Trip Report Contest & 10K hits!

First off, a big thank you goes out to all my readers for 7,500 page views in the last 5 1/2 months!
Watching the pageview-ometer keep rolling over by the thousands has been a huge motivator to keep quality content flowing, plus it's fun to see it climb. At 10,000 and counting, I have a lot of work to do to continually improve the website and keep interesting reports, reviews, and thoughts coming.

Second, I took third place in Bedrock & Paradox's Trip Report Contest for my Coal, Wood, Glitter trip report!
A second thank you goes to DaveC for putting on the contest and donating some really cool gear to all five finalists.

Third, stop back again soon, sign up to follow by e-mail (on the right), or just check out the links to all the other cool blogs I follow.
Whatever your interest, I think there's something here, or linked through here, for everyone interested in outdoor travel & camping.

In the meantime, I'll be up to things like this...

Keeping the stoke alive on the Matanuska Glacier, camera in hand & ice tools on the pack

Multi-Sport, Multi-Style.

Normally, my basepack weight of gear for hiking is 12 lbs (everything, including what I wear in clothes, except food & fuel).
In Alaska, that's really light. If I'm packrafting, tack on another 7 or 8. But, apparently, if I'm riding a fatbike into a cabin beside a glacier in Wrangell-St Elias National Park for 4 days, my basepack weight is 43 lbs, not including the 30 lb bike. When there's 43 lbs on a 30 lb bike, I have to man-handle it all to even keep it upright. But, that also means once I have it moving, it wants to keep moving!

The 43 lbs of fun & comfort includes:
-18 lbs in stuff to be comfortable at a backcountry cabin in huge mountains for 3 days & nights
-20 in all the gear needed to go ice climbing on the face of the Kuskulana Glacier for a day
-stuff for biking it all in & out a total of 30 miles
-photographing the whole experience with my heavy DSLR
-and enjoying a little top-shelf Irish whiskey beside a campfire or wood stove
but I guess that last part falls under being 'comfortable at a backcountry cabin.'
Maybe, too, the 12 lbs of food for my dog & I.

It's quite the change of pace from my recent adventures in the Alaska Range & White Mountains, as this trip should have lots of relaxing, wood stove heat, campfires, big mountain & glacier views, old mining ruins, bears, glacial ice climbing (testing out new tools!), changing fall colors, and frost, plus one of my dogs is coming and, of course, the always present quality time with friends.
I'm looking forward to the change of pace & style of adventure. I think it goes well with the rapidly changing season.
Winter is almost here!

Long Overdue: Jan-Oct 2010

Too many photos to post here, so I put them on an online gallery.

Click here to see photos from adventures I've had so far in 2010.
It's been a fun time, as you'll see.

Photoshop in Real Life

This photo was taken in color at the terminus of the Gulkana Glacier and has not been altered in any way.
Dull, glacial silt covers everything, including the vertical wall of solid ice on the left, making my backpack
and jacket pop against the dreary moonscape.