Thursday, February 12, 2009
Alaska bound
The Wife and I pulled the trigger yesterday and decided to accept a new job in Anchorage, AK! I'll start in a couple months and there's at least a small chance that The Wife can retain her current employment (although in a slightly different capacity). It's all very exciting.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Alaska
I spent much of the past week in Anchorage chasing work and hanging out with friends. Having never been to Anchorage this time of year, I was eager to experience the cold and daylight (or lack thereof). As expected, the temperatures were cold, with highs around 10-15F. The day length was tolerable--getting light around 8:30am and dark around 5:30pm.
After a long day of travel and a drink with my good friends Ashley and George at Humpy's, we were greated by two moose on our walk home--both were right downtown. This guy was munching on shrubs in Ashley and George's neighbor's yard. The second moose, a giant cow, scared the bejesus out of us when it made it's presence known by jumping through a hedgerow and nearly landing on top of us. I may have to think twice about making fun of stupid tourists in Yellowstone that get too close to animals in the future...
After a day touring around Anchorage, we headed out to Alyeska to take advantage of a superbowl two-for-one deal on lift tickets. Althought the snow was a bit tracked out, we had a great time. Heading up the lift:
Ashley and George trying to stay warm:
Even with skiing, we were able to take in the epic fourth quarter of the superbowl before heading back into town. I flew out of Anchorage on Wednesday after scoping out town and meeting with a few folks regarding possible employment (another blog post to follow, perhaps). I got to meet up with a few of The Wife's friends, Megan and Steph, and managed to explore a few of Anchorage's many parks. All in all, a pretty good trip.
After a long day of travel and a drink with my good friends Ashley and George at Humpy's, we were greated by two moose on our walk home--both were right downtown. This guy was munching on shrubs in Ashley and George's neighbor's yard. The second moose, a giant cow, scared the bejesus out of us when it made it's presence known by jumping through a hedgerow and nearly landing on top of us. I may have to think twice about making fun of stupid tourists in Yellowstone that get too close to animals in the future...After a day touring around Anchorage, we headed out to Alyeska to take advantage of a superbowl two-for-one deal on lift tickets. Althought the snow was a bit tracked out, we had a great time. Heading up the lift:
Ashley and George trying to stay warm:
Even with skiing, we were able to take in the epic fourth quarter of the superbowl before heading back into town. I flew out of Anchorage on Wednesday after scoping out town and meeting with a few folks regarding possible employment (another blog post to follow, perhaps). I got to meet up with a few of The Wife's friends, Megan and Steph, and managed to explore a few of Anchorage's many parks. All in all, a pretty good trip.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
More goodness
A few of us went out skiing this past Sunday. It was quite a bit colder and grayer than our prior outing, but visibility was good enough and there was some sweet new snow. 
We parked near the large bend in the road near the bottom-center of the map and skinned northward toward the peak at the top-center of the map (the dashed line designates the Wilderness Area boundary).
With Aaron leading the charge, skinning was easy. We worked our way up a snowed-in creek bed, and through a few clearings...
...eventually working our way up through a timbered slope (which we later got some great turns on...
Keri and Joy on the way up:
Eventually, we worked our way through the trees and got to the base of a steep, open face. Since the snow has been marginal all year, we dug a snowpit and performed a compression test. 
After getting a clean, smooth break about two feet deep on the third elbow tap, we decided we were high enough and pointed our tips down.
Heading up for another lap:
While we were heading up for our second lap, we got inundated with snowmobiles. While snowmobiles are an unfortunate fact of life while skiing Togwotee Pass, we had hoped to avoid them this day since we were on the border of Wilderness Area (where they are outlawed).
Sometimes I think there must be something about riding a snowmobile that makes people stupid. As we approached the top of our run, near where we dug our snowpit and found the avalanche-prone layer, a snowmobiler blasted up the steep slope we turned away from and got stuck 90% of the way up (right where you might expect an avalanche crown).
Despite the clinic these folks administered on what not to do in avalanche country, the slope held. And its a good thing it did. On our trip out, we ran into a few people from their party--all very rotund individuals without any apparent avalanche knowledge or gear.
With dark lazily approaching, we took two short laps through a steeper timbered slope and headed for the trucks, tired and ready for a beer.
We parked near the large bend in the road near the bottom-center of the map and skinned northward toward the peak at the top-center of the map (the dashed line designates the Wilderness Area boundary).With Aaron leading the charge, skinning was easy. We worked our way up a snowed-in creek bed, and through a few clearings...
...eventually working our way up through a timbered slope (which we later got some great turns on...
Keri and Joy on the way up:
Eventually, we worked our way through the trees and got to the base of a steep, open face. Since the snow has been marginal all year, we dug a snowpit and performed a compression test. 
