Come and gone

Bobby came to visit.I have pictures to prove that he does indeed get outside the house every once in a while. He came out to visit some of his buddies out here on the west coast. He visited Scott and a couple of online friends last weekend. He stayed with Dev and I on Monday and yesterday. We showed him around portland a little bit. Took him to dinner on Hawthorne. Drove him out to Timberline Lodge on Mt Hood (and WOW has the snow melted off of Hood fast!) Ran him by Multnomah Falls in the Columbia River Gorge. And went to a comedy show downtown last night. He's off to see Jim in L.A. as of this morning. Good to see him again.

Pain in the Neck

The kink is still here, though much lessened in intensity. I can turn my head more than yesterday without blinding agony. The bike ride into work this morning proved interesting - I could only have turn my head to check my left side. I slowed my approach where checking left seemed important.

Ouch!

Woke up with a wicked kink in my neck this morning on the left side. Not sure where it came from, but I'd love for it to go away soon!

Dragontail Pics posted

Pictures are here.
Enjoy!

Rainier!

I summited Rainier yesterday.

I got a lot of "how was it?" yesterday too.
The short answer: it was hard, but fun.

The long answer:
Dan and Nat and I left Wednesday morning from Portland. We had a big breakfast of pancakes and eggs and other goodies and then jumped in the car for the 2 hour something minute drive to Paradise in Rainier National Park. We checked in with the rangers and confirmed our itinerary and shouldered our packs for the march up to Camp Muir.
Our packs weighed far too much for our climb. We had 4 days of food and not a lot of lightweight gear. My pack weighed in at a (literally) staggering 60 lbs. Nat's weighed a little less and Dan's weighed a little more. The extra weight forced us to move slowly up the hill to Camp Muir and wiped us out by the time we got there. Camp Muir sits about 5 miles away from and 5000 feet above Paradise. So we climbed roughly the equivalent of the South Side route on Mt Hood just to get to our campsite. I dropped my pack at the top and got very shaky and very weak. Hydration and food became the first order of business.
Dan made it to the top a few minutes later, after watching an avalanche crash down the Nisqually glacier to climber's left. Just minutes before Dan and I had seen another avalanche crash down the same glacier. My first ever avalanche!
Once Dan joined us, we got to work pitching camp. Nat flattened out a platform for me and him. Dan set up his tent. We melted some snow and boiled some water and ate some dehydrated foods. Then we chatted about the climbing plan. Originally in the car we had planned to climb Wednesday night-Thursday morning. Our packs tired us out more than expected. The warmth of the afternoon left us a little dehydrated. And our longer than expected approach to Muir (we had figured 5 hours to get there and we used 6 and a half hours) only left us 2 or 3 hours at most for a nap before a Wednesday night assault. Since the weather forecast showed increasingly nice weather and since we had several days provisions, we decided to get a full night of sleep and spend the next day resting and preparing for the climb up the Disappointment Cleaver route.

Now, as I have a birthday party to attend (Happy Birthday Warren!!!!), I will continue the tale later. And post pictures when I get them from Nat and Dan.

Pics from Dragontail delayed again

Turns out that Nat and I took about 250 pictures of Dragontail and the surroundings. I need to winnow that down just a bit before posting them. Patience will be rewarded by some of the coolest mountains in the northwest....

Back in the lowlands

I'm slow in posting this. I got back from Dragontail Peak on Saturday night/Sunday morning. I got the pic from Nat today. I'll be posting the pictures and the climb later today or sometime tomorrow.

Stay tuned!

Voodoo Donuts at work today

Need I say more?

Free lunch

Free pizza for lunch at work. Kind blows my caloric intake for the day, what with the venti chai latte from Starbucks (evil empire) that I had this morning. The extra calories should help with my (hopeful) ascent of Dragontail on Saturday.

Quote of the Day

From Surlyblog:

The 666th post on the 6th day of the 6th month. That's cooler than a smelly vagrant telling you you'd make a good drifter.

They link to an Iron Maiden video even. Awesome.

Video Gluttony

Devon and I rented our entire allotment of videos for the next 6 months this weekend. Admittedly the selection skewed heavily towards my predelictions (sorry Dev!) Here's the rundown:

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead - Good performances by some great actors. Well developed story. Depressing as hell.

The Golden Compass - Good special effects. Beautiful visual realization of another world. Fairly sophisticated treatment of a fantasy novel. Cliched ending that messes with the ending of that book.

Sweeney Todd - Gorgeous set pieces and costuming. The fact that it's a musical didn't detract from the beauty of the cinema. Story is depressing as hell.

Mad Money - Ted Dansen, Queen Latifa and Diane Keaton in a comedy crime caper. Watched the first 20 minutes so far. Depressing as hell (for a different reason).

Madagascar - Dev helped promote this movie. It entertained my niece Reyna for 90 minutes during Jenna and Zack's visit. We're watching it tonight. Cute movie.

Looks like depressing wins the weekend.

Recreation on Angel's Rest

Dev gathered some of the Recreate Fitness crew for a hike up Angel's Rest today. Moderate hike at a good strong 2.5 mile per hour pace. We made it to the top in an hour. Enjoyed some long-desired clear blue sky sunlight. Then we trucked down the trail and drove over to the Edgelfield in Troutdale where we tucked into some much desired and well deserved victuals.
Thanks to Lynn, Tiffany, Christina, Mark and Nathan for coming out and hiking with us. We had a great time.

Climbing Unicorn and Boundary Peaks

Nat and I on the ridge between Unicorn and Boundary Peaks. Stevens
Peak is in the background.

The rest of my pictures for the climb are here.

Dan and Nat and I left Portland about 8 pm on Friday. We clambered into Nat's Subaru and jetted up I-5 into Washington State and toward Rainier National Park. Once in the Park we had a couple of navigational SNAFUs. We finally landed in the Ohanapecosh campground for some slumber. Saturday we arose not so early (7 am) and made not-so-quick work of breakfasting and striking camp.So much for an early start. We did get into the car and to the trailhead before 8:30 am. We loaded up and got on the trail at just about a quarter to 9 am. We followed a passel of boot prints in the snow going in the direction of our objective for the day; Unicorn Peak.


We followed the boot prints (and our maps and GPS units) to a gully. Up the gully we went to a little col (I think I used that word right). Then we turned left and spied the group ahead of us; about 8 or 10 climbers sat at the top of the next gully. They looked like they were resting and prepping their gear for the final part of the climb. Dan and Nat and I all looked at each other a little sourly. It seemed like we would have to wait for a while to climb once we reached the summit block. We trucked up the gully to reach a saddle. We followed the snow ridge to the left and up. We crossed the snow bridge and then rain started to fall.
Now the forecast for the day had said 40% chance of precipitation and thunderstorms after 11 am. Eleven AM hadn't arrived just yet, but the rain felt like it needed to be early. Off to the south and west, the clouds looked ominous. Solid and dark. They had that peculiar not quite clouds, not quite mist look that you see when rain clouds that are actually raining are coming your way. North of west, the clouds swirled and had a lighter color where they met the air over Rainier.
We stopped again to don our rain shells. Dan and I grumbled about maybe we ought to think about turning around. The sky looked bad. The clouds seemed foreboding. Nat had none of it. "We're not turning around," he said tersely. So one we marched up to the ridge. We passed through a small rock and tree section and then gained the summit ridge. The large group ahead of us had stopped and were talking. One of the guys had everybody move so we could go by without impediment. We exchanged greetings and found out that they had made the call to turn around. Bummer for them. I understand the choice; unsettled wet weather and a large group climbing the technical summit block could make for a bad summit situation. Their decision came as good news to us. We could slide on past them and climb the summit pinnacle without a long wait for their group to finish their ascent.
We made it to the base of the pinnacle and watched a climber second up the "Roof" route on the summit block.The rain came and went several times in the next hour. It pelted us hardest just after Nat and I finished racking up and during the climb. Nat led the "Classic" route in good time. The wet and cold rock didn't really slow him down. He had changed into rock shoes; the damp rock may have made the advantage more psychological than physical. I followed next, tied into the middle of the rope. I climbed in my boots and the rock seemed fine. Slick for sure, but not glass-like. My hands felt so cold by the time I topped out that I could hardly squirm into my gloves. I traded spots with Nat and belayed Dan to the top. He came up a little slower than me as he was cleaning the route. We celebrated, took pictures and then rappelled off the very gnarled but seemingly very solid tree on the top.


