An Overdue Update from the Land of the Midnight Sun

I realize I've been been negligent about updating my blog in the past weeks. This bespeaks of the difficulty I've had in spending my spare time in front of the computer screen when it's nice outside rather than the number of stories and experiences I would like to share.

So, what have I been up to in the past 6 weeks? Here are a some stats and pics from several of my summer excursions thus far.

Number of ..
...movies or TV shows I've seen this summer: 0
...concerts I've attended: 1
...bears I've seen on the Hillside ski trails: 2
...days I've been completely caked in mud: 4
...times I've eaten salmon for lunch or dinner: up to 5x/week
...tests I've taken: 5 (4 ski-related tests, 1 GRE Exam)
...personal records I've had in those tests: 5 (Taking a test for the first time can count as a PR too, right?)
...times I went classic skiing on snow: 11
...days I've been thankful to be home in Alaska: Every Day
APU ladies on the run: Holly Brooks, Kate Fitz, Ky Eiben, Kikkan Randall, Katie Ronsse
Ronsse and Randall ready to ascend Hatcher Pass road and put our sprint skills to use if need be.
Family bonding time-- Ronsse style.
Steffi the expert razor clam shoveler. Ronski struggling to catch those speedy clams but enjoying the mud in the process.Ein mehr scenery photo from Miss Wunderle, my wunderbar Deutsch buddy...
The view outside the tent at 11pm-- don't put away the sunglasses just yet! The weather in AK this summer has been phenomenally nice.

But there have also been a few days where the only glasses needed were ones to keep out the rain and snow. This occurred on the volcanic-ash covered glacier in the fog, which often looked something like this:
Even if each day wasn't a blue-bird day, I felt like I made considerable progress toward my technical and goals in each training session. You can find out more about the training camp on Becca Rorabaugh and Kikkan Randall's blogs. Erika Klaar, Becca Rorabaugh, and Peter Kling lookin' good even in their grungy gear. We should be back to living in our aerie on the mountain-top for another week of on-snow training next week. We will leave Sunday if the acrid smoke outside from forest fires decides to clear so we can train hard without threatening the health of our lungs. More to come!