Severin's Expeditions

Ice breaker, penguins, and a seal

2008-01-17T23:58:00.000-08:00

We now have contact with the outside world other than just by plane. The first ship of the season has made it in to port. It is a Sweedish icebreaker, The Oden. It broke the channel out of the ice, so that other vessels can make it into the station. It took quite awhile for the icebreaker to make it through the ice. It had to break its way through the ice for about 30 miles. The icebreaker uses weight to break the ice and not momentum or force. It rides itself up onto the ice, and then it pumps water up to the front of the boat, and the weight pushes down on the ice until it gives way. The boat then backs up a ways, runs up on the ice again, and repeats this over and over and over again. The ice that it broke through is seasonal ice. The seasonal ice doesn't melt away like ice on a lake does. Rather, what happens, is the ice will break apart and will flow out into the open water of the ocean where it will then melt. Depending on the season more or less ice will break out. The last few years the ice has not been breaking out very well, and this is due to very large icebergs clogging up the channel. The Oden has arrived in port and is back out in the ice trying to get the channels as clear as possible before the other ships arrive. There are three more ships yet to arrive. One is the Nathanael B. Palmer a research vessel, a container resupply ship, and a fuel tanker. All of them will come into port over the next two weeks, but one at a time.

Breaking through the ice

The Oden coming in to port...a seal in the bottom right corner.

Some penguins came over to say hi, while we watched the Oden at work.

A seal. You can see his track in the snow going between the two different holes.

The unending daylight...

2008-01-17T23:54:00.000-08:00

It may sound fun at first to some of you who are currently in the dark days of winter on the northern hemisphere. However, living in constant daylight takes its toll on you. I'm finding that it feels like time is never ending. No matter when you wake up or go to sleep it is always the same. The only break we get from the continual sunlight is when a storm blows in. I'm definitely looking forward to the natural rhythms of night and day, to darkness, and the moon, and stars....but for now, I guess that I'll just keep working on the tan.

PS -this photo was taken at midnight.

Bowling?

2008-01-16T03:35:00.001-08:00

Yes, that's right, there is a bowling alley in Antarctica. Cosmic bowling at that.

How random?

Ringing in the New Year

2008-01-16T03:28:00.000-08:00

For New Years a group of my fellow DA's hiked to the top of Ob Hill, and we rang it in. It was a great time. It had been snowing for the previous two days, and it was quite beautiful.

Happy 2008...I think it is going to be a pretty great year!

Snowboarding...Antarctica

2008-01-05T23:01:00.000-08:00

A day off, fresh powder, a good friend, why not go snowboarding?

On our day off last week my friend Carl and I headed out to go snowboarding. They have a few snowboards here that you can check out. It was a great day. It had been snowing for the previous two days so there was fresh powder awaiting us. We hopped on "Ivan the Terra Bus" the really big bus and rode it out to the ice. From there we hiked over to the 'ski hill.' It is just a small hill, but lots of fun. The Kiwi base has a tow rope there, and we were fortunate enough to be able to use it with them. We helped them dig things out in exchange for a few rides up the hill on it! Good times! Not only that, but we also got a ride back in a pisten bully. The green vehicle you see below.

Snowboarding!

Our shuttle 'Ivan the Terra Bus'...check out the tread depth on those beauties.

Carl in the Pisten Bully

Hiking back at the end of another epic day on "the ice."

Christmas Eve

2008-01-05T22:58:00.000-08:00

These are pictures of our chapel, where we held our Christmas Eve service.
Good News, the long awaited one has arrived!!

Polar Plunge

2008-01-05T22:57:00.000-08:00

Another little 'expedition'... Myself and a few friends hiked out to this little tent on the sea ice, where there is a hole drilled through the ice. The ice is around 14 feet thick here. They use this hole to lower very scientific instruments down into the sea to do research and what now. Well, we figured that we were scientific instruments as well, and we lowered ourselves into the sea. I have now swam in the antarctic 'ocean' as well. I say 'ocean' as there is controversy from time to time as to whether it is an ocean down here, or if it simply the southern part of the others. I vote that it is simply the southern part of the other oceans, and refer to what I swam in as the Ross Sea.

