Last week, crack Supercub pilot and best friend of the Alaska Progressive Review, Erik Hursh, and I finally reprised our ski in to the Nugget Creek cabin, at the base of 4997 metre (16390') Mt. Blackburn. A trip originally undertaken late last November under more arduous conditions, fraught with peril for our intrepid assistant editor.
This time around, we had much better conditions, and more importantly, more time to enjoy ourselves in this amazing place. The trail in to the cabin is a slowly rising 24 KM (15 miles) excursion through the boreal forest above the valley of the Kuskulana River/Glacier.
Starting out, you can see how slowly the trail starts rising. These tracks in front, most of them were bear, some moose. The bears are starting to stir from their winter sleep. Some of the tracks were clearly large enough to be of brown bear, and we also saw some wolf tracks. Fortunately, we never ran into any, so Mattie and Homer didn't have to use their sharper survival skills, to protect me. The trail conditions were superb. Snowmachine traffic over the winter was enough to pack it down hard in the middle, so Mattie and Homer weren't post-holing. It was sunny and about 4-5C starting out (39-41F) at 1100, so the top few cm of the snow were melting and loose, but still hard underneath. This gave me great glide on my waxless touring skis, with the ability to slow down and keep in control on the few downhill sections. Perfect spring skiing conditions!
There were only a couple places where I had to take off my skis briefly, this was around KM 14, the last of several creeks that crossed the trail. It was just a little too steep and narrow here for me to be able to stay in control on my skis. But that only took a few minutes, so was not a problem.
The trail just keeps gradually ascending as it heads northeast toward the base of Mt. Blackburn, which becomes visible after the Clear Creek crossing, after KM 14.
A beautiful beacon to guide you on your way. It was so nice to have these perfect spring conditions with the abundant sunshine, and longer days. Very unlike our trip late last November.
Three hours and fifty-five minutes after starting out, this is the view crossing Nugget Creek, with the cabin on the left. What a difference from last November, when it took us 6:30 breaking trail through the frozen rain crust!
Blackburn rises 4050 metres in relief above it's base, greater than that of Denali or Everest, from their bases! From the cabin, to the mountain slope is only about 12-14 KM, so it is an amazing view, which I can gaze at endlessly.
Erik had been fighting off an illness the past week, so he decided to fly the Supercub in, and land it on a little strip by Nugget Creek, down from the cabin about 500 metres. Unfortunately, some nasty person(s) tore up the strip on a snowmachine, to keep planes from landing, but Erik was able to finesse the little cub on it's skis down to a decent landing without flipping. This also meant he hauled most of my gear in it, allowing me to ski with just 10 KG of weight on, all the more nicer! Otherwise it would have been more than double that, since I brought along snowshoes, ice axe, and boots, for climbing around the local heights there.
Erik had a nice fire going when I got there, since he arrived a few hours earlier. The cabin is well-maintained by the National Park Service, since it is in Wrangell/St.Elias N.P., with four cushioned bed platforms, and a new woodstove, with a large wood supply outside. Very comfortable and relaxing.
That first evening, after a short nap, we all had to explore the area around the cabin. Erik and I skied up a trail behind the cabin which was unbroken for a long time. We had to slowly break through several cm crust on top, with almost a metre of powder underneath. Unfortunately, Mattie and Homer wanted to follow along, though I told them to wait at the cabin, because I knew it would be hard for them without snowshoes or skis. Sure enough, they both kept getting stuck and crying/whining. We turned back just 30 min. out, came back to Mattie who was still struggling. Poor ole Homer was much further back, stuck in the snow. At 14 now, his back legs are weaker, and he just gave up. I had to pick him up and basically haul him out. Not easy on skis!
Later that evening, around 830 pm, Blackburn was still fully in the gentle light and clear. Had to get a few pictures right outside the cabin. Zooming in real close with my camera, the perpetually-frozen top of the mountain was crystal-clear. Amazing to think that it was probably -30C (-22F) up there with some wind, when it was around 0C and calm down here.
After a clear, calm night with no wind, the next day dawned at about -8C (18F). There was another trail right behind the cabin that ascended steeply up to a road to some mining ruins. The conditions were a little better on it for Mattie and Homer, and as we got higher, it actually was hard-packed enough, that they were not sinking in at all. I was on snowshoes, and Erik on skis, it ascended fairly quickly. A few KM up, nice views of Kuskulana glacier, not visible from the cabin, combined with that of the Blackburn. Truly an amazing place. One we'd like to see in the late summer or fall as well. Though we'd likely see more people. Looking at the log book in the cabin, only a few people came in there in March/early April, and none, in Dec/Jan/Feb! 
Saturday afternoon, Erik decided it was time for our aerial excursion in the Super-Cub around Blackburn. These amazing little planes burn no more gas than a small car, and can take off and land in as little as 100 metres. And can also fly at very low speeds, as low as 80-100 KPH (50-60 mph). Giving you the sensation of almost floating by whatever scenery is to be found.
