Arrived at Whittier in Alaska at around 5am. I got up early as I particularly like to watch the Diamond Princess entering ports. I heard the pilot board the vessel around 1am but way too early to film anything worth filming so went to bed.

Left the bar at Crooners around midnight and the barman, who had been here many times before, advised we were almost there at that time. One of the passengers at the bar advised there was snow on the deck outside and ran out to get some, to take up to her partner who had gone to bed for the evening. Some at the bar had a chuckle, because as she finished her glass of red the ‘snow’ she had collected earlier was still solid. After a few laughs, someone suggested she taste it, she did and said ‘it’s salt’ and everyone laughed. After proclaiming she was a ‘snow virgin’ she was introduced to the details that the salt ‘pebbles’ were scattered by the crew to prevent passengers slipping on the decks in the event of snow in the morning. She was deflated but appreciated the moment.

On getting out of bed and organised the next morning, I arrived on our balcony to find the ship had docked at Whittier. It was snowing, but not any gentle snow from above but snow that was blowing, virtually horizontally, as if in a mild blizzard that had wind blowing at around 23-30 knots (according to our on board weather channel).

Our plan for Whittier had been to go to the town pub for some Alaskan Amber Beer (for me) and possible a fish lunch.

The 165 population of Whittier is mostly engaged in fishing. Whittier is such a small town with not much more than one main apartment building (tower) a small school, some small houses and some old apartment building utilised during WWII by the military and converted into housing. The main apartment building contains a medical centre and a small store and the children actually go though a tunnel under the building to go the school and come up in the library at the school (very smart as you have to be quiet in the library) so they can avoid the elements (not the scientific ones, of course).

When we last visited Whittier in 2011 it wasn’t snowing. We took a tour into Anchorage where there was a market, had clam chowder and visited a wildlife sanctuary enroute back to Whittier. The highlight was going through the 4km long, single lane tunnel, which catered for two way traffic and the train, so there was always a queue waiting for their turn to pass through the mountain to or from Whittier.

Ruth, who was much more familiar with weather in the snow than myself, having lived on a mountain, which housed the telescope at Coonabarabran. Ruth continually advised (polite) that I was crazy to think that I wasn’t going to make it to the pub without being totally drenched, probably with a broken ankle, that joggers were a bad idea, I was totally ill equipped to deal with the situation and being a total idiot. After making her rug up (begrudgingly) to the eyeballs with warm clothing, checking out through security and getting to the end of the gangway outside (when the full force of the effects of the blizzard hit i.e cold, wet snow, freezing wind) I realised her assertions were totally correct and I was (as she advised) a stupid bloody idiot to think I was ever going to make it to the pub.

Whittier – Snowing

[tube] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpRmEyo1kvM&feature=youtu.be[/tube]

We settled into a bar onboard the Diamond Princess in Air Conditioned comfort with some relaxing beverages. As the day went on the blizzard/snowing finally abated, though I had lost interest in venturing to the pub at Whittier as I could see no benefit on leaving the bar I was currently occupying.

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Paul