Pressure Ridge

2008-01-05T22:39:00.000-08:00

McMurdo Station, where I am, is situated on the edge of the Ross Ice Shelf. The Ice Shelf is basically an enormous tidewater glacier. By enormous I mean larger than France. Well, a glacier is basically a very slow moving river. Even though they move very slowly, they are still very dynamic and are constantly changing. At the edge of this huge 'ice shelf' the permanent ice meets up with what is softer, 'seasonal' ice, that is essentially just thick ice over the ocean water (5-30 ft. thick). When these two different types of ice meet up, there is tension and pushing, and pressure ridges are formed. These are some photos from a little hike we got to go on, through them the other day.

PS - These pictures were taken between 12 - 2 am!

These green buildings are our neighbors. This is Scott Base, the New Zealand / Kiwi base.

Ob Hill-birthday run

2008-01-05T22:35:00.001-08:00

My good friend Carl had a birthday today. What better way to celebrate a birthday than to strip down to your scivies, and run up Ob Hill with five friends. On our way up the hill, which is situated overlooking town, a few firefighters heard us whooping and hollering as we took off out of town. They looked out the window and saw us running up the hill, and they kindly drove the nice heated ambulance over to the base of the hill, just in case we got a little colder up top than we had expected. None of needed the ambulance, but we all did retire straight to the sauna once we got down.

Today Show

2008-01-05T22:26:00.000-08:00

Anne Curry and the Today Show came down here to Antarctica. They did a few live broadcasts. If any of you saw the broadcast you may have seen the shots of the band. I was there, although I've not spoken to anyone who saw me. Here is a still shot from where the camera man was. I am in the back left. You can't really see me, but you can see my sign which says, "Severin says HI."

It did seem a little surreal staying up all night long, trying to get on TV, as 6 am in New York is midnight here, but all in all it was pretty fun.

Penguin Ranch

2008-01-05T22:16:00.001-08:00

One of the hard things about working here in Antarctica is that while I am in this incredible place of adventure I spend well over 90 percent of my time inside. The vast majority of this time is spent either sleeping or washing dishes. But occasionally we do get to leave the galley and to 'experience' a bit of Antarctica. On this particular day I got to join a guy and head out to the 'Penguin Ranch' in order to help begin to take it apart.

At the penguin ranch, what they do is they get a handful of penguins from the area, emperor penguins. Then they find a big patch of ice with no holes or cracks in it. Then they drill two holes through the ice down into the sea water. They then put up fences around the holes / a corral, and the penguins are now free to come and go out of the holes as they please, but due to the fact that there are no other holes within a reasonable distance, they thus return to the 'ranch.' There is a group of scientists who study the penguins here. They study all sorts of things from the length and depth of their dives, to their food consumption, to water temps, and so on. It is really pretty interesting.

However, once I got there the 'corral' had been taken down, and the penguins had hit the road to freedom. In the second picture you can see a big ol' Caterpillar. We rode out to the ranch in this tractor on the sea ice. Once there, Tom the driver, spent the day bulldozing snow away from the buildings getting them ready to be removed back to the station. I helped out by shoveling snow away from the buildings so that he could bulldoze. But I also got to just hang out.

In the first picture you may be able to see a small green tube sticking up out of the snow. This is the 'ob tube' (observation tube). There is a hole drilled down through the ice, and then the ob tube is lowered down this hole. One can then climb down this tube, and sit underneath the ice and watch the world below the ice, as there are windows at the bottom giving one a 360 degree view. It was pretty neat. It was hard to realize that I was actually under the sea ice in Antarctica and not at a zoo somewhere.

It was pretty slow paced down in the Ob Tube. As I said all the penguins were gone. But you can see the seal I got to see. When we first got there he was hauled out on the ice, and just hanging out, and then in the afternoon, he decided that it was time to get in and go for a swim. I thought of joining him, but figured I would postpone my swim. It was rather surreal watching this seal float/swim in this weightless environment, as on land they are just big slugs. Looking at the ice holes from below looked like one was looking up into 'portals' in the sky.

Sometimes they have to transport the penguins from far away, and when they have to do this they capture them, and put them in boxes like this one. The 'penguin packer.'

Looking down the Ob Tube.

Ice Runway

2008-01-05T22:08:00.000-08:00

McMurdo Station and the depth and extent of scientific research in Antarctica, is made possible by the use of airplane. There are two different airplanes which service McMurdo. These planes are flown down here and operated by the Air National Guard of New York. They are C-17's, and ski equipped C-130 Hercules. The C-17's simply fly back and forth between the station and Christchurch. They fly all personnel down, as well as lots of lots of supplies and equipment...including but not limited to mail and fresh fruits and veggies. Whereas the C-130's mainly fly between McMurdo and the South Pole Station as well as to various 'field camps.'

