Freezoree

Jacob attended his first Boy Scout overnight camp-out.  (Brent went along as one of the adult leaders.)  The name of the camp outing was "Freezoree".  The name lived up to its description.  The temperature got down to zero degrees at night.  Jacob said that it was COLD!

 Our troop has five 11-year old Scouts who are great friends with Jacob.  Two 13-year old Scouts from our troop also attended the Denali District camp-out.   Brent said that the 13-year old boys were good leaders in helping the younger Scouts learn what they should do.

 For dinner, the Scouts had decided to have "breakfast for dinner".  They planned on having pancakes, eggs, and bacon.  They forgot to take a mixing bowl for the pancake batter, but they made due with an empty water jug.  They didn't have anything to measure the pancake mix and water so they just guessed.  The batter turned out very watery.  Along with some other gear, they had brought along a packet of "something" from the Troop closet at the church.  They weren't sure what it was, but it had been stored by boxes of food and Kool Aid and it kind of looked like hot chocolate, so they brought it along.  They decided to use some of this mystery substance to thicken their pancake batter.  One of the boys tasted the batter and a pancake.  He said that it tasted like it had sand in it.  The Scoutmaster tasted it and concluded that maybe it was cat litter.  (Later they found out it was lime powder -- as in limestone -- used for freshening latrines.)  The pancake batter had to be thrown away.  Thankfully there were lots of eggs and lots of bacon as well as cookies for everyone to eat.

 I just laughed when they told me about that experience.  (We never had things like that happen at girls' camp.) There was lots of hot Kool Aid to keep their bodies warm.  (Remember, what they thought was the hot chocolate mix was actually the lime powder.  So there was no hot chocolate to drink.)

 The 11-year old boys slept in tents, but the 13-year old scouts decided to sleep in a snow cave they made.

The next morning everyone was up and in position for the flag raising ceremony.  The Scouts had to hold their salute for a long, long time while the honor guard moved very slowly with thick winter gloves in 0 degree temperatures.

The Scouts had fun playing in the snow and playing "King of the Hill" whenever they got a chance.  The great thing about the low temperature was that the snow didn't melt so the Scouts didn't get wet.  A lot of the snowfall consisted of  very tiny flakes; so it was like playing in dry sand.  Of course, if it goes down your neck that is a different story.

    Lunch in the Camp Grosuch mess hall with hot dogs, chili, and hot chocolate was a welcome break.

Keeping your head and ears warm is a priority when it is so cold.  The Assistant Scoutmaster wore his fox fur aviator hat to keep warm.  This style hat is common in Alaska and does a great job keeping one warm.  Jacob and Brent also wore this style hat and learned to appreciate it.

There were training activities where the Scouts learned winter first aid, winter camp packing, how to build different types of snow shelters, and what to do in an avalanche. Above is a snow trench shelter.

The Scouts rotated around to various training venues.  This is the avalanche safety training in the Camp Gorsuch mess hall.  After receiving instruction, they took a digital avalanche beacon, probe, and avalanche shovels and had to find a buried avalanche victim (a buried radio beacon) within 15 minutes.  After the 15 minute time frame, a victim is likely not to survive.  Our Scouts found the victim in less than 10 minutes.  This was one of their favorite activities: lots of running around, finding clues, digging with shovels, and hi-tech equipment.

           This is the Camp Gorsuch Water Front totem pole where some competitive games took place.

 The two troops that did the best in the training exercises were selected to compete against each other while the rest of the Scouts cheered for their chosen team.

Later the cheering turned into a snowball fight when the Freezoree Scout leaders said the Scouts could show support for their team by throwing snow balls at the opposition's supporters.

One of the favorite spots was around the fire barrel.  Headlamps rather than flashlights are preferred during winter in Alaska.  It makes it much easier to do everything with two hands.

Jacob had a wonderful time.  He also learned a few things about keeping warm in zero degree weather.  Next time he'll be even more prepared to not freeze at the Freezoree.

Snow, Snow, Snow

For those of you in the lower 48 who live in cold climates and are wondering where your cold and snow were this winter, I have the answer.  It is all in Alaska.  We have had a record breaking cold and snow this year.  Normal snow fall in Anchorage for the whole winter is 44 inches.  So far, we have had just over 100 inches and we still have 2 1/2  more months of winter.

                                                      This is the snow in front of our house.

                                    The snow just keeps piling up (and it won't melt until April.)

The city does a good job keeping the roads plowed. When the snow gets piled up too high, the snow removal trucks come and haul the snow away.  I heard on the news today that the "snow dumps" are getting full.  The city is trying to find more dumping places for the snow.

Six months of winter is a LONG time!!!

Functional Fashion

Alaskans are into fashion, as long as it is functional.  The latest trend is skhoops.  They are insulated skirts that you wear over you pants, skirts, dresses, etc.  The reason they are so popular is because they are WARM!  We have had one of the coldest winters on record.  For several weeks the temperatures were below zero nearly every day.  Having that extra bit of insulation on your legs makes a huge difference.
For Christmas Brent gave me two skhoops.
One is short
                                                              and the other is long.

The long one has zippers on the side so that you can have more room for walking.

I absolutely love them.  It is so nice to be able to slip them on and off easily.  You don't even have to take your boots off first like you do with snow pants.

I am curious though.  Have skhoops caught on in the rest of the country or is this just an Alaskan trend?