Snow Pit Graph Explained

Many of you will be familiar with this stuff already, but Aunt Tilley (Margo) wanted a more thorough explanation of the graph in my last post, so I wrote it out for her and figured I might as well put it up here, too.

Soggy Slogging at Yodelin

We took Jessica out for her third backcountry weekend in a row, aiming for the trifecta of difficult skiing conditions. We were lucky to find 15" of new snow that had been subject to 2 or 3 days of above freezing temperatures and several inches of rain. Had to be some of the soggiest, heaviest skiing I've ever done, but we had a good time, dug some pits and did some beacon practice before running home to the beer and dry clothes.

Breaking In New Folks, 12/12, Hyak

This was a Cascade Backcountry tour, and a beacon/travel education day for a couple of friends who are new to touring.

The very ambitious (and never really serious) plan was to head out the XC trails from Hyak and scoot out to Twin Lakes, then up to ski the east slopes of Silver. Coverage along the XC trails is pretty good, with only a few bare patches, but even at 3400 feet there's only 18" of snow on the ground, if that.

Since both Jessica and Leigh were working on new boots, we made it a travel day and skinned up to just shy of Windy Pass and did a nice big beacon search clinic. Great fun, and everyone did a great job. It's a treat to go out and have a blast with enthusiastic people when, if it were just me, I'd probably stay home and eat pancakes, waiting for better snow.

Occasional sun and great visibility was a bonus. Surface hoar forming everywhere, with particularly impressive formations in the creeks and riverbeds. Had we dug a pit, I'll bet we would have found some near the ground, but we were occupied with beacon work.

All Hail Turkey... Wait, What?

Wednesday’s whirlwind adventure was an interesting experience with a very interesting guide. The day started with a history of Turkey’s national hero, Ataturk, and the glorious revolution of the early 1920s. It really started to get fun when he started telling the ‘real truth’ about events that we all thought happened in Greece, but really, apparently happened in Turkey.

The Wishing Crack

Today was a very long and tiring day. I did a whirlwind tour of the Antalya region of Turkey. We hugged the coastline, visiting a number of really fascinating sites, and took in the general amazing beauty of this region of the country. I was out the door at 7:30 this morning and not back to my room until 11pm. I’d love to know how many miles we covered. Since it is so late and I’m exhausted, I’m going to put off doing a post about this day until tomorrow. It was filled with ups and downs, literally and figuratively.

Keycards Of Doom

What’s happened since I last posted? I have no idea. All I know is it involved a lot of cheese and a lot of alcohol and I woke up this morning and I was in Belek, Turkey. Ok.. cool.

Nighttime In Annecy

[caption id="attachment_339" align="alignleft" width="500" caption="An old church in Annecy, with my dinner restaurant at the left."][/caption]

Annecy, France - I Am Not A Dog Person

Today was another beautiful day in Geneva and a lovely day to travel to Annecy, France, which is only about an hour away. Annecy is nestled in between a large lake and the Alps. In this way it reminds me very much of Bariloche. However, being the beginning of fall, there is no snow on the mountains. Well, except for Mont Blanc which I was able to get a nice view of from Geneva which is still fairly white. The sheer, tall, limestone cliffs that surround Lake Annecy are making me itch to climb. Unfortunately, the bathroom in my room here does not have a door, and therefore, no door frame on which to do some pull-ups.

A Convention That Happens To Be In Geneva

Five things about Geneva:

Spontaneity Arete, Le Petit Cheval

Andy has been diligently hunting for moderate alpine climbs that Anastasia would be willing to do -- Spontaneity Arete just east of Washington Pass was the latest effort. Short approach, minimal scree and loose garbage, solid rock.

Into The Land Of Fire

Our Argentina story, in moving-picture format...

Into The Land Of Fire on Vimeo.

How I Missed Politics...

