A little piece of heaven

Holy Cross Refugio

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.