It's definatley not perfect, but hopefully you can't tell that from the picture.
May 01, 2006
Ski Rack
Well . . . . it works. Doesn't look half bad either. 
It's definatley not perfect, but hopefully you can't tell that from the picture.
It's definatley not perfect, but hopefully you can't tell that from the picture.
April 24, 2006
Pretty Nice Sunday
Ashley and I had a pretty nice Sunday. We went shopping at Home Depot and Bed Bath and Beyond. And yes, we did have enough time.
I'm attempting to build a ski storage rack for the garage. My vision was great, but the product doesn't seem to be in line with my vision. I'll post pictures when I'm finished. It will either be comical, or impressive. I'm guessing the former.
I'm attempting to build a ski storage rack for the garage. My vision was great, but the product doesn't seem to be in line with my vision. I'll post pictures when I'm finished. It will either be comical, or impressive. I'm guessing the former.
April 21, 2006
Moved In!
Ashley and I have nearly all of our stuff moved to our new place in South Boulder. We spent our first night there last night. The entire night was intensely quiet, especially considering how loud it would have been at our other place with our neighbors partaking in the holiday festivities. Once we get all moved in, I'll post some pictures.
April 17, 2006
Caitlyn
Crazy Uncle Josh and Like Aunt Ashley had a great trip to go visit my niece, Caitlyn. Thursday night we did most of the 9 hour drive to Idaho Falls, and finished up Friday morning, arriving in time for breakfast. Caitlyn was three weeks old at the time of our visit, and absolutely adorable! We coordinated our trip with Grandpa, creating a mini family reunion. Michelle and Wes seem to be adjusting quite well to the added family member and their new rolls as Mom and Dad. It was Easter weekend, so Ashley and I brought an appropriate outfit for the little one. Dad, Grandpa, and the crazy Uncle played a round of golf at the local course on Friday. I owe my victory to my caddy, A. Walker. On Saturday we went for a bushwhack of a hike through the sage and ended up trompsing through some snow in the higher elevations. We saw a moose and a heard of about 40 deer.
April 07, 2006
Moving Soon
After several weeks of trying to locate the ideal place to live in the south part of Boulder and getting beat to the punch on our first several choices, we finally found our place. We will be moving during the last part the month, as our current lease ends on April 30 and our new one begins April 15. We had a beer with our new landlords last night, who live about 4 blocks from our new townhouse - really nice people. We'll have an attached one-car gearage that will be perfect for brewing. The townhouse is a total of 3 levels, but we're not quite sure what to do with the basement. It's huge and we don't really need the space, but the place is at least as nice as the other smaller places we looked at and slightly cheaper. I'll soon be living 15 minutes closer to work, and I won't have to bitch about the noisy neighboors below us anymore!
April 04, 2006
Ski Bum Pictures
Picture Summary:
1. Skinning up out of Marble
2. Skinning through the Aspens out of Marble
3. The Ribbon
4. Ice Climb that we Alpine Styled
5. Camp Alpine Style
6. Me on my fist ice climb
7. View from Red Mountain Pass ski day (aka Sunburn Day)
1. Skinning up out of Marble
2. Skinning through the Aspens out of Marble
3. The Ribbon
4. Ice Climb that we Alpine Styled
5. Camp Alpine Style
6. Me on my fist ice climb
7. View from Red Mountain Pass ski day (aka Sunburn Day)
Uncle Josh!
Now that I finally have some pictures, I'm proud to report that I became an uncle on March 24th at 8:13 pm. My neice Caitlyn was born at 7 lbs-13oz and 21 inches long. Last weekend, Mom went to visit Wes, Michelle, and Caitlyn in Idaho Falls and took some pictures. The link to them is below. Congratulations to Wes and Michelle! Ashley and I will be driving up to visit them on Easter weekend.
Caitlyn Pictures
April 03, 2006
Snow Magnets
I recently returned from an 8 day road trip, the majority of which was spent in the southwest quadrant of Colorado. My friend, Adam, drove to Boulder from Rolla, Missouri, arriving on Saturday morning. After breakfast, he hopped in my car and we drove up the hill to Eldora. We skied at the resort from about noon until 4, continuing on to the Aspen area. On the way we stopped in Frisco to see Dane and in Minturn (close to Vail) to see Kate. Eventually, we made it to El Jebel, aka the Aspen Trailer Park. El Jebel is a small town about 1/2 hour north of Aspen. We stayed there for 3 nights with Adam's friend, Petar. Petar is a Croatian who makes a living by winning skateboarding contests and instructing private snowboard lessons at Aspen and Snowmass. The night before we arrived he ran his snowboard through a bandsaw, effectively cutting it in half lengthwise, creating what is aptly referred to as a split board.