My favorite part about the trip to Argentina was the absence of the health care debate. After watching President Obama's health care speech to the joint session last night, I'm hopeful that we'll be able to move forward with meaningful reform. But man, did I want to smack the congressman from South Carolina. When I found this little photoshopped image, it made my morning...

La Ultima Día

A quick one today, with no photos. We returned to Cerro Castor for a thigh-burner, since the weather forecast didn't look as good for touring and we all wanted to maximize our turns in good snow, since we're returning to a problematic season known as "late summer" in Seattle.

As before, Castor was fairly empty. There was a truckload of Argentinian army skiers out for a training day, which was both fun to watch and comical/painful at times. We spent the morning exploring the edges of the resort, wandering as far out of bounds as was practical. The snow was wind-effected, as per usual, but we explored some fun terrain and found a few stashes here and there.

After a quick lunch in the trees (empanadas and steak sandwiches, naturally), we began the final powder hunt, scraping together as much styrofoamy windbuff as we could, followed by one last slackcountry run through some excellent heavy powder, which had us all feeling right at home.

To our surprise, we managed to ski about 14,500 for the day. My thighs were feeling it by the end, but it's pretty impressive what seven days of skiing can do to get you into shape.

It's snowing in Seattle, right?

The Power of Empanadas

Meat and bread. So simple, yet so delicious, the empanada has become a staple of our backcountry diet. After Juan Pablo's wife Elena graced us with hers for our tour of Cerro Bonéte we've been vacuuming them into our mouths whenever the opportunity strikes. To our great delight, we found a pizza and empanada shop about a block away from our hotel. The lord works in meaty and delicious ways.

Dia De Los Perros

A Day For Arranging Things

Today was on the books as a rest day, so we slept in and took our time getting ourselves going. We had three tasks: rent a car, secure transportation from here to Punta Arénas at the end of the week, and the Secret Mystery Mission. The Mystery Mission was supposed to be the bulk of today's post, but due to a scheduling conflict the mission will take place tomorrow, so you'll have to wait. All four of you.

Cerro Benéte Couloir

Juan Pablo picked us up this morning and drove us out on the Panamericano, which winds from Ushuaia all the way through South America, Central America and, in theory, to Alaska. We'd come out this way when we went to Cerro Castor, but with poor visibility we hadn't really experienced the journey. At the start, this time looked to be little different.

Glaciar Martial y el Viento Que Nos Comió

The Martial Glacier and the wind that ate us... or at least tried.

After skiing Cerro Castor yesterday, we had high hopes for our first day of backcountry skiing. Andy (Antonio) and Anastasia both woke up with a head cold (Anastasia had hers yesterday... perhaps I need to watch those two more closely), but were too excited at the prospect of powder and views that they rallied admirably for our 8:50 pick-up time.

Fifty Four Degrees of Latitude - 8/28/2009

The streets of Ushuaia fall quickly to the water, stuck as they are on the flanks of the mountains that tower over the town and tumble into the Beagle Channel below. Our small, two-story apartment sits four streets up from the waterfront and faces south, toward the Channel. Toward Chilean Tierra del Fuego. Toward Cabo de los Hornos and Antarctica beyond. It is truly a spectacular place to be, after spending so many hours reading stories about this part of the world.

They Really Go The Other Way

The toilets that is... They swirl the other way. Happy dad?

We bought our tickets to Ushuaia today, leaving on Thursday. We're optimistically packing our bags for a day of rain-soaked snow tomorrow, then heading to the bottom of the world to chase the good snow.

After eight days down there we'll make our way to Punta Arenas for our flight to Santiago, but that's a long time from now. In the meantime we'll be hunting snow and eating lots of incredible steak, if there is any justice.

El Fin Del Mundo?

A brief update from rainy Bariloche, where we've arrived to a classic pineapple express. After receiving nine (9) FEET of new snow in the last few days, Bariloche is now getting hammered by rain and fifty degree weather. The forecast is poor for the remainder of our time here, so we're looking into flights to Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world. South of the Magellan Strait. Tierra del Fuego.

