Ashley's Chistmas

This year, my Christmas trip to Oregon was spent entirely in Corvallis. This wasn't exactly the plan, but snow storms kept me from heading to Portland. I am not going to complain because this gave me more time to play with my niece, Anna. I also did some family time, visiting old friends, trail running, and lots of eating, including American Dream pizza - twice!


The family Christmas photo. Anna found many things more exciting than the camera. We have a couple pictures of her playing with my hair.


We did some book reading.


I tried to get Anna excited about playing the piano.


My dad (aka Grandpa) entertains Anna by mimicking her.


Moss. Josh always says he really misses moss - we don't have any here in Colorado. I got a new camera for Christmas and it is small enough to not be too much of a hassle to carry while running. This is at the end of the trip after all the snow melted. I did quite a few runs in 4 inches of snow - I thought I left Colorado to get away from that stuff.

Josh's Christmas

Although Ashley and I both went back to Oregon for Christmas, we'll be posting separate blog entries as we didn't see each other much.

After successfully completing my WFR course, I was scheduled to leave the next day on a flight for Oregon. It appeared that little 8 pound 9 ounce baby Jesus was on my side as my flight into Portland wasn't even delayed. I walked past dozens of people who had been waiting at the airport for days to board my plane. The blame, of course, is awarded to the Portland Airport as they were partially closed for several days during the unprecedented storm that left 18 to 24 inches of snow in the Portland area.

I spent some brief but quality time with my family on the 23-25 before heading to Corvallis to be with Ashley's family on the 26th. Things sure are changing with the addition of little ones. I hadn't seen my niece, Caitlyn, for almost a year and half, and she's not even 3 years old! I also got to meet Ashley's niece, Anna, for the first time and Jason and Kelly's baby, Patrick, for the second time.

I spent the final two days of my trip with Jake, Keith, and Garrett on a hut trip to the Maiden Peak Shelter. The Oregon snow was everything I have been missing in Colorado - plentiful, deep, wet, and heavy. In two days of backcountry skiing, I never hit a single rock! The trees were big and gorgeous with snow piled high on each branch, with the younger hemlocks bent over and burried by their heavy snow burden. But you'll have to take my word for it because I forgot to bring my camera.

WFR (Woofer)

I am now 8 days through a 10-day, 80-hour Wilderness First Responder (WFR) course. The course teaches students how to respond to medical emergencies when the urban practice of calling 911 and waiting is not an option. I'm amazed at how much I've learned in the last several days. This course is definitely something I should have taken a long time ago. For anyone considering taking this class, I highly recommend taking it from Wilderness Medicine Institute (WMI). Their teaching format, style, and organization are incredible with lots of hands-on, realistic scenarios to deal with throughout the class.

. . . and it's so much more fun than work!

It's cold out

With cold temperatures (a high around 15 degrees today) and snow on the ground, all biking has moved indoors. Biking on the trainer is incredibly boring. Especially when I can't find anything to watch on TV and none of the movies we own sound appealing. So, Josh came home earlier this week to find me playing video games (on the classic Nintendo, of course) while biking. I have since perfected my Super Mario 3 interval workout.

Winter Fun

I survived yet another furious two days of being a weekend warrior (albeit sans camera, so I've no pictures to share).

On Saturday, Ashley and I went up to Eldora for the first time this year. They had 4 runs open and more snow than I had anticipated. After about 5 tele runs on groomers, we were ready for a workout. We found what we were looking for 200 yards away at Eldora's Nordic Center, where we skate skied for about 45 minutes. The first skate ski of the year always turns into a wheez-a-thon for me, and this year was no exception. It was good to see that Ashley also had to breathe, although not as aggressively as myself. I'm growing so used to her beating me at endurance sports that it really doesn't even bother me anymore.

On Sunday Keith and I barely found enough motivation to stumble into Rocky Mountain National Park and attempt an ice climb on Thatchtop Mountain. We climbed a classic 4-pitch route known as All Mixed Up. After a 2.5 hour approach, we found that another party had beat us to the climb, so we decided to climb a variation to the right of them to avoid their ice fall. This ended up making the climb much more difficult and challenging than it should have been. The final crux pitch (WI-3+ or 4 depending on who you talk to) ended up being the easiest of the three that it took us to complete the route.


I stole this picture from Mountain Project and added our "non-standard" variation to it.

After flailing on my first lead while experienceing mixed climbing (climbing with crampons and ice axes on rock) for the first time, I was a bit demoralized. Keith then had a similar experience on a noticably more difficult mixed climbing pitch. I finshed things off on the supposed crux (straight up ice climbing with no rock stretches) which turned out to be the easiest pitch and very, very enjoyable.

Turkey Day

This year, Josh and I stayed in Boulder for Thanksgiving. We were joined by friends from Boulder/Denver area (Keith, Melanie, Alison, Corey, Ryan) and those traveling from California (Jake, Louis, Jasmine).