Our first day there, we did some backcountry skiing out of Marble. This was Petar's first backcountry experience, and first experience using a split board. On the hike up, he only managed to get stuck in one treewell. When he rejoined Adam and me 1/2 hour later, he was thoroughly covered in snow. Despite the fact that it hadn't snowed much recently, the snow at the top half of our run was fantastic. Dropping off a small cornice at the top of the run landed one in a field of snow deeper and softer than expected.
The next day, Petar had to work, so Adam and I went back to the same area in the morning for another great run. At 3:00, we found ourselves at the Snowmass ski area. So close to closing time, the lifties no longer check for ski passes, so we got a free ride to the top of the resort - our first poach of the trip. We proceeded to have a long, sensational run off the back side, followed by the standard round of beers back at the car.
Tuesday morning we drove from Aspen to Ouray. At some point, Adam figured out that he left his crampons in Missouri. We had planned to ice climb in Ouray, so the crampon situaion needed to be remedied. This was accomplished at the local climbing shop where Adam purchased a pair of $200 monopoint crampons. While in town, we restocked the ice chest with Blue Paddle. We drove up Camp Bird road as far as we could, stopping at the base of a small slab of ice. We were eying a climb known as the Ribbon across the valley. Since it was late in the day, we opted to camp and try the climb in the morning. But exaclty how to camp needed to be decided. Adam's idea was to climb the 30 foot section of ice next to the car - Alpine Style - and camp at the top of it. After loading our packs with all our camping gear, we slogged 125 feet to the base of the climb. Adam led the short pitch with his full pack and a Hibachi Grill attached. I followed on my fist ice climb, also with a full pack, no grill. After an epic, gruelling climb, we set up the tent, and began the arduous process of barbequeing steak, no more than 500 feet from the car. Then it started snowing.
Our intended route for the next day was prone to avalanching during and immediatly after any and all storms. Since it was still snowing when we woke up and two slides came down the gully over night, we opted to travel to Telluride for some skiing. We rolled into Telluride around 9:00 in the moring, picked up a free pass and a half price pass from Adam's friend Eric, and skied the resort for the rest of the day. There was about 6 inches of fresh snow, and the Telluride terrain is steeper than most of Colorado, making for great skiing and a tiring day. On the subject of Adam's friend: his name is ERIC ZUARO, and Adam knew him from Vermont where he grew up. Eric's ski pass must have been something less than legitimate, because both R's in his name were partially whited out. The result - EPIC ZUAPO. Long story short, instead of paying $80 each for a left ticket, we paid the equivilent of $19.
This is getting long . . .
Thursday - 12" of fresh snow at Telluride. Had to ski the resort again. Totally sick! Drove to Red Mountain Pass between Ouray and Silverton, skied in about 1000 feet, set up camp, drank beer.
Friday - Hiked up a mountian, looked down at Silverton, got sunburned, skied down the mountain, grilled some brats, drove to Durango. We met up with Molly and Phil in Durango and joined them for a feast at Gaucho's, the local Brazilian restaurant. Possibly the best restaurant in the world, Gaucho's offered all you can eat meat for $22. They had somewhere around a dozen different types of meat. On the walk home from the eatery, Molly rolled her ankle, which swelled instantly.
Saturday - We had tentatively planned to ski with Molly and Phil at either Wolf Creek or Purgatory (I refuse to refer to Purgatory as DMR 'Durango Mountain Resort'). Since Molly couldn't ski, and she had travelled to Durango to spend time with Phil, Adam and I took off for Wolf Creek Pass, 2 hours from Durango and on the way back to Boulder. The snow continued to fall heavily, "hucking chunks". We stopped in Pagosa Springs and spent about an hour in one of the steaming hot pools next to the river. We finally made it to the pass, and did a backcountry run on the opposite side of the highway from the Wolf Creek ski resort. More fabulous snow. Noticing it was 3:00, we helped dig out a stuck F-350 and hurried to the resort for some more end-of-the-day poached ski runs. When they stopped letting us on the lift, we drove back to Boulder.
Pictures to come . . .
Our first day there, we did some backcountry skiing out of Marble. This was Petar's first backcountry experience, and first experience using a split board. On the hike up, he only managed to get stuck in one treewell. When he rejoined Adam and me 1/2 hour later, he was thoroughly covered in snow. Despite the fact that it hadn't snowed much recently, the snow at the top half of our run was fantastic. Dropping off a small cornice at the top of the run landed one in a field of snow deeper and softer than expected.
