Fur Rendezvous

We headed to Anchorage once again for the 77th annual Fur Rendezvous! Rondy for short, this two week long celebration showcases the many great things Alaska has to offer, like Sled Dog Racing, Reindeer and these people.

We used this event as an excuse to stop along the route at the town of Girdwood for some downhill skiing at the Alyeska Resort.  The snow was great, sunny views of the Cook Inlet incredible, and the small Friday crowd made for great skiing.

The Resort itself is a lot like Colorado's Arapahoe Basin in size and variety of terrain.  With over 550 inches so far this year (1000" in 2012) you can always count on plenty of snow at Alyeska.  On the other hand you can count on plenty of rain and strong wind too.  We will consider ourselves lucky we didn't have to deal with either.  Back on the road, with the sun setting on the Inlet, we covered the final 30 miles to Anchorage.  A big meal and a few beers at Glacier Brewery prepared us for the festivities in the morning.  

We opened the morning with the Rondy Grand Parade featuring many Fur clad Royalty!

 Hey! John and Sue have that coat (in blanket form).

This non-PETA sanctioned event features two things you see very little of in the lower 48.  Trapping and Mushing!  

How many fur Bikinis can you make from one Grey Wolf?

The biggest Rondy crowds were drawn to the Sled Dog Races.  On this day teams were running sprint races through the snow covered downtown streets.  On the second weekend, the long distance Iditarod competitors will have a ceremonial start in Anchorage before moving to the official starting line in Willow.  A week or two later they will cross the finish line in Nome.

 Another fun sight was the snow carving competition.  A lot of great pieces had taking shape in a few hours work, but some entrants seemed to have overestimated what they could create in the 24 hour time limit.

A few of the fun events we missed out on at this year's Rondy include the Out-House Race, Running with the Reindeer (similar to Pamplona), and Yukigassen (which means "snow battle" in Japanese and is equal parts capture the flag and snowball fight).  Before the long drive home we had great breakfast thanks to Katie's co-worker's family and a quick XC skate ski on one of Anchorage's many great trails.

At the end of our trip we came away with a much improved view of the Greater Anchorage area, and can understand why 40% of Alaska's population chooses to live there.