Redoubt finally does its deal

Redoubt finally decided to start erupting. I think it was about a week ago now...man it's been one of the longest weeks of my life. I feel like all I've done is work since that day...which I basically have!

So, first off, no need to be concerned. I'm awaiting the inevitable phone call from my mom when she gets out of the mountains this weekend and gets some cell phone coverage. Funny things... you know...moms. We did have some ashfall in Anchorage yesterday. It smelled like sulfur, and was basically like a dust storm. Lots of crap getting in your eyes, and just enough particulate matter to make you question whether you should really be breathing the crap or not.

Otherwise, no harm no foul. So without further ado, here are some pictures and assorted images related to the volcano. I mean, that's why you're here anyways, right?

This is a satellite image (true color) taken the day after the first round of explosions. You can see the ash deposits along the Susitna Valley and along the Alaska Range. Anchorage is located in the lower center of photograph, on the tip of the little peninsula.

Pyroclastic lightning due to one of the eruptions two nights ago. This photograph was taken from about 50 miles away from the volcano. This is hardcore. I like it.
A picture of the lava dome the day before the explosion. Look at all that snow just waiting to be melted and start a flood
This picture was taken from Homer during one of the explosions. Pretty much every explosion has been obscured by clouds (much to everyone's dismay). Finally, a decent shot of the plume.
Pretty neat image taken from a satellite positioned over Asia. This eruption went up to above 60,000 feet. Pretty cool to see.
Here's another satellite image of one of the eruptions where the ash got wrapped into a low pressure system. I believe this one is from this past Friday.

This is the Drift River Valley, which drains the glacier/snow from the summit of Redoubt. With pretty much every eruption there's a little flash flood in this valley. Fortunately, no one really lives here. Unfortunately, there's an oil refinery at the outlet of the valley that drains into cook inlet. I think something like 60,000 barrels of oil are currently stored there. There are dikes that have thus far protected the refinery from creating an environmental disaster.
This is taken from the north side of Redoubt, in the Crescent River Valley. These mountains are actually snow covered... they're just coated in ash!
And finally...this is what the ash cloud looked like moving over Homer last Friday. Pretty freaky looking.

Before anyone asks.... I have not yet seen Pierce Brosnan. It would be pretty sweet if he did drive by in that Jeep with the tires on fire though.

Updates have been requested

Sorry for falling off the blogging bandwagon once again. Not that things have been uninteresting, though. Let's see...since my last update Mt.Redoubt has pansied out and decided it will likely not erupt anytime soon. We'll see, I guess. Back in January a friend of mine's sister, and her friend, moved out to Anchorage. It's been great having them around. You know...some people who know the value of Bojangles. They've been doing the majority of the picture taking, so I think all of the following pics were taken by them.

So besides heading home for 10 days at the end of February, quite a few activities have taken place. There's been some ice fishing, downhill skiing at Alyeska (Girdwood), a quick trip down to the Kenai, watching the ceremonial start of the Iditarod, and a snowshoeing adventure.

I won't chronicle everything, but it's been nice to be able to have some company and get outdoors more. The daylight situation is pretty fantastic these days. We're up to almost 12 hours of daylight, so things are back to normal I'd say. It doesn't even get completely dark until near 9pm. It's still been kind of chilly, but 30 degrees and sunny here is pretty darn nice!

So here are some pics taken during various activities. I will try my best to get back to blogging more over the next couple of months. Right now I'm just wishing Spring/Summer (whatever you call it here) to come along. Anyone who knows me decently well can easily assume i'm going just about half crazy to be able to start fishing!


Here Holly and I are at the Iditarod ceremonial start enjoying a reindeer dog. No joke, these things were delicious...but I paid dearly in indigestion later!




This was taken back in January on the quick afternoon trip down the Kenai. This is maybe 3 in the afternoon...thankfully the sun situation is pretty awesome right now. I even managed to get a sunburn/windburn the other day after snowshoeing. Thank God for sunlight reflection off the snow. I was told when I was back home that I "wasn't as pale" as everyone had expected. So I've got that going for me, which is nice.




Last, here we have a shot looking down and across Turnagain Arm from the ski resort Alyeska. The conditions were fantastic. I think in the future when summoned for trips to Wintergreen, I will participate solely as moral support. It's tough to think about skiing on fake icy snow again once you can have great powder and untouched groomed trails all day!