Clarise Larson

Juneau’s Eaglecrest Ski Area is slated to open at a limited capacity on Saturday and Sunday after an influx of snow earlier this week. 

General Manager Craig Cimmons said the city-owned ski area will begin operating with only the Porcupine lift running from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. That lift services the mountain’s easiest trails. 

The ski area is calling the partial opening a “winter preview weekend” since it’s only running one lift. Cimmons says opening the other two lifts that service higher up the mountain is weather-dependent and he couldn’t give a specific date yet. 

This past weekend, Juneau received nearly 14 inches of snow, measured at the Juneau International Airport. The majority of it fell on Saturday and broke the record for that day in history, according to the National Weather Service. 

The National Weather Service forecasts sunshine and low temperatures taking hold through the weekend. More snow is forecasted Saturday evening and into early next week. 

This year marks Eaglecrest’s 50th season as a ski area. 

Many retirees tend to spend their leisure time volunteering, reading books, or playing pickleball. But, 69-year-old Jack “Jack Hammer” Duckworth spent his Saturday evening in a boxing ring at Elizabeth Peratrovich Hall, facing an opponent half his age. He was there for the AK Beatdown’s 40th fight night in Juneau.

Duckworth was the oldest of 22 male and female boxers and MMA fighters between ages 16 and 69 who participated in the fight night – like Meg “Thrilla from Manila” Miranda, William “The Wolf Man” Atlas and Jamie “The Flat Liner” LaChester. AK Beatdown is a Juneau-based fighting league that hosts family-friendly fight nights that feature local and Alaska fighters. 

Duckworth ultimately got knocked down in the second round, but he said he still had fun. 

“I love it,” he said. “I started doing Taekwondo at 25, so I’ve been teaching for all these years and doing the boxing, and I totally support it.”

And, he wasn’t the only Duckworth fighting. His son and grandson were also in the ring that night. The family traveled from Ketchikan to partake in the event. He said fighting is the Duckworth way. 

“That’s why I’m doing it, just so we could all be on the same card,” he said.  

Professional fight nights like these have taken place in Juneau since at least the late ‘90s under different organizers. Cyndi Isaak is the current owner of AK Beatdown. The show took a five-year hiatus but returned last year. Now, Isaak said it’s back and better than ever. 

“It’s definitely got a fan base. It’s had the same following that comes all the time,” she said. “It’s just all around a healthy sport. I think the community loves UFC, and so it’s just kind of carried through.”

Saturday night’s show was completely sold out of its more than 450 tickets. In just one day, Isaak’s crew transformed the empty ballroom into a fighting arena. Dozens of tables and hundreds of chairs surrounded a professional fighting ring in the center of the room. 

“We really try to be super professional,” she said. “We have medics here. We have trained corner coaches. Our judges have been the same judges from day one, so it’s very consistent. We have the referees.”

Spectator Brian McFadden sat at one of the tables. He’s fought in previous fight nights, but on Saturday, he was there to celebrate his 34th birthday, alongside his children and family. 

“This is so far my favorite beatdown, since I don’t have to fight in it, and I just get to enjoy the livelihood and the energy,” he said.

McFadden said the event offers something for fighters to work and train for in Juneau,  especially during cold winters. 

“I think it’s a great asset to the fighting community,” he said. “It gives people in the community the ability to meet up every few months and do this for real.”

Isaak, the event’s organizer, said more events are planned for next year, and she’s excited to see support expand in Juneau. 

A magnitude 7 earthquake shook Juneau and other towns in Alaska’s northern and central panhandle late Saturday morning.   

According to the Alaska Earthquake Center, the quake happened at 11:41 a.m. and was centered roughly 55 miles north of Yakutat, at a depth of about three miles. 

Residents from Juneau, Haines, Whitehorse and other Southeast Alaska towns reported houses shaking briefly. There were no immediate reports of any damage. The National Weather Service Juneau says there is no tsunami danger from the earthquake.

This is a developing story. Check back in for updates.

Downtown Juneau’s annual Gallery Walk is Friday evening.

More than 50 businesses and organizations will feature art exhibits, activities, live performances and holiday cheer.

One of those organizations is local conservation nonprofit Southeast Alaska Land Trust, also called SEALT. This gallery walk will be the second year of their “Conservation Art Show” featuring local Juneau artists Teri Gardner Robus, Patrick Ripp and others sharing work that was created on conserved lands in Southeast Alaska. 

Bailey Williams is the outreach and development specialist at SEALT. She spoke about the upcoming event and the meaning behind it during KTOO’s Juneau Afternoon on Tuesday. 

“This project came about kind of very organically, because there are so many amazing artists in this town, it was probably inevitable that our paths would cross with some of them,” she said. “We had this idea of local talent going out onto our conserved sites and painting what they saw.”

