On the third weekend of February, some friends and I snowmobiled upriver to the village of Chuathbaluk, and then straight north into the Russian Mountains.

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The Russian Mountains are a circular mountain range approximately 10 miles upriver from Aniak. Little Russian Mission (Chuathbaluk) was settled at the southern tip of the mountains, which is how the range got its name. The highest peak stands at 3,077 feet.

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We snowmobiled into the area, stopped and cooked moose sausage, then snowshoed up one of the mountains to an elevation of 1,515 feet.

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We could see all of the surrounding mountain ranges on the mostly sunny day.

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The wind picked up in the afternoon and as we snowshoed back to the snowmobiles, the wind swept across the landscape as it does on the Great Plains, and it made me miss the prairie for the first time since moving to Alaska.

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