Burning Turns!

My buddy Kevin sent me this one today after I begged him for the pictures and called him nasty names for getting in some awesome turns without me.



This may be worse than missing a good day on the ice.



"Woke up at 3 am Friday morning to get up to heliotrope ridge trail head. We were the second car at the TH and followed a set of skin tracks up the mountain. Our original intention was to climb and ski the Coleman-Deming route on Baker. However upon reaching an area just before Colfax we

realized that our group progress was too slow - especially with breaking trail in all the new snow. Instead we ripped skins and enjoyed great turns down. We picked a point to drop off our glacier gear and ended up doing several laps on the face. Around 3pm we called it a day since one member of our group had to be back in Issaquah for work that night!"



Jealous? Ya, damn right I am jealous! But some nice turns in those TLTs Kevin :) Be sure to dbl click every photo for full effect.





Photos and trip reportcourtesy of Kevin Oberholser

Jealousy?...all mine!

They even had someone setting track for them. It is killing me!!

Laughing Lizard Cafe

The Laughing Lizard Cafe in Jemez Springs, NM has been there for over thirty year that I know of. But I think it has changed hands several times. It sits right on the main road almost in the middle of town. We have eaten there a few times and it was excelent food. They have a few rooms for rent but I've never heard anything about them.

Seeing What We Want to See

To a large extent, we all shape our own experiences of reality: We see the things we want to see and block out the things that do not fit our world view.

Walking home yesterday afternoon, I was amused to notice how much I tend to do this even when it comes to bicycles.

Both Vienna and Boston are full of generic modern unremarkable bikes, yet the ones I pay attention to are the classic and vintage bikes.

And since I notice these more, in my subsequent memories they are the ones that play a starring role in the city's "velo life".

In a similar fashion, I tend to pay lots of attention to architecture I like and ignore all the "ugly" stuff right next to it. As a result, a city or a neighborhood might consist entirely of beautiful architecture in my memories.

There are countless examples of this of course, and unless we point and shoot in a random direction we cannot take a picture without revealing our subjective biases. Our pictures reflect how we want to see and remember things rather than how they actually are. For example, several readers have pointed out to me that my "street scenes" tend to be miraculously free of cars, and indeed I seem to frame photos so as to avoid them. There is just something about modern cars that is not photogenic: they detract from the feel of the city landscape.

Bicycles, on the other hand, seem to enrich it - especially when the bicycles are nice and the cyclists are well dressed. Yes, that is a Hassidic Jew cycling through Vienna - who clearly has no problem cycling in a suit.

And here is a couple, cycling into the sunset idyllically. While of course I did not stage these scenes, you could say that I chose to notice them out of the many alternative scenes I could have noticed instead.

So, what is my point? Only that life can be filled with golden sunsets and lovely bicycles if we want it to - even on those days when it's not.

The Full Spectrum of Gloves?

When the rock does this to a set of picks in a few pitches...think what it will do to gloves?







How every alpine glove eventually ends up.





One of the topics that came up in the requestswas more glove info. Most of us are on a constant search for a better glove. That might be a warmer, more durable, more water proof or easier to dry glove. It depends on your need at that moment for that particular adventure. If anything it is worth noting that few of us climb in the same gloves. And there are a gazillion manufactures out there. I am about as anal on my glove choices as I am on my boots so..as always buyer and reader beware ;-)





Here are some examples of the glove styles I use constantly.

full leather gloves

glove liners, both wool and synthetic

wool gloves or mittens

all synthetic gloves

leather and synthetic combination gloves





Dave in his prefered BDs.

(I own mittens but so seldom use them I'll leave them out of the conversation)



The brand names that I prefer at the moment are Outdoor Research and Mountain Hardware. My partner's (all of them) most commonly used glove is one form or another fromBack Diamonds. And I have used BD glovesmyself.





The flip side to Matt's pair of BD gloves above.



And all better now ;-)



It wouldn't have been my first choice but still good enough to get Matt up the Ginat last week in less than stellar weather.



