little yeti

Catch Up

2011-02-16T19:20:00.001-08:00

Okay, so there's been a several month period of working a lot and not a lot of fun stuff happening, cause it didn't snow for a stupid amount of time. Except we went to Hawaii, and we've still been riding what we can.

Just dumped three feet, so cheers to more exciting things on the way.

Back to normal

2010-10-23T12:34:00.000-07:00

After a couple of weeks on the road and a few months of tunnel-vision working, I finally am back to a "normal" week of working, working out, cleaning, cooking, and sleeping. Good to be back to normal.

Last weekend we left late on a Friday night to go climb an easy but super long (3,000 ft) route south of Mammoth. After the long week and throwing down our tents on the bare pavement of the trailhead at 1 AM, when our alarm clock rang at 5 AM to start the climb, we were more interested in sleeping than climbing. So we did... slept in, then drove down to Bishop/Aspendell to hike through the fall colors and into the John Muir Wilderness while Brett fished. And we were glad we didn't climb, because it started snowing heartily on us that afternoon.

All pictures

On Sunday we played tennis in the rain. I beat Jason at all three games, so proud of myself. It was fun... we tend to do so much of the same stuff together (hiking, mountain-biking, cooking delicious food... I mean, it gets to boring after a while... not) that it was great to do something together than neither of us had done since probably high school.

This October has mixed between beautiful fall weather, and rain, as Tahoe decides whether or not it's winter. Snow actually stuck this morning!

Jeannie World Tour

2010-10-13T20:29:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I really barely went more than a state away, but whatever.

- Los Angeles visiting Carie. Climbing with your feet in the sand and the waves just feet away is a good way to spend a weekend

- Montana for cousin's wedding

Columbia, Sierras

2010-09-08T21:54:00.000-07:00

Been really lame about writing lately. Ever since I got this friggin iPhone, all my internets are on my phone, so I rarely even open my computer.

In the last month... (with links to pics)

I went on a cruise up the Columbia River with my Grandma, Uncle, Dad and cousin.
We took a roadtrip down and did some hiking and camping around Mammoth and Bridgeport.

Motorcycles & sleeping in

2010-08-08T22:35:00.000-07:00

Took & passed a motorcycle course in Sac-town. Was pretty proud of myself; the only other person in the class who had never ridden before ended up in an ambulance.

This weekend was a much needed break from long days at work. Jason and I explored a new area called Jackson Meadows... and then floated the Truckee river, pulling out just in time for the thunderstorm to break.

14 miles down!

2010-07-25T15:43:00.000-07:00

I achieved my summer goal of running the 14-mile section between Donner Summit and Squaw. It was a beautiful run. Definitely was out of the game for the rest of this weekend though.

All photos here.

Weekend Report

2010-07-18T19:03:00.001-07:00

Finally went climbing. On a top rope. It was hard. Climbing is not like riding a bike, FYI.

Today I (tried to) run 12 miles. Ended up doing around 11. It was doomed to start... I left the house without eating anything, didn't take anything but water. Was ready to eat Juneau about four miles in. And it was really uphillish. Like 2,000 ft hillish.

Got lost on the way back. Juneau and Whiskey T-boned a car. Like, the car didn't hit them... they hit the car. They didn't even see it, they were so excited about a squirrel. Two seconds earlier and they would have been dead puppies, instead of just mildly confused and embarrassed ones.

Sonora Pass

2010-07-16T21:00:00.001-07:00

Jason and I took a roadtrip through Sonora Pass for the 4th of July weekend. It was great to find a new Pass to explore... then dropped off the other side to enjoy the wineries of Sonora. Made it back in time to catch the fireworks in Incline Village.
all pictures here

Oh yeah, we got engaged.

Lassen, Shasta

2010-06-27T12:28:00.000-07:00

Casey showed up, so we actually had to do stuff.

Skied Lassen

Photos here

Was the cheerleaded Casey & Jason while they climbed the north side of Shasta (in one day) and skied it.

All photos here

And finally, we have to admit that it's summer. Today, while Jason is recovering from the sleep deprivation and exhaustion, I'll bust out the kayak and enjoy Donner for the first time in the summer!

Also manning up to face my fear of riding a motorcycle (last time I tried to ride Jason's around the block, I dropped it and launched into the bushes twice) and signed up for a course at the end of July. I want to start commuting with one.

