Action Packed Weekend

This weekend began on Friday night at a group birthday party / kegger for Ashley and 3 of her friends at work who also happen to have birthdays around this weekend. At the last minute (only a few hours before the party), Ashley and some of her friends decided to give the party an '80's theme. It's quite possible that Ashley and I ended up with the best costumes at the party. It was difficult not to dance to the 6.5 hour '80's dance music playlist that Ashley and I supplied.


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Mind Erasers for the birthday boys and girls

After sleeping in Saturday morning, I joined Sean and Alison on a backcountry ski day up at our local, now closed, ski resort. The weather was warm and sunny, creating genuine spring ski conditions.


Alison sporting an indefensible get-up on the slopes

On Sunday Sean and I embarked on a ski mountaineering trip. The goal was to ski up and back down 13,294 foot James Peak.


James Peak

Despite some moderately windy conditions, we successfully completed the climb and had an unexpectedly adventurous ski back down. The snow conditions were extremely variable, crusty, and difficult - leading to several crashes on the descent. To add to this, Sean was experimenting with his leather telemark boots. The benefit of these boots is that they are lighter and more comfortable, making them a reasonable choice for ski mountaineering. The drawback, which Sean found out after making his first turn from the top of the mountain, is that they are very difficult to ski in as they provide much less support than a plastic ski boot. Consequently, I think Sean spent more energy descending then he did going up. Next time he decides to try out some new gear, he claims he'll do it when he's not committed to a 3000 foot ski descent. Overall, we both had a great time and I thoroughly enjoyed watching some of Sean's acrobatic tumbles, as well as having a few of my own.


At the summit - check out that mustache!