Ushuaia Sweet Ushuaia

Hola Chicos y Chicas,
So I thought it was time for a blog post from the end of the world. It´s pretty hard for me to even begin to talk about the way things are here, but let´s just say that skiing in Ushuaia is different.
For one, the ski community is pretty small. The races I´ve done so far have had about 40 people -- counting men, women, juniors, seniors, masters -- total. Also, everyone races on equipment that´s anywhere from 15-20 years old. There are a few with new stuff, but very few. I tend tot stick out like a sore thumb. There´s one other American here, and we recognized each other as Americans instantly when we saw each other. So that´s cool.
Grooming appears to be a secondary concern here. There was a night sprint that took place (supposedly) at 6pm... but the grooming took place at 6:10, which brings me to another point: very few people, things, or events occurr when you expect them to. The first race I did here, I arrived 20 minutes after the start was scheduled, and I was one of the early arrivals, and there have been a couple times where the carpool I take to the ski trail in the valle de tierra mayor arrived 45 to an hour late and once I missed it because they came 20 minutes early.
However, there is a crapload of snow. We´re talking (about) 4 feet of snow. It´s snowed pretty much non-stop since I got here. And there is skiing within walking distance of the house I´m staying in, on a pretty hilly, fun course. The only problem is that the pisten bully they have is from the 70s, and breaks pretty frequently. However, a half-hour away is a 7k loop that gets groomed once a day by a brand-new machine, which is swell, except totally flat.
People, in the typical latin american style, are all incredibly nice, and most are very excited about my willingness to eat a lot of whatever they put in front of me. This food typically consists of beef, chicken, beef, lamb, beef, and the occasional vegetable. I´m getting plenty of protien... but not much of anything else.

In a little less than a week is the Marchablanca, which is the one big skiing event here. It´s a 21k race, in the valle (meaning, mostly flat with one or two climbs), that the whole town comes out for many dressed eccentrically. It has been won for years by one Martín Bianchi, who skiied in the Torino Olympics for Argentina. He´s an awesome guy who I´ve had dinner with a couple times and skied with a whole lot.
So, who knows. There´s about a thousand more things that I could write, but I guess I´ll cut it off. Things are good, I miss you all, and I´ll put up some pictures of the Marcha when that happens.
Ciao, nos vemos.
-seb

The McClellands Go to Alaska

11 McClellands (my family, uncle's family, and uncle from Wyoming) made the daring journey into grizzly infested Alaska this July. Our trip started in Hatcher Pass (2 hours outside of Anchorage) in cabins where we did some hiking in the beautiful Talkeetna Mountains. It took a few days to get used to sunlight 20 hours a day, but we were able to get our beauty sleep using Buffs as light blockers.
Our second destination was McCarthy, population 20 and 60 miles away from a paved road (I later found out that Molly M. coincidentally has a cabin in McCarthy). Here we did some more hiking (Ing would've love this trip), the first day up into an old snowy abandoned copper mine called Jumbo, the second along an enormous glacier. Instead of

carrying bear spray or guns for protection we
sang as loud as we could while traveling through grizzly country (the von trapps don't hold a candle).
One of just three sunny days our whole trip was spent on our drive from McCarthy to Valdez,
a small town on Prince William Sound. We rented kayaks and paddled the 40 miles into a cabin about half the size of a leanto that my dad and uncle built 30 years ago. From there we
hiked, kayaked, slept in tents, played cards and fished. Our fishing excitement reached its max when cousin Sophie thought she had caught a huge silver salmon, we all watched as she reeled in an enormous piece of seaweed and some jellyfish tentacles.








Wildlife sightings included 2 black bears, lots of otters, seals, jumping fish, 1,000,000 jellyfish, sea lions, local Alaskans and dolphins.
On our kayak back to Valdez, we watched a 1,000 lb. sea lion snag a couple of excited fishermen's enormous silver salmon (they weren't too happy). Another sea lion encounter occurred when cousin Matty kayaked over one and it popped up just a few feet away snorting and spitting water, needless to say we all paddled as fast as we could in the opposite direction.


Unfortunately I missed meeting up with Molly on our last day in Anchorage but all in all it was an amazing trip.
see y'all soon
-moogs