Quest for not fire

This is usually where I am on a -40 day. Cuddled up in a blanket my grandma made for me, waiting for more coffee to brew.

Here's the Quest's starting gates about an hour before the race. Most of the competitors and crew are prepping/chatting/drinking down the river.

Me with some free apple cider from the visitor's center. I cannot emphasize how ridiculously soothing and invigorating hot drinks are on days like these. No, my lens isn't smudged. That's breath and ice fog.

Yay! I'm finally standing on frozen water. It only took me three months and frighteningly low temperatures to deem the Chena River solid enough to step on.

This is the foot bridge downtown with some reasonably light ice fog behind it. It warmed up by the time the mushers started racing and a lot of the ice fog dissipated.

Doesn't this shot make Fairbanks look like a real bona fide metro-poly-tan city? In the foreground, that's Adam in the hoodie and Christi with the funky gloves.

This goes in the category "shots that make me happy I'm relatively tall." It's of a Frenchman named Moggia who was first out of the gate.

Some of the hustle 'n' bustle at the starting gates.

Downtown from the Cushman Street bridge.