Skiing our ashes off

Posted by Alaskology

Posted: March 30, 2009 - 1:06 pm

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Gina wrote a small message in the ash/snow.

Everybody has a volcanic ash story from this weekend. Here's mine:

Gina and I headed to the cross-country trails about 4 p.m. Saturday (about 30 minutes after Mount Redoubt had a huge eruption with ash and such). We spent a few minutes on the multiuse trail with Beezil, the sun was shining, the snow was fresh and it felt really good.

We got back to the parking lot, put the dog in the car and were ready to head off on a nice loop ourselves. As we're heading out, we spot Scott McMurren, former travel columnist for the Daily News and all-around Alaska travel expert. Scott says: "Hey, getting in one last ski before the ash falls. It's in Nikiski right now."

I say: "Interesting." And off we go, not thinking too much about volcanos, ash and the like. At this point, I still don't know that Redoubt has really erupted and ash really is headed for Anchorage.

About 30 minutes later, Gina and I split up. She heads up Spencer Loop, and I continue down the Gasline Trail. (Spencer Loop is a crazy hilly trail and Gasline is fabulously flat. See, I'm still learning the finer points of skate skiing, especially the climbing hills part, and I had no interest in tackling any part of Spencer on Saturday.)

I get to the end of the trail and meet a woman with her dog. She says to me (and every other person she came across on the trail): "My son just called on the cell. Redoubt erupted, ash is on its way here. We need to get back to our cars."

The fine ash collected on just about anything outside, including our cars.

And sure enough, as I turned around the sky to the south was slowly being engulfed by a gray cloud. I'm thinking, "Weird cloud." Then the light goes on -- that's ash

A few minutes later, Gina and I meet up. We can smell the sulfur in the air, we have grit on our faces and in our teeth, and the snow is turning a little bit gray. We headed for the car on the shortest route we could find. It's been a pretty good ski already, and now we're trying to pick up the pace.

By the time we got to the parking lot, there were only three cars left. And ours was covered in ash.

At home, we found more ash. It's very fine and not exactly a threat to life or limb, but it was strange to go from a beautiful blue-sky, white-ground day to a dismal gray. And for such a fine coating, it seemed to get everywhere. Every time we let the animals outside, we had to wipe their feet off when they came back in. The ash and melting snow turns into a mudlike paste. It's a lot like what you'll find in the mud flats along Turnagain Arm.

Beezil on the ski trails before the ash cloud rolled through on Saturday afternoon.

Last night, we received 4 or 5 inches of fresh snow. So the ash is currently buried and the beauty of late winter/early spring has returned. For how long, only Redoubt knows.

-- Steve

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