Archive for August, 2007

Even though I’m supposed to be doing the cooking, Mark has been happy to bake a bit in the evenings. I suppose it’s like how he’s supposed to be paying the bills, but I keep checking the investments. It’s hard to stay away from activities you enjoy.

Last night, Mark made another batch of Jam Thumbprints. These are some of our favorite cookies, and they always seem to turn out perfectly.

I love “food photography.” For some reason, cookbooks feel that if most of the food is out of focus, it looks tastier. I tried to replicate that here. I also used a bounce-flash off the ceiling for the soft lighting.

Jam Thumbprints

2/3 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups AP flour
2 slightly beaten egg whites
1/3 to 1/2 cups of jam (we used blackberry)

1. Grease a cookie sheet; set aside. In a large mixing bowl beat butter or margarine with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add the sugar and beat till combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in egg yolks and vanilla till combined. Beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. Stir in remaining flour. Cover; chill dough about 1 hour or till easy to handle.

2. Shape dugh into 1-in balls. Roll balls in egg whites. Place 1 inch apart on the prepared cookie sheet. Press our thumb into the center of each ball. Fill with jam! Bake in a 375° oven for 10-12 minutes or till edges are lightly browned. NOTE: The jam will be as hot as LAVA when it gets out of the oven. Be very careful handling the cookies.

Last weekend, the high temperatures in Fort Collins were heading quickly towards the triple digits, so we decided to take refuge on some shady north-facing climbs in Vedauwoo.

Photos from the weekend are up in the gallery.

After some (not so) intense discussion, we decided it was time to go explore the Blair Woods area in Vedauwoo. These formations sit north and west of general Vedauwoo area, and we actually had to drive out of the ‘park’ and back in on a different road to access them. Exploring a new rock in Vedauwoo is usually an adventure, but driving to a whole different part of the range makes the place feel really exciting and remote.

The trails were indistinct, and we hiked quite a bit off trail. Eventually, we stumbled on the northwest face of Blair 3, and everybody was in awe. The spot was quiet (we were the only ones there) and shady and cool. The clean graceful lines of the rock towered over us, promising a day of spectacular climbing.

Mark and I continued down the game trail to the “Notch” area on this formation, and I racked up and led my first multi-pitch trad climb! This was actually the first climb that I’ve ever led all of the pitches on, and it was a really good one. It was a combination of two moderates, and as I don’t have the book here, I can’t tell you what the first pitch was, but the second was the top (and most interesting) half of Outer Notch (5.6).

I still feel very proud of this climb. It was definitely not as super-easy and incredibly-obvious as my usual leads. I actually spaced the protection out quite a bit in some places (and scrunched it together in others). But it was a really fun climb, and a great way to spend the morning.

After we rappelled off, we found the group working a couple of fun climbs further down the face. Again, I can’t give names right now as I don’t have the book, but there was a fun 5.7, a strenuous 5.9, and a 5.8 that gained two degrees of difficulty after Sean pulled a key hold off and threw it at Ann. By the time I got to that 5.8, I was so exhausted my arms just wouldn’t bend.

After a nap and some scrambling around the formation, Mark and I set up a yoga shoot on top of the shoulder of the formation. Some of the photos turned out really nice.

At the end of the day, several people worked a loooong (110ft) hard 5.9, and then we packed up and hiked out. Camping that evening was nice and not too chilly. Mark dug holes under the right-side tires of Dylan and Ann’s truck to help level the camper, and then spent the rest of the evening playing with fire.

On Sunday we headed back to the area, and this time explored the shady side of Blair 1. While the rest of the group enjoyed another long fun 5.7-, Mark and I attacked the first pitch of Le Petite Arbre (5.6). This 50ft crack was awesome. It was solid, perfect hand and fist jams the whole way up. We ran laps on this one, with Mark speed climbing it on top-rope, and me practicing placing gear hanging from hand-jams and not over-camming it. Even the rest of the gang seemed to enjoy it, especially Ann’s new shoes! Around lunch time we all started heading home in pairs. Mark and Liv and I stuck around the longest, playing on the crack and relaxing in the shade. Then it was time to head back to the Fort, which felt like a baking furnace after such a nice, cool weekend on the rocks.