On the ground again, the rain left us. We put away the rope and the gear, stripped off harnesses and packed away the technical gear. We looked around and watched the weather. Ate some lunch and then got moving again. Crossing back along the ridge we continued past the rock outcropping where we joined the summit ridge. We started towards Boundary Peak which is almost a sub-peak of Unicorn. The ridge had some gigantic cornices. The snow had some incipient cracks. Though the snow seemed super consolidated, we couldn't be sure if the cornices were totally safe. So we hugged the right side and moved through rocky outcroppings with trees as much as we could. Dan and I seemed doubtful about the prospect for forward progress again. The ridge looked burly from a distance. This highlights my biggest failing as an aspiring mountaineer; I want to prejudge the route before I'm close enough to really really see it. Once again, Nat wouldn't hear our objections so early. "Let's check it out. The notch is the only thing we can't see from here. We can retreat from the notch without hazard if it's impassable."


Fair enough. This is the attitude I really need to reprogram into my brain. "Go check it out!" instead of "Woah! That looks too burly!" So we followed Nat down the ridge. We came across a 10 foot drop in the snow. To our left was the potential cornice that we had no vantage to see. To our right, a 15 foot 4th class rock step. Nat clambered right on down it and continued on to the notch to check out the navigation. I waited for Dan to catch up. Then I down climbed with trepidation. The down went without incident. I landed in the moat around the rocks gently and climbed out to the right of our line. Dan followed without much effort (at 6' 7" his reach proved a real asset for climbing the rocks). We caught up with Nat. We went through some more trees and then came to a shoulder like snow slope. We kicked some steps around the corner and found flatter ground, alternating rock and scrub with patches of snow that led right up to the base of Boundary. Another 3rd or 4th class scramble saw us on the summit in the sun.
We stayed just long enough for some pictures. We'd had nice weather for moist of the traverse; the rain clouds had cleared out and after several minutes or so had given way to sunlight. The weather looked like it wanted to turn again. Puffy clouds were filling the valley below us. We got down from the summit and rejiggered our packs for the traverse back. Shortly we hit the descent route to the top of the snow gully and the way down. We found some ski tracks from a party we had spotted earlier, while on top of Unicorn. The group had skinned or booted to the top of the gully and then skied out. The action made me wish, for a minute, that I had brought my snowboard.


If I had brought the stick, then I wouldn't have been able to glissade. And the snow was perfect for glissading. Three fairly long runs down the slope took us all the way back to Snow Lake. The last run looked steep but felt perfect. The run out curved
to the left at the bottom and continued on for what seemed like forever. I went last; the 500-600 foot descent felt so fun. We stripped off our soaking rain pants (the temperature had risen again) and began the march to the trailhead.
I felt like I had a breakthrough climb. Nat and Dan and I all climbed without someone "senior" to guide us on the route. We tackled a technical rock pitch, bad weather and a real more-than-a-hike ridge navigation. We had mixed terrain and real route finding. And we had someone step up to the leadership role (thanks Nat!) to see us through some moments of doubt. The climb pushed me past my comfort zone just enough to expand it.

Pre-climb jitters

I have that small pit in my belly today. He shows up prior to most of my mountain excursions. I see him right before a tattoo session, too. He balances the excitement of the climb tomorrow (and the joy of the art inking my skin). I have no reason to be edgy. I know what I'm doing. I trust my team mates. The objective is well within our capabilities. I still feel this "what if?" in my nerves. I feel the "what am I doing?" hanging in the air.

It's a good feeling. It's my double check. It's my safety catch.

Oh the train!

The train is parked right outside the back door of Macforce. Parked
between me and my car. Several pedestrians have hopped across the
train to get to a bus stop or to the waterfront. Even if I jumped the
train (not exactly a safe move) I'd still be stuck. The train sits
between my car and every bridge and overpass across the river. The
train also prevents me from driving surface streets home. So I sit and
wait.

Kill me now (last night)

Couldn't make it to the gym, and had to dash home to let the dogs out after work. So I did a workout at home. Simple workout:

100 Burpees

Took me 14 minutes. Gah.

Ready to go

All our backpacks ready for the trip down Siouxon Trail.

Backpacking Siouxon Creek Pics

My pictures from Saturday and Sunday are here.

Nat posted his pictures here.

I'll put together a trip report in a little bit.

The Hunchback Mountain saga, chapter 1

The first time I tried climbing to the top of Hunchback Mountain was on my wedding day almost 3 years ago. I wanted to do a hike in the morning. Hunchback sits close to Welches, right off highway 26 at the Zig Zag ranger station. (This is less than a mile from the Resort at the Mountain where Dev and I got married.) The guidebook characterized Hunchback Mountain as moderate to the first viewpoint. So that morning, I round up my two brothers and my two groomsmen and drive to the trailhead. I took a liter of water and one clif bar. I dunno what the other guys carried. Not much. We toiled up the switchbacks in 90 something degree heat. Oh, yeah. I forgot to mention that Portland hit 105 degrees that day. Welches hit 95 degrees that day. So we get near the top of the ridge. All five of us are dying; wilting in the heat. We turn around and start down the trail. I get slower as we get closer to the bottom. The incline is killing my knees. My legs get a little shaky. I have to rest a lot. We make it back to the car. Sweaty but alive. And then drive back to Welches to get ready for the wedding.
I shower and shave. I get dressed. I walk across the property to get to the spot for the wedding pictures. And then I get a splitting headache. And then some nausea piles on. I grit my teeth and smile and get through the pictures. Dev can tell that something's wrong. Finally the photographer finishes. We make a beeline for the resort bar. I sit in the air conditioning and drink a coke. And just sit for a few minutes.
Ten minutes before I was due at the end of the aisle I felt right as rain. Heat exhaustion didn't kill me, and neither did Dev.

Round 1 goes to Hunchback Mountain.

Busted knuckes are the price of glory

Nate and Sue and Keith and I went climbing on Sunday. The picture above shows what my hands looked like after a few rounds of crack climbing in Oregon basalt. I had so much fun; I finally started to get the how of jamming. Nate and Sue put up several routes each without seeming to struggle. Keith and I had a harder time of it. We climbed until just shy of 3 'clock. Then the sun got pretty intense. We scrambled across the giant basalt blocks that form the base of the crag and then slipped, skidded and slalomed our way down the steep and not very well graded trail.

