Here in Fairbanks! Up on Old Murphy Dome road scouting out photo locations
Sunset on Old Murphy Dome Road
The moon setting over a very cold and icefog filled Goldstream Valley
I found an exceptionally cold spot near my old cabin!
Up on Ester Dome, taking some early morning photos!
Pre-dawn Fairbanks from Ester Dome
Sunrise over a very cold Fairbanks
Denali and the Alaska Range at dawn, from Ester Dome
Linette arrives in Fairbanks!!
The Aurora along Chena Hot Springs Road
Looking straight up at the Aurora along Chena Hot Springs Road
She loved this line...
Sled dogs near the ice carving festival
Linette, talking with the dogteam musher
Linette, taking the requisite selfie with the dogs
Emily and Linette, all bundled-up for their first dogsled ride!
And they're off!
Nathan and Emily running out on the sea ice off of Thule
Nathan and Emily running on the sea ice near Dundas Mtn.
A zoomed-out photo of Nathan and Emily running on the sea ice
A very happy & frosty post-run Nathan and Emily
Yoga Emily
An Arctic Hare!
Emily is trying to make a new friend
I photoshopped the hare slightly closer...
An Arctic fox overlooking North Star Bay from D-launch
Emily skating in D-launch
It's quite a slog down there...
Headed out to the "icewall" (aka the Greenland icesheet) for some sledding!
In the frozen river valley access to the icewall is in
Nathan sledding down a massive snow drift off the icewall
A close-up of Nathan flying down the slope
Nathan in front of the part of the icewall that's showing
Bryan making his way to the sledding party
Renish starting to sled down the snow slope
Renish sledding past the icewall
Renish flying by on the sled
Renish actually catches some air before he "stops".
You can see the wind blowing the snow in the distance
Heading back out from the sledding area
Maria-Jose, all bundled up in a "big red" coat on the way back
Two sledders stop on the return hike to take in the view of Thule
Blowing snow across the road at the end of the hike
Mario taking a picture of North Star Bay & Dundas
Some Arctic fox prints near the iceberg we're walking to
A close-up of some of the blue ice in the iceberg
A very cool edge of the iceberg
There's liquid water in a crack at the waterline of the berg
A large tour group headed out to one of the massive icebergs nearby
Nathan out on the sea ice
Another blue ice close-up
There are some very large blocks of sea ice here
"Our" iceberg and it's nearby rubble field
The iceberg Nathan, Mario and myself walked to
Nathan with the iceberg
Mario with the edge of the iceberg
Welcome to Svalbard!
At the start of our hike, there's some ruins with a mining cart!
A reindeer is just off the hiking path, just laying there in the shade...
He looks a bit less surprised from this angle
The view of the town of Longyearbyen from the end of our hike up the glacier
The entrance to the "ice cave"
We get down into the cave to find it's actually a glacier meltwater channel! And someone left a candle lit for us!
The view up towards the ceiling of the meltwater channel
Nathan watching our friend Eric shine his headlamp through that icewall
Nathan, about 200' down inside the glacier, near where we turned around
The view down the channel in a narrower spot - you can see the footprints at the bottom of the path we took
Here are some footholds carved into this little icewall and an ice anchor with a lanyard on it to help people up and down
A closeup of one of the icewalls - just layers of dirt and ice
One particularly interesting spot along the channel
Me near the entrance of the ice cave
The view up towards the snowy entrance of the icecave, snow steps and all
View out of the snowy entrance, towards Eric
Jim coming out of the ice cave
Kyle with the polar bear rifle and Longyearbyen in the background
Kyle posing with Eric's polar bear rifle
Heading back to the car down the lower portion of the dirty glacier
Some clear ice along the path back
Here are some dirt & ice layers that have been fairly mangled over time
Some more clear ice and rocks protruding from the frozen dirt
The rocks that stick out of the dirty glacier can be fairly large
Eric, stopping to enjoy the view
Jim, Kyle and Nathan, heading back to the car
View of a setting sun over the neighboring valley
Some more reindeer are near the car!
Here's a house that an avalanche blew completely through a bit ago (it came out the front of the house where the plywood is)
Out early in the morning, taking some reindeer photos with Bryan Townley
Bryan is really getting into "getting the shot"
A close up of one of the resting reindeer
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault - it's just on the hill next to the airport
Dogsled tours are a pretty big thing around here
Headed out of town, we run into this sign: "applies to all of Svalbard"
Nathan really wants that snow depth!
View up Longyear fjord towards the remaining active coal mine (where all the coal dust is coming from) and scientific radar installation
One of the inactive coal mines
Nathan out on the sea ice just up the fjord from Longyearbyen
Out on the sea ice just up the fjord from Longyearbyen
Me on the sea ice with the view up the fjord
We stop by a hotel to check out their seals drying
a close-up of the seals drying for dog food
Here's one of their dogsled dogs!