Wedding & Pain

2010-06-06T10:20:00.000-07:00

Mom & Dad came down to visit; awesome to see how healthy both of them are looking after all the hiking they've been doing.

My old buddy from elementary/middle school, Autum, recently got married so I got to be one of her bridesmaids. Her wedding was very beautiful and genuine. I caught the bouquet (or more, I ended up with more broken stems and crushed petals than the other girl), much to Boyfriend's fear.

Also ran in the Reno/Tahoe Odyssey, the 178-mile relay race around Lake Tahoe & Reno. My company paid us to run and sponsored us. I went for legs with less shorter mileage than last year (15 miles total, down from 19 last year) but went for more hills. I averaged 8:38 min/miles and didn't get scared of zombies during my night run, despite one of my coworkers making snorting noises in the bushes. The hardest part of the race is the lack of sleep (2 hours) during the 30-hour endeavor. My van finished our runs in Virginia City, where we promptly had mimosas, bloody marys and whatever breakfast we could find that included bacon (Boyfriend and I later went out for pizza and Coldstone ice cream).

Today is a rest & eat bacon day. All Odyssey photos on Facebook.

Last day at Alpine

2010-05-16T20:54:00.000-07:00

Day #100 for me coincided with Alpine's last day. We rode, BBQ'd and watched the "Mad Cow Dash," where the resort forces riders who can't afford to buy a pass bomb down the whole mountain, and whoever is at the bottom first, period, wins. Most of us didn't notice that one of the skiers was completely naked until he was across the finish line. To the applause of the entire crowd, he casually wandered up to the bar, still naked, to buy himself a beer. The Alpine ski patrol just shook their heads and made a slow, half-hearted attempt to follow him.

Halls

2010-05-09T19:54:00.000-07:00

Mini Halls: Got you.

Carie, Scott, David and David's friend Mark came down for the weekend. David, Mark & Jason did Halls of the Gods while Scott, Carie and I did Mini Halls. We were all very satisfied.

On Sunday, David, Mark & I went to Squaw for their closing day. Mark skied a chute right underneath the chairlift wearing nothing but a Speedo.

Then we watched the pond-skimming contest, where contestants go all out in costumes and try to ski across a pond. Most of them don't make it. David and my favorite was the guy who skied across holding a baby. Halfway across the pond he dropped the baby in the pond. Once on the other shore, he immediately ripped off his skis and dove into the pond to save the baby, which was actually a doll, but it was still horrifyingly funny.

Saturday report

2010-05-01T16:38:00.000-07:00

On Friday, Boyfriend won his civil court case against our idiot neighbor, whose pitbull bit Boyfriend back in the fall and caused $1,200 worth of medical damages and then lost wages. The guy ended up being dumber than he looked... he tried to claim that his dog was the sweetest dog ever and hadn't attacked Boyfriend or caused any damages, besides the fact that he had signed a document that proved just the opposite and the judge was holding photos of Boyfriend's stitched up hand. Needless to say, the judge just told him to shut up and pay up. Unfortunately, this guy seems dumb enough to try to get revenge either against us or our dogs, so we're going to have to keep an eye out for the next few months until we can move.

Friday night I went on the first of three four-mile runs this weekend in prep for the Reno-Tahoe Odyssey race. About three miles in, I was just cruising along, I looked up and saw Juneau happily introducing himself to a coyote. Coyotes are vicious out in Tahoe and are known for killing domestic dogs. The instant the coyote looked up from sniffing Juneau and shot a glance at Whiskey, this mother-bear instinct in me welled up and before I realized what I was doing, I was chasing the coyote with a fistful of rocks, hurling them at him and yelling. Whiskey was so busy sniffing out a squirrel that he missed the whole scene.

Driving home from my third four-miler today, I passed by some kids on the side of the road, dancing around with an "Iced Tea, Support Haiti" sign. I waved but kept going. Instantly, a deep sense of guilt passed over me. I was kicking myself.... telling myself, you are NOT one of those people that just passes by a kids' lemonade stand. You were that kid once. The guilt was tearing at me so bad by the time I had picked up Jason at the gym, I turned the car around and drove right back to the lemonade stand and gave the kids $5 for two cups of tea. The kids were stoked and the tea was delicious.

The Thumb

2010-04-26T19:56:00.000-07:00

Jason and I left Friday after work in his new truck to meet up with Casey in Bishop for a little weekend backcountry jaunt. As we sped down 395 around midnight, the full moon was turning the snowy faces of the eastern Sierra into an eerie but really cool moonscape.