Both planes used to land at the Ice Runway just outside of town. You can see the Ice Runway in an early picture from the top of Ob Hill. However, in early December the ice began becoming unstable, as it does every year around that time, and the runway was then moved further away from town to more stable ice. The different planes now use two different runways.

In oder to keep the runways open and the plains in the air, there is a large crew that works at the runways. Well, it just so happens that they like to eat as well, and so what we do is we load up a truck with food from the main galley, and we drive it down to the runway galley where we serve the various workers down there.

It is a pretty good gig. I enjoy the chance to get out of the main galley for awhile, and to get to ride around in a pick up truck. It generally takes about 40-50 minutes to get to the ice runway, now that it has been moved further away from the station.

One really fun part for me, was that I had the opportunity to do some 4X4'ing (aka mudbogging in the snow) once or twice. When we have warm days, above freezing, the snow at the transition gets really sloppy and slushy. The transition is where the road leaves the land and transitions onto the sea ice. It was a good time. All I was missing was a dog and a shotgun.

The two big vehicles on tracks that you see are Fire vehicles. The Truck with the big whit box on the back of it, is what we drive back and forth between town and the runway. The little orange building we are backed up to is the runway galley.

Thanksgiving

2007-12-30T23:00:00.000-08:00

We got to celebrate Turkey Day down here as well. It was a really pretty fun day. Many volunteers came in to help out in various ways, and it made it feel like a fun family atmosphere. We had three seatings throughout the day. It was a great big ol' meal with all the fixin's. The only thing missing was the fact that I was not able to curl up on a couch and nap after the meal. I headed back into the kitchen after we had our meal in order to help continue to serve the other meals.

Me along with all of my fellow DA's (aka: blue shirts).

Don't tell anyone, but I actually got two dinners. In the above photo is my first meal. It was our 'family' dinner with just the galley staff. We ate that meal in the middle of the day. I got off a bit early, in time for the evening sitting, and so myself and a few friends, below, went and had a second round of Thanksgiving Dinner, but this time we dressed up a bit.

Cape Evans

2007-12-30T22:50:00.001-08:00

At the beginning of the 20th century, one of the craziest attempts and races of mankind began. The epic race to reach the geographical south pole. One of the early explorers/adventurers who attempted this feat was a British explorer named Robert Falcon Scott. His party brought there boats right on into McMurdo Sound here, and they set up camp, and built themselves a winter hut, just a few miles north of McMurdo. This hut was built in 1911. Scott's party failed to reach the south pole. They turned around and attempted to make it back to this hut when they were within 100 miles of the pole. They had to turn around due to a shortage of food. Scott ended up losing his life on his return trip along with all of those with him. The hut was left and due to the cold down here, it is almost 'perfectly' preserved. Things down here do not deteriorate or decompose since there are little to no bacteria to break things down.

It was about an hour drive to get out to the hut. Only about 7 miles, but we can't travel too fast. We rode in the large vehicle you see below called a Delta.

On this trip I also got to see my first penguin. It was an Adelie penguin. They are smaller than the more well known emperors. It was pretty interesting. We got out of the delta to observe a seal that was hauled out on the ice. The penguin was about 1/4 mile off in the distance. We could just barely see him standing out against the horizon. He began coming towards us, and just kept coming. They are very curious little creatures. They have no natural predators on land, so they are rather bold and inquisitive.

We also had a really good view of Mt. Erebus this day. Erebus is our local active volcano. It is at the center of our island, Ross Island. It is 12,451 feet high, and its base is at sea level. Rather impressive. Although the landscape down here is so big, it doesn't appear to be that tall at all. Yes, it is active. In fact Erebus is one of only three volcanoes in the world that has an open lava lake that is observable from the rim. Much research is done here on Erebus because of this. The other two volcanoes with such phenomenon are located in the Congo in central Africa, but due to political unrest it is more difficult to support such scientific research there than it is down here, despite the frigid temperatures here.

Scott's Hut with Mt. Erebus in the background.

I'm not exactly sure what this is, but I know that it is old...hence it deserves a lick!

Castle Rock

2007-12-30T22:42:00.001-08:00

It is always good to get outside and to enjoy some of the magnificent scenery down here. This hike was one of my first hiking trips down here. We have a few different 'trails' down here that we can hike on, and get out of town. This trail is the Castle Rock Loop trail. It is about a 7 mile loop. Castle Rock is the formation that you can see to the right in the first picture with Mt. Erebus in the center. The second picture is a close up shot of Castle Rock. We climbed up the backside of this, and had a great view all around.

