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10 Reasons I Love Alaska Winters

It has been a long, snow-less autumn. As a landscape photographer, I hate the shoulder seasons. After the snow melts in the spring but before things get green, it’s an ugly, brown, muddy mess. The departing winter has revealed six months-worth of trash lying around.  It’s not a pretty time.  The same goes for the transition from autumn to winter.  Once the leaves drop, it’s just a bunch of dead brown lying around.  Well, here in Anchorage, the leaves dropped over a month ago.  We’ve had a record-setting warm October, and finally the temperatures are starting to drop. Now, as crazy as it sounds, I am eager to greet the ice and the snow and the darkness.  Here’s why.

Reason No. 1 – Golden light all day long

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Most photographers will prefer to photograph at the margins of the day – early in the morning and late in the evening.  There is a good reason for this.  No, it’s not because we like to punish ourselves by getting up early (sunrise in Anchorage in the summer is about 4:40 a.m.).  The golden quality of light you can find at those times of day will make any landscape or wildlife subject sing – visually.  But in the summer and fall, that golden light dissipates fairly soon after sunrise, and does not come until late in the evening.  The higher the sun gets, the “cooler” the quality of the light, leading to less rich colors.  But in Alaska, in those parts where the sun does actually rise (Barrow experiences as many as 67 days of continuous darkness from November to January), the sun stays low on the horizon all day, leading to wonderful, golden light from sunup to sundown.  And you don’t have to get up early or stay up late to enjoy it.

Reason No. 2 – the Aurora Borealis

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A common misconception about the aurora borealis is that it only comes out when it is cold.  The fact that it is cold is purely coincidental.  It only gets dark enough to see the aurora in Alaska from about August through April, and that also happens to include the coldest months of the year.  But even as far south as Anchorage, you could easily spend twelve hours of the day out photographing the aurora because the skies are dark enough to see them.  See more in my Aurroa Borealis gallery.


Reason No. 3 – “I’m thinking, Pastels!” (Thank you, Regent Vitrini)

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When the sun is low and the mountains (and landscape) are covered in snow, a magical thing happens, called “alpenglow.”  The result is a landscape aglow with a bold pink hue.  The presence of ice and the Earth’s shadow on the horizon before sunrise and after sunset add blue hues to the landscape.  The result is a luscious combination of pinks and blues that make for a wonderful tableau of color.

Reason No. 4 – Hoar Frost

Morning sun shines through a hoar frost-covered cluster of willows near Naknek.

Despite the extreme cold temperatures, there are many areas of Alaska that have open sources of water throughout the winter.  From moving water where streams and rivers collide to coastal zones, these open waters add moisture to the air, creating low-lying fog that clings to branches and plants.  The result is “hoar frost,” a thick, crystalline structure of delicate ice that turns any plant into a work of art.

Reason No. 5 – Ice and Moving Water

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It’s always interesting to combine movement with a static object.  In wintertime, you can have water be both the movement and the stable object.  Whether it is icicles clinging to logs over a flowing stream or tidal ice moving out with a retreating tide, there are plenty of opportunities to capture interesting compositions with movement.

Reason No. 6 – Bohemian Waxwings

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Usually in December when the air takes its first dive into deep cold, they come in waves to Anchorage.  Hundreds of feathered bodies swirling and moving together, Bohemian Waxwings move from tree to tree, usually picking at the frozen red berries of the mountain ash tree.  See more Bohemian Waxwings in my Birds gallery.

 

Reason No. 7 – Coastal Sunsets

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I do not know what it is, but there is something very magical about sunsets in Alaska in the winter time.  It’s probably a combination of the all-day low light as well as the length of time it takes the sun to set.  But when you add in snow drifts, ice, alpenglow and all other variety of factors, winter sunsets, especially along the coastal areas, are simply awe-inspiring.

 

Reason No. 8 – Dog Mushing

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It’s the official state sport and it is a load of fun to watch and photograph – a team of high-energy dogs doing what they were born to do; pull a sled.  There are a lot of opportunities to photograph dog mushing at various competition events throughout the year – Iditarod, Yukon Quest, Fur Rendezvous, and various regional races.  Some people will simply mush for recreation, like can often be found in Anchorage’s Far North Bicentennial Park area, particularly at the Tozier Track.  And with the magnificent landscapes, dog mushing subjects allow any photographer to capture an iconic Alaskan image.

Reason No. 9 – Moonrises and Moonsets

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The absolute best time to photograph a moonrise or moonset is when they correspond with sunsets or sunrises.  Why?  It is easier to get a balanced exposure– with detail in the landscape as well as the moon – when the moon is rising or setting while there is some light in the sky.  And as it turns out, there are some periods during the winter months – January is my favorite – when the moon is rising or setting at that perfect time.

Reason No. 10 – Only the Dedicated are Out There

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News flash – it gets cold in the winter in Alaska.  The record cold temperature in the United States was registered at Prospect Creek Camp in Alaska in 1971.  It was -80 degrees Fahrenheit.   The Prospect Creek Camp is located along the Trans-Alaska Pipeline in the Endicott Mountains of the Brooks Range, way north of the Arctic Circle.  While that temperature may be rare, certain parts of the Interior of Alaska will routinely see temperatures in the -50 to -60 degree range.  In Anchorage, we routinely get long snaps of below zero, and frequently see -20 degrees Fahrenheit.  Cold temperatures tend to thin the herd of photographers gathering at photo hot spots.  That is just fine with me, because cold is not a deterrent; it is to be embraced.  Photo magic happens in the cold, so long as I keep my spare batteries warm.

See these and other images in my “Winter” gallery.

 

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3 Responses to “10 Reasons I Love Alaska Winters”
  1. Elsie says:

    What a lovely set of photos to view, and commentary to read, as I drink my morning coffee down here in 39 degree Houston, TX this morning. We finally have REAL winter temps here now. But this, too, shall pass very soon, and we’ll be back to shirtsleeve weather soon enough. I told someone yesterday that you can always put on more clothes of the right variety to tolerate the cold, but I can never take off enough clothes in Houston, TX to tolerate the heat, humidity, and mosquitoes of our summers here.

    Thank you, Carl, for sharing your work here. It just reinvigorates me that I need to keep Alaska in the wintertime on my personal bucket list.

  2. mike from iowa says:

    What the? No cornfields? Yesterday we had a dusting of snow,overnight low of zero and tomorrow it is supposed to hit 50 degrees again. Fertile soil so good that you can drop a nail and grow a wind turbine. Best of all no bears and no Don Young,no Parnell,no Sullivans,Dans and mostly no Snowdrift Snookie. What else you got besides to die for scenery?