We camped that night with Casey at a DNR campground for $2 a night. Too tired to set up a tent, we threw a blow-up mattress on the back of Jason's truck and slept out under the stars. It was so comfortable and warm, Casey had to drag us out of bed in the morning before we got sunburnt. It was 80 degrees by midday.

After settling on a peak, we found our way up a smooth dirt road, which turned into a very rough dirt road, which turned into a ridiculously faint rocky path, which turned into just making up a random, rallying way over the boulders, bogs and sagebrush as fast and far as we could up straight toward the peak we wanted to get to. The old truck and the shiny Lexus did quite well and saved us a good mile or two, but when at last it was impossible to go any farther, we were still out of range of any consistently skinnable snow.

So we strapped the splitboards/skis to our multi-day winter packs, eased them on to our already whimpering backs, and started to pick our way up a steep, rough barren ridge. It was physically and mentally frustrating. Four hours later we had only gone two miles.

Finally we reached the snow level. However, the snow had started to harden, so we still had steep difficult side-hilling to gain just enough elevation to justify setting up camp.

Camp was sweet. There was flat ground, a sick view and running water. We had hauled up yogurt, dill, cucumber, tomato, ground beef, feta cheese, onion, bell pepper, and hummus... so we ate some super delicious euros that night. Followed by chocolate mouse and tea.

Jason and I slept comfortably and warmly in our snuggly tent. It was hard to leave in the morning. Even Whiskey, who usually wants to go do whatever he does at 5 AM every morning and will poke you in the face with his snout until you let him outside, got barely halfway out the tent door before turning around and snuggling back up against Jason's sleeping bag.

That morning, working our way up the harder morning snow, I discovered how useful ski crampons are. Over a frozen lake and up a step, we got to the base of the chute that accessed the ramp to the summit. At this point I called it a day... the skinning was too steep and someone had to guard the chute to make sure it didn't run away.

As I napped and soaked up the sun, the guys beasted their way to the summit, where they got beautiful summit views (thanks to Casey for photos), and a powder ride down.

The powder turned to great corn coming through the chute, over the steps down to the lake, from the lake to camp, and from camp to a river canyon, at which point I attempted to show off my mad splitboard telemark-skiing skills by keeping skinned up and in ski mode through the canyon. The trick was keeping enough of an edge that I didn't slide into the river. I almost made it the whole way, up to a quarter mile from the cars, where we ran out of snow patches to connect.

Back down the dirt roads, we went to Bishop and ate the traditional Mexican feast.

Halls of the... Nevermind

2010-04-18T18:09:00.001-07:00

For years now Boyfriend has been obsessed with this sexy, 800 vertical foot, steep chute with epic walls that barely anyone ever does called Halls of the Gods (below the lower-left hand X). We saw it off Tallac when we went up to do the Cross with Caseybear, and after that, Boyfriend had his mind made up. We were going to do it this season. I mean, how can you let a chute with an awesome name like Halls of the Gods go untouched? And the set-up was perfect for us. If I was sketched out by Halls, I could do Mini-Halls next door (furthest right X), which is a little less steep and shorter than the legit Halls.

(Photo: Mike from The Backcountry, whose online guide book's description we should have read before heading up there...)

We spent Saturday preparing at Alpine testing out some north-facing aspects. And by that, I mean we did like two runs and then went to the ice bar to soak up the 65 degree heat and eat sausage.

So today was the day... we checked the conditions, checked out a quick map, and drove to South Lake and up to Fallen Leaf Lake, where we decided we would live someday, and skinned up Angora Peak, only just over a 2,000' climb with awesome views of Tahoe.

So we were pretty bummed out when we got to the summit of Angora Peak and realized that we had totally gone the wrong way to reach Halls. We found out on the internets later that while technically you could get to Halls from the top of the summit of Angora, it was a lot easier to head up the valley to the west of Angora and up a shoulder. Dang.

More nice views though...

The ride down was fun and the dogs were stoked just to be out. At the bottom we enjoyed the view from Fallen Leaf Lake.

It seems like 50% of the goals we set our sites on... Cathedral, the Cross, Crescent... take at least a couple of good scouting missions before the directions, conditions and company finally align and you can nail them. Sometimes three. But that makes it all the more sweet when you finally get it.

Halls of the Gods, we're not done with you yet. Or at least Boyfriend's not. Mini-Halls, I'm coming for you.

