Sun Screen My Ass!
September 2, 2010
I spent a lot of hours researching the technical aspects of this adventure. Out of all the personal accounts and related websites that listed necessary items to bring along I have to say they ALL included sun screen. After the last three days above 6,000 feet for the better part of 8 hours each day… I’m toast. Really I mean it toast! My forearms and legs are a nice fire burnt red, my neck and face are about the same!
Needless to say I did NOT bring any sun screen, nor did I bring a ball cap.
This burn is about the same as my last trip to Hawaii or better yet my trip to Bonaire, oh this is going to hurt!
I’m in Linthal Switzerland now and I am going to take few days to “cool off” and see about finding some lotion for sun burns and a nice cap to keep the sun off of my face!
Not the best serial killer photo I could take but after ascending and descending 12,000 feet on a cloudless hot day in the Alps, it’s the best you get for now.
D.
A Change In Adventures
July 22, 2010
An opportunity to trek the Swiss Alps has presented it self and I took it. I was supposed to trek across the island again, then a short seven day trek in the Cascades followed by a week on a beach on the Big Island of Hawaii – BUT the calling of an international trip was too much to resist.
I’m really excited, although short notice in regards to planning and logistics I”ve already got plane, train and bus tickets and the logistics and route are all in place.
Alps Trek
Leaving in late August I’ll be making my way to Geneva Switzerland where after a day or so I travel by train and bus to a little Austrian town called Feldkirch in the foot hills of the Austrian Alps. I’ll follow an old smugglers route up and over into the very small country of Liechtenstein. Descending into the capital of Vaduz. Continuing along the river Rhine, I’ll cross over into Switzerland again near the town of Sargans.
From there I’ll spend the next 18 to 22 days trekking through the Swiss Alps occasionally coming down to resupply and check in with the locals.
I’ve patched together 18 different hiking routes that closely follow the famous Alpine Pass Route, I added the crossing of Liechtenstein in the beginning and in the end I’ll cross over into France calling the trek finished in Saint Gingolph.
With any luck I’ll have a few days to actually rest and relax – maybe by rail to a few other countries that will let me in with just a passport and expedition pack!
The Race Is Finished!
March 24, 2010
Start of the White Mountains 100 - Photo: Bob Bolton
The inaugural running of the White Mountains 100 is complete. 50 participants started, 49 finished and only 1 scratched after running (yeah running) 60 miles of the course.
The following is from the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner article.
… Indeed, the first annual White Mountains 100, the brainchild of Fairbanks skier Ed Plumb, went off without a hitch. The trails were set up perfectly for the most part, the weather couldn’t have been much better and all but one of the 50 competitors who started the race finished.
“By and large, everything went really well,” he said.
Cyclists took the top six spots in the race, including Oatley’s wife, Heather Best, in third place. Best finished just 1 hour, 11 minutes behind her husband. She beat out fellow Fairbanksan Kevin Breitenbach by two minutes and Ethan Kopacz of Anchorage was fifth in 14 hours, 11 minutes.
Best surprised herself and her husband by finishing third.
“I was thinking more like 15 to 20 hours,” Best said. “I felt good and trail conditions were great.”
She also had Janice Tower of Anchorage, a multiple winner of the Susitna 100 in Southcentral, breathing down her neck. Tower placed sixth overall, less than two hours behind Best.
Said Oatley of his wife’s performance, “She was flying.”
Mike Kramer of Fairbanks was the first skier to finish, placing seventh overall in 16 hours, 10 minutes to beat Brad Marden of Anchorage by 36 minutes and finish eighth overall. Fairbanks’ Max Kaufman was third in the ski division and ninth overall in 18 hours, 11 minutes.
“Those guys were a lot faster than I thought they could ski it,” Oatley said.
Kramer skate skied the entire course, though in some places it took creative technique.
“The trail was so narrow in some places it’s hard to skate,” he said.
“I did a lot of double poling and modified skate strokes that would keep your ski tips out of the willows. Whatever the terrain would give you is what I took advantage of.”
… Plumb, the race organizer who also finished 43rd with a time of 34 hours despite not getting any sleep the night before the race while dealing with last-minute problems, was thankful everything worked out as well as it did.
Judging from the feedback he’s received from competitors, the event was a success, he said.
“People are saying it was the best race ever; the most organized race they’ve ever been in; the best course they’ve ever been on,” Plumb said.
Plumb said he plans on putting the race on again next year, assuming BLM goes along with it.
Collin Cogley, an outdoor recreation planner with the Bureau of Land Management who handled the permit application for the race, was on the trail as an observer to make sure BLM’s stipulations were followed. For the most part, Cogley liked what he saw.