After getting a clean, smooth break about two feet deep on the third elbow tap, we decided we were high enough and pointed our tips down.
Heading up for another lap:
While we were heading up for our second lap, we got inundated with snowmobiles. While snowmobiles are an unfortunate fact of life while skiing Togwotee Pass, we had hoped to avoid them this day since we were on the border of Wilderness Area (where they are outlawed).Sometimes I think there must be something about riding a snowmobile that makes people stupid. As we approached the top of our run, near where we dug our snowpit and found the avalanche-prone layer, a snowmobiler blasted up the steep slope we turned away from and got stuck 90% of the way up (right where you might expect an avalanche crown).
Despite the clinic these folks administered on what not to do in avalanche country, the slope held. And its a good thing it did. On our trip out, we ran into a few people from their party--all very rotund individuals without any apparent avalanche knowledge or gear.With dark lazily approaching, we took two short laps through a steeper timbered slope and headed for the trucks, tired and ready for a beer.
Friday, January 23, 2009
Nothing to see here, move along
Well, Lander graced the pages of Fly Rod & Reel as the top trout town in the Northern Rockies. Sure, Lander is a great place to live and has wonderful fishing, but the top trout town? Who knows. Maybe.A couple things are certain though, we do have several "local stream options"--it's just that despite what the article says none of them are "Red Creek." What's more, although "the Magpie" may have been "a natural place to hang out, eat breakfast and caffeinate before heading out on the stream", don't search too long for it because it burnt down about 8 months ago. Oh, Mr. Thomas, did you actually visit Lander?
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Togwotee Pass
The Wife and I headed out Saturday for a little skiing up on Togwotee Pass with a few friends. Since The Wife and I are greenhorns at backcountry skiing and the snow has been marginal, we kept things pretty mellow.
We parked near the "N" in the map above and followed a circular clock-wise route up the hill climbing some 1600 feet. This is the same area where Togwotee Mountain Lodge operates a snowcat skiing operation and, although it's easier to get to the top with a snowcat, I was glad to ski epic powder without the $349 per person pricetag.
As I eluded to in an earlier post, the snow conditions have been very marginal this year. However, since it hadn't snowed in a while, things had begun to stabilize. On this day, it was warm and sunny with huge surface hoar.
I knew it was going to be a good day when Aaron blazed the entire skin path himself, leaving the easy skinning to the rest of us--I'll ski with that guy anytime.
The climb went quick. After crossing an initial open field, we skinned through trees for a bit then were able to follow a snowcat path the rest of the way to the top. Once at the top, we were able to take a minute to enjoy the view, chow down a quick snack and get stoked for the descent. Here's Aaron making the switch:
Karta, wondering where her snack is:
Karl and Darci chowing down:
Enjoying the view:
Karl getting his stoke on while I rip my skins off:
The ski down was great. We had sugar snow mixed with light, soft powder the whole way. Here's The Wife getting after it:
Not fully satisfied, we all skinned back up about 2/3 of the way and took another lap through the best lines:
During our second lap, things warmed up considerably. Since a couple of us heard whumphs on the climb, we took the easy route and called it a day. The Wife getting after it on round two:
Thoroughly worked, it was time to enjoy a final snack, give the dogs a drink and head home.
We parked near the "N" in the map above and followed a circular clock-wise route up the hill climbing some 1600 feet. This is the same area where Togwotee Mountain Lodge operates a snowcat skiing operation and, although it's easier to get to the top with a snowcat, I was glad to ski epic powder without the $349 per person pricetag.
As I eluded to in an earlier post, the snow conditions have been very marginal this year. However, since it hadn't snowed in a while, things had begun to stabilize. On this day, it was warm and sunny with huge surface hoar.I knew it was going to be a good day when Aaron blazed the entire skin path himself, leaving the easy skinning to the rest of us--I'll ski with that guy anytime.
The climb went quick. After crossing an initial open field, we skinned through trees for a bit then were able to follow a snowcat path the rest of the way to the top. Once at the top, we were able to take a minute to enjoy the view, chow down a quick snack and get stoked for the descent. Here's Aaron making the switch:
Karta, wondering where her snack is:
Karl and Darci chowing down:
Enjoying the view:
Karl getting his stoke on while I rip my skins off:
The ski down was great. We had sugar snow mixed with light, soft powder the whole way. Here's The Wife getting after it:
Not fully satisfied, we all skinned back up about 2/3 of the way and took another lap through the best lines:
During our second lap, things warmed up considerably. Since a couple of us heard whumphs on the climb, we took the easy route and called it a day. The Wife getting after it on round two:
Thoroughly worked, it was time to enjoy a final snack, give the dogs a drink and head home.
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