Here are some pictures.

Hunchback Mountain round 4

I got shut down on Hunchback Mountain today.
Again.
I got farther than ever before. I made it to Rimrock Viewpoint in an hour. Pretty zippy. Kinda. I was soaked by the time I got up there. I continued on but kept losing the trail. Lucky for me, there is only one ridge for Hunchback. If I went too far left or too far right, then I would get corrected by the significant altitude loss. So I wandered back and forth a little bit. Kept to the top of the ridge, as near as I could tell. Walked on the snow when I had to. Walked on dead plant matter when I could. Stepping over dead trees. Tripping on downed branches. Skipping through semi-overgrown tread paths. The day was good. I'll post the full previous story soon. Here's some pics from today.

Last weekend pictures

Pics from my visit to the Evergreen Aviation Museum last weekend are up here.

Research paper

I started checking out some of the details for my hopeful ascent of Mt Rainier this summer. The National Park Service has some really great information on their website. I downloaded a slew of PDF files. I need to hike up to Camp Muir at 10,000 feet to get a preview of the lay of the land. I thought it might be this weekend, but with the warming temperatures and the high potential avalanche danger, I decided that I need to postpone the scouting trip. In researching the trail to Camp Muir and the roads and such I found out just how much information the National Park System posts to their respective sites. I found a file that has just the compass bearings and landmarks from Paradise to Camp Muir so that a hiker can get down safely in the case of whiteout conditions. I found an elevation profile chart of the Wonderland Trail that circumnavigates the 93 miles around the base of Rainier. I found several iterations of trail and climbing maps with mileages and elevations. Just a great level of detail. Awesome.

No Climb for Me

Nat, Steve and I are bailing on a climb of Mt Hood that we were starting tonight. The weather looks bad through tomorrow; cloudy and cruddy. Rain and snow through Wednesday morning. Then the sky clears up tomorrow, but the mercury goes high. The Northwest Avalanche Center has projected avalanche danger above 7000 feet (Mt Hood's summit sits at 11,2237 feet) from Thursday through the end of the weekend. And maybe longer. Potential big wet spring snow slides. Avalanches that can loose the entire winter's snowpack in one go.

So it looks like we are going to stay home for the next few days instead of burning a vacation day for no summit and no fun.

Big Airplane

Dev, Randy, Candy and I went to the Evergreen Aviation Museum yesterday. Lots of airplanes and replicas. And I had really mixed feelings.

On the one hand, the fighter planes from World War II and all the historic planes and replicas of planes in the museum are undisputedly cool. They just appeal to some part of the male psyche I guess. And most of the WW II planes are actual decommissioned aircraft from that war. The docent who hangs out near the B17 Flying Fortress flew 30 missions in WW II. Then he got called back up for service in Korea. He's pretty close to the last of those pilots. Entered the service when he was 17. Gave some of his best years to fight a huge threat to the world; an admirable life path.

On the flip side, the museum is pretty much a shrine of adoration to the hyper-masculine "Warrior Male" ideal. It celebrates the service of a soldier as the highest ideal of citizenship. I can appreciate this to some extent. The world needs warriors to protect the weak from the brigand; I'm certainly not naive enough to believe otherwise. The wise sage and the selfless aid worker are equally laudable and admirable ideals, like The Peace Corp. Or Doctors Without Borders. The closest thing to civilian service mentioned by the museum was the revolution in US Mail delivery by air. I'd just like a little less complete Rah Rah with my history, I guess.

That said, Evergreen does have a great deal of history in a very small space. It's a worthwhile afternoon of wandering, wondering and drooling.

Oh, and the Spruce Goose is friggin' huge. I expected big, but this thing is gargantuan!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to my mom. And to Dev's mom. And to Lori. And
Kelly. And Jenna. And to all the other moms that I know!

In-laws in Town

Dev's mom, Candy, and Randy came into town as part of their vacation
they got here Friday afternoon. Dec and Candy walked in the doggie
dash yesterday morning while Randy and I chatted about submarines and
mountains and DB Cooper. When the ladies returned from their canine
pilgrimage, Candy said "Oh my gosh, I've never seen so many dogs! Dogs
in their own outfits and owners dressed up like their dogs!"
We got home from that and prepared for dinner by taking a long nap.
Pizza from Ken's Artisan Pizza followed the bliss of naps and preceded
the ambrosia of dessert from Pix. Then, cards for few hours.

New boots

I have feet and fit issues. I've been through most of REI's boots selection and failed to find a boot that works for me. Dev refuses to go shoe shopping with me any more. Salespeople at REI know me on a first name basis and quail when I walk in to the shoe department. Until the boots in this picture. I spent 15 hours on my feet in these boots last Sunday.

On my first day wearing them.

No blisters. No bruises. A few sore spots. Somehow I think that after 15 hours in ANY pair of footwear, I'd have some sore spots.

Lost in the Woods

Funny thing about GPS units, they tell you where you are, but not where you want to go....

I signed up for a 16 mile hike on Sunday with a guy whom I've done some longer and faster hikes this winter. Jeff is great; he knows navigation, he's very fit and he pays attention to the condition of the party. So I gather Nat and Dan for this hike (as conditioning for some of the climbs we want to do this summer). We meet in Portland and head of with Jeff and a few others. Laura works with Washington Search and Rescue and hike with Jeff a lot. Shortish and a really strong hiker, I like going on trips with her. Virginia and Shannon (a guy) are on the hike too. I've never met them but Jeff knows them and figures they're strong enough for the day ahead. And Tom is with us too; he's a great guy. He got me involved in leading hikes for the Mazamas.

We get to the trailhead and set up a car shuttle (the hike ends at a different trailhead than the start.) And we're off. We cruise up Defiance in just over four hours on the Starvation Ridge trail. About two hours in on the way up we put on our snowshoes and truck on in snowshoes until late in the afternoon. Most of our route Sunday is still snowbound. We had fantastic weather at the top of Defiance. I could see the Hood River valley and Mt Hood wreathed in some low clouds with the top poking through. Crystal clear sky over us. We met a couple of other Mazamas on top; chatted with them a while and ate lunch.

Jeff led us down a southeast ridge from the summit so we could work over to Green Point Mountain. We dipped down into the valley area between the mountains and wound our way past a few snow covered lakes. We started up a rise and decided we need to lose the snowshoes for a bit. The slope angle was about 35 degrees and a little steep for snowshoes. We took turned kicking steps up the slope and gained the ridge top and followed the ridge to the second summit of the day. We still had great weather and incredible views. The cookies I brought as a group snack were a big hit. I felt good. The weather was nice.

We started down off the summit and back the way we came for a little bit. We hit a trail junction (visible only as a large clearing in the trees) and headed off on a general heading on the plateau. We tromped along like this for another hour or so. The according to the maps and the GPS, it was time for us to descend a few hundred feet to gain the trail for the way out. We descend and hit a snowfield. No trail. Jeff seems puzzled. He consults with 2 gps units. He checks his maps. We start traversing across the ridge to intersect the trail. And we traverse. And we traverse. And light starts failing.

