Spring in Alaska brings back familiar patterns. Temperatures reaching the 50s. The snow begins to melt, creeks fill up, mountains of dog poo appear on the lawns, and buds of green start to emerge on the trees. Equally noticeable are the budget deliberations in Juneau, which one way or another end up focused on the amount of the Permanent Fund dividend. But there’s a behavior pattern that builds to this endpoint. The governor proposes the maximum dividend, legislators do a bunch of arm-waving about the budget deficit, the education budget comes to the forefront, the Anchorage school board proposes to cut programs, education advocates call for increases in the budget, legislators host town halls, and, eventually, new taxes come into the conversation. Local media interview parents and students about the potential discontinuation of their favorite sports program or the closure of elementary schools.

Then the tug of war emerges — new taxes versus a cut to the dividend. The conflict is obvious if you pay attention, despite the rhetoric. Several types of taxes are mentioned, such as oil industry taxes, corporate taxes, S-Corp tax, personal income taxes, sales taxes, excise taxes on gasoline. This blur of taxes creates confusion and frustration. This is about the time when one or two local economists espouse about the value that the dividend brings to the Alaska economy. A brave journalist might write an article about how the Alaska economy has been in decline for a decade or so, and people don’t like to hear that. Last-minute machinations occur in Juneau as the session is about to end. A compromise education budget emerges along with the amount of the dividend, which is well below the maximum the governor proposed months earlier.

Another mediocre outcome for the state has occurred. Everyone is unhappy, but we got through it, right? Or maybe not, as we still have the threat of the governor’s vetoes.

I like what comes next: Several legislators write about how we haven’t solved the fiscal problem, just delayed it another year. It’s their courage I admire, and it likely assists them in addressing their self-image concerns.

It’s uncertain when or what crisis will prompt it, but eventually, some bold influencers will admit we can’t afford to pay the dividend. Hopefully, they reside in the Legislature or the governor’s office. They will also acknowledge that it’s illogical to tax some residents in order to fund unrestricted payments to the same residents and others who do not have a demonstrated need. In fact, it’s uniquely un-American. If this type of money transfer had positive economic impacts, it would have been adopted by all government entities in the United States long ago.

When we get to this point of honesty and courage, then the real conversations will begin — the ones that lead us to a solid fiscal plan for the state of Alaska.

Al Bolea is a retired leadership trainer and former distinguished visiting professor at the University of Alaska Anchorage. He’s also a retired oil and gas executive.

• • •

The views expressed here are the writer’s and are not necessarily endorsed by the Anchorage Daily News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)adn.com. Send submissions shorter than 200 words to letters@adn.com or click here to submit via any web browser. Read our full guidelines for letters and commentaries here.

Since Natural Selection Tour (NST) launched as a snowboard-only competition series in 2021, skiers have watched with envy as their single-board counterparts compete on the world’s premier big-mountain terrain, from Jackson, Wyoming, to British Columbia to Alaska.

In 2025, finally, it was skiers’ turn to get a firsthand taste of what NST is all about.

Starting this year, NST has expanded not only to skiing but also to surfing and mountain biking, aiming to crown the world’s best male and female athletes in all four disciplines.

“When I first saw the NST snowboard events, I thought that it was so cool, and I was jealous that we didn’t have something like that in freeskiing,” said French freeskier Manon Loschi, who took the win for the women in the inaugural NST Ski.

New Zealand’s Craig Murray earned the title of first-ever men’s champion.

At the heart of NST is the idea that athletes aren’t competing against one another so much as they’re competing against themselves, challenged by Mother Nature in some of the most awe-inspiring, inhospitable terrain on the planet.

That was certainly the case at Alaska’s Priority 1, a legendary big-mountain venue that has figured prominently in snowsports, including in NST founder Travis Rice’s The Fourth Phase (2016).

NST Ski 2025 was broadcast as live on Red Bull TV on April 17, showing off the venue’s massive spines and steep pitch, with riders’ lines spanning nearly 1,700 vertical feet.

“This is the ultimate venue,” said NST Ski event director Mike Douglas. “It forces riders to bring their full knowledge of skiing—freestyle, freeride, and the ability to adapt under pressure.”

Loschi, who had never been to Alaska or skied this terrain previously, didn’t mince words when asked to describe the experience of seeing the face for the first time.

“It’s definitely a crazy place,” the 23-year-old said. “It’s the most extreme terrain for skiing and snowboarding. Everything is big, steep and scary.”

