To play in the snow in Colorado

In the middle of an excellent AIARE LII Avalanche course right now with David at Rocky Mountain Guides. As you probably know, I love to play in the snow and explore, but doing so on higher-angle slopes requires some special skills and diverse data evaluation and terrain management skills. As a new resident of Colorado, I decided it was probably a good idea to get a better understanding of what exactly goes into the snowpack here, so I asked my managers if it a a good time to take a few days off, and started off on an adventure in the sadly shallow snows of Summit County. 

Colorado... my home

I am still not sure whether I should call Colorado my home, but according to my drivers license, car plates, and vehicle of choice (now a Toyota Tacoma 4 door), I am a Coloradan. I am a Front Range resident and now weekend warrior, because, well, I had a crazy idea to buy some property near Vail. I have driven more in the past six months than in my entire life previously.

Many others seem in the same existence question: go outside, or actually meet people and be a normal urban resident. I am part of the problem, perhaps with more grounding. And I am not sure what may help fix the problem. You come for the mountains, and darn, you visit the mountains. One of ten thousand climbing a 14er on any given day. Are you really a Coloradan, or just someone taking advantage of opportunities and not paying back? What impact will you have on this rapidly expanding city, and the playground to the West.

I grew up on the West Coast looking east to the mountains, and now looking West to the mountains seems a little different. It is the West, but not for those of us who have come from the Far West. Seemingly everyone I meet started in the midwest or the east coast. Where are all the other true Westerners? I do not know. And I miss them. Not that going East didn't have its traffic or problems, but it was going back in time a bit, while going West from Denver is heading to overpriced mountain towns with second homes, or should I say real estate developments that happen to have added a ski area. A big culture shock compared to parking lots full of RVs and beater Subarus. 

My first half marathon ever

This is now a running blog? No, don't worry. Lots of people have running blogs where they upload all their runs. I sometimes run with my phone, but Strava annihilates the battery every time I try on a long run. And GPS watches aren't much better. All I need are my running shoes, some questionably clean socks and running shorts, and maybe my Suunto Core altimeter watch.

But I did finally pay a race fee and get a timing chip and race a half marathon. I'm still not sure why I did, but at least "officially completed half marathon" is now in the books and includable on some sort of strange resume in the form of the 2015 Berkshire Steel Rail Half. I love running, but I can't say I love half marathon racing. Somehow my first half splits in marathons have been faster than this one at 1:25/ 6:30 mile pace. And while the scenery along the rail-trail from Lanesboro to Adams MA was beautiful, the cold water in the lake next door was constantly taunting. As were horrible memories of double poling the trail on roller skis with extra long poles.

But this isn't to rule out future half marathons. If no trail marathon, ski race or road marathon is available, I might try another half. And I'm guessing actually training, cooler temperatures, and a little less college end of year type fun will make a big difference.

Thanks to this crew for making me not the only one at Williams who headed to bed a bit early and got up with the birds to drive to our favorite local shopping mall, run a few laps around it, and then run some more.

A link to some more pictures from Georgia

If you want to see a big collection of pictures from skiing in the Republic of Georgia over break, check here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153199056356944.1073741846.613416943&type=1&l=b00c452719

I must admit, however, that I am not the best when it comes to taking pictures when I am skiing. I really love the snow; however, I don't always love the way pictures of it turn out, especially in tricky visibility... and when I have non-human forms of uphill transportation, I sometimes get a little too stoked on lapping. The up is the easiest time to take pix, unless you use gopro or something. And though I own a gopro and all sorts of weird doodads to go with, I am not entirely stoked on the system. I'll let the others flail around with cameras on sticks while I ski, thanks very much.  Give me someone else whose skiing style I know well and whose turns I can predict, however, and I'll happily shoot. Shooting while skiing needs to be part of a synchronized plan, and on a partly solo mission to Georgia, it didn't quite fit in sync.

Final Post: Back from Republic of Georgia

After a day and change in Tbilisi, some hectic travel as usual and missed connection, a nice long bus ride, and a seemingly very long walk home, I am back in my co-op in Williamstown.
Its almost colder here than it was anywhere in Georgia, though I can't quite call Georgia a warm spring break destination.

Skiing in Gudauri

Gudauri pulled out all stops for a day. The day before, beautiful powder but low visibility. And the day after, powder but chunked up and crusted lower down. 

