Onespeed, Esq.

What's up?

2010-01-15T13:29:00.000-08:00

What's up everyone. I have been posting, etc. on Facebook. So, if you are looking for the latest. Find me there. Thanks.

Our Times

2008-07-31T10:26:00.000-07:00

From today's news:

Economic rebound not as energetic as hoped for - Exxon Mobil 2Q profit sets US record

My Heros

2008-05-30T06:04:00.000-07:00

These guys are my heros. From Trecker:

"Hi everyone,

Here's the latest on what's going on up on the pass. The snow is still
quite solid above Lower Lost Man trailhead and the pass won't open to
traffic until at least June 7th.

Here's a link to a story about the trip Natalie and I took around the
Lost Man on Memorial Day.

http://www.fastersk ier.com/news5407 .html

Thought that was cool, and don't have much to say myself. Heading out to the East Coast today. Always traumatic. I remember something about bicycles. Not sure what . . .

Miwok 100K

2008-05-09T06:01:00.000-07:00

Hey all:

Jean ran her first big race of the season last weekend, and I have a couple of shots to prove it! The race was the Miwok 100K, in Mill Valley/Marin County California. The run started at dawn at Rodeo Beach and then up to Muir Beach, Pan Toll, past Stinson Beach to Randall and back. 100K = 62.47 miles. Here are a few shots:

Rodeo Beach pre-dawn: the usual anxious milling around:

The ladies getting ready to run. It was pretty chilly on the beach.

The racers then all walked out to the beach for the start. The walk was sort of the equivalent of the neutral start in cycling. People were talking, joking around, running into their friends, wishing each other well, etc.

They crossed this bridge to the beach and the lights started to come on. That's when you realized that the start was a pretty cool place. I've been to a few of these now, and I think this was the prettiest start so far.

Ready to start: (in the lower right hand corner of the shot below is Dave Mackey (white shirt, white visor) of Boulder, CO. This day, he would run the race in 7 hours 53 minutes and shatter the course record. If you do the math, that is an average of 7.5 minute miles for 62+ miles. Astounding.)

Then up the beach and up the trail:

Once they were off, I went back to the hotel and back to bed, as always. I then loaded up the car and drove around Marin to run support, with everything except the camera. So, I visited Muir Beach, Stinson Beach, the National Seashore, Muir woods, the Panoramic Highway, etc. and have no pictures. Bummer. It was beautiful, trust me.

12 hours 9 minutes later, I had the camera again when JC crossed the line as the 20th female. Her goal was 12 hours and top 20, and she made both. Nice Work SP!!

Happy May Day!

2008-05-01T06:31:00.000-07:00

SPRING?

From NWS:

...HEAVY SNOW WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 AM MDT FRIDAY...

OCCASIONAL SNOW SHOWERS AND ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS WILL CONTINUE TODAY AND TONIGHT. THE SNOW WILL BE HEAVY AT TIMES...ESPECIALLY NEAR THUNDERSTORMS. TOTAL SNOWFALL ACCUMULATIONS OF 8 TO 16 INCHES CAN BE EXPECTED BY FRIDAY MORNING.

Snow Removal Workers of the World Unite! A little dusting wouldn't be bad, but check the wind. Ugh. Rode to work anyway. Ha!

Crustski the Clown

2008-04-27T06:50:00.000-07:00

Hey all! Hope you are well. Last weekend I got the opportunity to try something I had never done before. The Treckers were nice enough to take me Crust Skiing. For those of you who don't know what this is: In spring in the mountains a hard crust forms on the top of the snow remaining from the winter. Early in the morning this is strong enough to hold you weight, and crust skiing is simply taking your skate style cross country skis out in the morning and skiing on it. The beauty of this is that you can ski all over place, basically where ever there is snow. So, there is no issue of sticking to any trail and you can cruise out in any meadow and just wander around and glide. We skied in Maroon Creek. Check it out:

Trecker cruising on the crust at the creek's edge:

Tele-Gliding the crust back down:

Once we got up a little higher, we skied out into the meadows on either side of the road. You don't have to follow a trail of anything. You just pick where you want to go and head over there. Nat with Pyramid Peak in the background:

Mike cruising the meadows, with quintesential Colorado in the background:

Yours truly with Pyramid:

Up past the end of the road we skied across the lake and had a snack. The view back down the valley. You can see our skate tracks leading up at the bottom of this one:

The view up:

There was a long discussion as to what we were actually looking at from our picnic spot. We later determined that we were looking at the lower reaches of Pyramid.