Other artists will be featured at the Juneau-Douglas City Museum, like Bo Anderson and Kathleen Harper. Their joint show, “Art Scraps”, opens this Friday with a reception at 4:30 p.m. It features art created using a variety of upcycled, recycled and reused materials. 

The couple also spoke about their upcoming show during Juneau Afternoon on Tuesday. Harper said she’s always had a knack for making art out of odd objects and is excited to showcase it during the exhibition. 

“I’ve always been very drawn to mixed media since forever,” she said. “Even in college, I was always like, ‘I’m going to take all of these weird screws that I found in a scrap heap and turn them into a cathedral by gluing them together.’”

This Gallery Walk will also represent the last for some businesses, including Cordova’s, Sketch Studio and Ben Franklin. Front Street will become pedestrian-only starting at 3 p.m. and a Gallery Walk shuttle will run from 4 to 8 p.m. 

Parking during the busy downtown event is available at the Juneau Arts & Culture Center, the Driftwood Lodge lot and the Juneau District Heating lot. 

The city says it will not be enforcing paid parking downtown after 3 p.m. on Friday. Free parking will be offered at city-owned parking garages and lots, which are the Shopper’s Lot, the North Franklin Lot, the Downtown Transportation Center Garage, the Marine Parking Garage, the Whittier Lot and the South Franklin Docks & Harbors lots.

More information about the events and artists is available on the Juneau Arts and Humanities Council website.

Correction: The photo caption has been updated to reflect that Gallery Walk is a collaborative effort between the  Juneau Arts & Humanities Council and Downtown Business Association.

Juneau’s Eaglecrest Ski Area will not open to skiers this weekend after all.

Craig Cimmons, the ski area’s general manager, said Thursday that the recent rain washed away the snow that had accumulated on the mountain. That means the opening date will be pushed back at least a week. 

“We always put the first Saturday as the potential opening day, knowing that it’s hit or miss with the climate we have,” he said. “It’s not abnormal and it’s not a disappointment.”

Opening dates in recent years have been pushed back multiple times due to a lack of snow. The ski area does have high-efficiency snowmaking machines, which can supplement low snow. But Cimmons said there’s just not enough natural snow right now to go with it. 

“We couldn’t push out the snow we made in a way that we would feel we’re delivering a product that we’re really proud of, that’s safe and enjoyable, and an experience we want to offer,” he said. 

The National Weather Service in Juneau forecasts that snow is likely this weekend through Tuesday night, with low temperatures around 15 degrees Fahrenheit.

Cimmons said Eaglecrest will provide an update during the middle of next week about the status of the opening date for its 50th season as a ski area.

The City and Borough of Juneau is seeking ideas from Juneau residents about how to spend the fees paid by cruise ship passengers this coming year. More than $20 million is expected to be available for tourism-related projects. 

Juneau residents and businesses can now submit proposals to the city through Dec. 31. The last round of funding paid for things like free public Wi-Fi downtown and increased bus service to the Mendenhall Valley.

Alix Pierce, the city’s visitor industry director, said community suggestions play a critical role in what gets funded and what doesn’t. 

“We do get a lot of good ideas for what residents are feeling the need for in the community,” she said. “And, not spending general fund on our waterfront infrastructure and our visitor services does free up budget elsewhere in the city to do other things.” 

Every cruise season, the city collects a $5 fee from each passenger who comes into town from a ship. The fees can fund tourism projects that benefit visitors and locals in Juneau. In the past, these fees have funded upgrades to downtown public restrooms and improvements at Marine Park.

The city expects to collect about $22 million in fees this year. But the money collected can’t go toward paying for just anything. A lawsuit the cruise industry filed and settled with the city in 2019 clarifies the limits on how and where the city can use the funds, and some projects require approval by the cruise ship industry. 

Pierce said that people often don’t understand those parameters and that leads to a lot of proposals being rejected. 

“It’s unfortunately not money that’s just available to fill the hole in the city budget,” she said. “We are restricted in how we use those funds.”

Usually, the projects are downtown near the waterfront area, where the impacts of tourism are felt the most. But other parts of town can still secure funding for projects, like near the Mendenhall Glacier, as long as tourism reaches that area and the project would benefit tourism. 

Residents can submit their suggestions for projects in a few different ways. The city has a web form where people can submit proposals. It outlines what types of projects would fit the criteria. The Assembly will ultimately decide which projects to fund during the spring budget cycle.

Clarification: This story has been updated to reflect that the lawsuit settled between the City and Borough of Juneau and the cruise ship industry in 2019 lays out constitutional limits on how passenger fees can be spent.