Weekend Recap

As it rained much of this weekend in Boulder, it snowed in the mountains, and therefor, it turned from climbing season back into ski season. We skied a few inches of new at Eldora on Saturday, and a few more inches of new at Keystone on Sunday. The pass Ashley and I have is good for 4 days at either Keystone or A-Basin. Since we'd never been to Keystone before, we determined we should go there at least once. I hadn't heard very good reports on the resort, but found it to be a typical summit county ski area with a lot of moderate terrain and some good back bowls. Overall synopsis - worth going to if you didn't have to drive I-70 to get there.

After skiing at Eldora on Saturday, it was still raining in Boulder. This constant rain (unusual in these parts) caused the creek by our house to rise. I'd considered boating it before, but there just wasn't enough water. I thought that with the recent swell, there would just barely be enough. You be the judge . . .



Thanks to Keith for the video work and putting it all together. If Guns and Roses grants us the rights to their song, we'll try to enter this in the Boulder film festival.

Back to Having Fun

I'm still feeling a bit sick, but I managed to get out and have some fun this weekend anyway. On Saturday I climbed the First Flatiron with Corey, a friend I recently met through Keith. We planned to climb the standard Direct East Face route, but adjusted strategy at the last minute due to the number of people already climbing and waiting to climb that route. We ended up climbing Fandango, an exceptional 6-pitch, 5.5 climb. This was my first opportunity to use much of the gear I received as Christmas presents, which made it even more fun.

On Sunday Ashley and I went skiing at Arapaho Basin ("A-Basin" to people in the know, and "A-Bay" to the particularly lazy). It ended up being a classic spring day - nice and warm with ice in the morning turning to slush later in the day. We both have a 4-pack of passes to ski at either A-Basin or Keystone, and we've been waiting to use them until they got enough snow to cover the rocks. This never happened, and now the snow is melting. The Colorado snow pack just doesn't compare the that in the Oregon mountains.

Sick and Making Alcohol

I've been sick for the last week with either the flu or a bad cold, which are both the same in my opinion. I've taken a couple days off work, so I just sit around the house and watch the beer make itself. Right now we have 15 gallons of beer (the 3 larger carboys) and 3 gallons of mead (the cute little carboy) brewing. All of the air locks "bloop" at a different pitch as they release carbon dioxide, creating a melodic, percussion-like sound. I thought Rubsy (the obvious rubber plant in the photo) would like to be in a carbon dioxide rich environment, so we moved her over near fermentation central. Pretty soon we'll have too much beer for the kegerator -- I guess if you're going to have a problem, this is a good one to have.

Purple Bear and Hunter take 1st Place!

Deep in the backwoods of the Colorado Front Range, at the little known ski resort of Eldora, a purple bear was sighted skinning up the ski hill. The bear was traveling at a much more rapid rate than those in hot pursuit, which included The Skirted Lady, a Leprechaun, and a giant clown, among others. The Skirted Lady was allegedly the last to be dropped by the purple bear as the bear was reportedly, "used to running around in the woods." Witnesses say they saw a purple bear tag a hunter at the highest point of the ski resort who proceeded to race down the double black diamond run by the name of West Ridge. As the hunter was not accustomed to leading races, he overshot the finish line by about 150 feet, which was poorly marked at best. The hunter noticed this only when the black gorilla made a scene loud enough to catch the hunter's attention. Gasping and wheezing, and with burning legs, the hunter hiked back up the hill, around the horseshoe turn, and across the finish line 39 seconds before the second place finisher.

For more on this crazy event, visit http://www.dojoe.org/2007raceresults27.html and make note of the Tag Team Coed first place finishers. The hunter's alias of "Adam Sevi" was used to match the name on his ski pass.

Mead!

Last night I brewed up my first batch of Mead (Honey Wine). It's similar to making beer, except you use honey instead of barley and hops, and wine yeast instead of ale yeast. The other main difference is that it won't be ready for 3 months, instead of the typical 3 weeks for most ales. We'll see how it goes.