We hit the top of the ridge that has the trail we want. The trail is not in sight. We know it's to our west and below us. Somewhere. But the sunset just started and we're 3,000 feet above the trailhead. We move to the bottom of a snow covered rock field to lose 300 or 400 vertical feet fast while we have light and an open space. Jeff gathers us together. We make the decision to move into the trees in the dark and go downhill as much as possible without cliffing out somewhere. We take a quick group inventory; everyone has spare clothes, a space blanket, some sort of pad, extra food, a headlamp. Almost everyone in the group has cell phones. We make calls to wives and boyfriends and explain that we aren't lost, exactly, but that we will be delayed coming home. I call Dev and tell her the situation. First thing she says is "Oh God" quickly followed by "They're all Mazamas on the hike, right?" I know she'll be fine as soon as she says that.

We all pop on our headlamps and jump into the woods. We descend carefully in the darkening wood. Jeff moves pretty fast; he's good at this bushwacking thing. Over the next 2-3 hours we go down steadily except for one 60 or 100 foot drop. The slope gets steep and the dirt just slides when we put our feet in it. The vegetation doesn't work as an anchor or a handhold. So we move down this stretch carefully and slowly and one at a time. It feels like an hour goes by while the eight of us move down the slope. Some of us slide a little; some just sit down and slide a bit on their bums. We all make it safely down and regroup again. Jeff leads off one more time and within a very short time we find the trail. We're still about 1800 feet from the trailhead, but it's only 11:20 pm and I feel strong. We regroup again and then speed stumble our way down to the trailhead. Shannon, Virginia, Laura and Dan drive off to the Starvation creek trailhead to get the cars for the ride back to Portland. Tom, Nat, Jeff and I hang out for a short eternity at the Wyeth Campground trailhead. I pull my feet out of my boots for an almost orgasmic sense of relief. We bundle up during the wait since cold air from a creek blows through the parking lot. I doze a couple of times very shortly. I don't even know how long it takes for the cars to get back to us.

And just like that, my first adventure in being lost is done. Twenty one miles and 6600 vertical feet. Three GPS units and 5 maps. And a new pair of boots. Eight backpacks got home safely that morning.

Pictures from my mini-climb up Indian Point last week.

Just finished reading Annapurna today.

Wow.

Climbing outside tonight after work. Nice weather. Hopefully dry rock. Playing with my rock gear. Big smile.

These guys are my newest heroes. They took two years and backpacked from the equator to Tierra del Fuego *in the mountains* along foot and horse trails used by the local farmers and inhabitants. Incredible. I want to be them when I grow up!

Good lord, I haven't posted in a while. Lots of new things happening here in Portland:

-My cousin Jenna and her family are moving to Portland/Vancouver later this year.

-The Mazamas BCEP program just wrapped up, so I can get bak to my regular climbing, hiking, etc. I met some really good folks in BCEP this year and hope to see them on a climb later this summer.

-Last weekend was the last hike with the BCEP class. It included a mini climb out on Indian Point. I'll post pictures later, but I want to say that the view and the drop-off (or exposure) on Indian Point is phenomenal!

-Bojangles got into a dogfight with another dog last night at the dog park. He's fine; he lost a dew claw and he's looking for revenge, but he's fine.

-I returned my upteenth pair of boots to REI last night. The quest for the perfect pair (for me) continues. Last weekend drove home the point about using the right footwear for the activity. More on that later. For now, I'm switching up to backpacking boots and hope to have less painful hikes for the rest of the summer.

-Devon is about to get Crossfit Instructor certified. She (and I) are very excited that a workout program has turned into a fun and rewarding activity that involves more than just exercise.

Watched The Mist last night. Enjoyed it a lot. Most Stephen King adaptations lose the creepiness or the suspense. This movie retained both. If you don't like horror flicks or creepy-crawlies, stay away.

Long day yesterday. Dev joined me and my Mazamas BCEP class (or more properly, the class which I'm assisting) for our 14 mile hike to Larch Mountain. I haven't done that mileage on a hike in a year, and it was Dev's first time for such a long hike. And she came out better than me (for one thing, her boots worked better than mine!) I'm not in the picture because I had to help one of the students back down when his knee went funny on him. Dev is hiding in the middle front row of the picture in the pink baseball cap and pink jacket. Even with 4 miles of snow cover the hike had a great pace and incredible weather. A good day!

Sometimes the adventure is in the backyard...

I started riding home in the sunlight, and the first day I've been on my bike without a jacket or long sleeves in months. People were out everywhere. Lingering. Spontaneous parties grew in front of cafes and bookstores. I saw at least fifty bikes at a corner bar at Williams and Skidmore. A crowd milled about in front of "In Other Words." A girl bent to grab the frisbee from the flower planter while her bearded boyfriend watched from across the yard. An older woman inclined her head in response to my greeting while finishing a drag from her cigarette as she strolled down the sidewalk. I saw families set up with lawn chairs at the old rose garden on Ainsworth. Suddenly I'm riding in the day's last gleam. I don't take off my sunglasses; I greedily take every drop of gold coming from the west. The warm air sleeves my arms. It's the first day of spring.

Nice review of anew Intellectual Design propoganda film starring Ben Stein: Expelled

And another here.

Favorite quote from first review:

You certainly won't hear anyone question why Expelled and the rest of the ID crowd pick on evolutionary biology for its materialism when every other field of modern science is equally so. Albert Einstein failed to devise a unified field theory despite decades of work, and hordes of physicists since have done no better -- why doesn't someone slap an ID explanation on that so we can call it a day?

Such a good birthday weekend. Dev and I took Friday off from work. Dev and Sue and I went to Smith Rock in central Oregon for some rock climbing. Sue led up lots of pitches so that Dev and I could climb. Dev hopped on some 5.7 routes and did extraordinarily well for her fifth ever climbing trip. The weather didn't cooperate with our plans very well; an hour after we to to the crag, rain and snow pelt down or about 20 minutes. We looked out west towards the Phoenix wall and saw snow and rain being blown into our side of the crag by a huge wind. The precipitation stopped, but the wind stayed around. The rain and snow hadn't lasted long enough to soak any gear or make the rock unsafe. So we kept climbing and had a great time, if a slightly chilly one.
While climbing the Peanut we met a climber named Harrison out of the Bay Area in California who was in Smith Rock for his "annual pilgrimage." We chatted and climbed. He raced up the 5.10a to my right on lead while I climbed a 5.9 on top rope. After several minutes of chatting and another move a little further down the wall, we lit out from the park to find sleeping quarters. Given the 26 degree temps projected for the night, we opted for a cheap motel in Redmond. $60 for 3 people and 2 dogs. Not a bad deal especially since the hotel was well maintained and reasonably clean.
The next morning saw us at the crag by 8 am. We hot-footed it out of the parking lot. Many groups of climbers were prepping their packs and organizing their gear in the parking lot. Since we had pre-packed out bags at the hotel room, we could jump the line and get down to the crag. We got on some popular routes pretty early on. Sue led up Cinnamon Slab and set the rope. Then we made Dev climb second. She raced up the 5.6 route with very little difficulty. We moved over to the Bunny Face area and started playing on the routes. A few minutes later Harrison and his crew showed up. We had a great time chatting with him and his friends and climbing. The weather stayed nice and we climbed to about 3 pm before we headed home. The last route (More Sandy than Kevin) stymied Sue for a while at the fourth bolt. We got a hand from climbers on a neighboring route to move the quickdraw from bolt 3 to bolt 4. Sue flashed up the route to finish it and the said I had to climb it and clean it.