The brand name gloves I have useda lot in the past are:

Dachstein

Helly Hensen

Gates

Chouinard

Black Diamond

REI



Here is how I divide up my glove choices and there is some over lap generally. But easy to get somecash wrapped up in gloves.



Liners/approach gloves

leather/rap or bush whack (think 10' highslide alders or Devil's club)

XC ski

DH ski

tech climbing gloves

alpine climbing gloves

cold weather gloves



My first go to glove is the BD Polartec liners either Midweight or the Heavyweight. And I generallyloose them before I wear them out. And I wear them out by melting them on a stove. Awesome glove. Works for approaches, XC skiing, spring DH skiing, as a lwt tech glove or a warm weather alpine glove or nasty bush wacking. Many designs like them but these are the best I have used.



http://www.blackdiamondequipment.com/en-us/



Leather?I use them in the alpine on bush wacks and on nasty steep raps with 7mm twins My favorites are a pair of thin steer hide I buy at Lowe's. But they have to fit perfectly and they aren't cheap. They generally last 4 or 5 years with consistent use with a chainsaw and around the yard. I'm also partial to the Metolious full finger belay glove. Although i never use them for belaying. I like a glove you know isn't going to come apart in use. This is the glove I usefor the free rap off the Midi's bridge in cold winter temps. It is awesome and cheap. Mine are now 10 years old and just getting broken in. Nice glove!



http://www.metoliusclimbing.com/belay_glove.html











I use my gloves for all sorts of stuff but the only skiing specific gloves I use are made by these guys:http://www.lillsport.com/

I generally have pretty warm hands and seldom sufferthrough the scream'in barfies even in pretty cold weather. So a lwt XC glove often gets used for DH skiing. I like Model ”S” 0103-00 for what it is worth.These make a decent thin dry tooling glove as well.



Thomas Smiley photos: www.smileysmtphoto.com



ALPINE CLIMBING GLOVES

Alpine climbing for me generally means winter. In spring, summer and fall any combination of gloves on this list can and generally do get used. But winter I have some old favorites. Mtn Harware and OutDry are my favorites along with a couple of pair of the OR gloves. You canread more on the Mtn Hardware Hydra and the OR Vert in earlier blogs.

I have found the OurDry to keep my hands dry even when the entire outer shell and insulation is soaking wet and frozen stiff. Not the best situation but then my buddy's are often in some version of the Black Diamond Gortex or BDry and have wet hands and frozen gloves. Some difference but not a lot. OutDry seems more durable as it is harder to punch a hole in the water proof liner..."I think". But nothing scientific here just anecdotal evidence.

The one thing I have convinced myself of is that thin gloves like the Hydra work very well in some pretty cold conditions. When it gets colder I used to be convinced a removable liner was mandatory. Not any more. Truth is when it gets really cold and I need a warmer glove, I really need moreinsulation. Liner may or may not be useful depending on how good the glove is and how easy it is to use. If it is that cold drying the glove out hasn't been a problem as the inner of the glove doesn't get verywet.

I used the Mtn Hardware Typhon this winter as my back up, warmer glover to the Hydra. Dave was using the MtnHardwareJalapeno when he got cold or wet enough. I thought the Jalapeno easier to use and justas warm as my wool lined Typhon. Typhon's liner comes out, the Jalapeno's doesn't.

From Mtn Hardware Inow use the Minus One, the Hydra, the Torsion and theTyphon depending on temps, useand need.. I'll likely start using the Jalapeno next winter.

I like a thinner glove with leashless tools so I don't have to remove my gloves for any reason. But get cold enough and the thicker gloves require me to pull the gloves off more than I want. Removeable liners that stay on when you pull the shells work well there. Big gloves, the Typhon and Jalapeno for example, are like good double boots, a pain in the ass to climb in...but without them you (me anyway) wouldn't still be climbing.

http://www.mountainhardwear.com/

One of the things I found interesting this winter is the gloves I can generally climb with in Canada just weren't warm enough in the Alps this winter. That was a surprise. Thankfully I took some warmer gloves along but I wasn't happy climbing in them generally. It took so getting use to the thicker and stiffer gloves on technical ground and with my (tight) Nomic or Ergo handles. I used the Quarks with a more open grip some specificallyfor that reason. While I didn't have cold hands on that trip it was PP planning all around on my part. Look around andtry what you think will work for you. When you find some that do, be smart and buy 2 pair. Gloves are like climbing footware you'll want the RIGHTpair for every occasion

Pray you don't end up with this glove collection! And these are just the good ones ;-)

Amabilis Mountain ..