The next day, Petar had to work, so Adam and I went back to the same area in the morning for another great run. At 3:00, we found ourselves at the Snowmass ski area. So close to closing time, the lifties no longer check for ski passes, so we got a free ride to the top of the resort - our first poach of the trip. We proceeded to have a long, sensational run off the back side, followed by the standard round of beers back at the car.
Tuesday morning we drove from Aspen to Ouray. At some point, Adam figured out that he left his crampons in Missouri. We had planned to ice climb in Ouray, so the crampon situaion needed to be remedied. This was accomplished at the local climbing shop where Adam purchased a pair of $200 monopoint crampons. While in town, we restocked the ice chest with Blue Paddle. We drove up Camp Bird road as far as we could, stopping at the base of a small slab of ice. We were eying a climb known as the Ribbon across the valley. Since it was late in the day, we opted to camp and try the climb in the morning. But exaclty how to camp needed to be decided. Adam's idea was to climb the 30 foot section of ice next to the car - Alpine Style - and camp at the top of it. After loading our packs with all our camping gear, we slogged 125 feet to the base of the climb. Adam led the short pitch with his full pack and a Hibachi Grill attached. I followed on my fist ice climb, also with a full pack, no grill. After an epic, gruelling climb, we set up the tent, and began the arduous process of barbequeing steak, no more than 500 feet from the car. Then it started snowing.
Our intended route for the next day was prone to avalanching during and immediatly after any and all storms. Since it was still snowing when we woke up and two slides came down the gully over night, we opted to travel to Telluride for some skiing. We rolled into Telluride around 9:00 in the moring, picked up a free pass and a half price pass from Adam's friend Eric, and skied the resort for the rest of the day. There was about 6 inches of fresh snow, and the Telluride terrain is steeper than most of Colorado, making for great skiing and a tiring day. On the subject of Adam's friend: his name is ERIC ZUARO, and Adam knew him from Vermont where he grew up. Eric's ski pass must have been something less than legitimate, because both R's in his name were partially whited out. The result - EPIC ZUAPO. Long story short, instead of paying $80 each for a left ticket, we paid the equivilent of $19.
This is getting long . . .
Thursday - 12" of fresh snow at Telluride. Had to ski the resort again. Totally sick! Drove to Red Mountain Pass between Ouray and Silverton, skied in about 1000 feet, set up camp, drank beer.
Friday - Hiked up a mountian, looked down at Silverton, got sunburned, skied down the mountain, grilled some brats, drove to Durango. We met up with Molly and Phil in Durango and joined them for a feast at Gaucho's, the local Brazilian restaurant. Possibly the best restaurant in the world, Gaucho's offered all you can eat meat for $22. They had somewhere around a dozen different types of meat. On the walk home from the eatery, Molly rolled her ankle, which swelled instantly.
Saturday - We had tentatively planned to ski with Molly and Phil at either Wolf Creek or Purgatory (I refuse to refer to Purgatory as DMR 'Durango Mountain Resort'). Since Molly couldn't ski, and she had travelled to Durango to spend time with Phil, Adam and I took off for Wolf Creek Pass, 2 hours from Durango and on the way back to Boulder. The snow continued to fall heavily, "hucking chunks". We stopped in Pagosa Springs and spent about an hour in one of the steaming hot pools next to the river. We finally made it to the pass, and did a backcountry run on the opposite side of the highway from the Wolf Creek ski resort. More fabulous snow. Noticing it was 3:00, we helped dig out a stuck F-350 and hurried to the resort for some more end-of-the-day poached ski runs. When they stopped letting us on the lift, we drove back to Boulder.
Pictures to come . . .
March 20, 2006
Saint Patty's Day, etc.
Compared to working all week, St. Patrick's Day was quite exciting. It began with me receiving my first paycheck. As a result, I took Ashley out to dinner at the Med. Immediately following this, I went with Ashley to a campus performance titled "Dance Works". I'm not even sure where to begin on this topic. At times, the performance was almost epileptic. Other times I thought that Jake's river dance would have been more impressive. Just to be fair, there were some brief episodes of contemporary dancing that I would classify as artistic and skillful, making the performance entertaining as far as dance goes. I think it lasted about 2.5 hours. I think I broke into a slight jog on my way out of the theater, straight to the local pub for some green beer. Some might be an understatement, but we'll just say I had green beer. The rest of the evening just went downhill from there.
