More Skiing with the Kids

We have been busy! I went skiing almost every day last week.  The kids love taking turns ski jouring with Jack.

Sam took some of this video while following us on the snow machine and I took some of it while skiing alongside the kids.

Skiing with the Kids

Arctic Village Ski Team

Conditions have been fantastic to get out and ski in Arctic this fall.  I dug out a bunch of skis, found boots that fit the bindings on the skis and now we are ready to go.

 And they're off! The kids ski without poles because we don't have any, but actually it has really helped them develop great balance. They all remembered what they learned last year and our first two days out went really well.

As we get spread out, I look around to see how everyone is doing.

I am trying to explain to the kids that we need to spread out so that we can herringbone up the hill.  

We were all sliding backwards as a group!

On the road the snow is packed by snow machines, but as soon as you get off the road you are all on your own!

Jack pulled me with two kids in tow!  

We rigged up another harness so that Caesar could pull too. 

He did pretty well as long as he had Jack to chase.

More to follow......

First Ski of the Year, Seeing Caribou!

Saturday it was a crisp, clear afternoon and the sun was shining on the freshly fallen snow, so we got out our skis and went for our first ski in Arctic Village. There is not a lot of snow yet, but there is enough of a ground cover to ski. We skied the roads through the village from our house out to the airport.

As we approached the airport, someone driving down the road on a 4-wheeler briefly slowed down and shouted, "hundreds of Caribou at the airport." When we got to the airport, this is what we saw...

Across the runway hundreds of caribou were running, walking and stopping to graze. We spent over two hours just watching the caribou. They kept coming and coming! We literally saw hundreds of them come up from the river and cross the runway.