No pictures from Gudauri... Because you can't see anything

Probably the coolest summer camp location on Earth near the Russian border. Too bad it been abandoned since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Friday: Just finished up my last ski day in Svaneti (day before I did some tree and meadow laps one creek down from what I skied on Tuesday; excellent as usual). I hadn't had the chance to ski way up the Becho Valley (but hadn't been recommended to either), so I went for a bit flat approach past an awesome abandoned Soviet summer Alpinist camp and into the Kvish Valley. I got outstanding views of the Svaneti range and Becho villages as well as some of the waterfalls near Ushba Glacier. Sketched myself out a bit skiing a safe approach to Kvish, but very glad I turned where I did as a high cornice released while I was eating lunch and deposited debris just a bit above the bench I had been on. My real skiing rather than just touring for views came on some beautiful corn snow on the steep Sumer trail to Ushba glacier up a couloir, where I was joined by a timber cutters small dog who followed me through the forest then departed for the border guard cabin when I went to Kvish (yes, Svaneti is very close to Russia and Sochi, and Ushba is split between two countries). Excellent skiing until one of my boot buckles that happens to lock the boot into stiff ski mode decided to self destruct. Dynafit Poland may be able to get a replacement to me but looking less likely so will have to keep skiing a kinda soft boot with the ski mode locked in by miraculous Voile strap. I brought a spare binding and now will bring a spare buckle too, as two of us in Svaneti broke the same piece on the same day and it is no fun...

From Svaneti: a village abandoned in 1960s during Soviet Times gets skiied. Beautiful day 1800 meters vertical.

Hike a ski back from the abandoned village after an excellent day of skiing. A little too much sun and too little time to ski up high before dinner. Really should have left earlier than 7:15. Check out @benerco on instagram or I'll be uploading some more pix here when home...

Richard heading to village Mazeri early in the morning when the mud was still mostly frozen.

Some ski days are really good... Skiing above summer farms in Mazeri village, Svaneti, Republic of Georgia

Today I went skiing right above the hotel near Bak mountain... After a nice muddy walk through the village, I headed onto a snowy meadow, then up a forested path just covered with big brown bear tracks (maybe a week old). Followed typical Norwegian red and white trail markers put in by Richard at the hotel up to a church and summer herding huts, then safely through some beautiful trees and onto an open peak with excellent laps on the backside to another summer farm. Continued off Bak pass into steep trees and the sides of a nice stream bed that ended in a waterfall... Had I had a rope I may have rappeled, but I wanted to ski more so I bushwhacked a bit and ended up skiing some lovely slopes of Bak and then more steep trees back to the path to the hotel. Overall an excellent day with some excited skiing. Highly recommended... BCA float weighs a bit but worth it on solo missions in the developing world like this. As usual loved my Mammut Eiswand jacket and Patagonia Houdini, the perfect spring touring combo. And growing to love the fleece lined Skida headbands for touring; the fleece is too much for Nordic but perfect for touring.

1st day in Svaneti

Delicious beer salad at the Grand Hotel Ushba. 

My whip. 

After an ungodly 42 hours on the road (Williamstown->NYC at 30mph as our bus' fuel filter broke, Newark-> Munich (train ride into town to a paintball stadium to get airbag canister filled, mvp fills bca float canisters fo free), Munich-> Tbilisi, Tbilisi-> Becho) I made it to Becho and the Grand Hotel Ushba. Had a beautiful "trail" run throughout some of the upper villages in the valley, followed by delicious local Svan cuisine: beets, bread, cheese and soup. Just heading up into the Mazeri peaks now for some mellow skiing, then some more and some more skiing. The corn is excellent.

Also: A special shoutout to my taxi driver yesterday who'd never been to Mestia. I never imagined getting an airport taxi to drive me 8 hours but I was wrong... Sometimes I was scared on the ridiculously winding road to Mestia, but never so much that I got out).

Fwd: 80th anniversary Thunderbolt ski race and first stab at skimo racing

-------- Original message --------

From: Ben C

Erlier this week I competed in my first ski mountaineering/ randonee race. Upon accepting an offer to work in Denver starting in August, I started looking into new sports. I've already done some ski racing, road/cross/ mountain bike racing, trail running and adventure racing. But one of my favorite activities, ski touring, didn't have the best race opportunities in Washington and doing anything other than Nordic ski racing tends to be difficult as a member of the Williams College team. So when I had a weekend off, I jumped on the chance to race up and down our local Mount Greylock.  I was hoping for under an hour per lap, but not even the pros didn't make that mark. I settled for 7th place and under 2:30, most of which was from the downhill... I am not the best downhill skier, was skiing new skis for the first time on hardpack,  and ripped the booster strap off one of my boots during warm-up. I learned a lot racing, which is what really matters.

