticeable on the evening end not the morning side. I still go to work with the moon on one horizon and the sun rising on the other horizon. It is completely daylight by 8 am.
I hope you all are enjoying your snow thaw and warmer weather. We are enjoying warmer weather (in the 20's) so we are getting a little bit of snow each day. I hope it stays this way for about 5 more weeks.
Have a wonderful day. Do what you love and love what you do! Life is good.
Hugs, Sheryl the Nanuq of the North.
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