I CHEE WA WA

-6 this morning when I went out to get a bundle of wood. In Colorado, it's called "a little nippy."

Took Samson the Wonderdog in for surgery this morning. He has a torn ACL. Poor dude was so scared when I left him. I'll get to drop in on him later.

The Dude in his springier days....

BMX Bandits

Anyone else remember this movie?

Feliz Navidad

A taste of Durango area Winter Wonderland

Suburban Mountaineering

The doldrums of winter can be tough. Sometimes we must be inventive to keep cabin fever at bay. Today I invented a new sport: Suburban Mountaineering. Now before I tell this tale I want everyone to know I realize the sheer stupidity of this act. But you see, as a man it is my duty to commit the blissfully stupid from time to time. It is in our souls I tell you. You women, my wife included, will never understand the purity of random acts of stupidity. They are an irresistable siren calling us....."go ahead Matt...you can do this no problem" "Come on Matt, how hard can this be?" "What's the worst that could happen?"

Enter stage right, Suburban Mountaineering. This sport, in my case, was born out of necessity. My damn chimney was clogged with soot. As you can see below, the installers added a "bird cage" to my chimney in order to keep critters out I'm assuming, or perhaps as a bit of a spark arrester. The downside is that it gets clogged with soot and I usually just crawl up on the roof and brush it out. Our house is south facing, so the roof is usually clear of snow pretty quickly.

Not this past month. We got clobbered with some pretty significant snow. My roof is still thickly snow covered. Unfortunately, the clogged chimney means smoke blowing back into the house, so I needed to deal with this. Making matters worse (and significantly more dangerous) is my insistance of not buying a tall enough ladder. My ladder JUST enables me to slide belly first onto the roof....which is a little daunting on the dry roof. Snow covered? Oy.

I started by shoveling some snow off the roof thereby lowering the effective level I had to flop up to. I climbed back up and made a dry run attempt at gaining perch on the roof. Ehh...not going to happen. I went into the garage and dug out my crampons and ice axe. I carefully stepped up the metal ladder with my spikes, dug the ice axe into the thick snow and ice on the roof and hoisted myself up. Success. I was on the roof. Level One complete. In hindsight, the easy part.



Next came dealing with the soot-filled bird cage. I had worn a backpack for my ascent; filled with tools for the extraction. After much tedious crescent wrench work the cage was removed. Level Two complete.

Now to get down. Under normal (see: dry) circumstances this is the hardest part. It basically involves laying on my belly at the roof's edge and swinging a foot down til it touches the top of the ladder. From there I just have to slowly transfer weight carefully onto the ladder and then down. Ice and snow-encrusted? I tad trickier. I hiked back down to the roof edge and sort of positioned myself for the final move. The problem was that the crampons gave me grip on the roof, but they became a serious liability trying to regain my footing on the ladder. No dice. Too risky.

I got back up and contemplated my options. I took a trip over the other side to see how close the roof of the hot tub deck was for a possible exit. Nice...only about a 1 foot drop and then access to the deck railing. I got down and sat down near the edge thinking about how to make the final move:

I'm not sure this photo shows it, but that's about a 25-30 foot drop to the left. If I missed here the cost would be HIGH. I took off my crampons and stowed everything in my pack for the swing down. As I inched to the edge, trying to get a hand on the railing, I realized this was no underhand pitch. I pushed myself back up and sat thinking....in a pool of ice water. The problem was pretty simple: a very easy "move" that required about 6 inches of "out in space". Concentrate. I shimmied back into position and held onto the siding as best I could. Pausing to collect myself, my foot slipped about a half an inch. Yikes.....this is stupid. What happens if I miss? Death? Broken legs? Broken neck? Paralyzed....laying in the snow all day alone....waiting for my wife to get home? No thanks.

Back up onto the main roof, sans crampons. I very very carefully worked my way down the roof edge to where the ladder was. I crouched down low, sunk the ice axe in behind me and laid down on my belly. I didn't slide. I swung a leg off the roof and it found the top of the ladder. Pheeeewwww. I transferred my weight onto the ladder and then swung the second leg over. Success. I climbed down to the deck safely....heart beating like a rabbit. Level Three complete.

Next time....bring rope, Matt.

Progress

How the Energy Bill Will Change the Car You Drive

Certainly not perfect, but a sign of progress. What I liked most were penalties for gas hog vehicles. Sorry, but the only way to communicate with the average American is through their wallet. Energy conservation is a national well-being issue....not one of personal freedom to own your dream Mustang.