I figure we should rent kayaks and round Cape Horn while we're there.

More when we know what we're doing.

Emergency Ski Surgery

Well, I suppose it was hardly an emergency, but I thought I'd document the project I did for Silas when he blew his ski edges out on an early season powder day. Too many rocks, not enough snow.

July 4th, Mt. Adams Southwest Chutes

I was unusually luke-warm about this trip in the two weeks leading up to it. The plan was, like last year, to drive down to Mt. Adams on Friday, climb and ski the Southwest Chutes on Saturday, then drive to Hood and ski that on Sunday. With job dissatisfaction weighing my mood down, that just sounded like a hell of a lot of work to me.

Rampart Ridge, Lake Laura - 5/24/2009

This was a Cascade Backcountry Ski Patrol day.

After putting Anastasia on the plane to Panama at six a.m., I was left with a day to fill. The usual suspects were off on other adventures, so I decided to do another recon trip in the Rampart Ridge area, which has become a bit of an obsession for me this year.

Gold Creek is, no surprise, completely melted out. I parked at the usual winter lot and took the first logging road at the toe of Rampart, about 100 yards past the lot. Going was fairly easy, with occasional pockets of thick slide alder. Views improved as I got higher up, leaving the road behind and going off trail for a while through thick alder and steep dirt. Connected again with the logging road that wraps around the base of Mt Margaret and ultimately to the top of Rampart, though I skirted off toward Lake Laura at about 4200 feet.

Given the thin cover, I officially abandoned hopes of getting up toward Alta, so I had a long lunch in the valley and then finished the climb to Lake Laura and onto the lower slopes of pt. 5606, which looks to have some excellent skiing on it. I got about 500 feet of quality turns on west-facing slopes before hitting the valley floor and cruising the logging road back toward Margaret. Caught a quick button-hook to connect to the lower end of the road I'd gained earlier in the day, climbed back up to where I'd first met it, then plunged off downhill until I hit the lower road. Back to the car at 3:00. Beautiful day out there and I finally feel like I've figured out the best way to get into that area in the winter.

As an aside, it's rare that I go out on solo trips, though I seem to seek them out a bit more now that Anastasia is traveling with some regularity. It's a different experience, to be sure. I traveled at my own pace (which isn't all that much faster or slower) and took a lot more pictures and short breaks -- perhaps because this was really a reconnaissance trip for winter fun. Still, it's an interesting change from the norm, though I think I prefer some company more often than not.

On Puppies

On April 11th, Anastasia and I made the 600 mile round-trip to Republic, in eastern Washington, to add a fluffy little fuzzball to the Pantengliopolis zoo. She's settled in well and has been, so far, a remarkably easy puppy.

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French Polynesia - Eating Donuts In The Ocean

Ok.  I am sitting here at LAX for the next couple of hours, sitting in between a group of random older people as they talk back and forth through me.  I could move, but I have so much stuff laid out over my lap that I just don’t want to, so I guess I get to  listen to their conversation about where they will go and eat tonight.  Awesome.

French Polynesia - Mobile Mosquito Bait

It has been a busy couple of days.  Yesterday we took the non-tourist jeep tour of Moorea, filled with activities that no tour company in their right mind would ever offer (though it would be great at raising awareness of the things local people have to deal with just a few meters inland from those fancy over-water bungalows).  Tropical disease tourism…  Million dollar idea!  Treatment afterwards is free!

French Polynesia - Sometimes It Pays To Be Social

Well, the rain stayed out at sea and several of us went out to dinner at a fabulous French restaurant.  I wasn’t in the mood to go – as per usual, my hermitlike tendencies were starting to come out and I wanted to just hole up in the bungalow, but I’m really glad I went.

French Polynesia - Tank Tops In The Void

I don’t know why I thought it was a good idea to join one of my bungalow-mates on a run this morning.