Though Murray has skied Alaska, he had never dropped in on Priority 1.

“It was a wild feeling seeing it for the first time,” the 26-year-old said. “The experience was completed by flying into the extensive camp on a ski plane and landing on the glacier, then walking through the small city of tents and snow structures.”

After nearly a week of camping out on the glacier waiting for optimal weather conditions, 12 of the world’s best skiers (ranging from slopestyle Olympians to big-mountain freeriders, and everything in between) competed bracket-style in a contest that many said felt more like filming a segment.

The judges of the inaugural NST Ski competition—Sean Pettit, Dion Newport and Kristi Leskinen—evaluated riders using NST’s signature CREDO rubric (creativity, risk, execution, difficulty and overall flow), scoring runs in real time.

In the men’s final, Murray was up against close friend Sam Kuch. Murray’s run saw him link stylish 360s and flips, perfectly blending freeride and freestyle.

But Kuch put up a proper rebuttal, getting massive amplitude over a gap that spanned more than 100 feet.

“Dropping into the final with one of my best friends was beyond comprehension and the cherry on top,” Murray said.

The men’s field was rounded out by Markus Eder, Kai Jones, Kye Petersen, Colby Stevenson, Parker White and Max Palm (SWE).

Meanwhile, first-timer Loschi earned the women’s title despite her lack of experience in Alaska—and she did it against one of the most established veterans in women’s freeski, Michelle Parker.

Maggie Voisin and Hedvig Wessel completed the women’s field.

“This is why Natural Selection matters,” said Parker, who also serves on the NST Ski athlete advisory committee. “It allows us to bring out the best in each other—watching Manon and the other skiers step up and progress skiing in real time like that was a moment I’ll never forget. Can’t wait to see how skiing evolves from here.”

The skiers felt like they were part of something special. “I was with so many people I look up to,” Loschi said. “It was crazy to be part of this; it was a dream.”

Murray said that NST adding a ski competition was an “amazing opportunity” for the athletes and “great for the sport.”

Indeed, it’s an exciting time for freeride. The Freeride World Tour just announced that next season, it will have a U.S. event for the first time since 2017. And this summer, the International Olympic Committee will issue a decision on whether or not freeride will make its debut at the 2030 Winter Olympics in the French Alps, after being recognized by the International Ski and Snowboard Federation as an official discipline in 2024.

These days, there are as many career paths open to freeride athletes as there are runs on a big-mountain face.

But athletes agree that there’s something special about NST, with its fusion of freestyle and freeride and its head-to-head format designed to root out the world’s best men and women in their respective disciplines.

“This is the kind of event that freeskiing was missing right now,” Loschi said. “The NST aligns so well with my vision of the sport and the creativity in the mountains.”

“Natural Selection organizes some of the best events that the outdoor sports industry has seen,” Murray said. “To be involved is a huge privilege.”

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – The Alaska Native Heritage Center healing garden will expand over the next five years, roughly doubling in size, thanks to grant funding.

The center was awarded $3.5 million from the Mellon Foundation and several thousands of dollars more from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which will be used to build an additional nine moments at the center’s healing garden.

“For me to work in this position and to work in the community is very rewarding,” said Marilyn Balluta, the senior manager for the community healing garden and monuments. “The project name Ngíisdla is a Haida name that means to heal, to recover from the traumas of our people that has happened through either boarding school, generational trauma … I could go on with the list.”

Each monument will be created by an Alaska Native artist, the center said. The artist and type of monument to be built has yet to be decided.

Currently, the healing garden has one monument; a totem pole that represents the healing journey for Alaska Natives and Native Americans, which was raised in October 2023.

The next monument to join the garden, the center said, will be dedicated to Alaska Native Veterans.

“With the veterans, they are very serious about this monument. That it is going to be a place for them to go, to reflect, and to heal, and to have their own ceremony,” Balluta said.

Balluta told Alaska’s News Source that the center has already met twice with a group of Alaska Native veterans to discuss the project.

“The first time we met with them was a very powerful, very moving meeting with them because they shared their stories,” Balluta said. “They felt like they were in a safe environment and they were surrounded by other veterans that they knew they could get support from.”

An additional monument in dedication to Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls and Two-Spirit people will also be added to the garden at a later time.

Currently, the center is working on the garden’s landscape and design with the goal to have its Alaska Native veteran monument on display in the fall.

See a spelling or grammar error? Report it to web@ktuu.com

Copyright 2025 KTUU. All rights reserved.