The key to skiing the crust is to get out of there before it softens up in the spring sun. So, we headed down, but not before the Treckers skied around the lake, and I took a few shots of them on the far shore:

Great day. Super fun. Thanks again to Treckers. Until next time: Be safe out there kids.

April the 16th

2008-04-16T15:01:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to Ian MacKaye:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_MacKaye

http://www.dischord.com/band/ianmackaye

http://archive.salon.com/people/conv/2001/01/08/mackaye/index.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TFNXUsr7gM

He is apparently 46 this fine day. Older and still more core than me. Gives me hope. Thanks for everything.

Great fixie for thrill seekers on Craig's List:

http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/sfo/608546617.html

Why are these people smiling?

2008-03-27T06:23:00.001-07:00

Because it's BIKE Season!!

More pics at:
http://jenyjomtbbliss.blogspot.com/
and
http://www.edemtbs.blogspot.com/

Tokyo too

2008-03-12T18:46:00.000-07:00

Stop by ZJean and scroll down to older posts here for more from our days in Tokyo.

Hokkaido Snow

2008-03-07T16:52:00.001-08:00

Just rolls off the tongue doesn't it: "Hokkaido Snow"

I am the last one left. Since this is my powder shot post, I am going to include a little more scenery and narrative. Also, I encourage everyone to scroll through the lower posts for more narrative, more incredible powder shots, and even further back for more on our trip to the incredible country of Japan. You can also head over to zjean.blogspot.com for more cultural and arty shots by MJ.

I would be remiss if I did not mention that this entire trip was a gift from my wife Jean for my 40th birthday. People remember their major birthdays for a lot of reasons. I will remember mine for this trip, but mostly for how fortunate I am to be married to the energy, creativity, sass and love that is MJ. SP: Thanks for always being game. Did I mention she's a ripper (see posts below).

Okay, on Day 2, it cleared a little as we started up the hill.

Soon, low and behold, we had some blue sky:

and we could finally get a look at where we were:

I have more of those I could post, but many people don't seem to be interested in the scenery (EdE?). There was some slide activity, but it doesn't seem to go anywhere. This debris was in one of the best areas to start down.

Did I mention the skiing? Yours truly:

And the SNOW? (Click on these, they are big.)

Toshisan:

These are more Pando shots. I think the one above is just awesome. I am not sure I have said this enough: the quality and quantity of snow here is unmatched in my experience. More Toshi:

Add to that the experience of self-powered back country skiing in the remote recesses of an already distant land, and you get an inkling of how lucky we were. This area is non-motorized travel only. No heli, no cats, no sleds. I think Toshi was the one who told me "there will never be a lift here". I hope it's true. Just breakfast and sweat, and sometimes some Pocari Sweat. Look that one up.

A few more of our friend and leader Ross:

And when the day is through, the truck is waiting:

and it is back up the road to Ryounkaku:

Day 3 was Ross MJ and me doing basically the same. I have no pictures and Pando was on his way to Myoko. More of the same, and then a cool alternate onsen up the road. You will just have to take our word for it.

Well kids that's it, and thanks for playing along. I have a ton of photos, and we have stories to tell. Brad, the onsen switches every morning . . .

Thanks to Ross Matlock for organizing the trip, and thanks to Brad, Scotty and Pando for putting up with us and making it all the better at every turn. See ya next year.

Sugar Booger

2008-03-07T16:40:00.000-08:00

So, some where along the line Craig, who works with kids a lot, started calling Jean "Sugar Booger". It has stuck (no pun intended).

Ross had a way of leading us to spot after spot of totally untracked snow and then turning to us and asking who wanted to drop in first. Typically, he could barely finish the question before SB hit it:

This was the lightest snow I have ever seen (yes I have been to Utah). Hokkaido is definitely the home of the "cold smoke":

Above is another sick shot. Thanks Pando. Craig made us all look so good Jean was wondering why we didn't get him for our wedding.

