Journey to the frozen North

[Music-chan]

And he was never heard from again....

[Brian]

I have landed ... at 3:00 AM local time.  No crashes, and an alarming lack of wolves.

But here it is -- the second biggest city in Alaska!  Fairbanks.  Population:

32,000.

[alethiophile]

I imagine the biggest is Juneau?

[Brian]

Nah, Juneau is much smaller.  No capitol city is the biggest city in its state.

Biggest city is Anchorage.

When we got off the plane, it was a balmy -29 F, though it had risen to a blistering -19 F by the time the sun was at its peak.  Walking around outside, I discovered that facial hair IS a great insulator, but also, it accumulates frost as you breathe.  Interesting!

And if you'd like to see that, check the photo thread. :)

Next stop, hot springs and ice sculpture tour.  More pictures to come!

[Music-chan]

I have a cousin who lives up in Alaska. Not sure what city she's in though.

Try not to murder everyone while you're up there. I don't hate that cousin and it would be nice to see her again someday. ;)

[Brian]

Murder?  You have me confused with Iddy.

[Anastasia]

Those pictures are awesome. Everything Alaska seems so crazily cool.

[Brian]

Last night we went to the Chena hotsprings resort.  Actually, I've never gotten to go to a hotsprings before, though I suspect no other experience will really compare.

Anyway, the idea behind the resort was hot springs, ice sculpture museum, and then viewing the northern lights.

So let's go into the aurora!

We did get to see it, not long before 2:00 AM, which is when it's typically active this time of year.  They rate the likelihood/intensity of the lights on a scale of 0-9 at the geophysical institute: http://www.gi.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast

Last night was a four, with cloudless skies -- about the best we could expect to see.  The rest of the trip will be rated lower and have more clouds -- unless something like a solar flare comes along (and that takes about two days to actually show up in the aurora ... and there are no sunspots to indicate that happening), conditions won't align again for us.

But we saw the aurora!  I don't have any pictures because there wasn't enough light for my crummy camera to pick up -- the shots just looked like blackness.  The aurora itself, I looked at for about a minute, thinking it was just a cloud at night, which is ... about what it actually looked like on the horizon.  It's a glowing volume, like smoke that casts of faint light.  The camera and film shots you've seen of the aurora are almost all going to have been either slow exposure, or otherwise amplify the amount of light coming in.

What I'm saying is, unless the aurora is immensely intense, there's actually very little to see.  I did see it waver like a curtain (and split, and fold back on itself).  We did see jets rising into space.  Most of it was green, but I saw some red, too -- the colors indicate which gasses are being excited.  Red is oxygen, I remember that much.

But on the whole, I'd have been let down if it weren't for the ice sculpture museum and the hot springs.  Other than the Walk of Death (an exposed 20 meter walkway between the changing room and the spring, with large patches of ice and no handrails), that was really fun.  -29F air, 100+ F water.  The sulfur bicarbonate in the water turned the bracelet that was made on my wrist (and doesn't come off) red, which was unexpected, but kind of amusing.  It'll be a pain to restore, but  isn't permanent (baking soda, salt, warm water).

It was amusing feeling the steam freezing into your hair, but being warm in total thanks to the spring water.  Getting out was surprisingly not as freezing as I expected -- I'd do it again!  Except for that walkway, though....

Anyway, tonight is expected to be at a '3' for aurora viewing, but also cloudy.  I'm mostly just enjoying the novelty of being in Alaska.  Once I find something to eat, I'll put up my ice sculpture museum pictures. :)

[Anastasia]

Sounds like you're having a hell of a time. That Chena place sounds awesome.

[Brian]

Here are some random pictures from Chena.

And some pictures of Fairbanks that I found worth taking.

Next I'll probably upload the pictures from the Ice Sculpture Museum, since ice carvings are about the only thing I have left to upload.