It was a chilly day, somewhere below zero with windchill.

Man moments....what better way to show your manliness than to take off your shirt in frigid Antarctic weather...I mean really...

My co-worker and friend Luigi. You can see that it was a rather chilly afternoon.

Last sunset for awhile

2007-12-30T22:37:00.001-08:00

Well, I am here. The landscape is surreal and overwhelming. Soon the sun will stop 'setting' although it doesn't really 'set' right now, but still a little bit. I climbed up to the top of Observation Hill (Ob Hill), with some friends. They all took some pics and headed back. I however, had put on all of my clothes, and I hunkered down on top of Ob hill for about 2 hours to enjoy the sunset. I listened to some Kenny, drank some cold ones (really cold ones), and enjoyed the colors. The sun is now up for the rest of the season. It will not 'set' again until February 20th.

My new home...McMurdo Station. Population, about 1,000.

Mt. Erebus and Castle Rock

Looking out the dorm window at 2 am.

Home sweet home?

2007-12-30T22:29:00.000-08:00

Well, here I am at my new home for the next 4 1/2 months. I will be here until mid February or so. It is still hard to believe that I am actually here. It is still a bit surreal. Here a just a few pictures from around town.

My first view of town from the Ice Runway.

Town again, Ob Hill in the background.

Antarctic Motorcoach...

Sea Ice

The arrival

2007-12-30T22:22:00.000-08:00

It has been a month of great travels. Just over one month ago I was camping on the shores of the Arctic Ocean, 69 degrees north of the equator. I am now here in the Antarctic 77 degrees south of the equator.

Here is a quick break down:

Tuk to Inuvik: 150 miles by plane
Inuvik to Skagway: 870 miles by car
Skagway to Vancouver, BC via the Cassiar Highway: 1,575 miles by car
Vancouver, BC to Beulah, ND (home): 1,350 miles by car
{side trip to see the nieces and nephews: Beulah to Pierre, SD: 570 miles by car}
Beulah to Minneapolis: 500 miles by motorhome
Minneapolis to Dallas: 854 air miles
Dallas to Denver: 650 air miles
Denver to LA: 845 air miles
LA to Auckland, NZ: 6,522 air miles
Auckland, NZ to Christchurch, NZ: 464 air miles
Christchurch, NZ to McMurdo Station: 2,250 air miles

Total land miles: 4,865
Total air miles: 11,735
Total miles: 16,600

I think that one of my fondest memories of this experience will be the thrill of feeling the C-17 touch down on 'the ice.' It was unbelievable to think that I had just touched down on Antarctica. Well, I am here now and settling in. I will be here for awhile. I'm looking forward to the friends and I will meet and the adventures I will have along the way.

Offloading the plane. It is a C-17. Its a big plane.

Inside the plane...you can see it is mainly a cargo plane...cargo netting!

My first view of Antarctica from a small window of the plane.

The ice runway just outside of McMurdo Station where we touched down.

Road trip back to ND

2007-12-30T22:17:00.000-08:00

Well, summer has now come to an end and it is time for me to get ready to head south for the winter. Before heading south, I needed to head east, in order to stop by home and see family and friends. It was a really fun road trip. I drove a northern route passing through three national parks: North Cascades in Washington, Glacier in Montana, and Theodore Roosevelt in North Dakota. It was a good trip...with many hours in the saddle.

That's a big bear...

2007-12-30T22:05:00.000-08:00

My first summer in Alaska came and went without a grizzly sighting. A little disappointing. Well, this summer was a bit different. I had multiple grizzly sightings this summer, with a final sighting that was unforgettable. Myself and two friends Shandra and Russell, headed out to Dyea, the next valley over from Skagway. We had gotten a tip from some friends that some grizzlies were out there. We were really hoping that they would still be there by the time we got there. As we pulled up to the river bank we got to see a mom and two young cubs wandering through the river fishing for salmon. It was quite a sight. But they continued on down the river, and quickly left our sight. That would have been good enough, but then it got even better. We went a bit further upstream, and we were able to see a lone male fishing by himself. He was about 100 yards upstream. We got out of the car and hopped on top for a better view. Well, as the grizzly continued to fish he was working his way downstream right toward us. Next thing we know the grizzly was chasing a fish in the stream literally 'at our feet.' We were parked right on the river bank, which was probably a good four feet, and then we were on top of a big 15 passenger van, so we were probably around 15 feet above him, but other than that he was 'at our feet' chasing salmon. He finally caught the salmon and ate it just below us. We could hear bones crunching and everything. It was pretty amazing. All I can say is...Hoo Yip!