Pretty good for a girl. Can we ride that one again?

Toshi (above) that same day; Why are these people smiling?

Skin to Win/Ross and Scotty

2008-03-07T16:26:00.000-08:00

We skinned to all this stuff and there was not another soul in sight. Actually, the exceptions were two French dudes, who were the coolest Frenchies I think I have ever met. (Say it Frenchie: Pow-dere.)

Scotty "The Easter Bunny" McGee:

One of the best things about Japan is the Junk Food. They have all kinds of killer candy that is available everywhere through vending machines. Scotty always had candy of some sort on him. Hence the moniker "Easter Bunny".

Ross:

Thanks to Ross for always breaking trail.

Pow Shots

2008-03-07T16:20:00.000-08:00

Okay, well I wanted to continue with my dorky time line narrative of the Japan trip, but everyone is clamouring for the powder shots. So, here they are.

Brad the Philly boy showing the mountain crew how it is done:

This last one is just so sick.

Parting Shots from Moiwa

2008-03-07T13:52:00.000-08:00

Here are a few more shots from our last in-bounds day. These are courtesy of our friend Craig at Tammarack, Idaho. These are the trees easily accessible from the main lifts. But, remarkably untracked. Jean showing the form:

And again in some deeper stuff (just wait till the next post though):

Good Guide and Great Guy Ross Matlock making a couple of "demo turns":

Yamurasan skiing better at 70 than I do at 40:

We have a pile of the super fluff shots for next post. Hang in their kids; they are coming.

More Photos and Insights

2008-03-03T20:23:00.000-08:00

Hey Kids:

Head over to ZJean for more on the Japan trip. Click the Pictures to get the full view.

Best, OSE.

Daisetsuzan - Day One

2008-03-03T05:52:00.000-08:00

Our next destination was the Daisetsuzan National Park (another link)and the Ryounkaku Onsen. (Some info on Onsen generally). Ryounkaku is located at the end of a road up into the mountains that are the center of the Park. We were told it is the highest point in Japan that is accessible by car. At 2267.64 square kilometers, Daisetsuzan is the largest national park in Japan. The name means Great Snowy Mountain(s), and is a very apt description. There are 15 peaks over 2000 meters that, in summer, offer some of the most rugged hiking in Japan. The Ainu name for Daisetsuzan, kamui-mintara, translates to "playground of the gods".

After a five hour van ride there, we awoke the next day to more snow and wind. Basically you are in a simple but comfortable lodge at the end of the road and can hike or skin up to whatever you want to ski. No lifts, no patrol, no ropes, no boundaries. The snow pack is quite consistent as the temperature stays low and real sunny days are few and far between. What they do get is continuous light snow and a lot of it. The storms roll off of Siberia and cross the sea of Japan, picking up more moisture. It is almost like a giant lake effect. The main driver for any avalanche activity is wind and wind loading.

On our first morning there, it had been quite windy the night before and there was a pretty good wind slab and some deposition of snow in lee areas. We skied directly from the lodge that day. It is definitely cool to walk out the front door and put your gear on. We hit the main skin track and did one big lap to the top of the more northerly area. We had to stay below the tree line as visibility that day was an issue. The snow up high was deep, but definitely wind affected. Good skiing, but definitely back country conditions. After one big lap, several of our party peeled off at the start finish zone. Only Ross, MJ, Toshi and I went back up for another go. The intent was really just to get some more exercise, but we managed to find some better snow. Some good powder turns, but definitely harsh conditions (i.e. strong wind, snow and wind affected surface).

Based on this, I don't have too many pictures from this day, but here they are:

First morning we woke up to these views out of our two windows. The first is looking straight west or down:

This second one is looking north. We skied mostly to the northwest of Ryounkaku.