Dogs and cats living together....MASS HYSTERIA!

Where to begin....where to begin. So many years of disregarding Mac users as left wing wusses. So many years explaining to Dr. Santo that Mac's are for baking pot brownies. So many years thinking one must adhere to 3 of 5 if owning a Mac:

1. wear hair in pony tail....male or female
2. own rainbow suspenders
3. own a messenger bag in either army green or khaki
4. display Teen Beat poster of Steve Jobs on bedroom wall
5. have a peace sticker stuck to a travel mug, car window or mailbox

Well.....it seems the bell now tolls for ME. I received my self-purchased Christmas gift yesterday: a 15" Macbook Pro. As I opened the box, the clouds parted outside and birds came back early from their winter migration. Several glasses in the room became half full. I lost 10 lbs. The world seemed so "right."



OK, enough mularkey. Mac's are damn elegant machines. The biggest misnomer floating around in the world is that Mac's create perpetual incompatibility with the rest of the world. That is just wrong. I'd probably argue the opposite. To quote my Mac-toting friend Jimmy: "They just work." Indeed.

Without getting into a long review of my first impressions, I will say one thing. What struck me about this out of the box experience is the simplicity and UNOBTRUSIVENESS. You don't realize how far this goes toward a pleasant user experience until well.....you experience it. The offers to signup for .Mac were polite. I didn't feel bombarded. It felt like this was MY machine. Oh joy!!! I'm going to go make ice cream and play with a puppy!!! (sorry, the past is so hard to let go of).

OK, done for now. I can't decide who I'm most excited to see a reply from:

Chris Lynch: "I shall pave the world in white"
Dr. Santo: "Have another pot brownie, jerk"
Jimmy: "Dude...I told you so. It just works."

*Flame retardant suit on*

A 3 Hour Tour...

Katri and I set off on a little backcountry tour on Saturday. Last year I bought a new splitboard and sold my old one. I bought the first splitboard when I really didn't understand much about design differences. It was a great board, a Voile Mountain Gun, but it wasn't super powder-oriented, nor was it very nimble. It was a freight train down the mountain kinda board. Perhaps the name could have saved me the time? :) Anyway, last year I got a Prior Kyber Split 162. I didn't ride it too much last year. I spent more time at the lift-assisted ski areas learning more and more about boarding in powder.



Well, this year I'm dedicated to more backcountry touring with the Prior Khyber. As I discovered yesterday, this board suits me WAY more than the Voile. I don't blaze down the mountain at 100mph....I really like to carve a lot of turns in the powder and this board is 100% built for that. I remember reading a tester's review on this board: "It almost turns by itself in the powder." I agree.

We skinned up about an hour or so and then stopped at a high point and had a nice lunch in the sun. It was like 15 degrees, but the sun made all the difference. There was almost no wind.....beautifully silent.

I assembled the split skis into board mode and off we went. Katri had forgotten her poles, so she was a little off balance, but she managed quite well. Half way down and we were both raving about the snow. Like tight, gorgeous singletrack through an empty thick forest nothing really comes close to untracked snow. It's absolutely worth the grunt. "Earn your turns" as they say.

Here's me on the final descent...

Whooooosh

Captain Carve Returns!

Wolf Creek got pounded for the second week in a row. My buddy John and I went up and nearly had the place to our selves. I tried to go again today but an avalanche had blocked Wolf Creek Pass. I took some vids:



The road bike is setup on the trainer for the winter. I find I don't mind an hour a few times a week. The spirit of riding is diminished, but I keep the legs thinking "ride" throughout the winter.

Video Test

Winter has arrived..

We got our first dump of the season this weekend. It came in the form of rain for much of the weekend, but eventually produced about 6 inches of snow at the house. If it had been cold enough I would guess we would have seen roughly 3 times that. The higher elevations got slammed - Coal Bank Pass received 45 inches!!!

As we were packing up to go XC skiing these little buggers cruised into our yard and started snacking on our dryland pasture grass and I think nibbling on our aspens. Tame little devils...they never even flinched as I shoveled the drive.

Our XC ski plans were kaput - no one has groomed yet. So, we headed up in snowshoes in the NF behind our house up to Grassy Mountain Ridge overlooking Vallecito Reservoir. I didn't bring the camera, which is a shame. The views were excellent up there.

It's good to be home and playin' in the snow.