Ken had organized a mellow outing up Amabilis so that people could either ski or snowshoe. The road up or in has not been groomed yet, so I made the decision to bring fat skis. There were six of us on the trip and it was split with two people snowshoeing and the rest skiing. We had a casual start, and didn't leave Seattle until 8am. With a few stops on the way, we were finally on snow around 10am and headed up the road.

The road conditions down low

Despite the recent warm weather and rain, there was enough coverage down low. Shortly after getting on the road to Amabilis, there were a few dirt patches, but there was adequate coverage from previous skiers to keep going up a track that was put in by multiple parties before us. We skied up under cloudy skies and hoped that they would turn "partly sunny" like the forecast had told us. While the coverage was nice on the road, snow depth in the trees was minimal. The snow on the road had a packed section where people had previously traveled, but the snow was deep and mushy outside of that section.

Upon reaching the intersection for the loop of the upper mountain, two of our party decided to turn around. Liz turned around because she had Nordic skis which just weren't ideal for the situation. And Jack turned around due to blisters from his boots. This was his first time using his AT setup to skin. After our little break the rest of us continued upward, choosing a clockwise direction to complete the loop.

In the woods near our turn around

The conditions got worse from there as there were few people who had gone up that section of trail. The snow had a breakable crust which wasn't good for the two remaining skiers or the snowshoers. It took a long time for us to continue up while the weather worsened. When we finally made the last section of woods before our turnaround, a cool mist was wetting us and I quickly put on a rain shell. In moments we had reached our turn around point, where I donned another layer under the shell. We all had a quick snack/lunch. While us skiers transitioned into downhill skiing we discussed with the slowshoers that we would wait for them at the intersection of the top loop.

And away we went. The skiing was surprising not horrible. With a slightly steeper road than on Mount Catherine, I was able to glide without a whole lot of double poling. But Ken and I did have to remain in the track otherwise we would slow to a stop. A few portions were difficult to maintain speed as they were lower angle or the track wasn't wide enough for both of my skis. Had we not had to wait for the snowshoers, Ken and I would probably have returned to the parking lot in a little over and hour.

The ski out

After a certain distance, the track widened, and was more compact and our speed picked up. I had to occasionally snowplow in order to maintain speed. Sometimes you could just steer into the deeper snow to lose some speed, but this practice proved to be a little difficult as you didn't know what to expect outside of the track. Once closer to the intersection, the packed swath of road was wider and more firm. I really picked up speed on this section without trying. And the last stretch into the meeting point was all snow plow. Ken followed behind me and attempted to scrub speed by sticking a ski into the deeper snow off the packed section. He started to lose control and laid down instead of continuing toward the immanent crash.

Ken on a faster section of the road

We waited a long time before our snowshoe friends arrived. We greeted them and asked if they needed anything. They didn't. And we were on our way. I got to the car in about 20 minutes from that point, and that even included one stop to rest my legs and a short uphill that I had to side step. The lower section of the road had some good snow and the packed section comprised more of the road in certain areas to the width where I could actually make small turns. Before I knew it, it was over and we were back at the parking lot where Liz and Jack were waiting. Once again we waited for the snowshoers, and then it was time to head back to Seattle.

Jennifer and I had done this trip with Gabriel and Lindsay a few years ago. At the time I was new to skiing and debated about trying it on my skinny skis. I opted not to and stuck with snow shoes. After seeing Gabriel's ease of skiing it, and the relative easy conditions, I had wished at the time I had attempted it on skis. While it would be interesting to try it with a Nordic ski, they weren't the right option for today's conditions and I was happy to have my backcountry skis which did not inhibit my performance at all.

Blue Skies and Sunshine!