On Sunday Ashley and I went skiing up at Eldora. This was Ashley's third day on tele gear, and she's pregressing at the rate that I remember doing myself a little over a year ago. It's kind of funny because I can totally relate to most of the problems she is having. Since it was a powder day, I had to do my own thing early in the day. There was about 4 to 6 inches over hardpack, making the day pretty darn good on a scale of 1 to 10.
Good news and bad news -
Good news: the mountains are expecing 2 feet of snow today and tomorrow!
Bad news: I'll be at work. The only thing that gets me through is knowing that I'm leaving for Telluride on Saturday for a week of skiing with my buddy Adam.
As for work, I'm now involved with three mining projects. In addition to the central Idaho one, I'm working on a gold mine in Venezuela, and a tailings impoundment in Moab, Utah, across the highway from Arches N.P. - reasonably fun and entertaining projects.
On Sunday Ashley and I went skiing up at Eldora. This was Ashley's third day on tele gear, and she's pregressing at the rate that I remember doing myself a little over a year ago. It's kind of funny because I can totally relate to most of the problems she is having. Since it was a powder day, I had to do my own thing early in the day. There was about 4 to 6 inches over hardpack, making the day pretty darn good on a scale of 1 to 10.
Good news and bad news -
Good news: the mountains are expecing 2 feet of snow today and tomorrow!
Bad news: I'll be at work. The only thing that gets me through is knowing that I'm leaving for Telluride on Saturday for a week of skiing with my buddy Adam.
As for work, I'm now involved with three mining projects. In addition to the central Idaho one, I'm working on a gold mine in Venezuela, and a tailings impoundment in Moab, Utah, across the highway from Arches N.P. - reasonably fun and entertaining projects.
March 07, 2006
Work
Many of my frequent blog readers have been asking how work is going, and I tell all of them that I'll write something in my blog when I have something worth saying. However, I feel that my standards for what is worth saying have risin during my month of playing to a level that work just can't compete with. At risk of this post falling into that catagory of "Unworthy" news in my life, I proceed with caution.
For those who know little to nothing of what I'm doing, I'm working for Golder Associates, Inc. in Lakewood, Colorado. The company performs a variety of geotechnical work around the globe. It's the largest privately owned company in our industry, so don't go trying to buy a bunch of Golder stock - it won't happen. . . unless, of course, you happen to be an employee. On my second day of work I was handed a brand new Dell Laptop. Until now, I've been busy working on a molybdenum mining project located in Central Idaho. Apparently someone has been putting rocks behind a dam there for the last 20 years and they want to continue doing so for the next 10 years. They problem is that they don't know if the embankment dam is large enough to hold all the rock. That's where I come in. As if 200 million tons of rock wasn't enough - the capacity the 600' high dam was designed for - they want to put 210 million tons behind it. So why not just make the dam higher to retain the extra rock? Because the environmental permitting is only for a 600' high dam. (scratch head . . . hmmmm). We'll see how it goes.
Ashley and I went downhill and skate skiing last Sunday. Since that time, she had finished setting herself up with a telemark setup. I think this weekend we'll be back at Eldora (The Dora we like to call it now) crashing up a storm. Actaully, the storm is arriving Wednesday, so we'll just be crashing.
For those who know little to nothing of what I'm doing, I'm working for Golder Associates, Inc. in Lakewood, Colorado. The company performs a variety of geotechnical work around the globe. It's the largest privately owned company in our industry, so don't go trying to buy a bunch of Golder stock - it won't happen. . . unless, of course, you happen to be an employee. On my second day of work I was handed a brand new Dell Laptop. Until now, I've been busy working on a molybdenum mining project located in Central Idaho. Apparently someone has been putting rocks behind a dam there for the last 20 years and they want to continue doing so for the next 10 years. They problem is that they don't know if the embankment dam is large enough to hold all the rock. That's where I come in. As if 200 million tons of rock wasn't enough - the capacity the 600' high dam was designed for - they want to put 210 million tons behind it. So why not just make the dam higher to retain the extra rock? Because the environmental permitting is only for a 600' high dam. (scratch head . . . hmmmm). We'll see how it goes.
Ashley and I went downhill and skate skiing last Sunday. Since that time, she had finished setting herself up with a telemark setup. I think this weekend we'll be back at Eldora (The Dora we like to call it now) crashing up a storm. Actaully, the storm is arriving Wednesday, so we'll just be crashing.
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