Lunch break

2010-04-14T21:08:00.000-07:00

A long lunch break, a beautiful day and a motivated coworker meant skinning up to the top of Diamond Peak. He had a little flip camera and I got some video of him. Basically four minutes of him skiing, but the point is, I went skiing on my lunch break today, and I bet you didn't.

Proper Pinky Use

2010-04-13T19:58:00.000-07:00

This is me demonstrating the art of proper pinky use at a fancy pants company dinner.

Step 1: Drink enough of the 18 glasses of various types of lovely Napa wines sitting in front of you to get you into pinky-lifting mood.
Step 2: Steal food (foie gras) off the CEO's plate, who is conveniently seated to your right.
Step 3: Lift pinky. Don't notice your coworker has a camera phone pointed at you until too late.

Birthday Boy

2010-04-06T06:40:00.000-07:00

Boyfriend turned 28 (though is said 82 on his cake) yesterday. Overall I think he was pretty content; Friday I gave him an Xbox, this weekend it puked fresh powder for the riding, and last night I made this recipe for Black Pepper Crusted Filet Mignon with Toasted Goat Cheese and Twice Cooked Red Chili Sauce (best steak I've ever had... I couldn't find the exact chilis they asked for at Safeway so I replaced with a combo of New Mexican chili powder, regular chili powder and a bit of cumin, and it turned out really well... the chili sauce is a perfect spicy-sweet combo goes perfectly, oddly, with the goat cheese... we cooked the filets just above rare), with a side of an ultimate twice baked potato compliments of Meaghan, and a finale of peanut butter chocolate ice cream cake.

The Cross

2010-03-27T21:09:00.001-07:00

UPDATE: Casey uploaded his pics... super hilarious one with Juneau following me down the chute, ears flying up, swimming in powder (above).

Casey was up for the week, so we cruised down to South Lake Tahoe to ski Tallac, one of Tahoe's best peaks. So we skinned up the ridge that never ends... crossed the bowl of epic turns and got to the summit after a four-hour haul.

(image of the whole mountain here)

On the way up we got a view of Pyramid, this year's earlier conquest with Scott & Casey.

Tallac has a chute on it called the Cross (in this image, it's the chute that starts just looker's left of the summit, passes thru the cloud and drops onto the open terrain below) that's been bugging me for a few years since I read it was the "rite of passage" for Tahoe backcountry kids. I just wanted to get a look at the entrance... I had heard the Cross was supposed to be pretty steep but I had seen youtube videos that made it look just plain old fun.

Once on the summit I cruised down to the Cross and peeked in. There was only one way to get in it that I could see... a tiny gap between big cornices where you could make one super sketchy steep turn on nasty snow, around a rock, with death all over, and then straight-line into the chute. I would never follow that in a million years. I hiked back up to the guys. Jason asked, "So, what did you find?" I said, "Uh, looks cool... but there's a sign next to the entrance that says you have to be over 5'2" to ride." While I started packing up my stuff to head off the fun north bowl with the woogies, Jason and Casey wandered down to look at the Cross entrance. Casey came back up and said, "I don't know what you were looking at, but the entrance we're looking at is pretty doable... steep, but doable." I wandered down and looked over where they were at, and was stoked to see that he was right... the main entrance was steep, but it definitely looked good, though maybe only in contrast to the freakish line I had seen earlier. (no pictures of this unfortunately, I was distracted).

I held the dogs while Jason dropped in first and got to a safe point. When he called up to us, I let go of both dogs. Whiskey immediately dove head-first down the entrance. Juneau went the edge and sat down, looking into it, then back at Casey and I like, "Seriously? I'm a lab. I'm supposed to be sleeping right now and maybe catching a duck once a year or so." But he rallied and dropped in after Whiskey.

The entrance to the chute had pretty crappy snow, but once we were in the chute, it was wide-open pow time, with an ice chunk or two hiding underneath from a recent slide.

The deep powder opened into a sequence of corny bowls below. It was such an awesome run. I was super stoked to nail a run that I've been scared of for years.

Border Collies, Oh My!

2010-03-10T21:29:00.000-08:00

Boyfriend's friend Roy came down to visit. Great snow!

The next weekend we babysitted a friend's border collie, a 3-year old girl named Shasta. Whiskey was in love... he couldn't believe there was a girl who liked playing frisbee as much as he does. Our arms are sore from throwing toys.

