Last week, Nino, 3 skiers, and I headed up just northwest of Black Hawk city for what would be my first (and Nino’s) backcountry trip. I had some of the gear I needed, but still dropped nearly $700 for 2 beacons, another set of snowshoes, 2 shovels, and 2 probes. Nino and I also attended a 1 hour avalanche awareness course. We learned enough to know we need to take a real class.
The snow conditions were nearly as bad as you could imagine. Several days of sun had the top cursted over in the open areas. I would find myself over knee deep in snow not 20 meters from a patch of exposed grass. That’s what you get for heading out after the very first snow of the season.
Skiers definitely have a backcountry advantage when it comes to traversing. Uphill, I could keep up. However, downhill, the skiers get to slide along and rest at the bottom while the snowboaders hike it all the way through. You definitely need stamina.
My favorite moment was sitting back in a snow-made lounge chair and looking off at an amazing view down the valley. I want to spend my next day of turns somewhere with a lift, no doubt. However, I expect to do this backcountry experience several more times this season. It’s good stuff.
On October 24th, I purchased a van from a fella in South Lake Tahoe. Nino and I named her “Polar Bear”. The idea is to turn this van into a camper. To be honest, I’m not 100% confident that this is the van I want to build from. I want to have a mechanic look her over and get a better idea of what I’m working with. Here’s what I know so far:
The Van
1987 Ford e250 3rd generation Econoline van, regular body
33″ x 12.5″ inch tires, 8 lug 16″ rims
What looks like a 6 to 8 inch suspension lift (maybe more?)
Since 2004, I’ve maintained a snowboarding blog at my old Shobek domain. Last night I moved all of those hundreds of posts to this blog and replaced the old site with a redirect. I also once maintained a blog on building virtual communities on blogger. I imported those posts as well. Unfortunately, blogger doesn’t allow an easy method to redirect traffic. Eventually, I’ll pull that blog down entirely I think.
A respected friend of mine (who happens to be a feminist) sent me a link to “Schrödinger’s Rapist: or a guy’s guide to approaching strange women without being maced.” I wouldn’t have read the article at all, had it not been for the recommendation from my friend. After reading it and stewing on it, I’m going to respond. I’m responding not only to the author, but more so to the women who identify with the post itself.
In this blog post, I want to do what I feel Phaedra Starling failed to do. I’m going to attempt to talk about this topic across the gender line. It took me 4 different sessions to read her blog post from start to finish. The first few times, indignation overtook me. I suspect I’m not alone as the comments appear to have been heavily moderated before being closed.
If you haven’t followed the media noise over Lily Allen and filesharing lately… it’s a lot to catch up on. The highlight came, for me, when Lily started an anti-filesharing blog, reposted another author’s content without citing the source (irony much?), and then took the whole blog down when she was getting too much “abuse”… I can’t speak enough about how brilliant and accurate Dan Bull’s response is. Go get the MP3 and share it!!!!
It’s over! I made it through Burning Man and the only damage done was a cut, a second degree burn, and a sinus infection. Ok, actually, that was more damage than I was expecting. It was a good experience, but lacked much of the impact I experienced last year. Still, there were many wonderful moments and it was everything I had hoped for.
Since my return, I’ve totally abandonded the fitness and healthy diet I adopted before I left. Fighting off the sinus infection seems like a pretty good excuse. I thought I was going to pass out at work on Friday. I think I’m in good shape to get some work done tomorrow… This is good, because it’s about to get really crazy for a few weeks. It’s kinda like finals in college, only I’m not that young and eager anymore.
So I’ve been at this fitness thing for 24 days now. After the gym this evening, I decided to take another set of photos and check them out side by side from where I started. I had no idea I’d put on so much weight. Even now, looking at the Day 1 photo, I feel like I was really losing control. I suppose, in a way, it’s a sign that I was enjoying life. I’ve been in a new relationship, have a pretty stable job, and have gotten fairly comfortable.
Before we talk about the sex trade, I want to talk about hamburgers. Lets face it, there are a lot of overweight people. By overweight, what I really mean is fat. This is particularly true in the USA. The USA has a lot of fat people. Fat people are less healthy. They have more health issues and drive up the costs of health care insurance. The high cost of health insurance kills people, so fat people kill other people with their fatness.
Fat people also squish over into your seat on flights and at the movies. They block aisle at the super market. While sometimes it’s not their fault, due to a medical condition such as a bad thyroid, most of the time fat people are fat because they eat too much and don’t exercise enough. In countries where people lack food and are starving to death, you don’t really see anyone who’s overweight due to an overactive thyroid. Funny that. For all intents and purposes, being fat is a choice. If you disagree, just stop reading and go away right now.
It seems I like to post on Wednesday nights. Actually, since I do Yoga on Wednesdays, it gives me a chance to weigh in on the scales at the gym – which I assume are considerably more accurate than the Target scale in my bathroom. Speaking of weight, tonight I was 171… and a half. I could round up to 172, but I was actually close to 171… but since I was so close to the exact halfway mark, it seems like cheating.
My server time was off. My last post was dated a Thursday but actually made on a Wednesday. But, whatever, I’m pretty sure today is the 16th day into this thing. This past weekend I took an amazing backpacking trip. We hiked several hours a day on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. That makes me feel a little better about not getting any exercise on Monday and Tuesday. And the fresh cutthroat trout we snagged out of the lake and ate made me feel better about those yummy smores. Nom.
Last week, Nino, 3 skiers, and I headed up just northwest of Black Hawk city for what would be my first (and Nino’s) backcountry trip. I had some of the gear I needed, but still dropped nearly $700 for 2 beacons, another set of snowshoes, 2 shovels, and 2 probes. Nino and I also attended a 1 hour avalanche awareness course. We learned enough to know we need to take a real class.
Since 2004, I’ve maintained a snowboarding blog at my old Shobek domain. Last night I moved all of those hundreds of posts to this blog and replaced the old site with a redirect. I also once maintained a blog on building virtual communities on blogger. I imported those posts as well. Unfortunately, blogger doesn’t allow an easy method to redirect traffic. Eventually, I’ll pull that blog down entirely I think.
