Bob Coleman had been wanting to check out Hex Mountain, out by Salmon la Sac, WA, and I decided to tag along on his mid-week trip. We had a fun, mellow skin & ski under more or less blue skies. Near the summit (~5200') the winds picked up and the clouds rolled through, but we still were able to enjoy a relaxed lunch on the summit. We actually had some minor routefinding issues (we apparently started on the wrong road; there are two within 100 meters of each other), but enjoyed figuring them out. Total time: ~6 hours.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Training!
If I'm going to meet my goal of biking ~14 days in New Zealand for 75 miles per day, I need to be in decent shape before I head over there. To that end I've been getting on the bike a bit lately, and did some decent work yesterday: about 6 miles of running and 51 miles of biking. The riding will be more difficult in New Zealand, however as I will be carrying a significant amount of weight (clothing, tent, sleeping bag, etc.), and riding solo. I'm going to try to get in as much training as possible before I head out so that the riding doesn't wipe me out! I'm also planning on doing a one-night overnight bike-camping trip to make sure that my equipment works all right. I'm surprisingly busy these days, so fitting in lots of long rides is going to be a little tricky, but I'll do my best!
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Chair Peak circumnavigation
On the way up to our first pass on our Chair Peak circumnavigation adventure: Pat, Rob, and Ira.
The weather varied between pleasant and overcast to steady winds with heavy snow.
This was my first ski tour of the year and despite falling all over the place on the downhills and some sketchy bits of skinning, had a great time overall.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Susan buys a ticket and makes a decision
When debating whether or not to interview for another job at Microsoft, it didn't take much time for me to start thinking about the many things I wanted to do outside of Microsoft. Over the years, I had accumulated a pretty long list of things I wanted to do but didn't have time for. One of them was biking in New Zealand.
Back in 2001, my friend James Miller introduced me to the concept of bike touring and took me on my first 20-mile bike ride (a circumnavigation of Lake Sammamish). Over the next several years, my newfound love for cycling took me to duathlons, road racing, a solo ride down the Oregon coast, cyclocross racing, up the length of the UK ('04), and around the states of Colorado ('05), Vermont ('04), and Hawaii ('07). I even brought my bike along when I travelled to South Africa in December of 2007.
New Zealand is known as one of the best places in the world for bike touring: epic scenery, friendly people, and quiet roads. In fact, about 5 years ago I picked up the book Bike New Zealand at Half Price Books. Additionally, the hiking in New Zealand has an awesome reputation: there are nine "Great Walks" that are well known and described by Peter Potterfield in his Classic Hikes. Hearing him talk about New Zealand at REI one night last year made me even more certain that I would travel there ... sometime. When I had time.
I knew that the summer was quickly coming to a close in the southern hemisphere, and that if I wanted to get a great start to some time away from Microsoft, New Zealand would be an option. Furthermore, airline flights are incredibly cheap these days - roughly half of what they were a year ago.
While thinking about travel options, I still needed to do some work to make sure that I reallydidn't want to interview for another job within Microsoft. I talked with a variety of people hiring software engineers both inside and outside of Microsoft. Their eagerness to talk to me convinced me that I was hireable and that I need not be extremely stressed about finding a job immediately.
After working for Microsoft for over 8 years, I realized that as I tried to make plans to leave that I had very strong financial and social ties to it. Knowing that the economy is terrible and unlikely to get better any time soon made me nervous from a financial standpoint (will I be able to find a job when the money runs out?), and not having a group of people to see and talk to every day was scary as well. One of the biggest unknowns was how I would handle having a lack of structure to my days and to my life as a whole. Could I independently create the structure I needed to continue to be a happy and healthy member of society?
There were still many unknowns regarding the future of the economy and my ability to handle them two weeks after the announcement was made, but I knew that an opportunity like this wouldn't likely present itself again. I was 30, single, without debt or children.
So it was with both trepidation and excitement that I placed a call to Qantas airlines on February 10.
I'll be leaving for New Zealand on March 1.