Trucking Around

2010-02-28T07:07:00.000-08:00

Boyfriend's new truck (looks good, don't it... now if only it would stop being broken)

The woogs (Whiskey's girlfriend Lola is far right) going for a ride

BO-real

2010-02-25T22:05:00.000-08:00

Night skiing at Boreal

Baby's First Slide

2010-02-22T06:46:00.000-08:00

Boyfriend (finally) bought a truck (Ford F150) on Saturday. It's a good looking truck and Jason has done ton of research on the year and supposedly it's got as good a maintenance record as Toyotas (sans recall). He surprised me by driving up with it when he came to pick me up from the mall. However, on the way back to the dealer to pick up our Subaru, the brakes on it started grinding and the check engine popped on. I laughed my butt off at him. He took it back to the dealer and they're supposed to be fixing the problem today, as they had "just replaced the breaks." Love it. I sent Meaghan a text message, "Jason bought a truck, but it's already broken."

We went snowboarding on Sunday at Alpine. We had just 4-5 inches of fresh on top of a decent crust; avalanche danger was low below treeline; so Boyfriend and I were just messing around in the slackcountry. At a short open slope below treeline surrounded by forest, Boyfriend sent me down first to check out the conditions below a little cliff he wanted to hit. Avalanches are always in the back of my mind but I wasn't worried about it... the slope was mellow and short, the top layer of snow was only a few inches deep and the exits were a turn away. I was a few (great) turns into it when I heard Boyfriend shout "watch out!" I didn't turn around to see what was coming, just slammed into my heel edge and shot into the trees off to the side. And sure enough, I had triggered a little wimpy slide, not deep or wide enough to do any damage, but still, that was no sluff. Though I've been under a shallow, natural slide when I was younger (Alpental, in bounds), I've never triggered one before. Good to know my instincts are alive and well.

The A-Team Visits Bachelor

2010-02-16T19:16:00.000-08:00

The whole family, plus some (Jason, Scott, David, Austin, Spencer, and the B-Crew), met up in Bachelor for some skiing-skiing this weekend (thanks Dad!).

Full album is here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/littlefrantz/Bachelor2010#slideshow/5439043786894631122

Catch Up

2010-02-10T21:15:00.000-08:00

Okay, so here's a quick photo essay of all the fabulous things that have happened over the last few weeks.

First and most important, snowboarding. Snow has been FABULOUS. We've been riding every weekend hitting our favorite stashes, I've been hiking on my lunch breaks, and we've been doing evenings with the woogies skinning up Sunshine Bowl, Meaghan included now, as she dropped her life savings on a splitboard (good girl). I also got my goal line of the year, the Dog Leg chute at Alpine.

Hard days of riding means hot dog breaks at the Ice Bar. Tough life.

At home, we discovered that you CAN make your dogs reenact Lady and the Tramp.

We celebrated Valentine's Day early with steaks and homemade truffles.

On the work front, I got a raise, and I bought red pumps.

Napa & Fluffalicious

2010-01-24T16:12:00.000-08:00

This week was our company kick-off in Napa Valley. We worked on our company message, ate some insanely delicious food and drank some really nice (and expensive, I imagine) wine. You'd think that I, being the youngest person there by a good decade, I'd be the party animal of the bunch, but salespeople can throw.down.hard. When they had totally worn me out, I'd go sneak out to the hot tub before bed, and then get up early to go for runs in the foggy, beautiful vineyards.

One of our dining venues was the "Cask Room" in the lovely Merryvale Winery:

In the meantime, Tahoe was getting a 100-inch dump. So this weekend was nice.

Delicious!

2010-01-11T21:40:00.000-08:00

In my pursuit of weekly dinners, I'll post any good ones that come up. I liked tonight's dinner.

Tomato, mozzarella and basil stacked salad

Bacon wrapped steak with garlic butter sauce

News from the Tahoe Lines

2010-01-10T20:54:00.000-08:00

Boyfriend and I "celebrated" our four-year anniversary. And by celebrated, I mean I turned to him randomly and said, "Hey, happy four-year anniversary!" And he said, "Oh, uh, yes, Happy four-year anniversary. I knew that." Love him like the day I met him... much more, even.

Had a super lazy weekend. Boyfriend mistakenly left me at Ross for two entire hours. When he finally came to pick me up, he had to pull up to the front because I had bought too much stuff to actually walk out to the car. (Two chests, two paintings, five throw pillows, a rug and a candle runner... each under $10, anyone? I love "Made in China" stickers.) And I hadn't even gotten to the shoe section yet. We would have had to rent a U-Haul.

