New Skis ... Sort Of

I got this pair of Trak Cortina cross country skis from a friend of mine this week (thanks bro!) . They are one of the original fish scale skis from the '70s. I'll be going up to Badger to test them out.

I'm starting to rough out the winter gear checklist. In the winter the environment is everything ...so protection from the short term and long term effects is the project. I've been reading books like Steve House's Beyond the Mountain and Beck Weather's book Left for Dead, which detail equipment carried into extreme alpine environments. The 7 lb pack that Steve house carried for his solo of K7 didn't have a lot of excesses; expediency and weight saving are the real lessons from that. Beck Weather's dramatic events on Everest weren't really the result of his gear.

When Reinhold Messner summited Everest solo , he abandoned his pack. He did insist on 2 pairs of sunglasses though. You probably won't get home if you're snow blind.

SO here's the first whack at my list:

Base Layer, Patagonia Capilene and or smartwool micro wool, 2 each; Sock Liners
Smartwool Wool Neck Gaiter
Hat, wool or Polartec, like the Mountain Hardware Dome Perignon or Windstopper.
Glasses, Sunglasses, Magnifiers
Compass (Silva Ranger)
GPS
Water Bottle
Map
Skis, Snowshoes, Boots, Gaiters, Wax (for the skis)
Smartwool Wool socks (2 Pair)
Gloves (current choice ... Black Mountain Glissade 0 degree)
Spare gloves
Wool pants and Wool Shirt.
Northface Polargard Jacket
Northface Summit Shell
Marmot Rain pant
Food -- gu packets, one meal ready to eat.
Water bottle
Duct Tape.
Mini First aid kit (see duct tape above)
Poles
Avalance Probe
Snow Shovel
Dermatone lip stuff.
Sunscreen
Garbage Bag
Hand Warmers
Extra hat

For the truck:
Sleeping Bag and Pad
Chains
Come-along
Tow Strap
Tent
MSR Whisperlite Stove, fuel and pot
Meal (dehydrated ... Chili Mac anyone?)
Extra Blanket

For Camp:
Tent
Stove, pot, and fuel
French Press coffee maker and coffee
Pad
Sleeping bag
Blanket
Spoon
Foot Soaking tub
Pillow

King's Canyon, Nevada

I was up in Reno and Carson City for a few days connecting with old and new friends. There was about an inch of snow overnight the first night.

Met up with Jeff Moser of Bike Carson and his son and we went for a short hike in King's Canyon. It was cool to meet him and see his bike collection (I counted 26). Very fun. After the hike we had pho ... which I couldn't really eat because of the waffles.













Jeff, son and 3 dogs.

Skiing @ Crane Flat and Badger Pass

Saul at the Tuolumne Grove on Saturday.

Badger Pass looked fun.

That's me on the Glacier Point Road.

Me again!

Glacier Point Trail Map
Crane Flat Trail Map

I went up to Yosemite over the weekend. I stayed in a cabin in the valley, and it was sweet (you're jealous, no?). The weather was good, albeit a bit warm, and the food was good (thanks to Saul!).

We skied at Crane Flat on Saturday, but one, didn't have a map, and two, I forgot the wax for my skis. We went down to the Tuolumne Grove of the giant sequoias, and it was a bit steep so we walked a lot of it. We skied all of two miles.

On Sunday, we skied near Badger Pass on the Glacier Point Road and the old Glacier Point Road. Badger has well defined trails and and the road is groomed. So it went better. I found Nordic waxes and alot of advice at the Nordic Ski Center, but skied using some borrowed fishscales. We skied about 3 miles, some of it quite a bit more difficult than the road, mostly because it was loose, heavily post-holed, and heavily snowshoed old snow.

1000 Posts

Well, that's a landmark. 1000 posts.

I started this blog April 17, 2005, almost 5 years ago. 5 years, 1000 cheap stories -- and just a few good ones. 5 years, me, my bikes, my hikes, my cameras, my friends. And a few thousand miles of wilderness. And some wilderless.

And a shitload of friends. Thank god for that. Friends to inspire me, to go with me, to help me. To love and follow me, foolishly perhaps. Thanks to all of you. For years of inspiration, friendship, and 1000 posts to this crazy book.

Amen.

Bear Valley and

... remembering how to ski.

Andrew and I left the Bay before dawn to get to Bear Valley sometime around 9. I immediately rediscovered that snow is quite slippery by falling in profound slow motion ... right on to my a**. We bought a pass for the cross-country sky trails and set out -- me on my new skis and Andrew on snowshoes. He had a distinct advantage because I haven't skied in 15 years, and really didn't know that much about it then. Additionally -- I waxed my skis ... so they really didn't work all that well. So we were pretty evenly matched in pace initially -- only occassionally did he have to wait for me.

