Spring where are you?

Winter seems to be hanging on tight to Alaska this year.  Last week we had one of the latest snow storms on record.  This year has also broken the record for the most days of snow, 231 (ugh!).  That's almost the complete opposite of Colorado's statistic of 250+ days of sun haha.  Anyways, we've been doing some spring skiing and counting down the days until school is out.  Jay got a job at REI (yay!). He's working on becoming a resident.   Here are some of pics from the other weekend when we skied up to the Mint Hut in Hatchers Pass.

Beautiful May day

It's T-shirt weather!

Deshka and Lucy cuddled up on one of our rest stops. 

We're about 8 miles in. Now we just have to go 1400 feet up, find a cabin we've never been to with no trail, oh yeah and it might be buried in snow.

Finally made it to the hut at 10:30 pm!  Some winters it's completely covered with snow and you have to dig it out.  Sadly, the cabin is first come first serve and there were 8 pairs of skis outside of the hut.  We knocked on the door and no one answered.  So it was time for plan B...

Snow camping with 3 people and 2 dogs in a 2 person tent.  It was a good thing we were all exhausted from the hike. 

Nate is really happy we're digging a snow pit for the tent. It's about 11 pm in the above picture.

The next morning we woke up to beautiful warm weather.

We could see ski tracks on the glaciers across the valley.

The cabin was empty when we woke up!  We rushed over to dry out.

The day was gorgeous with temperatures getting up towards 60, which felt like 80 with all the UV bouncing off the snow everywhere.

Luckily the cabin was pre-dug out for us.

5 stars

This is the view out the front door. I bet many people have had to dig their way out after a snowy night.

We timed our trip perfectly to witness the shed cycle. All day we watched sun spot avalanches from high up the peaks let loose and cascade over huge cliffs. They were hard to catch on camera because you never knew where they were coming from but they had a thundering echo for miles so if you were quick enough you could catch one.

Kristen and the goose hanging out in the sun.

Lucy the mountain dog!

Nate and Rob eating their cheesy Halibut noodles.

Someone turn out the light its bedtime.

We woke up and weather had moved in. All those glaciers and snowy peaks don't see too many nice days.

A very hard place to get to but very much worth it. The Mint Hut is the first of three huts on the bomber traverse which is a trail you can only do in winter across the heart of the talkeetna range. It is a long and treacherous route over several mountain passes and two glaciers...and we can't wait to do it in full next year!