Multimedia

This weekend, Alyeska Resort in the ski town of Girdwood, Alaska -- about 40 minutes south of the state's largest city of Anchorage -- will celebrate its 36th annual Spring Carnival, a weekend of events to ring in the spring in what's more typically a winter town. And the biggest event of the weekend is always the Slush Cup, a wild event in which 50 competitors dress in outrageous costumes, point their skis or snowboards downhill, and try to skip their way across a 90-foot-long pool of frigid water without wiping out and getting an involuntary ice bath. Few make it all the way across the water obstacle, which actually consists of two separate pools with a snow hump in the middle -- in case a straight stretch of water wasn't difficult enough to navigate on skis. The event always draws a big crowd, and while the eventual winner of the Slush Cup -- contestants are judged on things like form, costume, biggest air/best trick and even best wipeout -- walks away with a season pass to the resort next winter, the real winners are those in the audience. After all, what better way to spend a Saturday afternoon than outside in the Alaska spring air, watching fellow skiers and snowboarders crash face-first into a man-made pond just barely warmer than freezing? If you want to be one of those skiers or snowboarders, it's not too late -- from 6 to 9 p.m. on Friday, 25 final contestants will be picked at a costume party at the Sitzmark, the popular watering hole at the base of the mountain. Costumes will be judged on "originality, flare (sic) and style," so the crazier the costume, the better chance you'll have to make a splash the next day.

At the remote Alaska village of Takotna, dogs howled in the night Wednesday during the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. The musher closest to the camera is Joar Leifseth Ulsom, and behind are Ray Redington Jr. and Cim Smyth. Meantime, mushers had smiles as big as the famous Takotna pies as they headed down the trail Wednesday night, most fresh off of their long 24-hour rests, ready to tackle the long, solitary trails between the tiny Athabascan community of 50, and the ghost towns of Iditarod and Ophir before reaching Anvik, the first checkpoint on the Yukon River. Full coverage of the Last Great Race | @ADIditarod | Instagram

Pure Alaska gold: Kikkan Randall, the world's dominant sprint skier who competes for the Nordic Center at Alaska Pacific University, wowed the world on Sunday when she and U.S. teammate Jessica Diggins absolutely routed other teams in the World Championships, Sunday in Italy. Kikkan powered ahead of her competitors from Sweden and Finland to win by an astonishing 7.8-second margin -- an unheard-of margin of victory in a race typically decided by tenths of a second. It's just the latest in a string of impressive victories on the world stage for Kikkan Randall, who works at Skinny Raven Sports in Anchorage when she's not training to dominate the best in the world.  How did Anchorage produce a Nordic skier who puts the Nords to shame? Hear the East High School legend's formula for success, which she shared with Alaska Dispatch photographer Loren Holmes in an interview last year. 

The Buckner Building in Whittier has long been a big draw for folks looking to paint a little graffiti, or simply just hoping to get a little creeped out while exploring a huge, decrepit, long-abandoned building. But a couple of Alaskans saw a whole different kind of potential in the run-down structure this past May, when Matt Wild, Logan Imlach and friends spent nearly a week creating a ski run through the building, piling snow on stairwells and creating makeshift jumps and ramps throughout. Then, like any good adventure, they filmed it. Though it had only amassed about 500 views since it was uploaded to Vimeo in the fall of 2012, the video’s gone a bit viral since Thursday, amassing more than 10,000 views on Friday alone, including a shout-out from popular sports website Deadspin. Wild, who shot the video and who is currently working up on the North Slope, said he had no idea the video was getting so big until a friend tagged him on a Facebook post linking to the video. He said the video originated from an idea that he and Imlach had and some free time. Wild, a snowboarder, had injured his knee. “I had blown my knee out, and I was just kind of anxious to get outside,” he said. So they spent six days creating the line and shooting the video. The bulk of that time was spent on the many takes required to shoot at the many angles required by the occasionally cramped spaces of the Buckner building. Moving snow into place for the track took less time, he said. “It looks like a lot more work than it was, because if you’ve ever been inside the Buckner Building in the wintertime, a lot of snow blows inside,” Wild said. The massive Buckner Building, completed by the U.S. military in 1953, was dubbed "the city under one roof" because in addition to 1,000 apartments, it contained a hospital, bowling alley, theater, gym, swimming pool, and shops for Army personnel. Intended to house most of the city’s population when it was finished, it was abandoned by the military a more than a decade later after sustaining serious damage in 1964's infamous 9.2-magnitude Good Friday earthquake. The majority of the city’s population now resides in the Begich Towers, another large complex. A different edit of Imlach's run was also featured in the full-length ski movie "Sunny," created by Colorado-based company Level 1 Productions. That movie won first prize at the Powder Video Awards just last month. Our Alaska takes a look at the people, places, activities and wildlife that make Alaska great. There's the Alaska that many people know from reality television, and then there's Our Alaska. If you have a video that puts the spotlight on the positive, educational or unique aspects of Alaska and its people, send links or submissions to ben(at)alaskadispatch.com.

A Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter delivers an emergency towing system to the salvage team on the deck of the conical drilling unit Kulluk 40 miles southwest of Kodiak City, Alaska, Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2013. The Kulluk is aground on the southeast shore of Sitkalidak Island. U.S. Coast Guard video by Petty Officer 1st Class Travis Marsh.