In the process of celebrating Alla’s Birthday we hiked the Flattop Mountain.

Turns out, the bikes in Alaska are universal and off-seasonal transportation.

And we thought that in the winter everyone here rides skies, guess we thought wrong.

The winter hiking is great in every way, except: on stretches that are flat and in the shade or a bit windy, the cold is chilling to the bone, but when you are going uphill on the quite sunny side in the minute you sweat up under all those layers. Unbuttoned and hot you go back in the shade or under the wind and that instance you need to start to muffle up again.

But that’s me. Alla in her own special microclimate felt just fine. Even though she is a heat-loving creature, she was born in the winter. And for the first time in many years she celebrated this event in the correct ambience.

It was rocky and windy on the Flattop Mountain, but certainly very panoramic.

And on the leeward side with some tea it even got cozy.

On the way back Alla couldn’t stop raising her hands to the sky and admiring changing by the minute magical colors.

The crawled behind the horizon lazy January sun showed our birthday girl the fata morgana, turning the Chigmit mountain range into a formidable cruiser.

Happy Birthday, Alla!