girls weekend out - cabin-life on fielding lake and sunburn on the gulkana glacier

oh, on the road again. and what a road.
six girls headed out of fairbanks on an early saturday morning, hauling down the richardson highway, looking for adventure.
spring in alaska blows my mind.

the girls in front of the cabin.
absolutely ridicules. we were able to drive all the way up to the cabin, there was a wood stove, which turned out to be perfect for roasting marshmallows, and there even was a plug. probably didn't work, but it was there!

hell, there even was an outhouse. it was covered in snow, but you could place your little cold but cheeks on it and relax your knees, which is highly appreciated and a rare luxury.

normal girls

crazy girls

ridicules girls

we skid around the lake and eat lunch on top of this little lovely plateau. also, we peed after we ate. some of my greatest moments in alaska have been while sitting with my pants down by my knees, everything quiet and white, the enormous and antient mountains towering around me, while me thoughts vanish into thin air - until the freezing cold threatens to bite my but off and I have to pull my pants back up.

sending a thought to my daddy - a patch of snow with a hole in it; a snowhole.

despite the fancy outhouse, we build a little pee corner behind the cabin. to protect our little construction, we made this fellow - the so-called snow-moose-toilet-guard-man.

the sun setting, blasting it's sweet, purple light all over the mountain range

the lonely cabin covered in alaskan dusk

i took a ridicules amount of photos of this scenery. oh, but now the sun has set another inch, and the light has changed a tiny bit, and uh, that cloud wasn't there before. just one more...

...and one more. and then directly back to the cabin and our sleepingbags - which turned out to be absolutely unnecessary since the wood stove had made it so unbelievably hot in the cabin, so that i (even without longjohns and sleepingbag) was sweating buckets all night through.

the next morning we headed out to the gulkana glacier. due to arctic man a couple of weeks earlier, the mountain sides as well as the path leading up to the glacier were completely covered with snowmobile tracks. at some point we came arcoss this little cute bridge, which in the summer time provides the only access to the glacier. we crossed it, of cause, just because of it's cuteness.

due to the warm weather, the snowpack has become treacherous; soft, deep, and weak. we found ourselves swimming instead of skiing several times. always to the great amusement to those able to stay ontop of the snowpack.

at the base of the glacier we stopped to enjoy the view and get some lunch

lunch-break from heaven

rubbing some more sunscreen (not peanutbutter) on those warm and sunburned faces

skiing out with the sun in our eyes.
it's happening fast now, the melt. this was probably my last real ski. never before have i been so sad that winter was leaving and summer was coming. and sad is what i am.

little gorgeous saya passed out among the backpacks and sleeping pads on our way back home.
what a weekend!