Alaska: A Written Account of Alaskan Winters
While Chicago gets about 38 inches of snow in an average winter, in the southern Alaska mountains, that much snow can fall in a day. Tom Skilling shares his written account of winters in Alaska, where winters truly are winters.
Tom Skilling, Reporter
February 10, 2004
This is Alaska most of us in the lower 48 envision. Barbarically cold, massive amounts of snow and long, dark days. There's no doubt that in Alaska winters are really winters.
Alaska is a snow lover's winter paradise. While we get about 38 inches of snow in Chicago in an average winter, up here in the southern Alaska mountains, that much can fall in a day.
In Alaska, snow is something to sing about.
Chris Von Imhof is an Austrian native who knows snow.
"This month of December, we had alone 245 inches of snow falling in just one month," says Von Imhof, CEO of Alyeska Resort.
AS CEO of the Alyeska Prince Resort in Girdwood, east of Anchorage, Von Imhof relishes snow. But managing it in this climate takes creativity.
On the slopes, ropes won't cut it. They need fire power.
"The difference that we have that a lot of ski areas don't is we have the avalance problem," says Larry Daniels, Alyeska Resort general manager.
"Here at the ski area, we record anywhere between 500 and 1,000 slides per season," says Jim Kennedy, snow safety director at Alyeska.
Part of the reason the snow can become unstable is the coastal climate of southern Alaska.
"In the winter season, it's such beautiful scenery, climate. It's milder than a lot of people think because it's right along the coastline," says Von Imhof.
"It's not as bad as people think it is," says Eric Muller.
Muller is a former WGN intern, now stationed as a forecaster at Elmendorf Air Force in Anchorage.
He's part of a team issuing forecasts for the military. So how does someone who has lived in Illinois deal with the early winter darkness?
"I offset it with the beauty of the Northern Lights at night," Muller says.
It's 2:30pm in the afternoon here and yet look how low the sun is on the horizon. That's one of the reasons why the days are so short here and also that low sun angle doesn't provide much energy. It allows it to stay cold.
"I like being smacked in the face by the feeling of cold. It somehow makes me feel alive," says Tom MacPhail, a meteorologist.
MacPhail is a former television weatherman now working for the National Weather Service in Anchorage.
"When I listen to people from let's say Chicago or New York and a storm is coming in and they're growling and they're mad and it's ruining their plans and I say what is wrong with these people?," MacPhail says.
Because of it's enormous size, about one fifth the land mass of the lower 48, there are many Alaska climates.
And you won't see this in Chicago. It's hoar frost, ice crystals that stick to trees and glisten like they've been dipped in glitter. And of course this is the land of glaciers, some 29,000 square miles in all.
Here dogs are needed in winter to navigate the terrain. Caribou run free and moose aren't afraid to mingle with residents. And for some transplanted Midwesterners we met, Alaska is now home.
"From living in Chicago and living up here, I've noticed that Chicago winters can be just as bad if not worse because of the wind chill factor and driving conditions," says Nicole Huck, a Chicago native.
"I can remember the Midwest winters being higher in humidity, therefore a damper, cold, bites through the bones chills you all the way through. We have the beautiful mountains and the ocean. It really calls you to go outdoors," says Pamela Anderson, a Milwaukee transplant.
For more information go to www.alaskathisyear.com
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