Favorite Winter Hobby (how much, living, shop)

[bigjojo]

Sledding, snowshoeing, snowboarding, and hiking will definitely be happening. I'm so excited I can hardly stand it! We'll most likely be moving up this summer, but I've already got summer hobbies planned

[AKStafford]

Geocaching.
( Geocaching - The Official Global GPS Cache Hunt Site )

[ShipOfFools42]

Heheh, when everyone was saying sledding, I was thinking of snowmachines. I didn't realize you were talking about actual sleds.

And ArcticState, I don't think you're crazy. I've hiked Mount Washington in NH in February. Twice. And both times I was up there it was well below zero at night. I believe the coldest night we slept out in was roughly -25˚F, but we didn't have a thermometer that was reliable at those temperatures on us. Thing about Mt. Washington is the damn wind. The highest surface wind speed ever recorded by man (meaning by an actual person) was recorded on Mount Washington, at 231 mph (372 kph). I know the wind in Alaska is intense too, but yeah man, it was nuts. We were getting 60-80 mph gusts all night a couple of those nights. Just put everything inside the tent and hope that you picked as well-sheltered of a camping spot as you think you did. When it starts howling and your tent starts trying to get off the ground... that's when the fun starts! Oh, and Baxter Peak (Mt. Katahdin in Maine) is a good one up there too, but this is about Alaska, so I'll stop.

And yeah, that was always my favorite winter hobby up in New England. Climbing high mountains in Northern New England in the dead of winter and camping out for several nights, just because I could, and then I would come back down to Massachusetts with a hell of a story to tell.

[SityData]

Originally Posted by bigjojo

Hunting for fossil ivory would be awesome. I hope to do some exploring once I get up there.

Yes it is an enjoyable and exciting way to spend the day. Especially if you find some !!

Many people in the arctic do this as a full time job!

There are so many beaches above the arctic; that no one bothers ever to go to. These areas (above cape lisburne) After Pt. Lay and before Wainwright are ripe for the picking.

[Frostnip]

I like snowmachining and snowshoeing in the early Spring. I'm a big pansy about extreme cold (I crushed a foot in an accident years ago, and it doesn't do real well below about -10 or so) in so I tend to do a lot of indoorsy stuff from November through March or so. I usually give myself some goal or project to work on...this winter, it was to brush up my Spanish and to learn digital photo editing (the former for work, the latter just for fun). It's also nice to just sit around with friends and family...the board games got a lot of exercise this year

[Grannysroost]

I did cooking (new recipes), cleaning, quiliting, crosstitching, babying my dogs, cleaning, shoveling, visiting neighbors, cleaning.., Oh and in between was working 6 to 8 hours a day or more....all good...

[1stimestar]

So the winter hobbies from the rest of the state wouldn't interest you?

[bigjojo]

@1stimestar, I plan on moving to Soldotna and probably won't travel much during winter, so I was just trying to figure out what kinds of things I'll be able to do this winter. But I plan to be in Alaska for life, so I'll need to know about hobbies all over the state as time goes by.

[warptman]

Fat Biking!

fatbike alaska

[tigre79]

Originally Posted by bigjojo

@1stimestar, I plan on moving to Soldotna and probably won't travel much during winter, so I was just trying to figure out what kinds of things I'll be able to do this winter.

Don't rule out some travel during winter. Personally, I've enjoyed seeing other towns more then, because they're not full of tourists.