Alaskan Adventures Part Two

Since my last blog post we have been busy racing hard and fast up here in Alaska.  The earlier part of the week brought three races in a four day span with the 15km skate on Saturday, the classic sprint on Sunday, and the club relay on Tuesday.  On racing trips the focus is all on skiing fast, recovering well, and achieving strong results.  This does not allow for much time to explore the areas in which we race, an unfortunate fact as we GRPers are fortunate enough to be able to travel to some very cool locations.  Conscious of this, a few of us jumped in the van the other day and took off down the road to go check out the Portage Glacier.  After an hour of meandering along the coastline we arrived at Portage Lake, strapped on skis, and took off across some beautiful crust.

A pretty scenic spot for some crust skiing.

The skiing across the lake was about as beautiful as one could hope for, with bluebird skies and pristine crust surrounded by impressive mountains.

You can actually see Andrew (if you zoom in), he is the tiny speck in the middle of the picture where snow meets the rock.

At the end of the lake we found the glacier flowing down into the water.  According to locals, the glacier has been calving recently, and while there was no open water or crashing ice when we were there, all of us were plenty wary and kept our distance.  The ice was stunningly blue and the entire scene left us all very impressed with nature’s handiwork here in the mountains.

Portage Glacier

Gordo thinking glacial thoughts.

Is this where Glacier Freeze Gatorade comes from?

Glacier hunters

The trip to Portage was a very welcomed departure from the normal race and rest routine and a great chance to explore the area outside of Anchorage.  Today, it’s back to watching March Madness, keeping the feet elevated, and resting up for tomorrow.  One race left to go in the 2013/1014 season!

–  Alex