On our first lap we had some decent snow, but it was relatively aggressive snow and weather, so I didn't get many shots. Here are some of our tracks though and hopefully you can see the snow depth. Remember to click the pictures for much larger views. This also gives a good idea of the terrain. Pretty gradual pitch through nicely spaced trees and deep snow. Just super fun skiing.After our group split up, only Toshi, Ross, MJ and I took the second lap. At the end of the day you emerge at a trail head across the road from "The Baden" Onsen. This looks like it would be another nice place to stay and has almost better proximity to the main skiinning/sking area. My three companions at day's end:

Smiles all around. Toshi is a Hokkaido native, and Certified Canadian Mountain Guide, and a really great dude generally. He is also one of the strongest, smoothest tele skiers I have ever had the privilege to ski with. He is also very heavily involved with the TAJ. All that and his English is perfect, which is super handy for us tourists

You then get ski lift Ryounkaku style. You call up to Ryounkakau and they send down the dump truck. You all load in the back and ride back to the top for onsen and dinner.Finally, after dinner, a couple of Classics and a hot soak, it is bedtime. Our room at Ryounkaku:
Dont' know what it means, but I think I agree.

Travel Day & Turns

2008-03-02T21:52:00.001-08:00

So, kids, I have to get some sleep if I am ever going to get my clock right, so here are a few pictures from the travel day. Because the lifts were closed the day before, we decided to catch half a day at a smaller local hill called Moiwa.

After an unusually large storm, this was the lift line at opening:

The lodge:
Ever seen Breck on a powder day? Nuf said on that. The skies cleared off and we started to get some views of valley:

Across the valley lies a huge dormant volcano. I'll look the name up and post it in the rewrite of this for you. I hope you are clicking all these pics and those below. They are much larger than on the main page.Cool cloud below. Big enough to make its own weather. There are apparently a ton of skiable lines on it, but everyone waits for the snow to set up in spring.

The wind the night before was strong enough to tear out the door on one of the lift sheds. This is one of those steel "riot gate" overhead doors. Just torn from its tracks. Check out the sign too. Careful.
Riding the lift. I am pretty sure you're not supposed to do what that signs says. Ross on the chair with Yamurasan:
Yamurasan in the trees. The beauty of Moiwa is not the in bounds territory but the marginally in bounds tree skiing it services. The gentleman below is Yamurasan. I am pretty sure you could write a book about the guy, and I hope someone does. He is the local telemark guru and one of the founders of the Telemark Ski Association of Japan or TAJ. He has been living it since the beginning in Japan, and has traveled the world skiing. At 70 he is still making drop knee turns. The most gracious and welcoming host, he showed us around Moiwa. Many thanks to him, and I can only hope to grow up to be like him someday.

The wind had pushed the snow around quite a bit, but there was still some to be had. Scotty "The Easter Bunny" getting some:Yours truly in action:

And getting some more.

These were taken with my little snapshot camera. Pando and MJ have some much better shots from here and the later days especially that will blow your mind. I have a few I need to edit too.

Pando and Yamurasan in the lift line. A great day thanks to both! Next stop, Ryounkaku

Good night for now.

Coffee and Soba

2008-03-02T20:53:00.000-08:00

Hi all. Sorry for the long delay in posting, but we spent the last few days in Japan at Ryounkaku (see links to right) a place with (gasp) no internet connection. No cell, no email . . . off line. Heaven. Anyway, there has also been a call to get to the skiing shots. Patience, patience. To keep this chronological (and logical for that matter) here are a few shots from the day off. There was a "unusual" that started on the day of skiing below and kept up that entire night. There was a bunch of snow, but more unusual was the wind. It was absolutely dumping but unfortunately, mostly horizontally. There were gusts of 60+ mph and huge drifts everywhere. More on that later. When we awoke the next day (Feb 23 I think) both the roads to the ski area and the lifts were closed. Apparently, in Niseko when they decide to close the lifts in the morning, they stay closed all day, and as Murphy would predict, after that decision was made, the winds died down and the snow stopped. The sun even started peeking out. So, what to do?

Well, while the weather cleared, you could find MJ and I sitting in the little restaurant in the lobby of our hotel, the Kanronomori drinking coffee.

A note on this place. It was so great I cannot hope to express it here. The staff was super helpful and friendly, the onsen was super nice and food was over the top. The first night we arrived we had an amazing traditional seven course meal (kiseki I think). It was so good that I figured it was basically a welcome dinner. But, each night after we had a similar seven courses, with all different dishes and better every night. Unbelievable. Check out the links on their page for "spa" (which is the onsen) and the restaurant. This is all about a 5 minute free bus ride from the lifts. As further evidence of how cool Konronomori is, this is in the lobby next to the front desk.

