We have this peculiar weather condition here in Alaska that I always end up calling “frozen fog”. I’m sure it isn’t unique to Alaska, but this is the first place I’ve ever lived where I’ve experienced it. Now I’m not sure the exact scientific name. My mom calls is “hoarfrost”. I’ve heard others here refer to it as “rime frost”. Whatever the name may be, it is a very beautiful condition. The trees in town turn white. Almost pure white. Not the sort of clumpy look you might imagine by snow piling up on tree branches. Just imagine one of those fake white Christmas Trees that a place like Wal-mart sells. Yeah, it almost looks like that.

But real.

We’ve had four straight days of foggy weather here in Anchorage, a very dense, heavy sort of fog — and with weather in the low teens and below — it’s freezing to everything it touches. Every tree in the city looks like it was made special just for the holiday season. You would almost have to see it in person to really get an appreciation for how beautiful it is. I tried to capture it a little bit in some photos, but they don’t do the effect the justice it deserves.

Here it is though, for your viewing pleasure.

[Show as slideshow]

“It’s too cold to snow.“  Those are words I’ve used countless times.  On certain days and at certain temperatures, that phrase is an undeniable truth — in my humble opinion.  Scientifically speaking though there is no such thing as “too cold to snow”.  The details don’t interest me, to be honest.  I’m no scientist or climatologist.  I’ve been in Alaska for about 10 years now, and one thing I can say without question is that the colder it gets, the less snow that falls.

And of course when I think of “snow”, I think of an accumulation of the stuff that I would have to move around with the power of a shovel and a glass of hot chocolate.  I really don’t much care about a light dusting.

We are finally on the climb out of a week or two of frigid temps here in Anchorage, where I don’t think it ever got warmer than 10 degrees.  And we got no snow during that stretch.  Now that the temps are rising again — if you can call 20′s and 30′s “rising” — and sure enough we get a couple inches last night, with the weather calling for snow every day for the next week or so.  So yeah, perhaps ‘too cold to snow’ isn’t technically true, but it is true enough for me that it makes no difference.  It will be my back aching after shoveling this stuff up, not some scientist in a nice warm lab somewhere.

My little brother showing his stuff this past winter, snowskating in the empty parking lot of a former church.  The place is now a “Baptist University” and they do not like skaters. We had to sneak there at night to get these shots.

What does a skateboarder do when winter sets in and all the beautiful pavement and sidewalks are covered in ugly snow?  They whip out their snowskates, thats what!

Here is my little brother on his latest snowskate deck.  If you aren’t quite sure what a so-called “snowskate” even is, its basically just a skateboard without wheels, made to ride on snow.  It isn’t really a skateboard, but that is the easiest way to think of it.  It doesn’t have bindings like a snowboard, so you pretty much just stand on it and hope to stay on.

We decided to go for a walk yesterday, taking advantage of my free-day of no court.  He brought along the deck, I brought along my camera.  I like that our individual hobbies can compliment each other so well.  He does what he does, and I just snap pictures of it happening.  Perfect.

You know you live in a harsh state, when you receive a booklet titled “Staying Alive in the Arctic:  A collection of Anecdotes, Facts & Lies about life in Alaska”.  Pretty rough when we need a guide book on how to keep alive here!

I did find it to be pretty interesting though, and you all know how I love to blog about the fine state of Alaska, so I thought I would go through the book and share portions of it with all of you.  There are bound to be a few things that you might not of known.

This will be the first in a small series of posts I will be writing about the state.

Facts:

• Alaska is larger than the four largest states combined.
• Alaska contains 17 of the 20 highest mountain peaks in the U.S.
• Alaska is less than 3 miles from Russia (on very clear days, you can actually “see” Russia — no Sarah Palin jokes please).
• Kodiak Island (in Alaska) is the 2nd largest island in the U.S. Our state capital, Juneau, has no road access to the rest of the state (The Alaska Congress has to charter planes for their meetings).
• Alaska’s flag was designed by a 13 yr-old orphan by the name of Benny Benson.
• There are more than 3 million lakes in the state of Alaska.
• There are more private air plain pilots — per capita — in Alaska than in any other state.
• Half of the entire population of the state of Alaska lives in one city, Anchorage.  (Hurray for Anchorage!)
• Alaskan National Park, Wrangell-St. Elias, is the largest National Park in the United States.
• Alaska is as big as England, France, Italy and Spain combined.
• If New York City had the same population density as Alaska, only 16 people would be living in Manhattan.
• Alaska is the only state to have coastlines on three different seas – the Arctic Ocean, Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea.
• Alaska’s largest city, Anchorage, covers 1,955 square miles.  The entire state of Rhode Island covers 1,045.
• More than 1/2 of the world’s active glaciers are in Alaska.

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In 1927 Alaska held a contest to seek ideas for a flag design that would represent the newly independent territory. A 13-year-old seventh grader named Benny Benson entered this flag design and won the contest. Benson chose the blue in the flag for the blue Forget-Me-Not (now the State flower).The gold is for the 1880s Gold rush in Alaska. The stars, the Big Dipper and the North Star, show how close Alaska comes to heaven.

Alaska’s Flag Song

Eight stars of gold on a field of blue,
Alaska’s Flag, may it mean to you
The blue of the sea, the evening sky,
The mountain lakes and the flow’rs nearby,

The gold of the early sourdough dreams,
The precious gold of the hills and streams,
The brilliant stars in the northern sky,
The Bear, the Dipper, and shining high,

The great North star with its steady light.
O’er land and sea a beacon bright,
Alaska’s Flag to Alaskans dear,
The simple flag of a last frontier.

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Alaskan Words and Phrases