Antarctica: Life on the Ice
Antarctica is a land of extremes. Spectrum Radio reporter Glenn Zorpette takes listeners to the world's southernmost frozen expanse in the hour-long radio documentary, "Antarctica: Life on the Ice." This piece is a co-production of the National Science Foundation and IEEE Spectrum Radio Programming. Outdoor Explorer will return next week.
KSKA: Thursday 2/20 at 2:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m.
Alaska Mountain Rescue
When Alaskans get lost or hurt in the high country, they rely on a team of volunteers and professionals who are tough enough to come get them in the worst conditions. This week on Outdoor Explorer we'll find how how they do their work and how we can help as outdoor users when we are lost.
KSKA: Thursday, 2/13 at 2:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m.
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Olympic Parents
Parents of three Anchorage Olympians join us in the studio. Some of them are headed to Sochi, where the winter games start Friday, so we pre-recorded the show. We’ve heard from athletes, but as a parent it is easier to identify more with the parents: with their pride, and trepidation, and with knowledge of the sacrifices made for a young person to succeed at the highest level. We'll learn how parents produce an Olympian, and how it feels, good and bad, once you have one in the family.
KSKA: Thursday 2/6 at 2:00 and 9:00 pm
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Ice Fishing
What goes on inside those tents you see on the frozen lakes around town? On the next Outdoor Explorer,we’ll find out. The topic is ice fishing. Folks do it on stocked lakes all through the city--that’s another unique thing about Anchorage--and in the backcountry they catch great big fish through the ice. We’ll find out how to do it and why. What’s the attraction of fishing in the middle of winter when the water is frozen?
KSKA: Thursday 1/30 at 2:00 and 9:00 pm
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Winter Camping and Snowshoeing
The summer season for sleeping outdoors is short, but there’s still a lot of Alaska out there in the winter with wonderful backcountry recreation and easy travel on snowshoes, when the rivers are frozen and it almost never rains. We’ll be talking about winter camping and snowshoeing. It’s not as crazy as it sounds. You can be comfortable, have great access to the backcountry, and sleep under the most amazing dome of stars.
KSKA: Thursday 1/23 at 2:00 pm and 9:00 pm
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Community Skating
Here’s an Alaska moment. It’s a weekend afternoon, you’ve been stuck indoors all day, you see that beautiful winter light in the sky, and you say, ‘let’s go skating.’ Half an hour later, you’re gliding over a frozen pond with your neighbors, getting rosy cheeks, and looking forward to hot chocolate. We're talking about ice skating, the casual community kind, where everyone can participate and enjoy a winter day with friends.
KSKA: Thursday 1/16 at 2:00 pm and 9:00 pm
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Citizen Ski Racing
Tour of Anchorage 2013 from ATMI on Vimeo.
You don't have to be an Olympian to participate in a Nordic ski race. Anchorage has races for the rest of us, where fast skiers can duel at the front while older and less competitive skiers push their personal limits. The Tour of Anchorage is the biggest race of the year, with up to 2,000 contestants covering up to 50 kilometers, but local volunteers organize many other cross-country ski races during the winter that are open to anyone willing to try. KSKA: Thursday 1/9 at 2:00 pm and 9:00 pm Listen Now
Avalanche Safety
They say the most important piece of safety equipment outdoors is your brain, and that is particularly true with staying alive in avalanche country. We'll address the most dangerous backcountry hazard with an avalanche prediction expert and an educator who specializes in tuning up that safety gear inside your head. We’ll talk about how to recognize danger, how to prepare for winter travel in the backcountry, and when to stay home.
KSKA: Thursday 12/12 at 2:00 pm and 9:00 pm
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Long-Range Snow Machine Expeditions
For the next Outdoor Explorer we’re in Fairbanks for a kind of adventure that is uniquely arctic and Fairbanks hard-core: long range expeditions by snow machine. We'll be joined by UAF scientist Matthew Sturm, whose studies of snow led to a career of traveling the breadth of North America on snowmachines with a team of very tough motorheads. We’ll learn about those trips, and how to prepare for motorized travel in some of the most remote spots on the globe.
KSKA: Thursday 12/55 and 2:00 and 9:00 pm.
