2006 February

Despite reports of cold and wind in the high country, Alan, Sarada, Jezze, and I head up toward Cameron Pass for some snowshoeing. Conditions look nice when we get there - greybird, warm, and calm. The avalanche danger is low all around today, so we try the trail up to Montgomery Pass. It’s a nice 2 mile, 1000-ft jaunt up to some well-tracked alpine slopes above treeline. We’re inspired to continue up to the windy ridge, and I briefly summit unnamed Peak 11408. On the way down I demonstrate the downhill snowshoe run, lose a shoe, and nearly faceplant for Alan’s waiting camera. Good times.

More Photos

It felt great to get outside on the bikes today. The sun was shining, but the air temperature was cold. We’d get hot pumping up the hills on the hogback below Horsetooth Reservoir, then get blasted numb by the cold air on the downhills. The reservoir was frozen over, which made the ride feel exotic somehow. All told it made a great 19-mile loop from our doorstep, with an easy extention available to the southern access point at county road 38E.

More Photos

I’ve been going into the winter backcountry all my life, and it’s been a little tough to admit that I don’t know squat about avalanche danger. Finally I attended a free REI class, feeling sure I would just be verifying my ignorance and finding out how many thousands of dollars worth of gear and classes it would take to rectify the situation. To my surprise, I found that the most effective actions I can take to avoid avalanche danger are cheap and easy!

1. Check the Colorado Avalanche Information Center report for the day! By dawn these guys have already dug and analyzed snow pits all over the state, and they combine this with weather conditions to give you a very good idea of avalanche danger before you leave home. This alone is a huge difference from just venturing out into the hills with no idea at all what conditions are out there. I had no idea.
2. Slope Meter, $2-20 - A card with some angle marks and a plumb line. There’s very little chance of a slope under 35 degrees sliding. That might be too limiting for snowboarding, but I imagine I could find plenty of terrain to challenge me on cross-country skis that fits this bill.
3. Shovel, $40+. I always avoided digging snow pits because I thought of it as an arcane science that required highly specialized tools and knowlege. Our instructor pointed out that no matter what your experience is, just digging a pit and playing with the snow layers a bit gives you infinitely more information than simply looking up at the hill and saying, “Eh, looks alright…” Break off the top layer in your pit, imagine that happening to the entire hill, and you can at least base a decision on something.
4. Beacon, probe, and certification, $500+. It’s rescue ability that’s expensive and requires training. If you know you’re not prepared to respond to an avalanche, factor that into your decision. I think it’s worth the investment, and I’d like to do it, but I also think it’s possible to continue to enjoy the backcountry responsibly until I can afford the time and money.

A satire that is still great 30 years after it’s made is rare enough, but a low budget sci-fi satire that survives that long is truly remarkable. John Carpenter hit one of his few home runs with this hilarious parody of Star Trek and 2001. What happened to him after that? I never heard about this film, probably because of the low budget, the dry humor, and slow pace, but I love it! Don’t worry about a bombastic captain - he’s dead from the very beginning, and it just gets better from there. My favorite line is from Pinback’s video diary: “I do not like the men on this spaceship. They are uncouth and fail to appreciate my better qualities.” Ha!

Referred by The Movie Review Diary

The high today was 11 degrees Fahrenheit. We didn’t think we were missing winter, but this weather brought an unexpected feeling of relief.

We know from the one cold snap earlier in the season to leave a tap running in temperatures like this, but today held another lesson for us. The running tap kept the intake from freezing, but our drain hose froze solid. We realized this when water came pouring out of the shower, down the stairs, and into the kitchen. Apparently the shower has the lowest drain in the RV. After mopping up, we realized our dilemma. We have to run the tap to keep the intake from freezing, but there’s nowhere for the water to go!

We’ve spent the day bailing water out of the shower with a bucket. About noon we propped an electric heater up by the drain, hoping to melt it. After a couple hours a section of drain hose was thawed in front of the heater, and I moved it along to another section. Another two hours and that section was melted, but the previous one was freezing up again. Ha! I pulled the plug, and we’re now trying to figure how avoid making dishes and using the bathroom. Aaaaaaahhhhh, winter at last.

This was a little too much downer following The Neon Bible, but shared the quality of being beautifully made. The story takes a few too many liberties, but it’s supported by brilliant cinematography that balances things out. It’s a contemplation of growing up in a rural prarie town that struck some chords with my adolescence in Laramie, Wyoming.

Referred by Netflix Recommendations

At last, some significant snowfall! It looks peaceful, but it was 12 degrees with a ripping wind, and I almost froze my fingertip off taking this shot. A break in the clouds over Wyoming put a soft pink line between heaven and earth.

It’s a rare depressed 17-year-old that can express that angst in a subtle and compelling novel. John Kennedy Toole was not yet employing his outrageous sense of humor when he wrote this (he later wrote A Confederacy of Dunces), which makes this a bit of a dismal, Salinger-esque read. I’m confident that Holden Caulfield fans would appreciate it. I did, though it left me sad that Toole didn’t fare better in the literary (and existential) world.

This is a pair of Common Goldeneye ducks, several of which visited our lake on my walk this morning. They were all paired up already, but the drakes were still doing their mating call. They stick their head in the water, then throw it all the way back until it hits their body, emitting an odd sounding squawk on the way. Their wings whistle when they fly, which I got several opportunities to hear when I got too close.

Ann is at the tail end (I hope) of a nasty cold, and I’m fighting to fend it off, so it’s a quiet weekend here.

I can’t think of a worthy complement for this film. It’s like finding a flower growing on the moon. The lives of several homeless people living in railroad tunnels beneath New York are documented without an ounce of hype. It’s a minor miracle that it got made at all. At first I didn’t really believe it, but the “making of” featurette put my suspicions to rest. This is amazingly real filmmaking.

Referred by J-Walk