Arctic Ocean

2007-12-29T00:48:00.000-08:00

What is summer without an epic road trip? Myself and four friends had been planning this trip all summer long. We all got time off work, loaded up the mini-van and headed north... to the Arctic. It was a great trip with great friends. We drove from Skagway up the Klondike Highway to Dawson City, of the Yukon Territory. The home of the 1898 Klondike gold rush. It was great to make it to Dawson City, as that is the whole reason why our little town of Skagway exists. From Dawson City we hopped onto the Dempster Highway. It is a 417 mile gravel road. It crosses over the arctic circle and ends in the city of Inuvik in the Northwest Territories. Along the way there were two rivers to cross, but rather than bridges they have small vehicle ferries. Once in Inuvik you are not yet at the Arctic Ocean. In the winter months you can drive on the frozen rivers, but in the summer you must fly. So we bought some tickets, and flew to the arctic Ocean, to the small native village of Tuktoyaktuk, commonly known as Tuk. We spent about 24 hours in Tuk, just walking around town and hanging out. We built a big bonfire on the beach, and then did our epic polar swim in the arctic ocean. I have it on video, and hopefully I'll be able to upload it soon. After one night on the arctic ocean, we flew back to our waiting steed, and headed back towards Skagway. It was a great road trip with many great memories, and lots of spectacular views.

Looking down the dempster

Crossing the Arctic Circle...

Scenery along the way...Mt. Monolith in Tombstone Territorial Park

The van got a little muddy

We crossed out of the Yukon and entered into the Northwest Territories, a first for all of us.

One of the vehicle ferries

Inuvik...the end of the dempster

Boarding the plane for Tuk

We're here, now what?

First, we staked out a camping spot on the beach, before all of the good spots were taken.

Then we built a bonfire. This was for our epic swim. You can see some of our swimsuits lying about, drying out.

Then some locals showed us how to fish using their nets, so we caught some fish, gutted them with tent stakes, and attempted to cook them over the fire.

The next day we met a friend who gave us a key to the community 'ice house.' It is a small building that has a ladder in it that goes down into the ground. Below Tuk it is permafrost. The ground is completely frozen. The ladder went about thirty feet down into the permafrost where there were three tunnels with little rooms along each tunnel. The rooms were used by various people in the community to store provisions. It was pretty interesting.

Dawson City on the banks of the mighty Yukon River

Dawson City sunset

2007-12-29T00:43:00.000-08:00

Haines

2007-12-29T00:35:00.000-08:00

Haines, the home of the SouthEast Alaska state fair. Haines is Skagway's sister city, just 12 nautical miles down the inlet. However, there is another way to get to Haines from Skagway other than by boat or plane. You can drive. You just have to go a little bit out of the way, say about 350 miles out of the way, but hey, you only live once, why not. Myself, Shandra, Jerry Lynn, and Aimee all loaded up into the mini-van and headed out for Haines by road. Other friends came over by ferry and joined us. The first three girls headed back to Skagway by ferry, and a new crew loaded up into the mini-van for the ride 'home', Andy, Jason, Lara, and Nicole. On the way home we stopped and did some rafting on the mighty Tatshenshini River. Really, why not?

The trusty and multi-purpose mini-van.

A view on the way.

Tatshenshini-Alsek Provinicial park

Me, Aimee, and Shandra

The Haines road

Tent city

Haines, Alaska....wow!

Rafting the Tatshenshini....We had a bit of fun!

Shots from the summer...

2007-12-29T00:06:00.000-08:00

These are just a few various shots from the summer in Skagway. It is a good time in one of the most amazing places I've ever been, with some really great friends. What can I say, SouthEast Alaska has won my heart. Yes, I will be heading back to Skagway this upcoming summer of '08 for my third summer.

Some days it does get a little foggy

But days like these totally make up for it.

One of our lovely GMC busses. They are the workhorses of the fleet.

Can anyone say whale pool?

An 'epic' day in Skagway

A shot in the Yukon...

Karate kid in Dyea...

Getting a little help washing the bus from the fire department.