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Public Use Cabins
On the next Outdoor Explorer, we’re talking about public use cabins. Why now? Well, they’re open in the winter, and perfect for a ski or snowshoeing weekend. Perhaps more importantly, the season for reserving cabins for summer will soon be upon us. Believe it or not, it’s time to start planning your cabin trips for 2014. We learn about remote cabins you can rent, how to do it, and personal favorites across the region.
KSKA: Thursday 11/21 at 2:00 and 9:00 pm
Elder Athletes
They’re some of our most inspiring Alaskans, the outdoor athletes who remain active and even competitive in their 70's and 80's. On the next Outdoor Explorer, we’ll be talking to elder athletes, finding out what keeps them going, and what advice they have to the rest of us to be where they are when we hit that age. It’s a community inspired show, with guests pulled from listener nominations.
KSKA: Thursday, 11/14 at 2:00 and 9:00 pm
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Crow Pass History
The Crow Pass trail leads from the Girdwood Valley to Eagle River. It’s a great backpacking route, and also a historic portion of the Iditarod Trail that led from Seward to mines in the Interior. What you might not know is that the trail was rebuilt in the 1970s with girl scout labor.We’ll learn about the Crow Pass trail in history and meet a former girl scout who helped remake the trail 40 years ago.
KSKA: Thursday 11/7 at 2:00 and 9:00 pm
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Canoeing 5,000 Miles in 5 Months
Starting in Washington, going over the Chilkoot Pass, down the Yukon, through the Bering Sea, up river to Lake Iliamna, finally ending up in Anchorage's Westchester Lagoon, Bob Vollhaber paddled a canoe five thousand miles in five months. He’d never done anything like the before. On the next Outdoor Explorer, listen to an interview with Bob recorded on September 17th, just days after he completed the extraordinary journey.
KSKA: Thursday 10/24 at 2:00 pm and 9:00 pm
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Getting Tweens Outdoors
For outdoor families, it can be tough when children leave elementary school and suddenly don’t want to go outside anymore. There are plenty of exceptions, but middle school coaches and parents of tweens know that this is a critical age to keep young people going outside and active. We’ll be talking with parents and educators about how the outdoors can compete with the screen or the couch in the lives of tweens as we struggle to help them build independent lives that are healthy and active.
KSKA: Thursday 10/17 at 2:00 pm and 9:00 pm
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Transition Season Biking
Even as fall weather gets colder, biking is not over. The sport of cyclocross is nearing its peak of competition. Mountain biking trails are firm and fast in cool weather. And yearround bikers are preparing for winter. We are talking about biking when its cold out, on the cyclocross course or on the street, getting to work, and the equipment and attitude it takes to make sub-arctic bicycling full.
KSKA: Thursday 10/10 at 2:00 pm and 9:00 pm
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Trap Shooting
Trap shooting is a sport at which Alaskans excel, having produced a national champion and Olympian in Cory Cogdell, formerly of Eagle River, and other top competitors. On today's show we learn about the community of trap shooters in Anchorage, how shooters learn to hit the fast-moving targets, and what it takes to get into the sport. Watch Video
KSKA: Thursday 9/26 at 2:00 pm and 9:00 pm
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Swan Lake Area Canoe Trails
This is a great time of year to be canoeing on the Swan Lake Canoe Route, when the leaves are turning and the fish are active in the cool weather, in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. On the next Outdoor Explorer, we’ll also be talking about floating the easy Swanson River, which may be the best float for beginners in our region and great for families. This is a show about one of the best areas to take your first self-guided wilderness trip.
KSKA: Thursday 9/19 at 2:00 pm and 9:00 pm
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Gold Mining
It’s a fair bet that the stampeders who flowed north during the Klondike Gold Rush never thought of mining as recreational, but the hunt for gold is something people do for fun, as well as profit. We’ll find out how and why modern recreational miners persist in sifting Alaska’s streams with pans and other obsolete equipment, going after glittering flakes of gold, and hoping for something much richer. It's a hobby that gets them outdoors, and it's a treasure hunt.
KSKA: Thursday 9/5 at 2:00 pm and 9:00 pm
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Duck Hunting
Duck hunting season begins September 1, a day that kicks off an outdoor tradition like no other. We’ll have guests who are getting ready for opening day with all the trappings of the sport, talk about hunting memories and traditions, and touch on conservation issues and changes in the land and the sport.
KSKA: Thursday 8/29 at 2:00 pm and 9:00 pm
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Berry Picking