5.10d/5.11a

Yikes.

I hung on the rope about 5 times while climbing the route. Shredded my fingertips. Climbed harder than I have ever climbed. And I managed to top out.

So

Awesome

After that monster route, we lit out for home. Got back to Portland about 7 and prepared for the next day; which I will talk about in my next post.

See the fancy wrapping job Dev did for my birthday present. Pretty cool.

The day before a long weekend. Hmm. Anticipation. I go to Smith Rock to climb for two days in celebration of my birthday.

At the airport and checking the day's news with free wifi on my ipod
touch. Dev and I are on our way to meet my new niece Teagin and to see
my longtime friend Chris Niemietz lose his bachelor-hood, I mean, get
married to lovely young lady in San Antonio, Texas. Should be a good
week.

This article tells the truth: the customer is not always right.
A decade I have been doing customer service. A decade has taught me that the points of this article are as close to gospel truth as you can get in secular life.

Rivercity Bicycles proves again how great they are. I popped in during lunch because I lost one of the bolts that secures my bike rack and rear fender stay to the frame. Sometime in the last month or two the demons of bike commuting claimed tribute and left me shy this mounting bolt. So I stroll into the shop during my lunch break and ask if they have a replacement on hand. The mechanic digs out the bolt, installs it, checks the other one and then refuses payment of any sort.

There's the reason I like the joint. They don't know me - I certainly don't come in often enough to be a "regular" or "big spender." Every time I go in for a small service issue, they just take care of it.

And I saw one of the managers or assistant managers walking around with an iPhone. That was pretty cool.

Lots of excitement on Geneva Ave tonight. I had just finished a short
climbing skills practice session with a couple of friends and had
settled onto the couch to read up on Mt Shasta and watch a rerun of
"Two and a Half Men." In the corner of my eye I saw a police car pass
by the front window and slow to a stop. The it reversed briefly and
started flashing its lights. "Odd," I thought. "I didn't see a car zip
by really fast." So I get off the couch to see what's up.
There's a silver two door Caddy sitting right at the corner of our
lot and the officer from the police cruiser is approaching the car. He
has the driver get out of the car. A second police cruiser has parked
behind the first on our block. The driver gets out of the Caddy and
just gets clear of the door and then the dumbass decides to run. He
makes three steps before he trips on his own feet and then the two
officers tackle him. They wrestle for a couple of minutes and I
started to think that maybe the officers were getting a little rough;
as in violating civil rights rough. When the officers picked up the
driver and hauled him back to one of the police cars, then I see the
knife laying in the street. And it was a dagger-sized knife: six
inches of blade and a big cross guard.
By the time that the first occupant of the car had been detained
there were three more police cars on the street. The new officers
pulled the remaining two occupants of the Cadillac out of the car. The
officers checked the second guy for weapons extensively. He wore a big
baggy flannel and super baggy cargo pants. The police seemed very
intent on removing his belt; I couldn't see if it was one of the
belts with a knife blade built into the buckle.
The third occupant of the car, the only girl, sat on the curb in front
of the neighbor's house. She smoked and answered questions for the
cops. The police treated her much less roughly than the two guys.
Dev got home for the tail end of the festivities. The cops sped away
and a tow truck dragged off the Caddy. Plastic evidence bags held the
stashed drugs of the car's occupants. And we hit a quiet evening back.
I still wonder though why the driver ran. As soon as you take off the
cops know something is up. They know to look a lot more closely. They
know you ran for a reason.

The plan originally involved a weekend at Smith Rock. Weather.com
projected a low of 21 degrees and a 70% chance of rain. NOAA had a
slightly more optimistic take with only a 30% chance of precipitation
and a low of 22. On top of that, the Mt Hood area was peojected to see
3 feet of snow by this morning (saturday) and that means a drive out
to eastern Oregon would involve chains and extra drive time.
So we scrapped the plan.
John and Jess and I drove out to the mountain today and rode the
snowboards in the fresh powder. I rode intermediate slopes all day
long. I got buried in powder a couple of times. Jess got bogged down a
couple of times. And even John managed to sink himself in drifts up to
his chest a couple times. We all rode well and we all survived without
injury, even though I buried my tip a couple of times and did some
impromptu cartwheels.
Links to pictures coming soon.
Oh, and powder days rock even if the sky pelts you with snow all day
long.

Greg Palast has a great take on the Elliot Spitzer mess. Not quite a conspiracy theory, but certainly food for thought. The timeline goes something like:
Spitzer worked against the sub-prime mortgage criminals like Countrywide and Bank of America.
Spitzer's bank accounts get watched (by the banks of the Feds - doesn't really matter)
Spitzer gets caught paying a hooker.
Spitzer gets outed by the Feds, unlike other Republican-friendly public figures (think Senator David Vitter paying for "diaper service")
Spitzer resigns, as he should. But the subprime debacle loses one it's leading champions.

Makes my blood boil.

Spring is coming. Crazy as it seems.

I went snowboarding up at Timberline Lodge on Mt Hood with John and his friend Caitlin on Saturday. I rode down almost all intermediate runs. I didn't fall that much, and never very hard. We went up the Magic Mile chairlift and it was my first time skiing that high on the mountain. Above treeline. I could see Mt Jefferson and Broken Top way to the south. I could see the clouds wrapping Portland in their gray grip. I had a blast cruising down the wide open upper slopes; no trees, nice slope angle, lots of room to avoid the other skiers. Just a great time. I'll try to link pictures when John gets them posted.

And yesterday I led a hike up Hunchback mountain out of Zig Zag Ranger station. I had a nice crew of Mazamas with me. Almost all the snow from 2 weeks ago had melted off. What snow remained made some of the hiking feel more like an actual climb. We topped out at Rimrock viewpoint after about an hour and a half. We turned around mainly because the snow seemed like it might get really sloppy for the cruise down and I wanted to make sure we all got back comfortably. I want to make it to the Great Pyramid. Maybe later this spring.

The weather yesterday made me think that Spring has sprung. Cool and cloudy but dry with the skies opening to the sun as the day got late. Nice day to be outside. Nice day to ramble.

Back to the climbing gym for me tonight. I really enjoy going to
Crossfit but I need to build my climbing chops for the upcoming
season. Since I need to get in for two or three night a week that
means I have to let go of something else (both to maintain marital
harmony and to avoid overtraining). So a monthly membership at the
climbing gym it is and hopefully I'll get some great technical alpine
climbs this spring and summer.

Alive and well on Monday after a great day snowboarding on Saturday.
The snow kept falling and no one came to Ski Bowl so lift lines didn't
exist. Front of the line every time. Then I had great weather
yesterday for my Dog Mountain hike lead for the Mazamas out in the
Columbia River Gorge. Sunny and cool. Good group of hike attendees.
Then I spent the evening watching two episodes of Rome with Dev. A
relaxing and fun weekend.

I climbed Mt Hood yesterday.
Pictures here.
Trip Report follows.
---

7:00 am Summit Ridge
I arrived at the top of the Old Chute to find a hand-width ridge of wind swept snow at the terminus of the chute. My calves had stopped at the bottom of the chute in protest. They sat down with a good view of the hot rocks and told me not so politely that they might not be there when I got back down to them. But then I'm jumping ahead.