I learned a few things ... however ... aside from the obvious truth that I am not in skiing shape. Waxing skis is a bit mysterious and difficult ... and begs for either training from some one who's done it, or twenty to thirty lifetimes of trial and error. I am a quick learn though. When my skis didn't perform as I expected -- I didn't give up -- I kept skiing on them until I was exhausted. At some point I actually stopped and adjusted my kick wax up in temperature and polished the glide surfaces of the skis again. Things improved ... I wasn't able to zip around like all those skate skiers .. but I was able to kick and glide, and climbing was still difficult, go figure.

It was a pretty awesome day. Overnight about a foot of snow fell -- adding to a foot or so that had recently fallen. Although it snowed all day, it was never hard, and the temperature was reasonably 22 or 25 degress F. or so. Even after it warmed up a bit -- my guess is it was resoundly below freezing.

I skied about 7 km, or 4 something miles on flat terrain. My first ski since 1994? and I skied 4 plus miles. I'm good with that. It took a while and we ended up stopping around noon-thirty to eat.

We had lunch here, at the grocery store in Bear Valley. Yum, but ... there wasn't enough.

It wasn't all that great of a day for nature photography, being all grey and snowing ... but maybe it was. The cloudyness was great, the amount of snow was huge, it was gorgeuos ... and it was good.

My Mid-Life Crisis

Chuckle. I am starting to work on my bucket list. That's definitely a symptom. Anyway, I just bought some touring skis at craigslist prices. Why? You might ask. Because I always wanted to.

They are a metal edged touring ski circa old school waxable three-pin 75mm binding telemark like with Chamonix™ bindings, and they've been places I've never been, and they're in very good shape for being less than 37 years old. Specifically a Karhu Kodiak Edge,215cm. The book I have here (written in 1972) doesn't mention metal edge skis, or skate skis or randonee, or skins, but it does mention fiberglass and "waxless" skis, regarding them with absolute distain. Skins are described briefly, and choosing which animal they are from seems important.

The real mystery is the waxing ..." Or somethng like that. I bought boots and I have figured out that my racing poles need to be 142 cm -- which is exactly the maximum of my extensible poles, go figure. I watched videos on waxing. I investigated and I need either one wax or 32 total - to ski in California. It's a bit intimidating.

So -- when I bought the skis Rich said something like "Yeta, yeta, yeta, klister this something ... after that it's all blue or green wax in California. I spent the night in a snow cave ... there was an avalanche and I lost my skis, yeta, yeta, yeta" ... I gave him the money, and took the skis. See you later, Rich. I sort of want to call him back and find out how he got back without skis.

I went looking and calling around for klister or other kick waxes, and they aren't available around here, in fact, it's quite difficult to help the clerk understand what I want enough to find it. They all know about quick waxes though. The latest story is that I might be able to find them at REI in Saratoga ...

When I was younger I went on an overnight ski trip. I borrowed wooden skis and bamboo poles (umm and sweet low cut leather nordic three-pin shoes) from the elder brother and went off to Badger Pass with a hopeful girlfriend ... and well it was a lot more than fun. I should have froze to death. I fell about 500 times. But it was quite memorable. We had a minor accident, wrecking her car, and managed to survive skiing and the accident.

Now, I have these skis ... the boots are on the way from Norway or some other frozen planet ... maybe Canada -- where they still use these. I want to ski. To glide. If they arrive tomorrow it will also be a great mystery, and I'll be skiing Saturday. If I can find some wax ...

Carson Pass Route

Carson Pass

Andrew and I went snowshoeing up in Carson Pass at an elevation of 8574 feet. There was a fair amount of snow. We might have hiked 3 miles round trip and up to about 9200 feet.

On the Road ...

... to Winnemucca Lake ... at my elder brother's recommendation ... I doubt there will be this much snow ... but we going any way.

Pescadero Creek

I went for a short hike today out at Pescadero Creek.

You're Fired!

Aol Instant Messenger now has introduced a concept of punishment towards users that try to connect to their service repeatedly after a failed attempt. I think that that's not really an appropriate way to treat me. They threaten extend the time you have to wait if you continue to try to connect ... and then actually do it ...

