Oi, this blows

The wind was extra-ordinarily high this morning. I mean, dang. The hard bike ride gave me a good boost though. Turned the volume down on the day.

Climbing Like Stinky Patootie

I mean really. I lay off top-roped route climbing for a month and I can't finish off a single route in an entire night of gym climbing! Gah!!! I mean, ok, I really got two routes finished. But I spent the rest of the night falling. Repeatedly. And hanging in my harness. Very disheartening.

And of course Nate just cruised 5.11's all night. Grrrrr.

-sigh-

Daddy Long-Legs

So Dev and I went snowboarding at Timberline lodge on Saturday with our friends Warren and Toni. Snow kept falling all morning. The temperature hovered in the 20's. Our instructor rocked the slope. And Devon and I feel like we can ride a snowboard now. We still need more practice and we have one more lesson in our package, but we definitely can ride a snowboard now. I need a lot of practice riding the toe edge but it really is just practice at this point.

Warren and Toni suffered through the first day of snowboarding. Which is normal. I have not talked with a single person yet who had a good first day on a snowboard. But everyone I've talked to about boarding has had a good second day. Like Dev and I. -grin-

And apparently I kept rushing ahead of our crew on the slope and in the lodge. Finally Toni asked Dev where her husband Daddy Long-Legs was going so fast. So Dev has been calling me Daddy Long-Legs ever since and chuckling to herself every time.

Snowboarding tomorrow

The weather on Mt Hood has been right for the last week. So it looks like Dev and I will be going to Timberline Lodge for the second of our three lessons tomorrow. I'm so ready. -grin-

Flat tire yesterday

Went out to the garage. Started wheeling my bike out. Found I had a flat. Curses flowed like beer at a frat party. Tried to find the puncture agent - no dice. Wasn't going to put a new tube into the tire if I can't find the thorn or wire or shank or shard of glass that rendered my tube deflated.

-sigh-

I was really looking forward to the ride yesterday.
I fixed the tube last night. Still couldn't find a cause. So we'll see if the tube stands up to the ride to work today.

Still rolling it around in my head

I haven't posted my Mt Hood climb report yet because I'm still rolling it around in my head. Which is probably a mistake - I should have written my experience down more fully when it was still fresh. And now three climbers have been stuck on the mountain for over a week. Their ordeal stands in stark relief to my climb. We had perfect weather, they got stormy conditions; we had less than really complete gear lists, they had a text-book and almost professional approach to the climb.

I've been glued to the news about their misadventure. And I've been replying the day of my summit attempt. And it makes for good thinking, but not for good writing.

Last Week

Last week rolled by pretty quick and with little fanfare. I rolled through a 40 hour grind to reach Friday. Dev worked a few more hours.

Saturday changed the complexion of things. Dev and I went snowboarding at Timberline Lodge on Mt Hood. The weather looked a little dodgy on the weather reports, but we woke up early and gambled that rain would in fact be snow at 5000 feet on the mountain. And we won the bet. Snow dusted the slope all day long with brief breaks and the temp stayed well within the range of comfortable.

I had a lot of fun in the snowboard lesson. I've only been snowboarding one time before. I went up to Tahoe with some friends from work back when I lived in the San Francisco bay area. The day at Tahoe was warm and the slope icy. I had a terrible time. This weekend at Mt Hood I felt like I had better control of the board and the snow conditions were better for a novice learning how to control a waxed piece of wood on a steeply sloped surface of low friction material.

Dev had a harder time of it. She left the slope exhausted shortly after the lesson ended. Our first ski lesson treated her better last season. But we have two more lessons, so there remains a good chance that she might convert. She likes the style and weight of the gear better than snow skiing gear. -grin-

Can't wait for our next trip to the mountain.

Pictures from Hood yesterday

Here's the pictures I took yesterday. I hope to have a more detailed trip report up sometime this week.

Not quite there

I climbed up the side of Mt Hood today with Nate, Sue and Aaron. We fell short of the summit by a thousand feet. I'm beat and will post more details later. I'm off to bed now. -grin-