Mietzke's POST Holden Adventure

Our friends Keith Karen and our God daughter Lyla are here to visit, and it is so good to be with them. Today while the girls were in school we hiked behind the village up to the avalanche shoot, which I never would have done last year because of obvious danger, but the shoot had already slid and we have not had so much as a snowflake in two weeks. The valley was beautiful from up there! We could see far into Copper Basin and we got up there right as the sun came out from behind Buckskin Mountain. In the Shoot above the village the waterfall is running again something that only happened in late spring last year. The snow was hard with about half an inch of hoar frost growing on it. It was fun to be with the three of them taking in the beauty. Lyla was making ”snow” angles in the hoar frost and enjoyed sliding down the steep spots on her bum. I love to see how much she has grown.
Lyla is a live wire at three, I am convinced that she will be the queen of the world at some point in the near future. This afternoon she had control of the whole elementary class who did whatever she told them for close to two hours. She was in hog heaven. Karen and I hung out this evening and helped the girls with homework and chatted while Dave and Keith were off doing boy stuff. Keith hung out for awhile this evening and snuffed me out in Backgammon. It is so great to have them here!

Today the whole village gathered in Koinonia to listen to the inauguration speech. There was an uproar of joy when Bush handed over power! I almost can't believe it. There are so many amazingly powerful things about this election, but I realized that one of the most powerful things for me was the immense feeling of relief from knowing that the Bush administration is not in power anymore. Something that struck me as amazing is our countries ability to grow. We may not all agree on certain political viewpoints, but in electing Obama we said no to Racism in a way that we have never said no before. Last week in honor of Martin Luther King we listened to his "I Have a Dream" speech, I have been in thought about all of the hard work and sacrifice it took at that time in History to face injustice with non-violence,and all of the people that sacrificed to make today possible. Listening to Obama today I felt hopeful about the potential for active change, and the possibility facing hardship and moving through it with some semblance of unity. We have the opportunity to come out on the other side of struggle with a bit more truth in our pockets if we face adversity together, and are willing to take responsibility for our past mistakes. I feel so lucky to be here at this point in History and to be a part of the potential.

Today I went on a hike with my friend Rachel. She came up at about ten and we started out towards Heart Lake. It was a beautiful day, clear and sunny and crisp. We hiked and stopped on multiple occasions to take in the golden light which was edging its way down the snow covered slopes. We hiked and talked and I was so happy to be out moving and enjoying the day! The light was amazing and there were patches of low lying fog that clung to the trees on the other side of the valley. Where the fog hung in the trees the forest floor was this eerie blue, it was as if everything in those patches were held frozen in time. As we walked further down the valley the sun began to stream through the big creek valley reflecting a golden light on Buckskin Mountain making it stand ominously above the grey blue of the lower valley. We had to stop often and take in the amazing beauty of this place! We brought our snow shoes but never once needed them because the ground was solid. The hoar frost has grown over the banks of snow long and feathery. When we brush it with hands and feet it sounds like shards of glass tumbling. It is beautiful, each individual piece sculpted perfectly like crystals sparkling in the light.
Most of the avalanche shoots have released their load and because we haven’t had any new snow in weeks avalanche danger is really low right now. We walked to the edge of the avalanche field and then in amongst the aspen that line the valley path. As we walked into the open we were amazed by the mountains towering above us glowing golden in the sun. We walked and could see evidence of avalanches all around the valley. I had never seen the avalanche run out up close and as we continued on we came upon the end of a huge avalanche. The first finger we came across was about five feet tall and ten feet wide. It had torn several trees out of the ground and we could see chunks of tree and rocks sticking out of the pack of snow and ice. We went around the base of the run off and began walking along the path. Then we came upon a fifteen foot tall wall of ice. It reminded me of what hot lava looks like when it cools tall and solid and menacing. We found our way up the side of it and I was amazed at how far it stretched out before us. It was at lease a city block long and crossed the valley floor almost al the way down to the creek. It had let loose from a shoot up to our right which didn’t look at all like it had the capacity to create all of that snow and ice. Where did it all come from, and how did it travel so far. The trails going to be a complete mess in the spring because the avalanche looked like it pulled half of the mountain down with it and took out a whole aspen grove. We sat up on the bulk and surveyed the damage and then sat down and ate our lunch in the sun. It was such a good day and I am still astounded at the power of that avalanche. We have had some avalanche training at Holden Village, but it wasn’t until I saw this one that I really understood the power of them.

The girls had a sleep over with their class at the school last night. Tom, one of the directors at Holden came and told the class the story of the monkey bears as given to him by his grandfather, and how Monkey bear falls in the village came by its name. Tom is a magical story teller and held the children captive with the tale. After the monkey bear story, Rachel taught the kids a chair game which led to fits of giggles and silliness. We had a fun time with the games and then played hide and seek in the dark. Each of the children took turns and each spent time trying to scare each other. The scariest thing happened right as we were finishing the last round of hide and seek. The high school kids snuck into the basement and began to make noise first just rattling and shaking then rumbling. At first the elementary children thought a martin had gotten into the basement and were nervous about it when the high school kids began to make a bunch of noise that caused all of the elementary children to set to screaming and hiding behind the teachers and I, but after a moment they began to voice the suspicions that the tormentors were the high school kids, and then Teacher Steve led them into the basement for discovery. Then we all had hot coco and cookies and settled into sleeping bags and listened to a story. It was a good night. I left after our evening prayers and headed up the hill to sleep peaceably in my own bed. Dave had been home watching movies and getting some time to himself, which is a hard thing to get in this village sometimes. The whole elementary class, all six of them came up to our chalet in the morning after the sleepover and spent the day playing. It is amazing to me how well all of them get along!

It's been a zoo for the last couple of weeks. The weather has been warm and rainy, everything is melting and icy.

On New Year's Eve we were going to have a bonfire, well the burn pile was huge and under three feet of snow. We tried to separate the pile into two but it wasn't having it. I started the fire at seven, hoping that it would be nice and big by ten, when it was on the schedule. I went back out at ten and it was still just barely burning. We came back to the village and went to one of the parties; at about twelve thirty we walked back up to our chalet, and could see a glow through the trees. At about one thirty I looked out the living room window and could see flames over the trees. I went back out to the fire and it was spectacular! It was burning so hot that it was vaporizing the snow. At one point it burned under the snow and came out of a hole at the end of the pile. I watched it until five in the morning, I don't think I would have stayed out that long if I had had my watch on but it was really amazing to see. I managed to get it to burn from the center of the pile to the west and not the east, by shoveling the snow off of the first few feet to the west. It just took off that way when it was still smallish and kept going. In the time that I was watching it, it went twenty five feet to the west and only three or four to the east.

Last Monday (a week ago today) the J-termers came in there are only thirty of them this year. They're a great bunch; so far they seem very earnest and energetic. A big change from last years group, not that they were bad, it just feels like this group immediately became part of the village and last year never quite did.

Tuesday we had a plow crew down working on the road, we knew the avalanche danger was going to be pretty extreme once it started raining, so we were trying to get the crew back before the rain really started, but they kept running into problems, and when they finally got back to the narrows on their way back there was a big avalanche across the road so they had to spend the night in the A-frame at the lake. They and another crew from the village worked all morning to clear the road, and when we finally got it clear there were only four people coming into the village, all staff. Once it started raining Tuesday it didn't stop until early Thursday morning. Then it dropped into the twenties in Friday and Saturday nights and made a fine mess of everything. I understand that the road is in pretty good shape once you leave the village, but in the village it's a solid sheet of ice with melt water on top.