A Fairbanks scientist recently made an intricate new map of Denali while crisscrossing its summit a few times in a single-engine airplane. His top-of-the-continent measurement was within a few feet of a GPS reading done a few years ago, using a system he calls fodar. Matt Nolan is a former University of Alaska Fairbanks faculty […]
Millions of Alaska birds nest on rocky emerald islands seen by few people other than ship captains. One of the funkiest of these creatures is the crested auklet, which looks like a bassist in a punk band and smells like a tangerine. These hand-size birds have intrigued Hector Douglas for years. He just wrote a […]
NUIQSUT — Snow whips through the streets, stinging the skin and piling up in dunes. It is springtime in Nuiqsut, blinding white, 1 degree Fahrenheit with a 30 mile-per-hour wind. A few dozen kids are not feeling the bite, as they play in the gym of the Nuiqsut School (home of the Trappers). They are […]
KANUTI HOT SPRINGS — After a few hours of skiing through deep snow, Forest Wagner and I smelled a tuna sandwich. We knew we were closing in on warm pools of water. From the frozen Kanuti River, we moved along an open stream up toward Kanuti Hot Springs, one of more than 100 hot springs […]