We had to manually pick up the back of the plane and turn it around for the takeoff, which was not easy, as we would break through into as much as a metre of powder snow beneath the top crust.
But we managed, and the takeoff was a little bumpy because of the attempted ruin of the strip by the snowmachiners. What follows next was scenery to be found in very few places on the planet.
Sheer walls of rock/snow/ice ascended thousands of metres on each side as we slowly ascended just 50 metres or so above the Kuskulana glacier. I have to admit, I get a little nervous being so close to these, but Erik is a highly experienced and competent pilot, and there was only a very light prevailing northerly wind flow, so we had perfect flying conditions.
This glacier descended straight down from the south face of Blackburn, merging with the Kuskulana glacier.
We flew around the east and south flanks of Blackburn, then through a pass between sheer knife-like 2625 metre (8600') ridges in front of it. Huge chunks of ice tumbing from glacier fronts passed slowly beneath us. This would not be an easy place to get around on foot in!
On the other side of that pass, another glacier, which runs into the Kuskulana, descended from a bowl, backed by 3000-4000 metre headwalls. Erik decided to see if a landing could be made here. We took one pass where he gently touched the skis down without committing, and it felt good. So, we fluttered down to a landing on this nameless glacier at 2100 metres (6700'), and got out on the hard-packed snow to walk around. It was a beautiful day, here about -7C (20F) with barely a breeze. This is a short video with a 360 deg. view of the site. What a treat to get to see this area, perpetually frozen wilderness that very few people are ever able to venture into. The slopes of Blackburn tumble down precipitously 2000-2500 metres to this glacier in sheer walls of rock and ice.
After this landing, it was just a short 15 minute hop back to the strip by the cabin. This time, after we landed, we turned the plane around to get it ready for Erik's departure the next morning. Which took some doing, as it was a little more off to the side than last time. So it was quite arduous, good thing there were two people.
That evening, saturday evening, the view to the east of the cabin, of the mountains framing the east side of the Kuskulana Creek/Glacier were out in full splendour. They are between 2000-3000 metres (6600-9100 ft), with glaciers as well, very beautiful and worth seeing.
It was with some reluctance that we both had to leave the next morning. But it was another perfect day, with light northerly winds, and about -1C (30F) when I set out with Mattie and Homer, on skis, from the cabin. Shortly thereafter, Erik buzzed us from above as he flew out, showing off with sharp turns and banks in the agile little moth of a plane. It only took us 2:43 to get out! Because it was a little icier, the snow was faster. I was enjoying it so much, just did it nonstop. We wish it had actually been longer, the conditions and scenery were so perfect.
If anyone reading this would like instructions on how to find the trailhead for this fairly easy (any novice or intermediate nordic skier could handle it, and it could easily be bikeable) but beautiful route, please let us know. We'll be happy to guide you in the right direction!
VOICES OF OUR ELDERS
Happy Earth Day, this coming Sunday! Which also happens to be Easter Sunday, this year. And, by UN proclamation, Happy Mother Earth Day! Celebrate the arrival of spring, as we are, and let's honour the Earth, of which we are a part, and which provides for us all of our needs.
VOICES OF OUR ELDERS
Happy Earth Day, this coming Sunday! Which also happens to be Easter Sunday, this year. And, by UN proclamation, Happy Mother Earth Day! Celebrate the arrival of spring, as we are, and let's honour the Earth, of which we are a part, and which provides for us all of our needs.
For the past several thousand years, dating at least from the Romans, in Europe, but even preceding that, the prevailing cultures of Europe, and then the Middle East, have distanced themselves ever more from the Natural World, and set human beings apart from it, and dominant over it. While at the same time, developing rigid hierarchical societies, kept intact through the force of arms. The main religions of the time, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, all have that basic premise in their belief systems. Even in Asia, during these same times, trends along these lines began, with empires in China forming and enduring, all held intact through fear and intimidation. And so, with this overarching belief and view, that humanity is somehow distinct from, and superior to, the Natural World, and hence, must control it, we have developed our "western" culture in which science, technology, and control of Nature are inherently not questioned, and accepted as a given. And what has that given us?
In it's most extreme, as in the U.S., but to a lesser extent in Europe, Canada, China, and Japan, technologies that are poisoning the environment, nuclear power, deepwater oil drilling, hydraulic fracturing for natural gas extraction, strip/mountaintop removal coal mining, and the destruction of vast swathes of boreal forests in Canada to extract oil from tar sands. An economic system, developed in Europe, but refined in the U.S. into it's most extreme, vicious, and predatory form, based on greed and competition, deliberately suppressing cooperation and solidarity amongst people, concerned only with short-term profit, at the expense of the vast majority of humanity and the Earth. Predicated on unlimited resource extraction and growth (cancer), which will lead to global environmental collapse within 30-50 years due to climatic shifts from greenhouse gas warming acting in concert with tropical deforestation.