12:55 am Timberline Lodge
Steve and Nat and I loaded up and started on our way. We got to Timberline Lodge at about 10 pm Monday night. Nat and I had been watching the weather stay mostly stable for the week before. The forecast looked clear and stable through Tuesday evening. We each asked for a day off from work and got it (I know, not so hard core to use a day of actual vacation time for a last minute climb). Steve (our third) worked as a nurse and had time off until Thursday. He had also been watching the weather closely. We loaded into the cars after a good dinner and jetted up to the lodge. Nat and I grabbed almost 2 hours of fitful sleep in the car while Steve organized his gear and relaxed in the climbers hut.
We tromped around near the climbers trail to test the snow. We had snowshoes in the car, but the snow seemed mostly good for boots. We only sank a few inches on the worst test steps so we elected to not carry snowshoes. After that we just loaded up and started marching. We had seen a guy in a green fleece hat when we first got to the lodge. He was headed up to Illumination Saddle to grab a little sleep in a bivy and then on to conquer Leuthold Couloir. We didn't see any really fresh looking tracks when we left 2 hours later, so we figured that we started to the left or right of his path.

1:45 am Silcox Hut
We worked a pace line up the lower slope. I "kicked" steps in the mostly nice snow 15 minutes or so and then handed off the lead to Nat. I fell back to third in line and got a nice restorative few minutes as last man in line. Nat cycled on to Steve after 15 minutes and so on. We made decent time to Silcox and stopped for the traditional quick break.

2:46 am Palmer Snowfield Lifthouse
The paceline worked great up to the top of Palmer. The wind kicked up when we got there and the temperature seemed to drop. I dressed in all my layers for the break while we arranged our gear and strapped on the crampons and ate a quick snack. Even with the extra clothes I felt chilled as we prepped for the next leg. I shed my puffy coat but kept on my rain pants and the extra fleece top I'd donned for the break. Nat and Steve both left an extra layer or two on as well, We all figured we'd shed the layer after we got too warm moving. This didn't happen until we were on our way down.
Above Palmer, the snow got trickier to gauge. The half moon gave flat light. Sometimes what looked like crust felt like powder; sometimes what looked like crust barely took crampons. We weaved around and up the slope towards Crater Rock trying to avoid the deeper snow. The wind kept on us and kept us from overheating. We still didn't see any other boot tracks but chalked it up to darkness and proximity.

5:50 am The Hogsback
The snow only got softer as we got higher. On the last bit of the Crater Rock ascent the snow got consistently calf height or deeper. NWAC had marked avalanche danger as "moderate" while specifying slopes facing the sun and getting warmed during the day. The steady susurrations of tinkling ice coming down the Steel cliffs opposite us made me nervous. It didn't feel warm enough to be melting out but the sound didn't reassure me.
We steadily traded leads traversing on our way to the Hogsback. The snow stayed near knee depth as we trudged on. The same light that baffled our snow sight also hid the Hogsback until we were almost straddling it. Another quick break and we took off again.

7:00 am Summit Ridge
So we kept on through the deepish snow across the Hogsback. We broke left just under the lower set of rocks between us and the old chute. We paused a few minutes after starting the traverse and snapped some pics of the sunrise. The high clouds coming in from the west lit up spectacularly and gave us a great show. We turned back to our pace line and found that my turn as lead got shorter. This was good except for the fact that Nat and Steve's turns also got shorter. My calves checked out about this point. They screamed every obscenity they knew (and I didn't know that there were that many!) and sat down. I pressed on without them and managed to get to the firmer snow of the Old Chute.
Just in time for my turn at lead. Sigh.
The climbing became fun here. Firm windpack snow with good purchase to crampons. The slope angle made alternate ax grips usable and gave our shoulders a break from cane position. Even without my calves I made decent time to the top. And to the tiny knife edge ridge. To my right stood a tall wind-packed lump of snow and ice. Then a gully. Then another gendarme-like clump of the same sort of snow. I turned downslope and shouted to Nat that we chose the wrong route. I felt tired; the wind scoured the top 40 feet of the chute and started to chill me; the very sharp edge of the snow ridge unnerved me a little.
Nat climbed the last bit to me and we sat waiting for Steve. Steve reached us in short order and we started talking the options. Another climber started up the chute during this discussion. He caught up to us after a few minutes and climbed over the first lump very firmly and definitely kicking each step and planting his ax and trekking pole carefully in the snow. Nat left him plenty of room and then followed to the top of the first bump. He watched while the climber dropped into the gully and started figuring a way to get over the second bump. The climber worked at it for a few minutes and seemed to make progress. Nat didn't seem reassured by watching though. We might climb through it with reasonable facility, he reasoned. But we might not down climb it to get back. And the drop into the gully below gave us a tremendous feeling of consequence.
We dickered for a few minutes but the decision had really already been made. We had made it to 11,200 feet. Steve and I had summited Hood before so the decision went a little easier for us, I think. We carefully picked our way off the first lump and then started back down the chute. I wondered about the solo climber on Leuthold. Did he turn around? Had he been strong enough to kick steps in the soft snow and get to the top of the couloir? What was he going to do when (if) he hit the summit ridge? The snow didn't look any better to the climber's left of the old chute.

8:20ish am The Hogsback
The same snow that made going up so painful made descending fairly nice. We picked out way down the chute on the firmer snow and then hit the soft stuff and made goodish time. We got to the end of the Hogsback and sat down for "lunch" and lots of water and some sun. We snapped some pictures. We reviewed the conditions. We went through our decision about a dozen times. And came to the same conclusion.
The other climber came down and introduced himself: Keith. He had made it past the second hump in the ridgeline and said it opened up nicely after that for an easy shot at the summit. We chatted for a while. And then he trotted down ahead of us. We started down in the blissful, perfect plunge-stepping snow less than 10 minutes after Keith departed. We tried glissading, but except for the cat track between Palmer and the off-piste area, the glissading was only so-so. The cat track provided fast glissading and Steve proved himself the glissade master, leaving Nat and I way back.

10:30 m Timberline Lodge
Back at the car. We drove down and ate the second biggest hamburger I've ever seen in my life at the Zig Zag Inn. Then we drove home.

Equipment:
Standard solo gear: Ax, Crampons, Helmet, Spare set of calf muscles

Conditions:
Mostly good. The summit ridge seems to be changing a lot and relatively quickly. The other climber Keith told us that a month ago the summit ridge was less severely built up and wind packed. I, of course, forgot to dig out the camera while at the top of the Old Chute so I have no good pictures of the ridge conditions

I hate energy drinks.
But I might have to try Brawndo.
Just to support the crazy ads that these guys came up with. Warning: this is internet humor at it's finest.

The simplicity of mountaineering gear constantly astounds me. I marvel at the simplicity and elegance of the solutions to the unique problems posed by mountain travel.
2 carabiners
2 single length prussik cords
1 pulley
These 5 items create a pared down c-pulley system for pulling a fallen climber out of a crevasse. Other pieces can be added for more efficient pulling or for a ratcheting system. But these 5 items provide a simple means to solve a difficult problem.

The more I learn, the more I love this sport/hobby/obsession.

Old bindings















New bindings

Nuff said.

Pictures from snowboarding this weekend here.