Tuesday morning (August 17th) I left Sue and Fred at the campground in Seward under cloudy, overcast skies and drizzling rain. They will be going to Haines, about 900 miles away, with a short visit to Juneau and Skagway before heading back through Canada to the Lower 48.

We had hoped to pay a visit to Exit Glacier but, due to all of the rain, the road to the glacier was closed on the day we arrived in Seward. It is one of the few glaciers in Alaska that is accessible by road and you can walk a short trail from the parking area up to the face of the glacier. That is, you can if the road is open! On Sunday (the 15th) they were evacuating everyone from the area.

I spent most of Tuesday at the Library getting blog posts written and scheduled and reading a few other blogs. I did take several walks around Seward in between the downpours. It was rather nice walking in a drizzling rain but a chill would set in and I'd head back to the Library! I also stopped in at Kenai Fjords Visitor Center to see if the road to Exit Glacier was open, it wasn't. That night I stayed at the Forest View Campground again. About 8 o'clock I noticed that patches of blue were peeking through the clouds.

Wednesday morning I awoke to sunshine and blue skies!! The road to Exit Glacier was only a few miles from the campground so I drove on out. There are several pullouts where you get a nice view of the glacier.

Exit Glacier. So close, yet so far away.

Two miles from the glacier the road was barricaded and a Ranger was directing traffic to the nearby trail parking lot. She said that there had been a tremendous amount of rain the past month over the glacier. It had gotten over 12 inches of rain on each of two different days! The glacier deposits silt in the river and as water comes down it carves new channels to get through that silt.

A new channel had been made and it was undercutting the road. Water was still flowing over the road so they could not determine the extent of the damage yet.

I could have walked the two miles to the parking lot and then another half mile to the face of the glacier. However, I would have had to ford the water streaming over the road and there was no guarantee that I'd actually be able to get to its face. I was happy that I had at least been able to view it, albeit from a distance, and decided to continue on my journey.

Later that afternoon I stopped at Bird Creek Campground in Chugach State Park along Turnagain Arm about 25 miles south of Anchorage. It is nice, for a primitive campground (pit toilets and no water). There were quite a few fishermen getting their lines wet at Bird Creek, which flows into Turnagain Arm.

The Alaska Railroad runs between the highway and Turnagain Arm.
The sunset Wednesday night was incredible. Clouds had moved in and the sun was having a great time in lighting them up!

To the Southeast.
And the Southwest.
And the West.
Fantastic!

Second Chances for Custom Bikes?

As a (somewhat) reasonable person, I recognise that sometimes a deal is just not for me, no matter how good it is. But I can still feel disappointed, can't I? Peter Mooney is a famed local framebuilder who has been making custom bicycles since the 1970s, including his own lugwork. I love his frames and very much hope to have one of my own some day. And for a brief, dazzling moment, it seemed that such a day might come much, much sooner than I expected.



As usual, these things have a way of finding me when I am not looking, and in this case the "thing" was a second hand Peter Mooney bicycle. As soon as I learned of the bike's existence and availability, I was ready to bargain and prepared to sell or trade my other vintage roadbikes in order to get it. Going by the description, it seemed that the frame was my size - so it was only a matter of seeing it in person and test riding it.

But the stars were not aligned in my favour. Although the bicycle does not look allthat small in the pictures (compare it to my Moser), it felt very small once I tried to ride it. The size is 50cm (center of the bottom bracket to toptube), which is only 2cm smaller than the size I normally ride - so maybe there was something additional in the proportions that didn't feel right to me. Not sure what it could be, because the top tube actually seems long-ish, and the stem is long as well. Does anything unusual jump out at you, looking at this frame?

And I guess that is just the thing with a custom-built frame: It was custom-built for someoneelse,which is bound to make second-hand purchases tricky. And the fact that it was built for someone else (judging by the components, most likely in the mid-1980s?) also makes me wonder what is the story of this bicycle - why did the previous owner give it up?

The bicycle certainly has nice components - Campagnolo everything. And though it was clearly ridden, it looks to have been well maintained.

The elegant seat cluster with the white outlining is my favourite part of the lugwork. I hope the original owner appreciated it as well.

