I'm an alien, a legal alien in AK - ongoing
After receiving some quality life advice on this issue in the PR, I moved to Fairbanks in the last week of February, after having spent the last 10+ years of my life living a largely very pleasant existence in the Alps. I kind of-sort of needed a new job, there happened to be one on offer in Fairbanks, and who could resist promises of bird sized mosquitoes, eternal darkness, poisonous ice fog and a shithole city, "but the community is great" (= summary of PR life advice thread). Also, "you can do anything for a year" and this would count as having "an experience".
Anyway, thought I'd share a little.
There was some buildup to the move with waiting for the visa and all sorts of paperwork and I didn't have all that much to do workwise, so I took full advantage of the season till the end of feb, knowing a formative era of my life would be coming to an end in many ways (and also skiing options would not be as readily available). This was more or less my last day at home, they let me go first to honour the occasion.
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Inevitably, I was given John McPhee's Coming into the Country to prepare for Coming into the Country (that was also recommended in my PR life advice thread). Paragraph upon paragraph lauds the mystic qualities of snow and spruce trees, backdrop to tales of white men with guns, gold pans and bear traps, apex predators equaled in fierce independence only by the mighty Grizzly. Some succeed in finding a woman who serves them moose burgers with cranberry ketchup.
Fairbanks is, of course, not the Country. It is where McPhee's heroes go when they fail to cure a tooth ache by repeatedly trying to pull the tooth with pliers and subsequently fainting.
Due to the nature of my job, I have so far mainly met Fairbankians who are European academics. Many are Alaskatarians, meaning they are vegetarians but will eat Alaskan salmon and wild meat. Some keep hunting bows in their cars so they can shoot caribou should one appear by the side of the road. There seem to be a few silicon valley transplants who work their tech jobs remotely and otherwise pursue their true passion of dog mushing. I have been told that most people in Fairbanks are either from Europe or Wisconsin.
During my first week I bought a car (again with excellent help from the PR) and XC skis, both of which made it easier to get places and shuttle around between the social security office, work, home, the supermarket, Skiland, home of the world's northernmost chairlift, and Ester Dome, home of a bunch of antennas and what some probably very over confident people call Alaska's best tree skiing.
It took me a couple of weeks to get my bearings but sometime in March I managed to drive myself down the Richardson to the Deltas for a first little scouting walkabout and drive by sight seeing. Conclusion: the snow is fucked and this area looks like it is probably that way most of the time. Some really cool mountains, most of them best accessed with a plane.
Near Isabel Pass:
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One of the big ones west of the river:
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Then an interesting bunch of older guys invited me on a sunday excursion to Jimbob's secret stash off the Denali Park road. Jimbob is the guy in the middle here. He likes wandering around in the woods on old ski gear, pancakes, and class V white water.
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Looking east
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Looking west (aka “the mountain is out”)
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This guy was unsure whether Jimbob really had a legitimate claim to the stash in question.
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Valdez is only seven hours, so most people I've asked seem to think you might as well go there instead of the Delta range, where everything is more difficult. Nobody except Jimbob seems to go skiing in Jimbob's secret stash.
My “SO” visited and we went sight seeing "down south" in nice weather and, again, terrible snow.
Roadside attraction
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Snow machine highway
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Moody harbour
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Moody Hatcher pass, better snow
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Turnagain, good snow
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On the way back up we enjoyed about two meters of depth hoar below 10 centimeters of not-yet depth hoar and some mystic spruce trees, because apparently that's what you get in the interior.
https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SYiJW3D7m...0/P4061478.jpg
Then it was back to work (office jobs suck and should be banned) and post-work visits to Ester Dome, taking advantage of the continuously increasing supply of daylight.
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Moose Mountain from Ester Dome, White Mountains in the bg.
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Looking in the other direction
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tbc