Video of me snowboarding. Of course, Dev kept recording until I wiped out.

Dev snowboarding! We finally had the presence of mind to use our digital camera to catch footage.

John came over last night and we had a waxing party. Ok, a snowboard waxing session. We cleaned the boards. Drizzled wax. Scraped wax. Smoothed wax. Drank beer and cider. Mounted Dev's new bindings. Ate some tasty sausage and beans and rice. Listened to John tell stories that I won't repeat here due to his pending book deal and copyright concerns. And we generally just got ready for Sunday. The weather looks like it'll be sunny and clear and warm. Not the best day for boarding, but certainly not the worst. And we will, of course, be boarding, so the day can't possibly suck.

Great quote from a blog (Handlebar Sandwich) I started following:

This is going to be one of those weekends where I look forward to going back to work on monday so I can rest.

Wouldn’t have it any other way.

Amen!

Overheard at work:

I have to hurry. It's time to change my pants.

I just finished the most unbelievable repair. I had to take this excremental iBook apart 6 times to fix the problem. Finally done. Maybe I'll write up the saga later. Right now I enjoy relief.

Pictures from our weekend are up here. I haven't weeded them out for duplicates or blurry shots yet because I am tired and about to crash out for the night. So get the duplicates and blurriliciousness while you can!

I just wanted to share one of my favorite pics from my Mt Defiance
hike about a month ago.

First post to my blog from my iPod touch. I'm going to see of maybe I
can post a little more often if I use my new little portable assistant.

Locked and loaded. Dev and I packed our bags for the hike up to Tilly Jane cabin tomorrow. We rise at the way-too-early hour of 5 something AM so we can be at the parking lot by 8:30 AM. Then we snowshoe for just over 3 miles (or just under) to get to the cabin. Lots of snow fell this week, so it should be deep and fluffy and beautiful. And hard work. I'm proud of Dev. This will be the first backpacking trip that she's gone on and she's all loaded up with a full pack and ready to go. She's gonna rock the hike this year!

On Saturday, Dev and I became aunt and uncle. For those of you not in the family, my youngest brother Keeling and his wife April gave birth to their new daughter Teagin (I'm sure Keeling will correct my spelling). I'll post pictures when we get them.

Congratulations to the new momma and papa!

The rain is pelting down now. Looks like I got a nice weather window for the ride in to work.

The weather gave me the beat down this week on my bike rides to work. The rain and the constant headwind have made me grouchy all week long. At least today I had just the headwind without the rain. The one thing keeping me slogging onward is the thought of playing in snow this weekend. I go snowshoeing tomorrow. Dev and I go snowboarding on Sunday. With all the snow falling this week we should have EPIC conditions.

I'm published!
Okay, it's for work, but still - check it out!

According to the Chinese Zodiac, the Rat heralds the beginning of a brand-new zodiac cycle.

Aw cripes. No wonder I jump from obsession to obsession to obsession. Born an Ares in the year of the rat on a leap year. The trifecta.

From Co-op America: Ten Strikes Against Nuclear Power

We arrived in L.A. safely yesterday, if somewhat delayed. The plane pulled away from the gate and stopped on the runway for a few minutes. The pilot came over the intercom to tell us that we needed to top up the plane's fuel tank. So after an extra 45 minutes we took off. The plane touched down about right on time and we grabbed our rental car to jet over to Kirsten's house. We wished Peebo and Mark a happy birthday. Then we commenced to eat and drink and celebrate.

We had a huge flurry of activity this weekend. Devon, Cowboy and I went snowshoeing with our friend Jami and her dog Shelby. We packed up the car and headed out to Government Camp about 8 AM on Saturday morning. We started out down the Trillium Lake loop trail shared by snowshoers and cross country skiers. We tramped along in mostly clear conditions for the better part of and hour and a half. The dogs romped around in the snow. They said hi to a lot of other hikers and skiers on the trail. Snow started falling on us about noon. Soon after, all three of us seemed to have problems with our boots and blister formation. We tramped back to the car in about an hour and then proceeded to compare blisters.
Dev went over to Julie's place to play cards with the girls on Saturday night. I ordered a large pizza from Pizza Hut (I know, I know!) to load up on some extra carbs and fat for the next day. A fellow Mazama Jeff Welter offered a place on his exploratory hike up Table Mountain in the Columbia River Gorge.
Unfortunately, I needed snowshoes. REI didn't have any. Three of my snowshoe owning friends weren't available by phone - big surprise at 5 PM on a Saturday. I did manage to catch Sue before she and Nate went out to celebrate a friend's birthday. And she had a pair of snowshoes for me to borrow. She even drove them over to my house for me.
Jeff picked me up on Sunday morning for the drive out to the Gorge. We met Laura at the Hot Springs lodge and headed up the trailhead. Great hike. Awesome conditions. We managed to avoid the normal wind at the summit of Table Mountain. Ten minutes after we left the summit, the wind started to howl. We descended quickly and safely and then drove back into town.
And then I fell into bed early and slept 10 hours.

I posted pictures of our Sunday snowboarding trip here. We had a lot of fun. The rain and warm temperatures on Friday and Saturday turns the snow icy. Cooper Spur power tills their slopes but the snow still felt fast and hard. We couldn't ask for a better day to practice on not-so-prime snow conditions. The sun shined all day. Some people rode their boards in t-shirts. And Dev and I got one step closer to black diamond snowboarding.

Sir Edmund Hillary passed on today at the age of 88. God speed.

I hiked Mt Defiance with a Mazamas group on Sunday. Twelve miles with 4800 feet of elevation gain, and most of the hike happened on snowshoes. I had eight hours of really good fun. The weather stayed nice for almost the entire hike. We got back to the cars just as daylight failed. No one got hurt. And the scenery dazzled.

I have a few pictures from our group photog Andrew posted here.

Pictures from New Years can be found here.
I haven't captioned most of the pictures yet.

A nice respite from winter rain greeted me for my ride this morning. I dispensed with the rain pants and booties for the first bike ride in two weeks. Chill but not cold; perfect temperatures for a spirited ride to work. Just the refresher of a morning commute I need every couple of weeks during the rainy season.

My radio silence will get a little bit longer this weekend. Dev and I rented a cabin in Lyle, Washington for the holiday weekend. I don't think Dev packed the computer, so I will be incommunicado via text, email and blog for almost five days. Brilliance. I hope to have some pictures to show and stories to share when I get back.

All the best to you for the New Year (if I don't see you until then). And may it bless all of us with bounty and bliss in equal measure!

A sobering opinion piece about the Iraq War, war in general and history as a guiding perspective here.

Quote of the day:

"In Dr. Johnson's famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the last resort of a scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer I beg to submit it is the first."

-- Ambrose Bierce

So very sore today. Two days after jaunting to the mountain for snowboarding I feel a little like I got beaten. I had a lot of fun Sunday with former coworker and friend John Hart. We drove up to the mountain Sunday morning. John and I traded quips the entire way. John's sister's boyfriend Nathan sat in the back and quietly observed us during the drive. We arrived at Timberline lodge to splendid early season conditions. While not fantastic snow, the resort had groomed the snow enough to make it rideable.