Who knows, maybe some years from now I will have a Peter Mooney bicycle of my own - in my size, in my favourite colour, and maybe even with custom lugwork (let's just say that I already have sketches for the lugwork!). But with this particular bike, I am glad that I was able to resist. It's a bad idea to get a bicycle that doesn't fit you, no matter how good of a deal it is.

If you are between 5'3" and 5'6" and are interested in this bicycle - it is in the custody of Vin at Old Roads, whose contact information you can find here. For the right person, it is a rare chance to own a bicycle by one of the great framebuilders. But what are your thoughts on getting a custom bike second-hand? I imagine that the more unique the original owner's anatomy, the more difficult it would be to find a new home. I wonder how many custom bikes get second chances, and what are the circumstances under which they switch owners.

The Other Side of the Road

Back in Boston for a few days, I am in re-adjustment limbo - feeling tentative, not altogether present. Everything here is so familiar - the roads, the sounds, the smells, the people. And at the same time it all feels utterly strange, as if replaced with a hologram of the real thing. A muggy heat engulfs me when I exit the airport, giving the landscape that hazy, blurry, flickering look.



In this disoriented state, I decide to join my cycling club's Tuesday morning 100K ride. I need to feel more solid, planted, integrated into reality - and I realise this is the best way I know how. The thought irritates me. Since when did cycling turn into this? This... defining thing, this part of my chemical composition?



In the morning, logistics are irrelevant. I pull together a mismatched outfit from the hamper. I don't have my roadbike, so I grab the cyclocross bike that still lives at my house. And then I push off - on the right ("wrong!" my brain screams) side of the road, in morning commuter traffic. On autopilot, I weave my way to the Ride Studio Cafe and the miles between us disappear.



No one knows I am coming, not evenPamela. Reluctant to admit to myself that I miss her, I nonetheless watch the door in anticipation, until there she is - platinum braids thick as ropes,tanned slender limbs,Southern accent and all. She is duly surprised by my presence and we talk in bursts, in the way of friends who have not talked in some time. "You think I'll be okay on this bike?" I point to the fat all-terrain tires. Pamela waves it away nonchalantly, as if to say "Bikes! What do they matter. Let's go."



Of course everyone but me is on skinny tire racing bikes. The thought that this might be brutal drifts through my mind.The Tuesday rides are described as "social pace," but of course for me that means "best effort pace."My eyes are swollen from lack of sleep and my legs ache from the sum of all earlier rides. I realise that brutal might actually feel good right about now. Again, I am irritated at the thought. Now why would brutal feel good, what on earth is wrong with me?



It is obscenely hot and the turnout is low today. The 5 of us set off in a single file and stay that way for most of the ride. Remarkably, I am in the middle of the group, rather than struggling behind it. My legs turn the pedals as I play a little game I learned in Ireland, called "same cadence, bigger gear." It is a fun, but painful game. I have played it for 10, 20 miles at a time before. Today I would play it for 60.



We arrive in Harvard, MA, eat lunch, then climb to the Fruitlands. On top, we stop at the side of the road to take in the view of surrounding mountains. After Northern Ireland, this strikes me as funny, that there is a specific destination with "the view." Over there, the landscape is so open that the view is everywhere. As you're riding, you can see for miles and miles - undulating glens, the sea, the entire Sperrins mountain range, even the hills of Donegal across the water. By contrast New England is so woodsy that you seldom see beyond your immediate surroundings; it is as if you are riding through a tunnel the entire time. Psychologically this feels very different. Riding through forests turns me inward; riding through glens opens me up.



The descents here feel tame compared to what I've been doing in previous weeks. On the other hand, the condition of the roads is even worse than I remembered - enormous cracks, ridges, gaping ditch-sized holes in the crumpling pavement - stunning when you're not used to it. But the texture of the pavement itself is smoother. In Ireland, the tarmac is a sort of chipseal, its surface nearly as rough as gravel at times.



