Alaska

Grazer beats the behemoth that killed her cub to win Alaska’s Fat Bear Contest

Published

3 months ago

October 9, 2024

Grazer beats the behemoth that killed her cub to win Alaska’s Fat Bear Contest

In a storyline better befitting a melodrama than a popularity vote, Grazer won her second Fat Bear Contest Tuesday by defeating the male behemoth that killed her cub this summer.

Grazer beat Chunk by more than 40,000 votes cast by fans watching live cameras of Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve.

Fans cast votes online for their favorite chunky competitor in tournament-style brackets that begins with 12 bears. They picked the bear they believe best exemplifies winter preparedness by the fat they have accumulated over the summer feeding on the sockeye salmon that return to Brooks River.

The bears often perch at the top of a falls in the river, grabbing leaping salmon out of the air as the fish attempt to hurdle the waterfall to spawn upstream.

This is where Grazer’s cub died after it slipped over the waterfall and was killed by Chunk, perhaps the most dominant brown bear on the river. Grazer fought Chunk in an effort to save the cub, but it later died. The death was captured on the live cameras.

Another death was captured live by the cameras just last week, delaying the release of the tournament bracket for a day. Bear 402, a female bear that was supposed to be a contestant in this year’s contest, was killed by a male brown bear the day the brackets were expected to be released.

Grazer has conspicuously blond ears and a long, straight muzzle, according to her bio page at explore.org. “She is a formidable presence on Brooks River. Her fearlessness and strength have earned her respect, with most bears avoiding confrontation,” it says.

Her other surviving cub from her third litter placed second two weeks ago in the Fat Bear Junior contest.

Chunk is perhaps the largest bear on the river, with narrow-set eyes, dark brown fur and a distinctive scar across his muzzle, his bio says. He used his size to rise to the top of the river hierarchy this year and secured the prime fishing spots.

“Chunk’s confidence and aggression paid off, allowing him to feast on 42 salmon in 10 hours,” it says. “His physical success is evident in his bulky form.”

Adult male brown bears typically weigh 600 to 900 pounds (about 270 to 410 kilograms) in mid-summer. By the time they are ready to hibernate after feasting on migrating and spawning salmon — each eats as many as 30 fish per day — large males can weigh well over 1,000 pounds (454 kilograms). Females are about one-third smaller.

The annual contest, which drew more than 1.3 million votes last year, is a way to celebrate the resiliency of the 2,200 brown bears that live in the preserve on the Alaska Peninsula, which extends from the state’s southwest corner toward the Aleutian Islands.

In addition to the live cameras, Katmai has become a bucket list tourist destination and viewing stands have been built on the river to allow people to watch the brown bears fish for salmon.

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Alaska

Trump Wants Denali Renamed

Published

7 hours ago

December 24, 2024

Press Room

Opposition to President-elect Trump’s renewed suggestion to change the name of Alaska’s 20,310-foot mountain back to McKinley includes many Alaskans, including Indigenous people, and the state’s two Republican senators. Sen. Lisa Murkowski advocated for years to remove the name of the nation’s 25th president, who never visited the mountain or had any connection to it, the Anchorage Daily News reports. “There is only one name worthy of North America’s tallest mountain: Denali—the Great One,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski wrote on X.

Trump brought up the idea in a speech Sunday at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest in Phoenix, where he praised William McKinley as a fellow supporter of protective tariffs. “We’re going to bring back the name of Mount McKinley because I think he deserves it,” Trump said. In 2016, Trump had said he might change the name back, a notion he dropped when Alaska’s senators objected, per the AP. Denali is the Koyukon Athabascan name that was used by Indigenous people for centuries. It translates to “the high one” or “the great one.”

The federal government named it Mount McKinley in 1896, which stood until Barack Obama’s administration in 2015. That switch came after years of effort by state officials and Native groups. Sen. Dan Sullivan once told an Alaska Federation of Natives conference that Trump made the same suggestion when he and Murkowski met with him at the White House in 2017. The senators objected vehemently, he said. An aide texted the Daily News that “Sen. Sullivan like many Alaskans prefers the name that the very tough, very strong, very patriotic Athabaskan people gave the mountain thousands of years ago—Denali.” (More President-elect Trump stories.)

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Alaska

Alaskan-named snowplows revealed by state

Published

15 hours ago

December 23, 2024

Press Room

Alaskan-named snowplows revealed by state

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Coming soon to Juneau-area roads; a trio of festively-named snowplows!