Due in part to the amount and quality of snow they get, Hokkaido is the cradle of snowboarding in Japan and the size and shape of the boards is telling. The boards on display were all made by a local shaper who is one of the grandfathers of the sport in Japan. When I first arrived noticed the majority of the guys riding big guns. Lots of swallow tails and all with stances set way back. I soon as shown above and below, I soon learned why. Poke around Gentemstick for further info.

So, once the weather cleared out, we all headed out of the hotel. There were no buses running and no one on the road, but there were a few places to walk to.
Kanronomori is not right in town, but we walked by a few place on the way. The final destination was a soba noodle house that was open for lunch. This was a cool little cabin that was set a little off the road by a small pond. MJ has some great pics on her blog at ZJean Here are Pando and MJ at the entrance.
Never too early for a little sake:

When you order, the proprietor takes a head count and cuts a lump of dough out of the bowl you see to the left. The picture is him rolling that lump out flat.
He then folds the flattened dough slices it into noodles. The noodle making in process below.
Those are then boiled and served in awesome broth with some veggies and tempura and a little more sake. Pretty fresh. The couple who were running the place were awesome to us, and my thanks to them. If I could have read and translated the name I would post it, but you are ever in Niseko you have got to stop in.

Ni Crassic Kudisai

2008-02-24T00:59:00.000-08:00

Figuring heavily in the trip. Sapporo Crassic. Say it with me now: "Pando, wanna get a coupla Crassics?"

Listening to BJM

The Difficult Third Day

2008-02-23T23:51:00.000-08:00

Started to Snow:
Little did we know we were departing on this journey with members of the PSIA National Tele Team. These are the guys that teach the teachers. The trip organizer, Ross Mattlock, is on the team, but he and buddies Pando and Scotty were also over here to clinic with the TAJ, Telemark Association of Japan and work with their professionals. These pics are them working with Azu and Nioko. Two female rippers (I mean rippers) from the TAJ. Nioko is currently racing for Japan on the World Cup Circuit. We were extremely lucky to listen in and get the attention from the real pros. Anyway, kind of rough conditions at this point, but the snow had started . . .

Nioko and Scotty ^

Azu and Pando ^

Snowing harder ^. Grabbed some lunch (the lunches here are actually killer Japanese food even for them. Imagine: Wok fried pork on Noodle Soup). The team:Check the pod of chick tele rippers at the end. As usual MJ didn't have a thing to say. Powered up, we found more snow than with thought. See below. I have been a lot places where it snows. When this rolled in, it dropped a couple of feet in about two hours. I have seldom, if ever seen anything like. Ross demonstrated powder technique:

Azu is pretty tall ; ), but we almost lost her anyway:

As for me, after trying it myriad ways, Pando finally said the one thing the hit it: "Vertical Femur". I now know why these are called drop knee turns. Hero snow helped, but snappy tele turns with stupid face shots. It was a break through and a big big day. We lapped a killer section over and over and our tracks were basically the only ones there, though they were generally filled with new snow when we got back. The kind of stuff that would get ravaged in seconds in our neck of the woods. It was instead our private playground. Like you read about. Sugoi Hokkaido!

Niseko, Hokkaido

2008-02-23T16:52:00.001-08:00

So, our first day on snow was Thursday, Feb. 21. We started out at Niseko Annupuri, the eastern most entrance to the group of areas in Niseko. Like many places in Europe, you can go up a lift in one resort and ski down into another. Here we bought a multi-area pass and skied all the areas that day. Taken together, the group of areas is about the size of the resorts we are used in to in the Rocky Mountain U.S.

The Gondola. How do you say "Who's holdin'?" in Japanese?

It had apparently been very sunny and had not snowed in a while. That said, there is a ton of snow here, and it clearly snows a lot. But, notice the available freshies even after days of no new snow.
We met up with Brad, the other "client" on our trip and skied that day. Here is what the areas typically look like. Decent pitch for me, through sparse trees and nice snow. MJ had the best descriptor for the snow this day. It was "cake flour". This is not the norm. The snow is reputed to be light and dry and more like Utah than the N.W.

