by Amanda Montavon It’s estimated that 40-80% of all doctor visits may be directly related to stress. When under stress we under go a physiological change referred to as the fight-or-flight response. The fight-or-flight response was first described by Dr. Walter B. Cannon at the Harvard Medical School in the 1920s and it works as our survival mechanism. Stress induces a surge of stress hormones preparing us to either fight or flee. Our hearts pounds faster as our blood flow is redistributed from the digestive tract to our muscles, and we enter a state of high alert ready to take action. In a life threatening situation this is a very…
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Winter Trails
by Alexa Dobson When the snow falls heavily, my sleek, black husky mix prances like a horse. Bouncing down the trail as I slowly follow, he pauses here and there to bury his face in the snow as though he might never experience winter again. He pauses, starts digging – what has he found? He’s earnestly nosing and pawing at the ground, in the same way a child plays with blocks. Deep in his internal programming, something is telling him to dig, inspect, satisfy the drive of curiosity. Triumphantly, he draws a small brown shape from the snow, limp, with a small pink tail. My dog the…
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Grand Canyon: The Living Landscape
by Killian Sump This short film attempts to protray the wonder of the Grand Canyon’s landscape through timelapse and river footage. It was filmed during a three month stint in and around the Grand Canyon region, including a packrafting trip through the whole river stretch. Narrative from Larry Stevens, from his Grand Canyon River Guidebook. Music is “Self Portrait” by Lenon. This video is also here to get folks curious about The Canyon for the full version of Grand Water in April 2014, a larger piece mainly about the Colorado River through Grand Canyon and the impacts and future of Glen Canyon Dam, with timelapses, music, and interviews. Stay tuned at killiansump.blogspot.com , if you…
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Shake Your Groove Thing
by Simon Frez-Albrecht Slogging up the south couloir on the north face of Ptarmigan Peak, my thoughts drifted to the raspberries and dipping chocolate I had waiting for me at home. I imagined I would improvise a double boiler from a pair of pots to avoid burning the chocolate; I would get some wax paper from my roommate to lay on the cookie sheet; I would then use a pair of chopsticks to dip the berries, so that they would come out smooth and pretty instead of all globbed from my fingers or a spoon. I could practically taste the sweet fruit center, cold inside the still-warm chocolate, the small…
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Mind Framing
by Evan Nasse By my freshman year in high school I had thought I finally started to really understand who I was and what I wanted in life—as many bright-eyed, idealist teenagers are wont to do so early on—until one of the more influential teachers in my life called me out on my self-serving, hubristic delusions. “You’re a fairly bright kid, but I don’t think you truly know what it is you want from yourself, so you aren’t really doing anything special by half-assing your schoolwork and maintaining a ‘good enough’ grade. You’re cheating the man in the glass and I won’t stand for it.” Mr. Gornick didn’t pull any…
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A Snowy Challenge
by Brance P. Peña Like all natural wonders, snow is just another thing of science, but there is something about it that seems almost spellbinding. To a native of Manhattan, snow is a rarity: To most New Yorkers, a nuisance, but to the few enchanted, it is pure magic. It is perhaps Tim Burton’s depiction of a snow-covered suburban neighborhood, contrasted by a lone and dilapidated mansion that instilled my love for Anchorage. That being said, it is only with the greatest respect to the natural world that I admit that snow is not all beauty and romantics. It can be an entity of great terror and even greater power. This…
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Fruity Economics
By Evan Nasse “The Blueberry Party has gone too far this time!” Cries the leader of the Red Apple Party, Red Delicious, pointing his finger accusingly in the direction where the patch of Blueberries are seated. “You can’t just decide that we’re going to pay for pesticides for all of the produce! This is an outrage and we will not sit idly by. Starting the day of the implementation of the Affordable Pesticide Act we are implementing a Cropwide Closure unless you agree to our demands to defund Obamegranatecare!” Screams the Red Apple Party representative into the microphone. “You can’t shut down all of the crops just because you disapprove…
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Hatchery Experience
by Angela Wilkinson “What’s that smell?” a first grader remarks as I lead my last tour around the William Jack Hernandez Sport Fish Hatchery. I take a deep breath and think hard about the fishy odor I have grown so used to during my three month internship here at the hatchery this past summer. I tell the first graders that it’s the smell of fish and it’s the best smell in the world. I take the opportunity to ask this group of children if any of them have caught a fish before and, as usual, I learn that less than half of the group has ever been fishing. Fishing was…
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Land Rediscovered
By Simon Frez-Albrecht Anticipation—and exasperation—had been building all summer toward this one special day. I had the fortune of stepping in right at the end to wrap up loose ends and hop on the bandwagon. By the time I showed up, hundreds of hours had gone into planning and arranging the logistics of putting all 35 first-year students at APU on the Yukon River for ten days, not to mention the 10 staff going with them. The last week before departure, the students spent their mornings in class while we shopped for food and sorted gear. In the afternoons, we conducted lessons in wilderness living, basic water rescue, and geared…
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Haunting Tales
by Brance P. Peña As October concludes in its festive glory, it is impossible not to indulge in the fashionable darkness that the western world has modestly raised us on. This day is wholly dedicated to quality scares, horrendous sights, wicked practice, and candy. Though we only get one day of the year to truly hone in on, and appreciate, these dark pleasantries, it should come as no surprise to us that fear is alive and present, every single day. This article offers three stories, petrifyingly terrible in their own unique manners. The first tale is one of a near-death experience on the Eagle River; the second, a spectral…