I feel like the summer is getting late, but I don’t know where the season went. I’m counting down the last few weekends of August and realizing that we won’t be climbing Long’s this year either. I don’t think we’re going to climb in Black Canyon either, which was my goal for this year. Classes are going to be starting soon, and I haven’t bagged a single 14er! I haven’t been mountain biking once! It’s already too late to rent the duckies and float the Poudre as we had been hoping.

I guess this year the priorities just got shifted. I do feel that I’ve made some very important progress in my most recently chosen career. I’m much nearer to finishing my masters thanks to all of the hard work I put in this summer. And for fun stuff, well, my crack climbing is better now than it was last summer, that’s for sure. I’ve explored places in ‘Voo that I’ve been wanting to check out for years now. And of course, the traveling this year has been fantastic.

I may not have been able to check off all of my goals for this summer, but I do feel stronger, somehow. Both mentally and physically. I feel more confidant in my place in Colorado, and more sure of the things and people I love. I suppose all I could ask for is to learn and grow a bit each season, and I think I’m doing great there.

Here’s a shot from one of my dog walks this week. Looks like we’re getting closer to sunrise-shooting-season.

I do love my job. Sometimes it’s stressful. Sometimes I get tired and freak out. But last night, I got to leave the poster session just a little early to “Measure the diffusive and reflected longer wavelengths of radiation.” In other words, “to take pictures of the pretty sunset.” Scientifically, of course.

I’ve spent my week at a team meeting for my advisor’s largest research project. It’s been a great meeting. On Tuesday, I gave my first public science talk: to the whole conference! Close to 100 of the best, and most famous, climate and cloud modelers in the world sat there and watched me explain the MJO in the most interesting and least complicated way that I could. From what I hear, it was a resounding success. It’s sooo good for your ego to have so many people come up and tell you how much they enjoyed your talk. I feel really proud right now.

But also really tired. I’ve got a late night tonight and then a stressful day tomorrow. I’m really looking forward to this weekend right now!

In honor of the cloud modeling meeting, here’s a shot of the Colorado sky this afternoon.

I put the rest of the photos from the weekend up in the gallery!

Sunday morning dawned bright and clear. I had one of the best nights of sleep while backpacking that night. I think it supports my theory that I am not capable of sleeping at 11,000ft. Our camp was closer to 10,000ft this weekend, and I felt much better all night. I woke before Mark, grabbed my camera and dog, and hiked back up to the lakes for morning photography. I was not early enough to catch any alpin-glow, but the reflections on hang lake were incredible.

I wandered back to camp and got Mark up. We made breakfast (thank goodness for that mosquito netting again), and Mark had an adventure in backpacker’s biscuits and gravy. Liv ended up eating half a roll of self-rising biscuit dough that morning. We packed water and snacks into Mark’s bag and then hiked up to Blue Lake.

Sunday, the weather seemed much better. Mark and I were quickly able to hike to the top of the nearby pass. From there, we had to decide if we wanted to hike to Island and Timber Lakes on the far side of the pass, or hike up to the summit of Cameron Peak from there. I’m a sucker for peaks, and Mark calculated that the elevation loss/gain would be about 2,000ft less if we just went up, so we headed into the trees.

The trail we found wound up around the lower slopes of the peak to a wide grassy saddle on the north side of Cameron Peak. From there, it was straight up over the hill, over the first false summit, and then on to the true one at 12,194ft. The views were awesome.

Another great thing about this little peak, we were the only ones there. We hung out on the summit, which we had all to ourselves, for about half an hour, and then took off down the hill. We decided to descend the south side, on a more direct route to the pass. This worked great until we got a little lost in the trees, and I did end up leading us into a bit of a swamp towards the end, but we popped out into the grass again quickly without much bushwacking.