Note the overcast. This is reported to be the norm. It is funny because you do not get your visual bearings. But, the visibility was not bad, and once you were in the trees, it was great.

MJ getting the good work done in the trees. Sorry about the "not great" camera work, but you get the idea.

A little in the back seat, but we love her anyway . . . .

DR in the house of Nihon

Old Tokyo

2008-02-23T15:57:00.001-08:00

Hey there again. Still stranded in the lodge here, so here are some more pics from Tokyo. MJ picked up a cool book called "Little Adventures in Tokyo" that was really helpful. One cool adventure was a walking tour of what it called "Old Tokyo", but I think is the Ya-Na-Sen. Either way, it was a really stark contrast to what we had seen so far. The streets were narrow and filled with little shops.

The side streets were crammed with little houses and there were tiny pocket parks and temples around every corner. Here is a really cool example of a park with a shrine.

These were delicious . . .
; )

The area is home to not only temples, but one of the major old cemeteries in Tokyo.

I wish you could smell the smoke. They were probably just burning brush, but it added to how cool this scene was.

No, the irony was not lost on us . . .

Cool garden in the interior of the home of one of Tokyo's most famous architects. The home is now a museum.

Beautiful wood working everywhere.

and stone work.

Let's see what's down the next street . . . . . .

Shibuya Crosswalk

2008-02-23T15:33:00.000-08:00

Hey again everyone, or really anyone who might be looking at this. We are on lock down in the lodge up here in Hokkaido. I have lived and traveled in some places with bad weather, but I have seldom if ever seen it snow like this. Currently, the road from our lodge/onsen is closed and we are hanging out, drinking coffee and waiting for it to break. If yesterday afternoon is any indication, when it does break it will be epic. More on that later.

Anyway, trying to stay chronological here. So, here are some shots of the famous crosswalk in Tokyo's Shibuya neighborhood. You may have seen it in the movies Jackass and Lost in Translation, but it is hilarious live. Just synchronized chaos. When the lights change thousands of people cross the street in every direction. We managed to find a creative direction to cross in ourselves, and it was basically human pichicho.

After this, sort of stunned by the whole thing we stumbled into what is called a "Food Court" over here. But, it is not the American mall food court. It is more like a modern market arranged in stalls with hawkers out front of each pitching the products and really high quality prepared foods. I know it is a stupid cliche, but I don't know how they don't all weigh 400 lbs. More to come.

Fujisan

2008-02-23T01:21:00.000-08:00

Hi again from Nihon. There is so little time to actually sit down and post that I am behind in getting you pictures. Here it is though. THE symbol of Tokyo and Japan. We, of course, have not been in Tokyo for three days now, but here it is anyway. I took this from observation level at the top to the Tokyo Municipal Building. This a free elevator ride to a really cool view of Tokyo and beyond. Anyone traveling here should hit this cheap treat and great way to get a small handle on a huge city. More later. Off right now to soak in the healing Onsen.

Tsukiji

2008-02-21T23:56:00.000-08:00

Hey All: Sorry for the delayed posting of the Japan trip, but ironically we have had poor internet service. Here are some pics of our first stop. This is all at about 5 am local time on our first day. This is Tsukoji fish market. The largest fish market in a Country that consumes 1/6th of the World's fish.

This was the area with stalls for a myriad of fish and fish related products.

And this was the famous fish auction. This is most renown as the tuna auction, but be learned they sell a whole variety of fish. Apparently, a good percentage of the world's fish pass through this floor.

This was some very exacting tuna cutting. The older guy was coaching the apprentice on the technique.

More to come I promise. I need to get upload issues worked out, and then we will be in business. BTW: It is my 40th here already, and will be tomorrow there. Arigato for watching.

Wennie Wednesday

2008-02-13T15:47:00.000-08:00

Came across this pic as the IT guy resolved a massive virus problem on my machine. Thanks Wardo. I took this one morning from the car during X-Games this year (note the traffic). I am pretty sure this is called a sun dog. The difference is this appeared half across the valley from the sun like a second star. I took the shot with my phone and the photo cannot come close to justice. Live, that little ball if light to the left was a searing rainbow, opposing the sun. Pretty cool what ice crystals can do.

