Dec. 5 was the windiest day in Bethel in six years. The Bethel Airport weather station recorded wind speeds of 70 mph.

The truck trail on the frozen Kuskokwim River has been extended upriver from Bethel to Kwethluk, Akiachak, and Akiak.

November 2021 was brutally cold-- the kind of cold that slaps you across the face and doesn’t stop there. It also freezes barges in their tracks and makes pipes burst open. But besides what you felt on your face, and the anecdotes you hear around town about frozen septic tanks, there’s hard evidence too.

“A lot of people might be a little disappointed,” said Akiak Chief Mike Williams Sr. “But we have to be very patient in getting the glitches worked out. And I know that it's going to get better and better as we move along here.”

Despite a decrease in the purse money for the races and an ongoing pandemic, the local mushing season is shaping up to be a good one. A slew of local mushers have already signed up for the season’s biggest race: the Kuskokwim 300. And an early cold snap means that the season-opening races are likely to go on more or less as scheduled, starting with a 32-mile race on Dec. 4.

Early in the morning on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 25, village police officers in Chevak found two people dead in their home. They were Frances Slats, age 30, and Robin Atcherian, age 28.