end-of-year review: politics

this was an exciting year for me, i enjoyed it in so many different ways. from a political perspective, obama's election was my "event" of the year. 

solstice

on the shortest day of the year, the sun did not come out for very long. this is the museum of the north around 1pm.

it's lars again

lindsey says: "Rudy giving his tour. I'm sure he's telling a joke right about now. Ah, the good ol' days." (thanks for the pics, lindsey)

whittier

whittier is a special place. i could not imagine living there -  in fact only 180 people can. it is a small town created by the army to have an access harbor for its soldiers coming to alaska in world war II. today, it is popular for cruise ships. if you don´t come to whittier by ship, you have to drive through the longest tunnel in north america. it costs 12 bucks, and for european standards the tunnel is very short, a little bit more than 2 miles. that´s as long as the felbertauerntunnel back home! 

valdez

the first stop was valdez, that's where the pipeline ends. valdez is well known for the exxon valdez oil spill in 1989, and it also called the "switzerland" of alaska. it´s quite a long drive down there, so i needed to treat my back a bit.

Going South

Isabel and I rented a car to explore Alaska a bit. During my first year here I haven't really seen anything beyond Fairbanks, so it was time to see what the Last Frontier had to offer...

on the ridge

hiking the kesugi ridge was a success. we left the parking lot in denali state park friday at noon, and finished our adventure on sunday at the same time. in 48 hours we hiked 43km (28 miles) on difficult terrain. also, it was quite rainy - but we had cake! the trip was guided by max and bryce from uaf outdoor adventures. they wanted to scout the ridge for future trips with more students. isabel and I were their guinea pigs. :-) and, it was the first time I saw a black bear in the wild.

upcoming...

...travel impressions from kesugi ridge (denali), valdez, anchorage, seward, and more. i am really looking forward to do some traveling here in alaska...tomorrow is my last day of work at the large animal research station!

hanging out with the muskoxen

this is isabel feeding the little fuzzy rascals that we have here at lars. the animals are very calm usually and the visitors like them a lot. some funny tourists always ask whether our reindeer can fly. "depends," i answer them, "only if you kick them hard enough...". 

meet bailey

this is bailey, an 8 year old male caribou. his antlers at this time of the year are covered with a beautiful brown fuzz, the velvet. the velvet makes the antlers very sensitive. only when they lose the velvet in late summer the males start jousting with other bulls to compete over the cows. 

and even more dogs...

this is eleanor. she is a student at uaf and she also works at lars. she loves dog mushing - and right now, she has 60 dogs to feed. on the last picture you can also see the 800 mile long oil pipeline that goes all the way from prudhoe bay down to valdez.

lars

here are some pictures of the large animal research station (lars), where i work. i don´t know how to put it, but for some reason it does not really feel like work. time goes by fast and there are a lot of great people to hang out with.

accomplishment of the day...

...i set up my slackline! then it started to rain and i had to take it down.

fairbanks

well my promise to provide "a picture a day" did not really last very long, did it? anyways, here is what i will be doing this summer: i am working as a tour guide at the large animal research station (lars).


we have muskoxen, caribou and reindeer.


my cabin from the inside


jesse is probably talking about renewable energy in alaska. it is his favorite topic. i like that picture because here is how i saw it...


...and this is a picture mathilda took.

rune the viking taking a picture of me taking a picture of rune

this weekend we also went to the chena hot springs...the water is quite hot but after a while you don't really feel it.

cabin

alright, first off, my new camera and i are not exactly best friends yet, so excuse the poor quality of my pictures. but, i'd like to share with you my new cabin. i rented it for the summer - i think i already enjoy being there. of course, there is no running water!

canoe

today i grabbed the dog, a canoe and some beer and paddled around in a lake. i almost had the dog in the canoe, but she jumped out when it started to shake a little. anyways, she swam next to me.

self portrait