Archive for 2007

On Sunday, we finally got back out into the mountains. Dylan, Ann, Mark and I all snow shoe’d all the way up to Lake Agnes and back that day. The trail is supposed to only be 0.8 miles long, but the campground you normally drive through was gated and we parked on the side of CO 14. From there, it was about 2.5 miles up!

It was still a great day. The powder was a great consistency to make the snow shoeing interesting, but not impossible. It was an intense (and desperately needed) work out in an incredibly beautiful place. Even with clouds and snow throughout the day, the views were incredible.

I’ll have more pictures up, and stories about Dylan’s split board in a day or so. For now, this is somebody we met at the actual trailhead (still well over a mile from our car). After some egging on from his buddies, he climbed up on top of this house and snowboarded off!

Lots of great photos from the trip can be found in the gallery!

Mark and I bought the tickets, and last weekend we found ourselves boarding an airplane for New York City. It was good to get some time in back in the stratosphere, because the last time Mark and I flew, it was a really rough ride, with a long scary, rolling, and eventually aborted landing into the airport. It was nice to remember that most flights in big planes are no big deal. Especially since we are due for eight hours in the air on the way to Kauai in just over a week.

We arrived in Manhattan at around 10pm their time Friday night. I remembered the wrong address for the hotel, and we ended up having the cab drop us off with all of our luggage on a random corner of Broadway. The first adventure of the weekend was wandering through Times Square with our luggage over our shoulders on a Friday Night!

We found the hotel after only a few blocks of walking. We were staying at the Amsterdam Court Hotel, which is a smaller, older building, with a great atmosphere. The elevator was tiny, and moved slowly and jerkily as if it had been retrofitted with the auto-driver. The main staircase had marble stairs with deep, smooth grooves worn into them as people had been walking up and down these for 200 years. Our room was tiny, but decorated in a simple, modern style that I really liked.

Saturday morning we got up late, and headed out to see some city sights before we were due for our dinner reservations. We checked out the classic spots in mid-town, Rockefeller center, shopping on Fifth Ave, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, FAO Schwartz, and even a bit of Central Park.

Saturday evening was the big event. Beginning with dinner at Sardi’s at 6:30p. The menu was adventurous and delicious. I had fois gras for the first time, and I decided it really does taste like tortured-goose liver. I didn’t eat much of it. The show started at 8p, and we made it without much issue. Watching Les Miserables for the first time, I realized that there were a lot of adult jokes and snipes that I never got from just listening to the CDs. I enjoyed it; Mark felt the second act was pretty slow.

On Sunday, we hopped on the subway and headed up to the American Museum of Natural History. This was a cool place, but we ended up in many of the “animals of [insert part of North America here]” exhibits. These were interesting, but Mark and I have actually visited many of these places and seen these animals. It was weird walking through exhibits describing all of the wonders of the Rocky Mountains, when we would be heading back there in a few hours.

I did really enjoy all of the fossils and skeletons on the top floor. I had no idea that animals like these actually existed! There were tortoises bigger than me, moose-like animals with racks of antlers so huge it looked like they couldn’t hold their heads up, and giant scary fish with huge teeth and claws on their feet/fins!

That evening we made it to our gate at the airport a full three hours before our flight left, and there was another plane to Denver getting ready to take off. The awesome United guy managed to get our luggage moved over and let us take the earlier flight home. What a great weekend and an excellent adventure!

Ok, while we’re on the subject of recycling clothing, a friend sent me a link to Patagonia’s site, where they have begun a campaign to recycle old capilene garments. The movie … is pretty darn awesome. I had to post it here. Thanks Patagonia!!

Looking towards the alter area of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. This amazing landmark sits on 5th avenue in Manhattan, and towers over the original Saks 5th Ave and a huge Banana Republic. In other words, walking in here is like walking into another world.

I’ve gotten a good number of pics from last weekend resized and organized, and I should have them up in the gallery soon.

I just finished reading this huge article in Outside magazine about this company that’s trying to start selling completely recycled or sustainably created outdoor/active clothing. Most polyesters/fleeces are made from petro-chemicals, this company wants to make them from recycled materials and … corn. Plus, they want to donate 10% of profits to charities, and have limits on CEO earnings. I don’t know if they’ll stay in business, but I like the looks of their clothes and I thought you all would too. Check out their stuff at:

Plus, they’ve set up a pretty cool blog. I really wasn’t sure where to put a link to this one, but I wanted to add it to the site somewhere. For now, they are on the side-bar in the “Other Blogs” area. Enjoy!

Just got back from a trip to New York City! This is the view south of a snowy landscape as our plane banked and headed in for a landing at Denver International Airport. More cool pictures from the trip will be showing up in the gallery in the next few days!

I think I pretty much have already covered the highlights of the trip but I thought I might sum up here. All of the photos from the day are up here in the gallery.

Last Sunday, Mark and I packed all of our serious winter gear into the truck and headed north for a day of snow shoeing in Vedauwoo. We did pack our snowshoes and poles! Almost immediately after leaving the Ft Collins area, the snow disappeared. We drove north for an hour without seeing much more than a few patches of snow on the ground.

The Vedauwoo area sits in a high valley above Cheyenne and Laramie, Wy. We saw lots of snow in the parking area, but it all seemed hard packed and windblown, and we decided we would make better time and be more efficient if we didn’t carry the snowshoes around with us. This was silly. What were we thinking?

The serious post holing didn’t really begin until we headed down the last part of the hill to hit the Turtle Rock trail. I suggested this trail which circumnavigates the main area because it was longer and would give more opportunities for photos. Of course the trail goes around the three non-south facing sides of the formation, and the snow was pretty darn deep for the next 3-4 miles.

We stayed in the snowshoe tracks made recently by some harty soul. Poor Liv performed the snow-porpoise move for most of the afternoon as she hopped through the deep snow. She was absolutely tuckered out by the end of the day.

Yeah, it was a long, exhausting, and rather frustrating hike, but it was also a beautiful and strange place. It was so quiet, we only met two other people the whole day! The wind whistled through the trees above us, but didn’t make it down to the ground. The sun warmed the rocks all around us and they radiated heat and energy back to us.

I love Vedauwoo. I can’t wait to get back and climb. But I’m taking my snowshoes next time!!

Yes, I’m so desperate to get back on the rock that I pulled off my boots, my gators, my wind shell, and my balaclava to get some bouldering in while we were in Vedauwoo last weekend. I learned that deep snow makes a nice soft landing exactly once.

I think I got the FA on this little boulder north of the main area. I call it “Snow Bouldering is Fun!” V0-.