“I think it went really well,” Cogley said. “Things worked well at the trailhead for parking. There weren’t big clumps of folks on the trail. The folks that ran the checkpoints were on the ball.”
Race organizers did everything BLM asked and more in some cases, Cogley said.
You can see all the pictures I took out on the course under Adventures in the header navigation at the top of the page. Or you can follow this link.
Leaving The Island
March 18, 2010
There is a fantastically scary and wonderfully special feeling when it comes to leaving the island. It’s not that kind of
Bering Sea Ice Pack Edge
feeling like you have been in prison and your finally getting out. It’s more like the feeling you get when you ask someone to marry you in a stadium with forty thousand people watching and the cameras are broadcasting it on national TV. and just before they say yes, they take a few minutes and stare blankly at you. Leaving you to wonder what their answer will be.
You never really know if your going to get out. If Vegas was looking for another event to bet on and keep odds on. I’d suggest leaving Unalaska / Dutch Harbor.
The Tordrillo Mountains
You never know what the weather is going to do. Our airport is a visual only facility. That means no flight instrument landings. The rules are very different for flying out here. If the wind is too strong, or the gusts are too high, or the visibility isn’t enough or an alternate runway is not available and don’t forget if the planes are down for mechanical. Your not getting here and your certainly not leaving.
I was lucky, yeah I say luck because really I am. Getting out, ON TIME, on my scheduled flight was lucky. With the storms we have had over the last two weeks. I woke up, the skies were clear, no wind. Oh yeah. I knew I was getting out.
I’m happy to say I’m in Fairbanks, Alaska. Its a crisp, calming 16 degrees, the skies are blue and clear. All my gear has finally arrived and I’m preparing myself for the event this weekend. Most of you know that I’m here as a volunteer for the White Mountains 100 Ultra Race.
Mt. Hunter & Mt. McKinley (Denali)
The White Mountains 100 is a 100 mile human powered race across the interior of Alaska in the White Mountains about an hour north of Fairbanks. Check out the White Mountains 100 website. There are three disciplines to choose from. You can Run, Ski and Bike. I’m going to take a snowmachine (snowmobile) and all my winter camping gear and hang out along the route keeping track of racers, maintaining the check points, assisting in emergencies and evacuations and photographing the event. Most of all I’ll be enjoying the incredible backcountry of Alaskas wilderness.
Williwaw Point, Unalaska Island
February 10, 2010
Since posting the new header image on the website yesterday I’ve received several emails and comments about the
Williwaw Point, Unalaska Island
image and where it was taken. So I figured it being a slow posting week (except for you American Picker Fans) I’d do a quick post about the picture.
If you have Google Earth (or use Google Maps), then copy & paste these coordinates in to the search box. You can also download the GE .kmz file here
http://www.danslife.net/other/WilliwawPoint.kmz
53.465365,-167.027721
This is location of about where I set the camera up with time lapse to take 10 images, 10 seconds apart as Dakota and I headed NE towards the end of the cove. If EXIF information on the image is correct it was taken the morning of September 5th. 2009
The night before Dakota and I camped a mile and a half SW back along the cove after crossing the day before from our camp in the valley of Kismaliuk Bay. We climbed up and over in to the old Aleut village of Kashega in Kashega Bay. We followed Brennen Lake straight over to the coast. This was a significant part of the trek and a great day. We had crossed from the Bering Sea side of the Island to the Pacific Ocean side.
You can see more images from that trek in the Unalaska Island Trek Gallery.
Another Panoramic Picture
February 8, 2010
If you have been following my webcam or any of the FAA weather cams around the island you would know that a band of high winds and wet heavy snow fell through the night, blanketing the island with what I like to call cement snow. By mid morning the winds had gone and the snow fall had taken a break. I took the opportunity at lunch to grab my pack and head up Bunker for my exercise regiment and to take some photos. I managed to stitch together seven images to make this panoramic photograph, this time looking over the channel at Westward and down Captains Bay.
Panoramic Channel & Captains Bay, Unalaska (click for larger image)
The Regiment Begins
February 1, 2010
I’m certainly not one for keeping a routine with regard to exercise. Wait, now that I think about it I’m not one for any kind of routine in
An Effort To Get In Shape
anything. Maybe I should work on that some other time.
All that aside I realized after looking down at the scale this weekend that I’ve really been putting on the pounds. I need to get back on track with my health and fitness. So in preparation for the upcoming treks and adventures (and to lean up some), I’ve come up with a plan that I think will take me back to my target weight class and improve my cardio endurance by mid March.