I practiced some basics on the bunny slope (Bruno) for about an hour. John and Nathan both patiently hung out nearby. They rode down the bunny slope, but didn't need near the practice I did. At about 10 AM we headed over to Pucci to make our first run down the slopes. We rode down the easy part of main run Pucci to join up with West Leg Road. I tried to practice rocking side to side from front edge to back. My bindings thwarted me. My toes strap cam buckles kept slipping.

On a snowboard, the bindings strap across the ankles and the toes of the rider. The bindings attach the rider's foot to the board. The ankle straps also allow the rider to lift to heel edge off the snow so said rider can focus riding on the toe edge of the board. The toe straps provide leverage in the opposite direction, mainly they allow the rider to lift the toe edge off of the snow so he can focus riding on the heel edge. For a beginner, the heel edge provides the easiest and fastest braking possible. The rider rocks onto the heel edge and rotates the snowboard so that it sits perpendicular to the direction of travel. The heel edge bites into the snow and the rider slows or stops.

A lack of working toe straps complicates this process.

I fought my way down West Leg Road to get to the Jeff Flood Express ski lift. I fell about 30 or 40 times on the way. We originally planned to ride the Pucci chairlift up. The Pucci chairlift crew needed maintenance to fix something when we got to the lift. So we mounted up and rode all the way down to the next lift. The top of the chairlift presented me with another shortish, steepish slope to the day lodge parking lot. I struggled and feel down this slope. I cursed. We went into the gift shop and I bought the only toe strap replacements the carried. Overpriced at $40. Jon and Nathan and I monopolized the public ski tune bench to change out my toe straps. Then we checked our boards at the ski check and grabbed lunch.

The post lunch riding proceeded much better. I fell far fewer times on the two post-lunch runs of the day. I fell harder because I carried more speed. I carried more speed because I had more control. I had more control because I had working toe straps. So I guess I can say I crashed less often but harder because I had working toe straps. John stayed with me most of the day. He said he just wanted to get his legs back under him after not riding last season at all. He seemed smooth and in control the entire time. I felt clumsy slow and awkward following behind him. But I felt a marked improvement between when I first set edge to snow at nine that morning and when we crawled into the day lodge around 3:15 or 3:30 that afternoon.

The drive home passed quickly and uneventfully. I feel sore in a couple of key places and bruised in a couple of others. I skipped crossfit last night because I got so beat up by the slopes.

I am ready to go back soon.

Quote from Cristopher Hitchens latest editorial:

We are about to have the annual culture war about the display of cribs, mangers, conifers, and other symbols on public land. Most of this argument is phony and tawdry and secondhand and has nothing whatever to do with "faith" as its protagonists understand it. The burning of a Yule log or the display of a Scandinavian tree is nothing more than paganism and the observance of a winter solstice; it makes no more acknowledgment of the Christian religion than I do. The fierce partisanship of the holly bush and mistletoe believers convicts them of nothing more than ignorance and simple-mindedness. They would have been just as pious under the reign of the Druids or the Vikings, and just as much attached to their bucolic icons. Everybody knows, furthermore, that there was no moving star in the east, that Quirinius was not the governor of Syria in the time of King Herod, that no worldwide tax census was conducted in that period of the rule of Augustus, and that no "stable" is mentioned even in any of the mutually contradictory books of the New Testament. So, to put a star on top of a pine tree or to arrange various farm animals around a crib is to be as accurate and inventive as that Japanese department store that, as urban legend has it, did its best to emulate the Christmas spirit by displaying a red-and-white bearded Santa snugly nailed to a crucifix.

Today is Day of the NInja.

'Nuff said.

Scientists found a potentially, completely mummified dinosaur recently. Possible mummified organs! So very cool!

The end of an era. A legend has passed. Iconic Daredevil Evel Knievel Dies at 69

Quote of note:

"No king or prince has lived a better life," he said in a May 2006 interview with The Associated Press. "You're looking at a guy who's really done it all. And there are things I wish I had done better, not only for me but for the ones I loved."

My new ride.

Got a snowboard, boots and bindings on Wednesday night. My friend John is coming over on Sunday to help me wax and clean me and Dev's snowboards. Then, if all goes well, next Sunday we will be flying down some white-covered hill for a few hours.

I cannot wait.

My favorite poster from the Bike Commute Challenge 2007 poster website.

Remember how I posted in October that I thought I was going to ski this season.

Remember how I said I'm fickle.

Yep. I'm back to 'boarding. I loved the idea of skiing. I love watching the guys ride on ski videos. Every time I thought about skiing myself, though, I felt a little dread. I felt grim about the effort I'd have to exert to stay on top of the sticks; to stay balanced all the way down the slope. I didn't look forward to the experience.

And every time I thought about snowboarding I smiled a little bit. I remember the flow. I can feel the snow sliding under me. And I don't dread the effort, I anticipate the ride. The only thing I'm really not happy about is the ski lift dismount.

So I guess I'm a knuckle dragger. Which is okay, because I'm gonna have fun this year!

“If you would know how a man treats his wife and his children, see how he treats his books.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson

Amazon released the Kindle eBook reader yesterday. I like much about the concept and the specs of the device. I don't care for the styling so much. This six act play points points up the problems with digital eBook readers though. Sorta dystopian.

Duct tape used as paint! Brilliant!
You might not be able to tell from the picture but the entire car (everything, even door handles) has a layer of duct tape over it.

This car is so awesome.

Why can't bike helmets be stylish? I shopped around briefly today at lunch. I must have a really big head, because all the helmets looked huge on me. I don't look anywhere near as cool as the people in the pictures on the packaging.

Good ride in to work this morning. No red lights all the way from the point I joined Interstate Avenue until I hit the top of the Eastbank Esplanade in the Rose Quarter. No rain. No flats. No jerks.

This bike is my most recent object of lust. I trotted over to Clever Cycles here in Portland and checked out their bike collection. Nice place. Dedicated to cyclists that don't wear lycra. "Bicycle living" I think one web-site or article called it. I've been meaning to get over there ever since they opened. I liked the space. They had nice all-weather clothes for year round cycling. Wool clothing by Ibex and other vendors. And they had a really extensive collection of panniers and bike bags in funky prints. (So I can't take Dev there - she'll buy out the store.)

One of the owners let me test drive the Transport (a slightly different bike that the picture above.) Bike rode surprisingly light for a beast this big made with steel. Integrated generator hub headlight and tail-light. Big full fenders. Fully enclosed chain to keep your clothes clean. And tradition/retro styling. The same sort of styling that had me lusting after vintage Harleys and Triumphs and BMWs when I rode motorcycles.

At $1400-1500, I won't be buying one soon. I guess that's why it's an object of lust instead of a show-and-tell-toy.

Good night climbing last night. Still not topping the old 5.9 yet, but my form started to return.I had one move on a 5.10- route that made my entire night. The moves just felt right. I knew the sequence. I played the theory of what I needed to do through in my head. And I felt that the sequence was right as I executed it. I fell two times after that move on that route. I still lowered off with a grin on my face.

Gonna be a good day. Radio started off with "Rock and Roll Lifestyle" by Cake.

One

of

the

best

songs

ever.

I officially need to get into the climbing gym more regularly. I went last night with Nate and pumped out my grip in short order. Falling off easy, jug-tastic holds. Frustrating. I thought I had 5.10 at the start of the season. Guess that's what lack of practice will do for ya.

snow. snow. snow. snow. snow. snow. snow. snow.