From there, we hiked back to camp, packed up, and headed back to the car. It took us about 3.5 hours to hike down from the pass to the car that afternoon. It felt grueling, and I found myself horribly sunburnt by the end of the day. As of writing, my nose and back are kind of peeling. But it was a really fun weekend!

Well, last night we had somewhere between 2 and 5 inches of rain in about 2 hours, and Fort Collins saw another series of flash floods. The last time this happend several people died, and the town had to rebuild the drainage system to better handle these large amounts of rain.

• As far as I’ve read this morning, nobody got hurt or killed last night. Some houses were damaged and traffic was definitely snarled. There’s a nice story in the Coloradoan.
• Here’s a link to the storm reports for the area.
• And here’s a link to a precipitation map of the state. You might have to choose the date “8/3/07” to see the heavy rain event. It’s really interesting how localized our precipitation is out here. It was like one storm that just sat and dumped on our town
• Mark and I weathered the storm just fine. Our house stayed dry, but the grassy drainage in front of our building was filled to the brim last night. There’s a photo below! For comparison, here’s a shot of what our house normally looks like. With the water up to the bottom of the bridge, we estimate that the pool was almost 6ft deep in some places!

So we’ve heard so many great tales of friends hiking and backpacking in the mountains lately, that Mark and I decided it was time to get our sorry butts out to the wilderness last weekend.

I’ve put the first batch of photos up in the gallery.

We left Ft Collins a little late on Friday evening, and it rained for most of the two hour drive up the Poudre Canyon. Everything was so wet by the time we reached the Blue Lake Trailhead, that we decided to just find a free place to park and sleep in the car. We drove across the street to Long Draw Road, and quickly stumbled upon a very nice, quiet, free site. Hmm, have to remember that these are here for the next time we’re camping in the area.

Mark said it was the worst night of sleep he’d had in a long time. I guess the car just isn’t long enough for him AND the dog. I did ok, and after making coffee and packing up, we hit the Blue Lake Trail at around 9am on Saturday morning.

We moved quickly over the flat-to-undulating first couple of miles, but started to slow down as the trail steepened. Around noon, we hit a serious rain shower, and we decided to pitch the tent in a nearby spot and wait out the rain there. We had about an hour to dry off and eat lunch before the sun came out. Looking at the wet rainfly and gear sitting in the sun, we figured it would be best to leave everything where it was and go look for a better site up near the lake. So we took some water and our raincoats and finished the last 20 minutes of hiking up to Blue Lake.

This large alpine lake sits right at tree line, nestled in a little valley between Clark Peak (12,951ft) and Cameron Peak (12,127ft). As the sun came out and everything dried off, we had a beautiful afternoon to walk around the lake and enjoy the area. The wildflowers were in full bloom, and columbine covered the banks of the lake.

Eventually, we scrambled up to Hang Lake, which sits about 500ft above Blue Lake at about 11,150ft. The view of distant Rocky Mountain National Park, Never Summer Mountains, and Mummy Range was incredible from there. And it looked like those mountains were seeing much worse weather than we were.

Eventually we had to head back to find a campsite. We saw some great sites down in the trees next to the lake, but there were signs everywhere saying that there was no camping allowed within 0.25 miles of Blue Lake. This didn’t seem to bother the 30 other people we saw camping down there, though. We found a nice site in the woods just off the trail just before the “No Camping Past This Point!” sign, moved all of our gear and tent stuff up the hill, and set up for the night.

Unlike our last trip two years ago, this time we brought a little wad of mosquito netting with us. I found this little mosquito tent at REI for $20 a few years ago. It’s only 3.5ft tall and maybe 6ft long by 4ft wide. It’s supposed to hang over your camp bed inside your canvas safari tent, I think. But we stuck it in one of Mark’s pack pockets for the hike up, and then hung it between a couple close together trees for a very short dining fly. Boy, was that nice. As the evening wore on, the whole south side of the netting was buzzing with those little buggers. I can’t imagine what it would have been like to have to sit out in that swarm.

Mark was exhausted and fell asleep before it was even dark out. I read my little novel and eventually fell asleep myself.