Alaska Man Monday - Standoffs, Cowboy Hats and Glaciers

Spring is springing here in the Great Land! On Saturday, we had two tundra swans fly over the office, heading for their Arctic breeding grounds. We have heard, but not yet seen, the sandhill cranes that are also passing through about now. Everything, everywhere is thawing out, the bears are awake, the summer birds will be back soon, the bears are up and about, and soon we’ll be fishing. But in the meantime, there are Alaska Man tales to tell.

This week we have a decidedly mixed bag – a bad guy, some good guys, and some hapless folks who just didn’t judge the odds. First, a dumb crook, which is always entertaining.

Man who sawed into apartment unit arrested after multi-hour standoff.

Anchorage, wherefore art thou? This kind of crap always seems to take place in Alaska’s biggest city, which only confirms my opinion of cities in general. Not only did this guy resist arrest, not only did he barricade himself in an apartment and threaten to burn the building down, not only did he saw through two – two! – apartment floors to try to sneak away, not only did he get caught almost immediately – but now he faces additional charges for having drugs on his person when he was brought in for booking. Kudos as well to the Anchorage cops who managed a peaceful resolution to this nitwit’s actions.

Alaska Man Score: 2.25 of 5 moose nuggets. Points for providing “stupid criminal” entertainment. Demerits for being, well, a stupid criminal.

Great Wasilla business celebrates 40 years!

CW Tack & Western Wear is a great old family business and a Wasilla institution. I buy all my boots and hats there, and if you have a horse – some people in Alaska do – you can get anything there by way of horse tack. And now they are celebrating their 40^th anniversary of doing business in the Mat-Su Valley. Here’s hoping for another 40 years.

Alaska Man Score: 5 moose nuggets. We love small business. And these are great folks.

Alaska can be dangerous – these skiers found out the hard way.

Alaska, like the sea, will try to kill you if you lack the proper respect. These people were lucky.

Six stranded skiers were rescued Friday from the Harding Icefield in Kenai Fjords National Park.
The group became stranded on Thursday when they encountered severe weather during a multi-day trek across the Harding Icefield, traveling from Exit Glacier to Bradley Lake.
Law enforcement rangers from the National Park Service and Alaska Wildlife Troopers coordinated efforts to rescue the group. Poor visibility and high winds hindered efforts to reach the group by air on Thursday. The group were (sic) able to shelter in a snow cave.
By Friday morning, a rescue attempt by the Alaska Air National Guard was again halted by high winds, but improving conditions allowed the Guard helicopter and pararescuemen to land near the skiers by late morning. They were then taken to a local hospital for evaluation.

There’s just no way you can be too prepared around that part of the Great Land. These folks would have been well advised to have consulted a weather forecast, although, to be fair, forecasts can be iffy in that mountainous area. And it seems they kept their heads when the emergency hit and knew what to do, so…

Alaska Man Score: 3.5 of 5 moose nuggets. Credit for knowing what to do in a weather emergency. Demerits for costing the taxpayers money and not watching the weather.

Now, if you’ve ever been to the Great Land, driven about in the countryside, and wondered about all the shipping containers you see sitting on people’s lots, and wondered why there are so many of them, well, here’s why and I’m going to tell you.