I love my bus friends...

Cruising the Inside Passage...

White Pass and Yukon Route railroad. Built with the gold rush in 1898, and still running today.

This is just one of the spectacular views that I get to see each day. These are the sawtooth peaks seen from the top of the white pass. Amazing!

Skagway...you can see it is tucked in here in a very tight, narrow, glacial valley. It is at the end of the Lynn Canal, North America's longest and deepest fjord.

Atlin, BC

2007-12-26T23:25:00.000-08:00

Another little weekend trip this summer involved a little music festival in Atlin, British Columbia. Atlin is a small little town in the mountains. It was a fun weekend, with great friends.

We greatly enjoyed the beauty of this little town, especially the sunsets and the moon. Skagway is tucked in a very deep, narrow valley, and thus we don't typically get good sunsets, and only on occasion do we get a view of the moon. And with a sunset like this, who could complain!

Glacier Bay

2007-12-26T23:01:00.000-08:00

Yet another epic adventure of the summer. Glacier Bay National Park, located just southwest of Skagway on the edge of the Inside Passage. I had been planning this trip all winter long. It sort of all came together last second, and turned out incredible. I was accompanied on this adventure with two good friends, Nate Dodson and Paul Ranheim. We spent the first three days kayaking and camping out in the Beardslee Islands at the entrance to the park. We saw all sorts of animals; moose, black bears, whales, seals, foxes, and tons of eagles. On our fourth day we had made it back to the park headquarters and we got on a day tour boat that takes you right up to the tidewater glaciers in the park. It was incredible.

An aerial shot of the Beardslees

Paul and I

Nate and I

On the tour boat at the tidewater marjorie glacier.

Chilkoot Trail

2007-12-24T21:18:00.000-08:00

The last two summers I have lived and worked and played in Skagway, Alaska. Skagway is famous for the 1898 Klondike Gold rush. The miners came to Skagway, and through Skagway they accessed the interior where the gold was located. However, the trek was very difficult to get up and over these magnificent coastal mountains. The famous trail that these miners hiked is known as the Chilkoot trail. My first summer I got to hike the trail, but I didn't have much time. I did it simply in one day, with two other friends. We cheated a bit as we started at the top and hiked down the trail, so that we did not have to hike up the trail. It was still a long day covering roughly 37 miles in 14 hours. As soon as I left Skagway at the end of my first summer, my friend Andy and I began to plan our trek for the Chilkoot in the early spring, in the snow, just like the stampeders of 1898. We dreamed of it all winter long. It was myself, Andy, and his younger brother Jon. We set out on May 1st. It took us three days of 12 solid hours of hiking each day. The first day, the only way we were able to stay on the trail was by following bear tracks. On the second day we climbed over the pass. It was literally a perfect day. Not a cloud in the sky, it was unbelievable. Once we got over the pass we could hike anywhere we wanted to as all of the rocks and boulders were covered with snow, and all of the lakes were frozen over. And on the third day we hiked out. It was an amazing journey of epic proportions!

Soaking in the beauty of Alaska!

Climbing the 'golden staircase'

Mountain Man

What can I say...really?

Oh yeah, I broke through the ice on one of the lakes. I was able to jump off it as it gave way beneath me, but a small adrenaline rush...

Don't forget sunscreen...we did. These are our mountain beards. Andy's is 6 months. Jon and I are a mere month.

Where to Start? - Summer '07

2007-12-24T19:37:00.000-08:00

I've been meaning to sit down and get some pictures and stories posted for sometime now. But I feel like one of the hardest parts is knowing where to start. I've got so many great stories and pictures that I desire to share with all of you. So I guess I just need to get going. Allow me to begin with just a few of the many highights of the Summer of '07 in Skagway, AK. The summer began with an epic roadtrip from Vancouver, BC to Skagway, AK, up the famous Alaska-Canadian Highway (Al-Can).

Since it was 'on the way' we decided to swing on over and visit Banff and Jasper National Parks in Alberta, Canada. It was a good stop. This second picture here is of me and my traveling companions, Elliot Ritzema, Jason Bull, and Russell Pinson. All of them go to school with me at Regent College in Vancouver. This picture was taken in front of Lake Louise.

While here I attempted to jump a creek in some 'soft spring' snow. Luckily we got it on video. Enjoy!

And what is a road trip to Alaska without a stop at some hot springs.

After five days on the road we arrived in Skagway, AK, where we would be spending the next five months of the summer.