The idea isn’t to subject myself to a hardcore daily ass kicking regiment – rather a consistent daily exercise effort to burn some calories and improve cardio. I’ll wait until I’m on the trail to work myself to death.
Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays
Power hiking up Bunker Hill with a combined pack and body weight of at least 260 lbs.
Tuesdays & Thursdays
Cardio through bike or treadmill
Sundays & whenever I can...
Church of Scuba
Everyday
Watching the calories… eeergh
Unalaska Island Trek II
January 30, 2010
Well as most you (and by you I mean you my blog visitors, the local community and my friends) know – ever since trekking the island last fall I’ve been itching to get out and finish what I started. My knee is healed up nicely (it only pops and cracks once in a while) and I’ve gained what feels like 30 pounds, over the last four months.
Unalaska Island Trek II
It looks like June is the month I’m going to go back down to the far end of the island. I’m hoping to start at Station Bay again if not, Chernofski will do just fine. Maybe I can visit Art Christensen at the old sheep ranch there. I know Buck (a sheep that kept head butting Dakota for six miles) will be happy to see us again.
Same as last time for the most part, I’m not changing much. The route is perfect thanks to Jeff Hancock of Aleutian Adventure Sports. My meal planning and food cache in Pumicestone Bay were perfect. (although I’m tossing out trail mix.) The amount of food Dakota carried in her pack was spot on, although I may carry a little extra in my pack for her. I’ll be renewing the registration on my SPOT Satellite Messenger and that will of course include up to $100,000.00 of whatever it takes to rescue me insurance! I’ll have it post in real time my location on the site here just like the last time.
One BIG change this year will be NOT having a flight crew from the USCG fly out to come rescue me after 11 days of trekking and just two days shy of my destination because I fell in the Shaler Mountains and couldn’t walk anymore.
Here is the gallery of images from my first trek across the island in August / September of 2009.
Walking My Dog Jane
January 29, 2010
Sorry Dakota – please forgive me. I don’t recall exactly how I came to hear about the book titled Walking My Dog Jane
Walking My Dog Jane
by Ned Rozell. It was a while ago I was living in Anchorage at the time. I do remember though the initial reason I bought it was because here was a guy who (with his dog Jane) in one summer walked the entire length of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. From Valdez to Prudhoe Bay (and then a bit further) and for those of you who know me – you know that is right up my alley.
I’m not much of a ‘book’ reader – In the grand scheme of things I have not read a lot. Lets see… Several O’ Henry books, everything by Jack London a few Robert Service publications, quite a few Clive Cussler books, a few Louis L’Amour and a book that really captivated me at the time I read it called On A Pale Horse by Piers Anthony.
So getting back to the reason for this post. I was reading through the participants of the White Mountains 100 ultra race coming up (of which I’ll be a part of) just out of Fairbanks and low and behold, registered in the number one spot is Ned Rozell. Yeah, I know. If you have ever thought the world was a small place, try Alaska and ever more so try, Unalaska. – So here is yet another reason I’m jazzed to be apart of the event. Hopefully I’ll get to meet Ned, and have him autograph my copy of his book.
Oh and for a good read, and I mean a really good read – please checkout the book. I’m sure you’ll like it.
White Mountains 100
January 28, 2010
White Mountains 100
Excellent news! The 2010 race is on! The BLM permit request has been approved.
A handful of you know that I’ve volunteered for several outpost and trail volunteer positions with the Iditarod and The White Mountains 100 races. I’ve been contacted by the organizers of both with the go ahead. (now I just need to pitch it to my boss). If it works out I plan to run the White Mountains course before the race – just to get some winter and cold weather trekking and camping in this year. Winter in the islands has been really mild with little snow.
I can’t tell you how jazzed I am to be a part of this event! Thanks Ed!
Below is a little about the race as taken from the official White Mountains 100 website.
Are you ready for an adventure in the remote beauty of interior Alaska? Come north to Fairbanks, Alaska for the inaugural White Mountains 100-mile ultra race. The race course cuts through the heart of the jagged limestone peaks that define the White Mountains National Recreation Area. This rugged wilderness will challenge racers with a variety of terrain and trail conditions, satisfying even the most experienced
White Mountains 100 Route
winter athlete. Steep climbs, bowel-clenching descents, sharp turns, areas of active overflow, glare ice, tree stumps, roots, and bare tussocks are all part of the White Mountains trail network. Sub-zero temperatures, strong winds, along with blowing and drifting snow may add to the excitement. Traverse this diverse landscape on skis, bike, or just your feet.
Click the map image to the right for a larger version of the race course. Visit the White Mountains 100 official website for more information.
