South-Central Alaska experienced a massive chinook/warm-up beginning New Year's day, for four days. Well-above freezing temperatures of 5-8C (41-47F) were accompanied by strong southeast winds and rain in some areas, and so here around Anchorage, half the snowpack melted, and our nordic skiing trails were reduced to slabs of dirty, wet ice, which then re-froze into treacherous sheets.
With conditions like these, skiing became less attractive and so running and hiking were going to have to substitute. So last sunday the 9th, we decided to summit Konoya Point, behind the Chugach Front Research Centre, a very prominent point visible right out our windows.
The trail ascends quickly up the drainage of the North Fork of Campbell Creek, reaching the tree-line of 760 metres (2500 ft) in about 5 KM. It was a mild sunny day, about -5C (23F) at the start, just a 100 metres or so above sea level, thanks to high pressure ridging still dominating the area. In fact, a very unusual pattern was occurring, an exceedingly strong, record-breaking high pressure ridge was in place over western Alaska (more on this later).
Since I wasn't sure how much snow would be on the route, and in what condition, I wore my Katoola shoe chains over my boots, which are like mini-crampons, and brought my snowshoes in my pack, in case we had to go through deep, loose snow. But the strong winds (probably well in excess of 100 kph or 60 mph) the week before had blown off much of it above tree-line, and what was left was packed brick-hard. I never ended up using my snowshoes, and with the Katoola's, felt like a fly climbing a wall, on the steep, sometimes icy sections.
Just above the first bench, above tree line, around 1000 metres (3300 ft.), we could see 5315 metre (17,450 ft) Foraker shining in the distance. Denali is just beside it, behind the slope. We often get more clearing and nice sun in the winter, when we have offshore flow from the interior.
Anchorage was bathed in fog below, and colder, under it's valley temperature inversion. Probably around -12C (10F). The downtown skyscrapers (such as they are...not much by lower 48 big city standards!) were just visible poking through.
Our objective was visible above, the 1433 metre (4700 ft.) summit of Konoya. It's mostly just a steep walk, very steep in some sections, but there are some rocks to clamber over at the very top.
Since we didn't get started until just after 1030, we had lunch about halfway in, around 1400, on a nice little ledge, not far beneath the summit. Once we got above 1220 metres (4000 ft.), a northeast breeze, probably just 10-20 kph, combined with the temperatures around -7C, made it feel cooler.
Homer and Mattie both were having a great time exploring the icy, rocky, snowy expanse. Homer still can walk about anywhere, but his back legs are weaker now, since he's 14. Just below the summit, the trail gives out, and the rest of the way is finding the best way, with some rock scrambling.
Homer actually chose to stay behind for the summit "push", I think due to his weaker back legs. Mattie of course, is unstoppable, and so she chose to appear in my self-timed picture there. It was a little windier, probably around 20-30 kph, so we didn't stay up too long, and it would be getting dark in a few hours. The part of the trail down in the canyon near the start was exceedingly icy, and we wanted daylight for that.
Heading back down, the Anchorage "bowl" began to be bathed in the gentle rays of the late afternoon winter sun. Denali and Foraker, being fully visible, as well. The Chugach Front Research Centre is right at the base of these slopes, but we have to take a circuitous route on different trails, to reach this area.
More of the city began to appear, as the fog burned off a little. Sure is a beautiful place we live in. I can't think of any cities with terrain like this, so close at hand, except maybe Salt Lake City. The pack ice in Cook Inlet had been pushed to the west side and had melted substantially, by the New Year's warm-up. The inlet never freezes solid, our 8 metre daily tidal range prevents that from happening, no matter how cold it ever gets.
There are certain times when Homer's wolfiness becomes more apparent. I always love it when he is walking in settings like this, and that really comes out. As far as I know, he is at least one-quarter wolf, though I know very little of his background, what his parents were like. I'd like to find out. Wolf hybrids have gotten a bad rap, Nimbus, the gentle wolf/husky giant I had for six months in 2006, was the sweetest, kindest, most timid large dog I had ever met.
http://akprogressive.blogspot.com/2009/10/alaska-sled-dogs-edge-of-wild.html
http://akprogressive.blogspot.com/2009/10/alaska-sled-dogs-edge-of-wild.html
As we got lower, and the lighting more orange and subdued, the "fata morgana" mirages began appearing more prominent in the mountains across the inlet. These are caused by strong temperature inversions in the atmosphere, the density gradients in the different layers act as lenses, distorting distant features. These little mountain-tops near Redoubt (the larger volcano, with just a bit of steam issuing forth) were looking rather interesting, so we had to stop and get a picture. By this time we were back below tree line.
We finished up around 1700, just as darkness descended. What a fantastic day for an outing like this. When the days get longer, we'll be able to do 30-50 km traverses across even higher ridges from this area. Looking forward to it!
