The Adventurous Falconer: Winter in Alaska

If you're from the Midwest like I am, going through a winter in somewhere as extreme as Alaska is a big change. This winter has been several inches under the normal snow level because of the sheer cold. Before moving to Alaska, I never thought it would ever be too cold to snow; but with temperatures dropping to the negatives it kept the snow at bay. It was simply too cold to snow, that's a thought for you to linger on. While it has been cold, we did recently pass our winter solstice with a final shortest day having less than six hours of daylight and boy, am I glad to see the sun. If you haven't felt the bite of negative temperatures let me try to explain it in a little detail. Any exposed areas on the skin burns in less than 30 minutes, and the evaporation from your eyes is enough to create ice formation on your eyelids, not to mention the mucous inside your nose freezing almost as you step out of the door. This is when i'm reminded that the Alaska isn't playing around, it means business. You could easily get hypothermia and frostbite, or worse, die, if you aren't prepared. The temperature fluctuations as you drive through valleys and up hills differ by large degrees sometimes, and depend whether the sun even hits that side of the mountain in the winter.

Despite it being ridiculously cold, the mountains are still just as beautiful. When it does warm enough for snow to fall it is quite the scene, it softens the hard edges of the mountains and passes leaving a blanket of white. Life slows down for Alaskan creatures in the winter. The squirrels disappear as do the songbirds, until the temperature gets above the negatives, the bears have long gone to hibernation... they are the smart ones. Moose scavenge for what they can, with the grass covered in snow they often resort to stripping bark in order to sustain themselves. The cold does its very best to suck the life out of every living creature and plant that it touches, or so it seems. Boy, what it must be like to be an evergreen tree in an Alaskan winter. Despite the cold, people generally stay very active. Skiing, Sledding, Tubing, Snowboarding, Dogmushing, and various other outdoor activities keep people outside in the little sun we get in the winter. Happy lights are commonplace here in the winter, they really do help compensate for the darkness that envelops the mountains. After four layers of clothes, hats, and mittens I am finally warm and ready to embark on whatever adventure Alaska will bring me that day.

The Polar Plunge, a fundraiser for the Special Olympics, took place on the 15th of December 2012. I didn't sleep the night before, as I was a participant, and jumping in a frozen lake when it is less than five degrees outside can make a person nervous. The theme for our team was "runners," ironically I own running clothes, although if you know me i'm only running if something is chasing me. The jump was a time of fear that I was ready to be done with. Running up to the water voided of ice was when the adrenaline kicked in and my body prepared for the shock it was about to absorb. The moment I hit the water and felt my toes touch the silty lake bottom I was ready to be out. As my head breached the water I had a brief moment of confusion and blurry vision. I set my eyes for the outstretched hands of the firefighters who had volunteered and the ladders that led to freedom from the depths of the frozen lake. At that moment all I wanted was out, not many pictures of me exist around this minute or so because I made a mad dash for the safety of the warm up pool in the tent. Once it was over and I had clean dry clothes on, then I was able to smile and say I proudly took the plunge for the special olympics with over 1,000 other people.