Cold under light clouds, surprises from our local helicopter flight seeing business

The clear skies last night opened up the ceiling to release the warmth of the earth and drop in cold air. It is 17° in Girdwood this morning at the T. As you can see, the clouds have returned, yet the cold air still sits with us. In the streetlights, the frost on top of the snow sparkled until the flat white light replaced the sharp light. 

Yesterday I mentioned I had seen some birds taking up freshly spread gravel on the road. After much research, I am pretty sure the larger grey bird was an American Dipper. I had seen this bird before and ID’d it as such. But without a photo, I am still not 100 percent sure. I’ll be going back to see if I can set up a tripod and catch it for sure.  Here is my view of Max's Mountain today.

Glacier City is home to all kinds of interesting goings-on. Yoga with Erin at the Four Valleys Community school is a quality class. For a good core work out, I highly recommend it. It is obvious Erin has had professional training. If relaxing yoga is your preference, there are several other instructors through Four Valleys, check their classes page. 

Even more exciting things happen at our local heli-flight seeing and back country skiing businesses. Alpine Air Alaska is the utmost in professional helicopter services including maintenance. Last fall they provided flight services for some Coors Light commercials. Well Coors is back this winter and Alpine Air is one of the service providers. I was not asked to sign any confidentiality agreements, so I hope everyone is ok reading this. They are not the only service provider but they are the locals with great respect in the community of Girdwood. Visit their website to see some clips of the filmed commercials. Support Alpine Air by recommending them to your friends and family when they visit Alaska. Alpine Air donates a good deal of support to the community in Glacier Valley. They have donated a time to the development of the Girdwood Nordic Ski loop, to repairs and work on the hand tram over Winner Creek, and to local remote weather stations on high peaks. Get a group of your friends together for a heli-glacier landing. There are so many glaciers so close to us and a helicopter trip gets you to them quick and easy. There is nothing like seeing the beautiful Alaskan landscape from a helicopter. 

Look, these glaciers are just a 20 minute hop over the mountains, actually through Winner Creek valley, and they are gorgeous. Yes, we can see 5 or 7 glaciers from Girdwood depending where you are, but you can actually hop over and walk on them! Above is the toe of Knik Glacier, head of the Knik river. Below is approaching Colony Glacier, and last is standing on Colony. Wow, just right over there!