Since this was the top of the terrain, around the Anchorage Bowl, our next outing several days later, was to hopefully explore the bottom. Specifically, to ski part of the Iditarod trail in the beautiful 2000-2300 metre (6500-7500 ft) deep canyon of the Eagle River, about 25 km north of the Anchorage bowl. This deep canyon receives no direct solar radiation for at least three months in winter, and is usually the coldest spot in the entire area. We were hoping it hadn't warmed up as much in there with the New Year's chinook, so that the skiing would be better, than here in town.
Sure enough, when we arrived there on 1/13, it was -26C (-15F), but the ranger working at the Nature Centre, told us it was unski-able. They had four days of temperatures starting 1/01, of 5-8C (40-46F), with rain and strong east winds funneling through the deep canyon. Yep, the trail was just a solid slab of dirty ice, totally unski-able. I just kept walking in my ski boots, hoping that the further I went in, the better it might get, but it was getting worse! In some places, the snow was just in patches of ice, looking like late April or early May! So we only walked about 4 km in, then came back out. What a disappointment. We headed back to Hillside Park in Anchorage, where I classic skied with Homer and Mattie running along-side, for a few hours.
Speaking of warm-ups, chinooks, and high pressure ridging, the pattern we had in Alaska 7-10 days ago was very unusual, and worth commenting on.
In this image, a standard 500 millibar analysis for the 11th of January, something really stands out. 500 millibar analyses are a standard reference level meteorologists use in weather forecasting. Millibars are an atmospheric pressure unit, sea level pressure is usually around 1000 millibars. The height at which the pressure equals a certain value is a function of the air-mass temperature. The warmer the air-mass, the higher these heights will be for a given pressure, since warmer air is less dense, and will occupy more volume. Thus, the 500 millibar charts, are a contour map, showing forecasters the flow pattern (parallel to the contours) and features at this level, around 4800 to 6000 metres (depending on the temperature, 15,700 to 20,000 ft).
Well, on this map, above, what looks like a bubble, over Alaska, is an exceptionally strong high pressure ridge, a mass of warm air. 500 mb heights reached 5830 metres in the centre of it, over 600 metres higher than average for this time of year. Free-air freezing levels were as high as 3050 metres (10,000 ft) in western Alaska inside it. Think about that, there in arctic Alaska, in early January, except for shallow surface-based temperature inversions (because of no solar heating), the temperature was above freezing all the way up to 3050 metres! These heights are measured by radiosonde balloons twice daily world-wide, and the database extends back to 1948. This ridge is the strongest one to ever have occurred over Alaska in winter, since the beginning of the measurement database. And the second strongest ever recorded, period, in this part of Alaska! The colour shading on the map is the temperature at the 850 millibar pressure level, also temperature-dependent, but generally, around 1250 to 1500 metres (4100-5100 ft.) What this shows, is that the air at 850 mb in this high pressure ridge, is of the same temperature of that in most areas around 30-38 degrees north, the subtropics. That warm subtropical air was brought north to the Arctic by a south flow ahead of lows much further south. This always, and has always been occurring. Just in the past few decades, this pattern is stronger, more persistent, and more frequent. This would have been exceptional in June or July, but in January, what gives?
Transport of warmer air poleward by the jet stream, is how the global energy balance between the tropics and poles is maintained. Again, since the Earth's atmosphere is warming due to the increasing levels of CO2 and methane from fossil fuel combustion and deforestation, these ridging patterns are therefore becoming stronger, more frequent, and more persistent. It is actually fortunate this one occurred in January here. Had it been in summer, a strong warm spell and drought would have led to high fire danger in the Alaska Interior. The extreme drought, heat, and wildfires in Russia last summer, as well as in Australia two years ago, were caused by excessively strong, record-breaking, high pressure ridging. Something we'll be writing more about in the coming months.
LET'S NOT FORGET
Today, of course, is the 82nd anniversary of the birth of America's most prominent spokesman for peace, civil rights, and political and economic justice. Dr. Martin Luther King. Rather than write a new tribute to this great man, who was murdered by the corporatocracy on the 4th of April, 1968 (exactly one year to the day after his landmark speech where he spoke out strongly against the Vietnam War and US militarism in general), we think this one from a year ago speaks quite well.
His murder was a great loss to the world. He was just beginning to gather momentum in his push for social and economic justice in the US, after his civil rights work. Which was why he was murdered. We often wonder, what things would be like, had this not happened. Would the Vietnam War have ended sooner? Would the US have become less militaristic? Would we have a more sane and just political and economic system here, more in line with the rest of the "developed" countries, with things like universal health care and jobs programmes? Let's all remember, just exactly why it was that he was murdered, and not let what he was working for go unfulfilled. Cheers.