The service is already crappy at best ... So, you're fired.

i Feel Like an Animal

"... Two interesting things happened the next day. A wolf ran out on the trail. One of the Dani (New Guinia Tribesman) whipped out his bow. ... and dropped the wolf in midstride....Then he and the rest of them fell on the animal and ate it raw. ... They wolfed him down.". From Left for Dead by Beck Weathers.

Oh ... That

It's been awhile. Tomorrow, I'd like to try to ride my bike to work. It's not easy. I am going to catch a 7:07 train ... which means up before 6. I want to try to hike around Angel Island this weekend ... 6 miles. Try.

Yes try. It's been about 3 1/2 months since the hike to Half Dome which left me with a broken foot, followed several weeks later with dislocating a toe on the other foot. I've had several weeks of Physical Therapy, seen several kinds of doctors, used Chinese medicine, and done my best to keep using it (my foot). I have walked, run, climbed, worked out, trained, swam and travelled against all advice. Following their advice, I have exercised my feet, ankles, calves and hamstrings for hours on end ... towel crunches ... left and rights, hamstring curls, achilles stretches -- the list goes on. Last week I had a fairly serious workout including weights and running ... and more running. Over the weekend I was in Oregon, mostly driving. Monday night I went to the climbing gym and abused myself pretty seriously.

Today my body hurts in a serious post-climbing way. My back aches across the shoulders ... My core is absolutely trash. My wrists and hands hurt. The skin on my fingers is sore. And I have stripes of pain on the inside and outside of my legs.

My feet really don't hurt all that much.

I am pretty comfortable with the idea that I won't be up to 100% for a while. Maybe even as long as a year. But I am starting to feel that I will be able to plan some trips, or do a few hikes, return to training, and be able to rely on it again

Which is a good thing.

It's Complicated ...

Yep, it's complicated. In my experience, even the simplest of relationships is pretty complicated. I changed my facebook status to "it's complicated," to which Facebook announced to all my friends that "Shawn is now in a complicated relationship." Brilliant. I was already in a complicated relationship I wasn't talking all that much about. I just now decided to mention it. The announcement doesn't say anything about the previous state, since I had not said anything before. So it sounds like I am starting a new relationship.

The choices for relationships in facebook are it's complicated, married, in a relationship, single, widowed, engaged, in an open relationship, and the additional option of no statement at all (imagine the movie title for that one).

How often does one enter a relationship with a status of it's complicated. Not very often ... I am thinking. Sometimes, but I submit that rarely "it's complicated" is the first choice in a new relationship. The truth though, is that none of the status descriptions listed above are suitable for any relationship that I am in. It's intersting that there are 5 ways to describe a "committed" romantic relationship, and just two kinds of single. Clearly there's a bias towards affairs of the heart, so I'll stick to those.

I find the number of choices to be less than effective at describing the status of a relationship. I would prefer ad-hoc text to allow me to describe my relationship, but short of that it would be easy enough to expand the list. Here's a list of suggestions (Shawn is in a(n) ______ relationship(s)):

Attractive
Dating
Ecstatic
Unbelievable
Fucked Up
Mind Blowing
More Than One
Many
Comfortable
Dangerous
Confused
Gay
Bromantic
Romantic
Late-Night
Co-Dependent
Esoteric
Secret
Fun
Unrequited
OMG
Sex-Only
Celibate
Seductive
Sabotaged
Tempting
Illicit
Contemptuous
Monogamous
Weekend
Vacation
Scrape the Skin Off the Ceiling
...

This list could go on for a while. Since we live in a place where serial monogamy is more than common, I'd like to toy with the steps a relationship might follow towards it's inevitable failure. I'm Interested, Tempting, Dating, Secret, Hot, Ecstatic, Comfortable, Irritating ... did I mention Boring ... then suddenly, It's Complicated. Do you see where this is going? It's complicated might be used when you're sleeping with your boss, or dating your ex, who's actually married to one of your friends, or whenever it's convenient not to try to clarify what's actually happening, but rather, to just put everyone off. Ummm ... "I'm not telling."

When I first looked (some time ago) at the list, I said ... I don't really like to define myself as single, I'm not really in a relationship ... so exclude the info from the profile. Later ... I decided not to share anyting about any relationship I was in. Not all that complicated, but ... there's not so much to talk about.

Right now, it's complicated. I think it's going to get uncomplicated soon.

How I See It ...

It's Safeway. I shop there all the time. It's convenient located, but really, it's not that convenient. So I have a few suggestions for them.