But it doesn't have to be so. We really liked this article we saw the other day. It's just a simple essay, describing our current reality from an exterior frame of reference.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/04/19-0The World of Our Dreams
A stunning and hopeful truth: The world we must create in order to survive is also the vision that unites us.
This is the sixteenth of a series of blogs based on excerpts adapted from the 2nd edition of Agenda for a New Economy: From Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth. I wrote Agenda to spur a national conversation on economic policy issues and options that are otherwise largely ignored. This blog series is intended to contribute to that conversation. —DK
In 1992, I participated in the civil society portion of the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It involved some fifteen thousand people representing the vast variety of humanity’s races, religions, nationalities, and languages. It was, at the time, the largest and most diverse global gathering in human history. Our discussions centered on defining, and committing ourselves to, the vision of the world we would create together.
These discussions were chaotic and often contentious. But at one point it hit me like a bolt of lightning. Despite our differences, we all wanted the same things: healthy, happy children, families, and communities living in peace and cooperation in healthy natural environments. Out of our conversations emerged an articulation of our shared dream of a world in which people and nature live in dynamic, creative, cooperative, and balanced relationships. The Earth Charter, which is the product of a continuation of this discussion, calls it Earth Community, a community of life.
I’ve lived in a lot of places with starkly different cultures: Ethiopia, Nicaragua, Indonesia, the Philippines, California, Massachusetts, Florida, Virginia, New York City, and Bainbridge Island in Puget Sound. Surprise! Look beneath the colorful differences in cultural expression and you find at the core everyone wants to breathe clean air and drink clean water. They want tasty, nutritious food uncontaminated with toxins. They want meaningful work, a living wage, success and happiness for their children, and security in their old age. They want a say in the decisions their governments make and they want to live in peace.
Rabbi Michael Lerner, the editor of Tikkun magazine, observes that:
The great spiritual-religious wisdom traditions of the world have all taugh some variant of this message: The deepest human pleasures come from living in a world based on justice, peace, love, generosity, kindness, and celebration of the universe and service to the ultimate moral law of the universe (whether learned through revelation or through reason).
For 5,000 years we have continuously recreated a world that appeals only to the psychologically deranged.
Beyond our varied races, religions, nationalities, and languages, we humans share a collective dream of a world of healthy, happy children, families, communities, and natural environments joined in peace and cooperation. These are all forms of real wealth that are not available for purchase or sale and have no monetary equivalent. These are our primary sources of true happiness.
We have been trapped in Empire’s pernicious rule-or-be-ruled, kill-or-be-killed, play-or-die dynamic by geographic and cultural barriers that have kept us divided and unable to embrace our true nature and common interest. The possibility to liberate ourselves from this self-inflicted tragedy is within our grasp.
The communication technologies of the Internet in place for little more than 20 years create a potential for collective dialogue, organizing, and action never before available. We now have the means, as well as the need and the right, to bridge the geographic and cultural barriers that have for so long divided us, recognize our common yearning, and bring forth cultures and institutions that cultivate and reward our higher nature.
Do we have the will? I believe we do. It is being expressed by growing millions of people working largely outside the institutions of Empire.
Yet economists prefer to assess economic performance by growth in gross domestic product (GDP), a measure of the market value of economic output. The GDP can be rising in the face of simultaneous epidemics of child obesity and starvation. It can be rising in the face of disintegrating families and a vanishing middle class, increasing prison populations, rising unemployment, the disruption of community, collapsing environmental systems, the hollowing out of domestic manufacturing capabilities, failing schools, growing trade deficits, and costly but senseless foreign wars.
And all the while, economists tell us we are getting richer. Such nonsense.
Consider how differently we might organize our human economies if we measured economic performance by indicators of the outcomes we truly seek—the sources of true happiness.
It is a stunning and hopeful truth. The world we must now create if there is to be a human future is also the world of our common dream. The barriers are self-inflicted. They include the fabricated belief that we are by nature incapable of cooperating in the common good and the use of flawed measures of economic and social performance.
So let us recognize and cultivate the potentials of our true nature and henceforth assess the performance of our economies against the outcomes we truly seek.
This Agenda for a New Economy blog series is co-sponsored by CSRwire.com and YesMagazine.org based on excerpts from Agenda for a New Economy, 2nd edition.
David Korten (livingeconomiesforum.org) is the author of Agenda for a New Economy, TheGreat Turning: From Empire to Earth Community, and the international best seller When Corporations Rule the World. He is board chair of YES! Magazine and co-chair of the New Economy Working Group.