Back in 2001, my friend James Miller introduced me to the concept of bike touring and took me on my first 20-mile bike ride (a circumnavigation of Lake Sammamish). Over the next several years, my newfound love for cycling took me to duathlons, road racing, a solo ride down the Oregon coast, cyclocross racing, up the length of the UK ('04), and around the states of Colorado ('05), Vermont ('04), and Hawaii ('07). I even brought my bike along when I travelled to South Africa in December of 2007.
New Zealand is known as one of the best places in the world for bike touring: epic scenery, friendly people, and quiet roads. In fact, about 5 years ago I picked up the book Bike New Zealand at Half Price Books. Additionally, the hiking in New Zealand has an awesome reputation: there are nine "Great Walks" that are well known and described by Peter Potterfield in his Classic Hikes. Hearing him talk about New Zealand at REI one night last year made me even more certain that I would travel there ... sometime. When I had time.
I knew that the summer was quickly coming to a close in the southern hemisphere, and that if I wanted to get a great start to some time away from Microsoft, New Zealand would be an option. Furthermore, airline flights are incredibly cheap these days - roughly half of what they were a year ago.
While thinking about travel options, I still needed to do some work to make sure that I reallydidn't want to interview for another job within Microsoft. I talked with a variety of people hiring software engineers both inside and outside of Microsoft. Their eagerness to talk to me convinced me that I was hireable and that I need not be extremely stressed about finding a job immediately.
After working for Microsoft for over 8 years, I realized that as I tried to make plans to leave that I had very strong financial and social ties to it. Knowing that the economy is terrible and unlikely to get better any time soon made me nervous from a financial standpoint (will I be able to find a job when the money runs out?), and not having a group of people to see and talk to every day was scary as well. One of the biggest unknowns was how I would handle having a lack of structure to my days and to my life as a whole. Could I independently create the structure I needed to continue to be a happy and healthy member of society?
There were still many unknowns regarding the future of the economy and my ability to handle them two weeks after the announcement was made, but I knew that an opportunity like this wouldn't likely present itself again. I was 30, single, without debt or children.
So it was with both trepidation and excitement that I placed a call to Qantas airlines on February 10.
I'll be leaving for New Zealand on March 1.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Skiing in Telluride
I had never skied in Colorado before (or anywhere in the Rockies, for that matter), so when Jeff and Chris of our ice climbing contingent announced that they were going to Telluride for a day, I couldn't resist the temptation to check it out.
The slopes were almost empty and the lift lines nonexistent at this resort that boasts a lift up to 12,600'. It hadn't snowed in a week, and apparently this had scared off the spoiled Coloradans. Or maybe people were reluctant to fork over $92 for a day of mediocre skiing. We lucked out on both counts, as we got vouchers for ~$40 off lift tickets and it started to snow _hard_ midway through the day. For the first time ever, I actually enjoyed moguls! (OK, just a little bit).
The slopes were almost empty and the lift lines nonexistent at this resort that boasts a lift up to 12,600'. It hadn't snowed in a week, and apparently this had scared off the spoiled Coloradans. Or maybe people were reluctant to fork over $92 for a day of mediocre skiing. We lucked out on both counts, as we got vouchers for ~$40 off lift tickets and it started to snow _hard_ midway through the day. For the first time ever, I actually enjoyed moguls! (OK, just a little bit).
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Ice climbing in Ouray
In early January (weeks before the layoff announcement was made), eight of us from the Washington Alpine Club decided to make a pilgimage to Ouray, a mecca of ice climbing in the United States. Some of the ice may be naturally occurring, but the majority is manmade: water is piped in and turned on at night to create large walls of ice in Box Canyon, a short walk from the town of Ouray.
We all had a great time, and I discovered that I'm not nearly as bad at ice climbing as I am at rock climbing.
We all had a great time, and I discovered that I'm not nearly as bad at ice climbing as I am at rock climbing.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
My first attempt at ice climbing
I knew I wanted to try ice climbing in 2009, but hadn't found a weekend yet to go with friends. Alas, on February 1st I managed to coordinate a trip with Sketchy, Denny, and Tiffany to the Alpental area. I had a blast and was excited for the next weekend in Ouray!
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