After hundreds of suggested names were entered in its annual naming contest, the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities announced Monday that it had narrowed its search down to three winning names for three of its snowplows.

The winning names were Berminator, Salt-O-Saurus Rex, and Ka-PLOW.

The names were chosen by DOT staff who felt they were most appropriate and represented Alaska the best, according to Eli Kesten-Brackett, a project assistant with the department.

“Since they move in formation, [DOT] thought it’d be cool to have them all named as a unit,” Kesten-Brackett said.

The Name-A-Snowplow contest that ended on Nov. 28 saw over 400 individual entries from residents around the state.

Kesten-Brackett said after noticing the popularity of similar contests in other snow-laden states in the Lower 48, the state thought a way to get people’s creative juices flowing was what Alaska needed.

“We thought this would be an awesome way to foster community engagement,” Kesten-Brackett said.

The winning name in the inaugural contest last year was Darth Blader, according to Kesten-Brackett.

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

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Alaska

Alaska Mileage Plan and HawaiianMiles status matches now live

Published

1 day ago

December 23, 2024

Press Room

Alaska Mileage Plan and HawaiianMiles status matches now live

Alaska Air announced its acquisition of Hawaiian Air almost exactly one year ago. Since the deal closed in September, the airlines have kept up an admirably brisk integration schedule – it’s now possible to freely transfer miles between both programs, book Hawaiian awards with Alaska miles and earn elite-qualifying miles in both programs.

Alaska has told us that it expects both airlines’ elite programs to merge sometime in Summer of 2025. However, it’s now possible to match elite statuses between both programs online, allowing both Alaska Mileage Plan and HawaiianMiles elite members to receive benefits regardless of which airline they’re flying.

How to match your Alaska / Hawaiian elite status

Visit this link. You’ll have to log-in using your Alaska Mileage Plan number

2. Using the form provided, sign-in with your HawaiianMiles info. If you don’t already have a HawaiianMiles account, create one using the link provided.

3. You should instantly reach a “match successful” screen that shows your new Hawaiian (or Alaska) status.

Alaska Mileage Plan and HawaiianMiles status matches now live

Which status will I receive?

You will receive matched status based on either your 2023 activity/current status OR your combined EQMs from both programs in 2024, whichever is higher.

If you’re matched by 2023 activity, or current status, it will be according to the chart below:

If you’re matched according to combined EQMs between both programs in 2024, it will be according to this chart:

Terms and Conditions

Mileage Plan and HawaiianMiles members who link their accounts will be eligible for a status match.
We will either match your existing elite status in either program or award status in both programs based on your combined elite-qualifying miles (EQMs), whichever is higher.
Please allow up to 72 hours for status to be reflected in your account after linking.
Guests currently participating in a status match or fast track challenge are not eligible until they’ve completed the requirements for their challenge.

Members will receive status in both programs as follows:

For status matched based on 2023 activity, status matched into Mileage Plan will be valid through December 31, 2024 and status matched into HawaiianMiles will be valid through February 28, 2025.
For status matched based on 2024 activity, status matched into Mileage Plan will be valid through December 31, 2025 and status matched into HawaiianMiles will be valid through February 28, 2026. If Mileage Plan and HawaiianMiles programs are combined into a single program prior to the end of 2025, equivalent status will be granted in the successor program through December 31, 2025.
For status matched based on 2025 activity, status matched into Mileage Plan will be valid through December 31, 2026 and status matched into HawaiianMiles will be valid through February 28, 2027. If Mileage Plan and HawaiianMiles programs are combined into a single program prior to the end of 2026, equivalent status will be granted in the successor program through December 31, 2026.

Quick Thoughts

Once again, I’m extremely impressed with how efficiently Alaska is managing this merger with Hawaiian. We’re barely three months past the close date and we already have reciprocal transfers, mileage earning and redeeming and now status matching. Both programs should be fully-integrated less than 12 months after the merger close.

You can see a full breakdown of Hawaiian elite benefits here and Alaska elite benefits here. As you might expect, Alaska’s benefits are more robust, but Hawaiian status can be good for discounted awards, club access, free checked bags, complimentary upgrades and more. It’s definitely worth doing if you’ll be flying Hawaiian within the next few months.

Note that Hawaiian status reset at the end of February, NOT on January 1 like Alaska. So, even if you have matched status to Alaska that terminates at the end of 2024, you can still squeeze an extra two months of Hawaiian status by matching now.