Page 51 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide 2017 - Alaska

ALASK A THROUGH THE Y EAR  49

December Public Holidays
Wilderness Woman
(1st weekend), Talkeetna. New Year’s Day (Jan 1)
Pitting women against Martin Luther King Day (3rd
each other in order Mon in Jan)
to gain the favor of Presidents’ Day (3rd Mon
Talkeetna’s single in Feb)
men, this competition Seward’s Day (last Mon in Mar)
includes snowmachine Easter Sunday (Mar/Apr)
driving, wood chop ping, Memorial Day (last Mon
and providing a sand­ in May)
wich and beer to a Independence Day (Jul 4)
Labor Day (1st Mon in Sep)
bachelor watching TV. Columbus Day (2nd Mon
It winds up with a in Oct)
Bachelor Auction. Alaska Day (Oct 18)
Colony Christmas (2nd Veterans Day (Nov 11)
weekend), Palmer. Old­ Thanksgiving Day (4th Thu
fashioned Christmas in Nov)
festival echoing Christmas Day (Dec 25)
the Matanuska Valley
Colony of the 1940s World Ice Art Championship, Fairbanks
with reindeer sleigh World Ice Art Championship
rides, fireworks, caroling, features a snow sculp ture (early Mar), Fairbanks. Huge
and food. competition, the World blocks of ice are sculpted into
Championship Sled Dog Races, artistic forms. Dozens of teams,
January and a run with the reindeer. including participants from
Russian Orthodox Christmas Nenana Ice Classic (Feb–Apr), China, Japan, and Russia, take
(Jan 7), across Alaska. Russian Nenana. Bets are laid on the part in this impressive contest.
Orthodox communi ties mark exact minute that the ice Bering Sea Ice Golf Classic
Christmas with both solemn breaks up on the Nenana River, (at the end of the Iditarod race),
commemora tions and joyous with all correct entries splitting Nome. Golf on the frozen Bering
celebration. Traditions include the purse. Sea, with orange golf balls and
“starring,” in which carolers carry painted greens.
a decorated star from house to March Pillar Mountain Golf Classic
house singing religious carols Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race (late Mar), Kodiak. A one­hole,
called koyadki. (early Mar), Anchorage to Nome. par 70 golf game played up
Polar Bear Jump-Off (3rd This classic race is ceremonially the slopes of 1,400­ft (424­m)
weekend), Seward. People flagged off from Anchorage and Pillar Mountain, with the aim
jump into icy Resurrection restarts in Willow the next day, of hitting the ball into a bucket
Bay dressed up in costumes. arriv ing in Nome nine days later. at the summit.
February
Iceworm Festival (1st week end),
Cordova. Iceworms, small,
thin worms that actu ally
do inhabit glacial ice, are
the inspiration for this wacky
winter event. A 150­ft (45­m)
long iceworm is paraded
through the streets, and there
is a carnival, dress­up compe ti­
tion, talent show, and the
crowning of Miss Iceworm.
Yukon Quest International
Sled Dog Race (early Feb),
Whitehorse to Fairbanks or vice
versa. The race follows a route
along the Yukon river and over
the wild mountains between
Fairbanks and whitehorse.
Anchorage Fur Rendezvous
(Feb–Mar), Anchorage. Originally
meant to bring fur trappers and
buyers together, “Fur Rondy” Team starting off in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race

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