Adventures in Onionism

First full day. Took my time packing up. Phone GPS still wasn't working, but navigation is relatively easy in these huge valleys.  I messed around with settings, and found some sort of location setting that uses nearby Bluetooth devices. My watch and InReach knew where they were--I don't know if that's what did it, but it worked. Hallelujah!  Went up to the first pass. The mosquitos were out but not terrible--didn't need to wear my headnet. Then skeeters went away and we got to the snow. I lost a trekking pole basket in one of the very first drifts I crossed. Only noticed it a few drifts later. I went back to look but it was hopeless.  Saw the heel straps from a pair of Crocs. I'm not the first person to hike here. Wonder how the croc person did on this terrain without sport-mode engaged!  The pass was steep, and slow, and my pack is much too heavy. The upper 500 feet or so had snow, but it was mostly avoidable by climbing up r...

Shuttle up the Dalton Highway wasn't bad, except for the one guy who would NOT stop talking. Loudly. Literally the entire time. C'mon man, let's just enjoy the views, OK? I put in earplugs and was able to nap a little bit but not much. I was the last one to be dropped off. I'd turned off my phone all day to save battery. I turned it on to find exactly where I should be dropped off, and GPS wouldn't work. It still isn't.  I am too tired to adequately express how frustrating this is. I'll turn my phone off again to sleep now, and hope that it works tomorrow. I can see the pass above me. There's a ton of snow. The low route I've been on is easy walking. Well, easy in that there's no brush to speak of. It's still a soggy tundra in the Brooks, so it's not easy generally. Just saying that if my main route is too high, there's plenty of lower stuff to do.  My pack is so heavy! ...

Three inches of snow left at the Atigun Pass measurement site this morning.  Satellite imagery from the 21st definitely still has snow on my first pass at 5600 feet. Here we go! (I mean, gnarly 12 hour shuttle ride first, but still...)

I'm in Fairbanks. I watched Sirāt on the airplane. Holy shit it's good. I'm at the hostel close to the airport. I've got 30 hours to buy cheese (I'm only vegetarian on trail), Fritos, a water bottle, camping fuel, bear spray, a pen, and a pad to sit on.  The snowpack reading is down to 6 inches!      

Woohoo, the snowpack measurement is down to 8". Snowpack data: https://www.weather.gov/aprfc/snow_depth I used temp and precipitation data from the Alaska Climate Research Center to help me decide between June and August: https://akclimate.org/data/air-temperature-normals/ I look at Sentinel-2 satellite imagery via a pro paid subscription to CalTopo.com: "Imagery from the Sentinel-2 satellite covers the entire earth from the same viewing angle every 5 days with a 10-m horizontal resolution. The date that the image was taken is displayed on the raw image, although you may have to zoom out a bit or pan around to find it. We license this layer and don’t know precisely when the next image in your area will be taken, but it is typically within 5 days." Googling reveals...

After much deliberation I am headed back to Alaska. I am sad to miss Western States (Jim, Killian, and Zack running an hour from where I used to live? That will never happen again.) But it's probably better to have my own adventure than to spectate someone else's (even if I've admired them for ten-plus years, watching as the sport grew exponentially.)  I initially planned to go to Alaska last week, but there was a late snow storm that took the snowpack in the Brooks Range from below-average to above-record. It's mostly gone now (10" at Atigun Pass as of this morning) but ideally it would be *completely* gone. The data station at Atigun Pass is at 4750 feet or so. About 10% of my route is higher than that. I could stay lower by staying further south, but that is likely to be super brushy, gnarly bushwhacking.  I considered delaying to August, but August is typically rainier, has less daylight (everything has less daylight compar...