French Polynesia - Kick The Sting Ray

What is it with arriving in the middle of the night lately?  After hours of terrible turbulence and desperate attempts to sleep amidst weird, groggy dreams in which the other passengers were cheering for some unknown reason, the pilot welcomed us to Tahiti: Local time 1:15am, temperature 79 degrees.

79 degrees at one in the morning?  Are you serious?

Tahiti sucks

If I had to guess, Tahiti either has no solid internet access or whereever Anastasia IS in Tahiti has no wireless access...  I don't like trips like this as much...

Phillippines Adventure, Digital Aftermath

Anastasia returned from the PI (that's what we call it when we're "in the know") on Saturday, to be spirited away to Canada for a ski trip.  Now that we're home, I'm loading up the pictures from her trip, with ski pictures to follow.

Phillipines Adventure - Observations

Some observations:
1. Filipinos love hymns.  The Invocation, followed by the national Anthem, followed by the Provincial Hymn, followed by the Municipal Hymn.  It is amazing that anything gets done in meetings.

Phillipines Adventure - Firefly Trees

Most of today paled in comparison to this evening’s activity, but we’ll get to that in a minute. The morning began inauspiciously – a mosquito bite on my middle finger, drizzle during my outdoor breakfast and 4 hours of meetings and presentations. Things started to improve, however, as we traveled the island, visiting a craft market and the white sand beach on neighboring Panglao Island. From there we stopped in on the town hall of a Barangay (village unit) to watch some community mobilization in progress.

Phillipines Adventure - Keys to the Island

Today was exhausting, even after a full 12 hours of sleep. It started with 30 minutes of trying to (again) explain to the Holiday Inn that they lost my reservation, they were charging me too much and that I needed a room when I got back to Manila.  I talked to the receptionist, the hotel manager and the sales manager to clear this up.  Despite the mix up, everyone was wonderfully nice.  So far every Phillipino I have interacted with on this trip has been wonderfully nice.

Phillipines Adventure - Infant Baby Jesus Trading Store

The traffic in Manila is bad.   Wait, that is an incredible understatement.  The traffic in Manila is so bad that I don’t understand how people actually move from one place to another.  Left turns were recently made illegal in the city in an attempt to ease the horrific congestion.

Phillipines Adventure - Manila and Hotels

I am sitting at the ‘Hotel Lounge’ outside the Manila Airport at 11pm, after traveling for 17 hours. I’m trying to comprehend what it means that my name is not down on the Holiday Inn’s manifesto. Apparently, it means that the Holiday Inn has no record of my reservation and, therefore, I cannot get in a taxi for the hotel. Why can’t I just go there and ask them for a room? I’m confused.

Rampart Ridge, Take One

What's a ski tour without grand plans, smashed on the cliff-riddled shores of unexplored terrain?

I met with Alisa in Issaquah for an exploratory tour up Rampart Ridge, with an eye toward continuing on through the Rampart Lakes area and skiing down into Gold Creek north of Alta.  After stopping at the cache  to get radios and check in (this was a Cascade Backcountry patrol day), we headed up the ridge from the Gold Creek sno-park, looking at a long day.

Ymir Yurt Wars, New Year 2008-9

Better late than never.

After hearing tales of last year's powdery slopes and moldy yurt walls, Anastasia and I couldn't pass up the chance to join Andy, Mica, Kirsten, Nate, Todd and Murray (and Tundra, canine wunderkind) on a New Year's return trip to the Qua Yurt, 20 logging road miles outside Ymir in southeast BC.

Inauguration Corn -- January 19,2009

There are always other posts that I need to put up, other movies to finish, but the theme for today's ski was painfully obvious.

In the midst of a snowless January with 60 degree temperatures at Rainier, Andy, Kirsten, AP and I celebrated the coming inauguration of soon-to-be President Barack Obama with a ski of the Nisqually Chutes on the flanks of Mount Rainier.   A-fucking-men.

Inauguration Corn (right click, save as)