Ticking down to departure and scrambling to get out of here. See new link to the right for the final destination on Hokkaido - Ryounkoku. Thanks for watching.

Sunny Sunday

2008-02-12T05:30:00.000-08:00

Hey Kids: Here's some pics from last sunny Sunday here. After posting about the snow not stopping, the sun came out over the weekend and we had two bluebird days in a row. Raced the Owl Creek Chase on Saturday, but had to work on Sunday. The OCC was "fun", but I had forgotten that it is a really hard course. Lotsa lotsa up. Anyway, got to see some of the boys from both Breck and Steamboatia. Thought I was going to croak a few times, but did it and it was good. I can't really try to ski fast anymore. I basically gotta just do these things for the exercise of doing it itself. The funny part is that while I felt like crap during it, I actually posted a little faster time than two years ago. Maybe warm fast snow?

Anyway, Sunday I worked in the afternoon and decided to get up from the desk at four and hike up the hill behind our place with the snow shoes. From the top you get a 360 view of the Hasbeen area, and you can see all four ski areas. See below. There is just a pant load of snow up there. Even with the snow shoes, I went hip deep a couple of times and the doggies were doing quite a bit of wallowing. Enjoy.

It's Not Stopping

2008-02-07T05:50:00.000-08:00

First off: Peace to Sheldon Brown.

Next: Just in case you are not here in Colorado the snow is not stopping, and we are under another winter storm warning. 18 to 36" by Friday. The Deck:

That pile to the right in the foreground is the patio furniture. That thing to the left is a chimenea that is about six feet tall. The snow just keeps coming. That might explain why posts have been few and far between, but that is lame. Anyway, been getting out some and have done a few events, but have generally had a lull in adventures lately. I was going to try to update this with each event/adventure, but then I got behind and updating becomes onerous itself. Have done a few events and have blown off a few events. Did the Winter Wild wando wace from Snowmass to Buttermilk, did the Leadville Mountain Bike Race (as recounted at www.edemtbs.blogspot.com), but blew off CB Alley Loops based on the long drive and horrendous driving weather (good sking weather). Been trying to skin and get some nordic in, but mostly have been trying to practice tele turns in deep snow, which just keeps coming, for Japan.

Here are a few shots from a morning skin at Tiehack. This is last week I think? Notice the bright ball of burning hydrogen in the sky. Haven't seen too much of it this year, but no, I will not examine the dentistry of an equine gratuity . . . .

Up the front of Tie Hack. Note the good snow:

Gaining the ridge and the views open up. Some people stop there.

Higher up looking east over Aspen Mountain.

Mr. C. Focker gets ready to ski at the top. Note the Moon above.

That's it for now kids. Get out there, this year is one of the big ones.

GIANT

2008-02-04T19:02:00.000-08:00

WR Plaxico Burress scored the game-winning touchdown in Super Bowl XLII.

2008-01-11T07:21:00.000-08:00

Stitches out this morning. Healing up. Hoping to ski this weekend. Japan is set: we have our tickets; now to learn Japanese in 4 weeks. No prob.

1976 in W.Va. - a place where is does not snow anymore. (Check the Socks)
http://www.whitegrass.com/

2008 SW Colorado: Enjoy it while you can.
http://www.wolfcreekresort.com/

Be safe out there kids. E

Tele Sucks

2008-01-07T13:24:00.000-08:00

This:
Leads to this:

That's 15 stitches in 4 spots with 9 on the inside.

Can we go biking now?

08 - Get it straight

2008-01-02T12:36:00.000-08:00

Hi to all none of you who are reading this. Going to try to warm this thing up this year. Maybe some Fotos? Just one part of a multifaceted resolution. We will see which of these stick. Fun skiing (yes skiing) over New Year's. Good snow, very very cold and good crew (JenJo, MJ and EdE). Looks like Japan is on. More on that later. Peace and Love to all in 2008.

Intro

2006-11-17T08:47:00.000-08:00

Wow, that was easy. Now, all I have to do is think of somehting to write.