In no particular order, here are the things I learned in my first skimo race.

1. Always embrace the challenge to do something new. It'll be an excellent learning opportunity mentally and physically. 

2. You'll meet a lot of awesome people, some of whom you'll know and others who will be brand new friends. 

3. Don't race skimo races in free ride boots. They're heavy and hurt after nearly two hours of ups. 

4. Use lf or hydrocarbon waxes only... skin glue stick is really important and they don't stick well to highly fluorinated bases. Against all my speedy ski waxing education but way cheaper :)

5. Learn your transitions. 

6. Ski downhill. With a bunch of fit people on superlight setups it is the differentiator. 

7. Thank your race organizer. They have a pretty thankless job often. 

8. Get a breathable ski/mountaineering helmet. Alpine helmets suck  on the up. 

9. Bring a friend. Makes conversation a lot easier. 

10. Wear skintight lycra.  Its the only way to go. 

winter, cold, love

Few people say they came to the east coast for college for the winters. I guess I am in that odd duck flock. With all the complaints about record-breaking cold and abnormally high snow pack, this winter is a lot closer to historical averages than some of the past three have been. One way to sum up complaints about the cold is that some people must be nutsand looking forward to the wrong parts of climate change. To respect winter is not to hate summer, but it is to respect winter snows and cold for preserving the seasonality of plants, providing a sustainable water supply, and providing a surface for the sun to reflect off. Any worries about what a pain it is to dress for the cold can also be easily appeased by not having inside temperatures resembling saunas.  

Modeling on Eleuthera

In exchange for $15 worth of t-shirts and candy, four brave Williams students including yours truly jumped into the new beachside pool at Cape Eleuthera for a little launch photoshoot. Everyone was a little puzzled and scared when yelled at while biking to the beach. But instead of being kicked off the beach, we were asked to quickly strip down to our swimwear and start posing awkwardly by the pool. As you can see, we did a pretty good job despite having no makeup artist or lighting team. You can look for our photo at the Miami Boat Show and other destinations.

Eleuthera pix and update

I decided to take a very short break from skiing and head to the tropics for the first time in many winters/ springs. Along with a professor and eight other students from Williams College, I hopped on a plane to Charlotte to begin our taste of Southern hospitality, and then continued on to Nassau and then Rock Sound International Airport. We're just finishing the first week of our stay at the Island School/ Cape Eleuthera Institute campus, so I thought you might want a quick update.

Our objective for the project is to study local food production on the island of Eleuthera including farming and fishing and recommend ways to connect local producers to a changing market. Bahamians have a high incidence of cancer and diabetes, and current taxation and freight schemes make fresh foods difficult to afford, and fried goodness remains a big part of the culture. Affordable fruits, vegetables, meat, and fish in local markets will allow for a healthier diet and more cash staying in the local economy.

Take a look at the captions below for a few snippets of the trip so far.

We flew in on a Bahamasair flight to Rock Sound. From the plane, the air and water are so clear you can almost see the fish... and fish here are still to be seen, especially on the shallow sand banks and reefs. But their stocks are declining. 

The Island School has an amazing dock, with beautiful sunrises and a windmill for electricity. 

The land is nice, but not so nice as the sea. In south Eleuthera, it is mostly coral rock, with a bit of sand mixed in. The farm here belongs to Rodney, who is one of the only farmers working with rows and irrigation. 

Rodney gifted me a delicious papaya... for some reason it is hard to find these locally, though the trees are plentiful. Farmers often just feed the ripe papayas to the pigs. 

Here is a slightly more traditional farm, run by a Haitian named Joseph. It is slash-and-burn agriculture with some pothole farming mixed in. The field is good for a couple of years, but then the nutrients are gone. Most farmers have a similarly scattered field system of rocky soils without irrigation. 

Everyone grows tomatoes. These here are for Kathleen Culmer's restaurant in Rock Sound, Sammy's. They're bottled in some way and stored for the year, because pretty much everyone grows tomatoes at the same time. 

The dock here in Tarpum Bay is gorgeous. No wonder Princess Cruises takes their passengers here. But the fish really is local, and the fishermen really are nice. Most have been working the sea for generations with small boats, harvesting conch, grouper, lobster and other Bahamian specialties. Unfortunately, most stocks are declining, and we hope more fishermen can embrace lionfish (an invasive species that all say is delicious) or some deeper-water species inaccessible without larger boats.