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Late break-up on Kuskokwim River, Alaska

2K views 16 replies 5 participants last post by  PGK 
#1 ·
Due to colder weather a break-up this year is 2 weeks behind schedule:




This photo was taken shortly after midnight :










 
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#2 ·
We are well behind this year almost everywhere in South Central & Western AK. Pretty much a bummer, my fall season wiped out by historic flooding which lasted from September 13 - until the big freeze and now the spring blown out by ice and heavy runoff.

The runoff is normal of course but the amount of water trapped when the flood froze up is an additional bit of flow this spring on many rivers. Still ice on the lake at the cabin,; can't get out there yet.............. Also, many ponds where there weren't ponds over the past 20 years. It has been a dandy.
 
#4 ·
You guys are ahead of us (Inuvik, NT). We're about 3 or 4 weeks behind normal. The coast rivers aren't even showing overflow yet! This pic isn't open water, it's overflow on bottomfast ice! Yesterday! The delta is starting to lift, but it's just upriver water pushing ice at this point. Not much ice melt happening here at all. The satellite images off the coast show she's still locked up tight. Crazy late winter!

 
#7 · (Edited)
Fred,
Actually the ice at this point it was relatively thin this year. During last few weeks ice in many sections of the might Kuskokwim, which is about twice larger then Skeena, was partially melted by warmer water of tributaries, while coller weather was keeping run-offs in check. Imagine ice thickness when weather suddenly warms up in the upper Kuskokwim and ice is still thick 50-60 inches and water suddenly goes up.......

Ice slabs size 40x40 yards can jam the entire river and the noise form cracking ice can be heard a mile away. Although I spend a good portion of the summer in that region, 5-6 years ago I flew there during break-up.

Believe me, this year break-up was nothing !!!!!!!
 
#8 ·
I'd pay money to watch that happen! Grandparents lived a few blocks from the Red River (Winnipeg, Manitoba) and we'd go down to the river to watch 'break up,' but that was about 60 years ago.

Impressive to say the least, but no where on this scale.

Fred
 
#9 ·
PGK,

That looks bad man, sorry it's so late for you. The late spring is driving me nutty because of the flooding that closed the season last fall. I could not get out safely after September 13, because of flooding that lasted until freeze. Our rivers froze at or just below flood stage so the break up has been very strange with plenty overflow conditions for the past month.

I am all the way down in the Yetna - SuSitna drainage system and still can not get out safely. Saturday I went to the SuSitna to see if I could travel the river. There were ice flows coming down bigger than house trailers so there was no way for me to get to the Yetna. The only open river nearby is not being fished because of a very huge bog that swallowed the access road to the boat launching area............

Today I'm going again to see how things are. I expect to be able to leave for the cabin on Wednesday or Thursday and should get some neat pictures on the way. Might be gone a while but will post a few when I come home.

I guess I should be glad we don't live at Galena or things would be worse, they are getting some water today caused by the ice forming dams.
 
#11 ·
Yup. Travelling on the delta here now is totally over for the season. She's starting to move a little now. The coastal breakup this year could be a whopper, too bad noone will be out there to get a video like that! Yikes! Still no signs of breakup anywhere along the coast, a little overflow near the Alaska border/Kaktovik over by the Firth but that's it so far. Sat imagery still shows everything locked up tight, even though the river level in town here has come up by ~6ft in the last week, we are only ~50mi up from the coast, you would think that water is going somewhere!? The Mackenzie delta is about to blow! Waiting on today's breakup newsletter for an updated satellite image...

Does anyone know what the yukon looks like at the delta? Here it is at Dawson
http://yukonriverbreakup.com/

Here is the river from last night. Still 5ft of ice on the road strip in the middle. Overflow has knocked the bottomfast shore ice out but the middle hasn't moved yet!
 
#13 ·
I wound not worry to much about Kanektok river . It is closer to the ocan and smaller river size of the Kanektok have melted few weeks ago in the upper drainage part of the Kuskokwim. After the break up on the Kuskokwim near Aniak ( 130 miles from the Bearing Sea) , 10 hours later the Natives were riding boats as 99% if ice was gone.
The mighty Kuskokwim was already open 500 miles up from Aniak.
Over the next 10 days the temps will be near 70 F / 45 F ( day/ night) and as long as weather stays normal the water temps will catch up and salmon rum should not be to late.
I will post more photos later.
 
#15 ·
PGK & Sazan

I was able to travel up one of my favorite rivers today :)

Just like some of the pictures here; Saturday huge slabs of ice flowing down the river. 3 weeks ago there were 5 foot of snow up this Valley and today I took this picture.


It's always strange to me how fast it goes. You can see that the water was pretty dirty but I was able to do some casting finally :) Only spent an hour or so casting a pair of rods I took just to try them out. It was pretty enjoyable, if it would have been clear I would still be up there. I hope you guys can get out soon too.

Ard
 
#17 ·
Nice boat Ard. It sure does go fast, and sure is fun to watch. The mackenzie has really been hanging on this year though. At this rate, it feels like we may still be dodging icebergs in July! Finally got a chance to string the two handers again today, going to try some new lines in a bit. Feels good to see rods in the boat again!

In front of Aklavik yesterday


The main Mackenzie
 
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