1. Don't address me by my name when I am in line at the checkout counter. As your customer, I have entrusted you with a bunch of personally identifiable information, which you get from my Safeway card or my debit card or credit card. Most companies have a policy governing their behavior regarding personal information, and assuring me that they are behaving correctly, or at least in a manner I can choose not to agree to. Typically, you (Safeway) don't actually know me, and neither do any of the other people in the store. So, please don't tell them my name.

2. Please try to discourage panhandlers outside your store at midnight. I give a lot of money to charities and to panhandlers, but really don't want to deal with them outside your dark store at midnight when I am typically getting the shopping done. As an alternative, maybe you could turn some more lights on in the parking lot. As your customer, I don't always feel safe on the way to my car (and it's not necessarily the fault of the panhandlers).

3. Closing all your registers at 11:00 PM for five minutes isn't really good for business. It pisses your customers off (I know because I am in line with them). It may be really convenient for you, but it's not for me, and ... after all ... I am your customer.

4. Having one cashier with 60 people in line at 7:00 PM on a Friday night isn't all that good for business either, in case you happen to be one of those Safeway managers who happened to be watching that night, when we, the customers, were wondering how it is that you actually still have jobs.

5. Stocking the shelves with stuff that people buy is another good idea. I don't know how many times I have gone shopping with a list of ordinary goods and found that some critical element (hamburger ... for example), was completely unavailable. Or found myself having to go to another store to get about half the stuff I have on my list. It must be really convenient for you to stock all the goods at the end of the day ... at once, but for me, it would be great if the stuff were on the shelf when I got there.

6. Although it must seem pretty fulfilling to have the user interface for credit cards ask your customers to donate money for the MDA, or PDA's for kids, or breast cancer associations, I personally find it a bit irritating. As your customer, I am usually in a hurry, already find your poorly designed and badly working credit/debit machine to be incredibly slow and cumbersome, and I wonder if you have any respect at all for my time, and the time of all the other people around me. I am really just trying to get the groceries and go. I don't want to be troubled with charitable giving decisions while I am shopping, I'll do that at home with my family and my tax advisor. Making every customer say no to a "do you want to donate" question is a an incredible waste of time for every person in line at every register, literally thousands of button pushes every day, hours wasted standing in line (talk about a drain on the economy). I tolerate this so you can feel good about yourselves; I don't think so. Please try to be slightly more considerate of my time by making that decision an option at the pay screen. You know, "credit", "debit", or "donate", or better yet, go back to little cards that a customer can select and buy.

So ... here's a business idea for you leaders at Safeway, if you want to keep good customers like me. Make it easy and cheap for me to buy my groceries and be on my way, and I'll be in twice a week. Make it too hard ... and I probably won't.

So I am Reading Along ...

... and it's a book about travel -- aptly called a "memoir." Susan Jane Gilman's Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven. Initially I was a skeptic. I picked it up in the bookstore (Kepler's ... my favorite), read a few pages and pooh poohed it. A few weeks later, desperately, I went back and picked it up. Now --- I am sort of bathing in it. It's unheralding and unpresumptious, perhaps the first read I recall where the writer clearly experienced the same Asia I did:

Claire Screamed.
What is it about cockroaches? People live with houseplants that grow spiky and grotesque as the creep over bookshelves, strangling things with thier overgrown tendrils, their genitals exploding every spring, littering the gardens and tabletops with thier rotting petals. People live with cats who clawthier furniture, coating it with dander and milllions of adhesive hairs, filling the bathroom with ammonia-scented feces and tracking urinous kitty grit all over the floor. And dogs? Those Slobbering, deficating, crotch-sniffing, face-licking shit-eaters. I've seen people literally clench bits of breakfast sausage between thier lips and let their schnauzer eat it out of their mouth as an act of low grade beastiality. And yet it's
cockroaches that propel us into a frenzy of primeval disgust.
"Oh no." Claire announced, ... "I can't stay here."

I am becoming a fan. She is profoundly clear ... so far ... on how bizarre it is for a suburbanite to be travelling in Asia ... It's a fairly good read so far ...

.

There was a little barbeque at my house to help send a couple of my friends off to Texas in California style (if there is such a thing). About 50 people stopped by. Serious eating of ribs and ... there were oysters because Ann (and I) like them ... this chili, and much much later, these clams. It's pretty much covered here and here.

If you look, you can find a picture of my ass -- actually 2 -- with a scissors sticking out of the pocket and just one of me with my shirt off.

Interestingly enough, the late night clamfest with the folks that volunteered to help clean up is extremely well documented. I suppose that Angel was really fascinated at how quickly we were able to devour 5 pounds of clams.