The holiday festivities around here start the day before Thanksgiving with the celebration of Wild Turkey Wednesday. This is a pretty simple holiday that involves gobbling and taking shots of Wild Turkey.


Gobble, gobble, gobble

Wild Turkey Wednesday had a bit of the twist this year as it turned into an 80's Dance Party.


I am thankful for 80's music and dancing.


Cota does not enjoy dance parties.

We planned to run a 5k Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning. Somewhere amongst all of the Wild Turkey we decided to wear costumes to this race. I was very disappointed in the Boulder crowd as we appeared to be the only runners out 1044 that were cool enough to wear costumes.


Best dressed Turkey Trotters.

Thanksgiving dinner was amazing. Everyone pitched in and we had all of the Thanksgiving favorites and then some. Much more food than needed. Josh cooked his first turkey, deep-fry style, which turned out delicious.


There is still more food that needs to fit on the table.

At Jake's suggestion, we added a new element to the holiday overeating. We had a contest to see who could eat the most, based on pre and post dinner weight. While I did not gain the greatest absolute weight (Josh and Jake tied at 6 lbs), I did gain the greatest percentage of my body weight (4.2%), thereby winning the contest. My prize was 45 minutes of laying on the floor unable to move as a result of the sharp pains in my stomach. Turns out that chugging multiple pints of water as a final effort to gain weight was a very bad idea. However, my win is somewhat dampened by the fact that the Louis, the pre-dinner favorite who had the dangerous combination of light weight and ability to eat large quantities of food, decided to withdraw from the competition due to questionable scale accuracy.

I Found Ski Season!

Just as I was getting unbearably tired of waiting for ski season, I got a call from a buddy (Andy) who was feeling the same way. We decided to go up high into the mountains and try to force a turn or two, thinking there was a good chance we would simply end up going for a long hike with skis on our backs.

We started early on Saturday morning, heading for Jones Pass (near the more famous Berthoud Pass) just above the Henderson Mine. We drove until the 4-Runner got stuck in the snow and were happily surprised to be able to put our skis on and begin skinning right from the car. There's no denying that the snow was sparse and thin, but we both simultaneously spotted the best line as soon as it came into view as we skinned up the road.


Our run, from the high saddle down the gully that collects all the windblown snow

Not too much later, we arrived at the top of our chosen ski run.


Andy on the windy summit ridge

One and a half turns later, it was like I hadn't missed a day of skiing since last season. It was a tad windy, but the weather was otherwise beautiful. The snow conditions were variable while still somehow remaining fun and forgiving. Oh, how I love skiing!


My first tele turns since the 4th of July

Jakey Wakey

Jake arrived to Boulder the day before I returned from Saskatchewan. Since then, I've done an uncharacteristically poor job of updating this blog, which is entirely Jake's fault. It was non-stop fun until he and Keith left for Red Rocks and Las Vegas, so now I have a bit of time to try and remember what it was we did. I'll stick to the most memorable events that are also suitable for family audiences.

The weekend before last we went climbing in Eldorado Canyon State Park (Eldo) with Keith, Melanie, and Cota. Keith and I put up a few single pitch climbs and we all had about twice as much fun simply because Jake was there.

I took Wednesday off of work and the weather was beautiful. Jake and I climbed the 2nd and 3rd Flatirons in Boulder and it felt like about 80 degrees all day.


Jake at the first belay on the 3rd Flatiron


Me leading up the 3rd


Looking back at Jake on the first pitch of the 2nd Flatiron


Jake on his first trad lead (last pitch of the 2nd Flatiron)

Thursday night a bunch of us went out to see Old Crow Medicine Show at the Boulder Theater. This was my first bluegrass concert, and I found it to be a real hoot (short for hootenany). It really was a lot of fun, and the drinking didn't stop there.

Keith and Jake left on Friday for Vegas, and they both return with Louis and Jasmine on Wednesday in time for Wild Turkey Wednesday and Thanksgiving!

Trolls

A belated Halloween picture:


David Bowie (Jessica), Juno (Melanie), Troll doll (me), Flapper (Brooke)

Yes, that is my real hair ... plus a lot of hair gel, hairspray, and orange hairspray.

A weekend together

Last weekend, something very rare occurred. Josh and I decided to spend time together ... outdoors ... something that hasn't happened since June. The weather wasn't good for Josh to climb a mountain and I decided to take a break from the swim/bike/run craziness. Saturday, we headed to Boulder Canyon to rock climb. The weather was fantastic and we found a nice area with many climbs in our (or more accurately, my) ability level. The rest of the weekend was spent carving pumpkins, taking jello shots (while carving pumpkins), and assembling Halloween costumes. Obviously Josh disliked this time together, as he promptly ran off to Saskatchewan.


Josh trying to find our routes.


Josh climbing


Me rappelling


Pumpkin carving party. The result of pumpkins, knives, and 250 jello shots.


Josh's Cartman pumpkin is on the right. Unfortunately you can't see the chin definition in this picture.



My horrified pumpkin is on the left. Needless to say, neither Josh nor I won any awards for our carving abilities.