There are just a few countries on the planet that have governments now that are becoming more responsive to the needs of their people, and the protection of their environment, which are deeply intertwined. Many of these are in South America, and the most prominent of these, is Bolivia. Which is THE ONLY country so far, in the Western Hemisphere, to be led by their Indigenous people, and in which, are truly trying to govern in a manner reflective of their culture and belief systems. This is primarily why your lead editor felt it necessary to visit that country in 2008, to learn about it, and spread that knowledge. We here at the Alaska Progressive Review feel that it is imperative that humanity as a whole, remember the wisdom of our distant pasts, and heed the warnings from our Indigenous people's in the present.
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/04/13-2UN Document Would Give 'Mother Earth' Same Rights as Humans
UNITED NATIONS — Bolivia will this month table a draft United Nations treaty giving "Mother Earth" the same rights as humans — having just passed a domestic law that does the same for bugs, trees and all other natural things in the South American country.
Bolivia is planning to table a draft United Nations treaty giving "Mother Earth" the same rights as humans. (Photograph by: NASA) The bid aims to have the UN recognize the Earth as a living entity that humans have sought to "dominate and exploit" — to the point that the "well-being and existence of many beings" is now threatened.
Bolivia is planning to table a draft United Nations treaty giving "Mother Earth" the same rights as humans. (Photograph by: NASA) The bid aims to have the UN recognize the Earth as a living entity that humans have sought to "dominate and exploit" — to the point that the "well-being and existence of many beings" is now threatened.
The wording may yet evolve, but the general structure is meant to mirror Bolivia's Law of the Rights of Mother Earth, which Bolivian President Evo Morales enacted in January.
That document speaks of the country's natural resources as "blessings," and grants the Earth a series of specific rights that include rights to life, water and clean air; the right to repair livelihoods affected by human activities; and the right to be free from pollution.
It also establishes a Ministry of Mother Earth, and provides the planet with an ombudsman whose job is to hear nature's complaints as voiced by activist and other groups, including the state.
"If you want to have balance, and you think that the only (entities) who have rights are humans or companies, then how can you reach balance?" Pablo Salon, Bolivia's ambassador to the UN, told Postmedia News. "But if you recognize that nature too has rights, and (if you provide) legal forms to protect and preserve those rights, then you can achieve balance."
The application of the law appears destined to pose new challenges for companies operating in the country, which is rich in natural resources, including natural gas and lithium, but remains one of the poorest in Latin America.
But while Salon said his country just seeks to achieve "harmony" with nature, he signalled that mining and other companies may come under greater scrutiny.
"We're not saying, for example, you cannot eat meat because you know you are going to go against the rights of a cow," he said. "But when human activity develops at a certain scale that you (cause to) disappear a species, then you are really altering the vital cycles of nature or of Mother Earth. Of course, you need a mine to extract iron or zinc, but there are limits."
Bolivia is a country with a large indigenous population, whose traditional belief systems took on greater resonance following the election of Morales, Latin America's first indigenous president.
In a 2008 pamphlet his entourage distributed at the UN as he attended a summit there, 10 "commandments" are set out as Bolivia's plan to "save the planet" — beginning with the need "to end capitalism."
Reflecting indigenous traditional beliefs, the proposed global treaty says humans have caused "severe destruction . . . that is offensive to the many faiths, wisdom traditions and indigenous cultures for whom Mother Earth is sacred."
It also says that "Mother Earth has the right to exist, to persist and to continue the vital cycles, structures, functions and processes that sustain all human beings."
In indigenous Andean culture, the Earth deity known as Pachamama is the centre of all life, and humans are considered equal to all other entities.
The UN debate begins two days before the UN's recognition April 22 of the second International Mother Earth Day — another Morales-led initiative.
Canadian activist Maude Barlow is among global environmentalists backing the drive with a book the group will launch in New York during the UN debate: Nature Has Rights.
"It's going to have huge resonance around the world," Barlow said of the campaign. "It's going to start first with these southern countries trying to protect their land and their people from exploitation, but I think it will be grabbed onto by communities in our countries, for example, fighting the tarsands in Alberta."
Ecuador, which also has a large indigenous population, has enshrined similar aims in its Constitution — but the Bolivian law is said to be "stronger."
Ecuador is among countries that have already been supportive of the Bolivian initiative, along with Nicaragua, Venezuela, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Antigua and Barbuda.
© 2011 Postmedia News
It has been our premise for several years now, here at the A.P.R., if the human race is to survive with some forms of civilisation intact over the next 50-100 years, we must heed the voices of the Earth's Indigenous people, and incorporate their holistic world-view into "ours". Lest the ecosystems that nurture and provide for us are poisoned and destroyed in the drive for short-term corporate profits, which benefit only a very small portion of humanity, whilst perpetuating illegal and immoral warfare, dehumanizing and enslaving the rest. Cheers.