By the afternoon, the heat has reached its apex and we all feel it. We start to take breaks now. We groan, we pour water over our jerseys. I am drained, but also lulled into a pleasurable trance by the intense scent of pine trees in the heat - this is something I've missed.My legs are leaden and I am caked in salt, but I give it one last push, inspired by Scott's relentless pace. Scott is a strong rider, whose compact, muscular body looks like a purpose-built machine when he pedals. I focus on staying on his wheel. Even though I know he is controlling his speed for my sake, just being able to follow him like this feels unreasonably good. Then I push further still and lead for the last couple of miles.



Back at the club house I hear "Hey, you're back!" The familiar voices are as welcome as the blast of air conditioning that greets us. Suddenly shy from the attention and the disconcerting sense of ...what's the word I'm looking for, belonging? I mumble "Yes... Well no, I'm only here for a couple of days." But with my legs weighing me down, Pamela sipping iced coffee at the bar, and the jungle of bikes suspended from the ceiling, I do start tofeel more grounded, and Boston starts to feel realer.

The snow is flying

The temperatures plummeted today, and along came precipitation in the form of quite a bit of snow! Camp Muir saw a 29 degree drop in the temperature during the night. Paradise didn't drop that far, but there is some fresh stuff on the ground as the temp hovers near 31... which should help w/ that Muir Snowfield dilemma. A reader contributed this July 29 image taken in 1896! Check out the amount of snow.

It seems that the Camp Muir telemetry has been spotty. It's up and running now, but is occasionally down. I've been told they're going to fix the problem.

Thomas Keller Oreos

Thomas Keller Oreos, originally uploaded by ParsecTraveller.

Here's a cookie that will knock most peoples' socks off: the Thomas Keller Oreo, or TKO.

Mr. Keller, the world-famous chef who owns the French Laundry restaurant, came up with his own interpretation of the Oreo, and his recipe has made it into the public.

These cookies are really good: the cookie part is actually chocolatey, with a buttery, crumbly, slightly crispy, melt-in-your-mouth texture. The filling really is a white chocolate cream filling, not some artificial concoction.

Easy to make and wonderful to eat, they're worth a try. The recipe is posted below (I got it from http://curiouslyravenous.blogspot.com/, where it was in turn taken from the cookbook The Essence of Chocolate, by Robert Steinberg and John Scharffenberger.

Thomas Keller Oreos (TKO's)

From The Essence of Chocolate
Makes about 3 dozen sandwich cookies.

Cookies:
1 1/2 cups plus 3 Tbsp all purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar – *I would use 1.5 more tablespoons*
3/4 cup plus 1 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
15 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into 3/4" cubes, at room temperature – *I used 1 more tbsp.*

Filling:
1/2 cup heavy cream
8 oz. white chocolate, chopped

1. For the Filling: In a small pan, bring the cream to a boil. Remove from heat and add the chocolate. Let stand for 1 minute, then whisk to melt the chocolate until smooth. Transfer to a small bowl, and let stand for 6 hours to thicken up.

2. For the Cookies: In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt, and mix on low speed. With the mixer running, add the butter, a piece at a time. The mixture will be dry and sandy at first, but over 2 minutes, will form pebble-size pieces that start to cling together. Stop the mixer and transfer the dough to your board.

3. Preheat oven to 350° F (300° F in our too-hot oven). Separate dough into 2 pieces. Roll each piece of dough between 2 pieces of plastic wrap or parchment paper to 1/8" inch thick. Using a fluted cutter, cut into rounds. Scraps can be pieced together and rolled out again. Place 1/2" apart on baking sheets lined with Silpat liners or parchment paper.

4. Bake for 12-15 minutes, rotating halfway through baking. Remove and cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer cookies to a cooling rack. Cool completely.

5. To Assemble: Lightly whip the white chocolate cream to aerate and fluff up. Transfer filling to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/4" plain tip. Pipe about 1 1/2 tsp in the center of half the cookies. Top with another cookie to sandwich. Gently press down until the cream comes to the edges.

6. Cookies can be stored in a container for up to 3 days. Loosely cover.

Obtained from:

http://curiouslyravenous.blogspot.com/2007/12/tkos-thomas-keller-oreos.html