This evening I had a girl date with Lilia to go out to a fabulous lunch and see the Reno Symphony. Inspired me to hit my violin a bit harder. Need to pick out my "goal" song for 2010. Got home and took the dogs for a quick split trip up Sunshine Bowl. We need some more snow.

Speaking of goals... our company's wise president told us, "When you set a goal, and write it down, the stars align to help you achieve it." When he first said it, I thought it was a bunch of California-bogus new-age crap. But then he set our company goals, and in a year when our competitors were going down the pipes, and we grew at record pace. He set a goal for my own department that I thought was absolutely impossible a year ago, but he's right... the stars aligned, and we met our goal. So now I'm a believer in not only setting goals, but actually writing them down.

My Personal 2010 Goals (Career Goals Tracked Seperately):

Physical
1. 100 Days of Snowboarding
5 Backcountry Trips
How I'm going to get there: snowboard four days per week, one backcountry trip every four
weeks.
2. Run Brockway Summit to Mt Rose (20 miles) on the Tahoe Rim Trail
How I'm going to get there: Train for the Round-Lake-Tahoe race like I did last year,
and then build up my miles to complete the Brockway-Rose section by end of July.
3. Three Backpacking Trips
How I'm going to get there: One every other month from May thru September
4. Get to 115 lbs (Lose 5 lbs)
How I'm going to get there: One salad per day, and the activities lined up above.

Relationships
1. Love on My Dog: Spend 30 minutes of love time with the dog per day
How I'm going to get there: Limit Boreal skiing to one night per week; take the dog on
runs/splitboarding hikes the rest. Snuggle. Carpool to help force me to get home from work
at a normal hour.
2. Love on My Love: Cook Boyfriend Dinner one night per week
How I'm going to get there: Use Foodnetwork.com and other sites to inspire creative ideas
that will get me interested and challenged. Set a weeknight as "my night" to cook for the
fam.
3. Love on My Family: Call them or write them (Mom, Dad, Carie, Grandma) at least once per month.
4. Love on Myself: Take One Solo Weekend this Year
Keep toenails painted.

Mental
1. Keep Organized - Clean One Room, Five Days Per Week
2. Keep Sharp - Keep Taking College Classes (until I've completed my requirements to apply for grad school) and Get As in all of them
3. Nail One Song on the Violin
Find time to Practice at least 30 minutes per week

Pyramid & Ralston

2010-01-04T21:08:00.000-08:00

Casey and Scott came up for the New Year's weekend. We went on a three day tour and skied Pyramid and Ralston peak in the Desolation Wilderness.

We've been hoping to get Pyramid for a while. It was deep in there, but fun anyway. The next day we did a shorter tour up its neighbor, Ralston peak.

Jason and Casey dropped in a cool steep chute; Scott and I went on a fun mellower one.

We got to cross some frozen lakes on the way in and out.

All pictures are here.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

2009-12-24T11:51:00.001-08:00

Still alive and kicking

2009-12-09T22:36:00.001-08:00

Yes, yes, I'm still alive, I know you were all wondering.

We've been busy, you know, snowboarding and stuff. Actually, just snowboarding, really. This week I've started making my lunchtime runs at Mt. Rose, and most nights after work we go to Boreal, and every weekend day we're at Alpine.

We got a huge 4-ft dump in Tahoe last Sunday/Monday. At Boreal on Monday night, I got my first real powder turns of the year. One run, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a snowboarder flying out of control down the slope. He suddenly lost control and dove headfirst into a powder field. I stopped to make sure he would pop out okay, since it was pretty deep. He did, finally, just his head, covered in snow, grinning ear to ear. "Hurray!" he said.

Other than that, been shopping for a little black dress to wear to Autum's wedding, my first bridesmaid experience! Rob had his baby, little Jasmine, and I'm looking forward to being his "best man" come fall in Hawaii. I think I have to find a red dress for that one. I'm hoping that no one else plans on getting married this year, cause I'm already going into the hole on vacation time.

Tasty

2009-11-27T10:36:00.001-08:00

Now for the good stuff:

Started off the evening with an appetizer of curried butternut squash soup (Mom turned me on to this).

Followed by some mulled wine (thanks also to Mom).

The main courses: Mr. Delicious, sweet yams, potatoes, Meaghan's delicious Waldorf salad, the best stuffing I've ever had, and gravy!

And finally, caramel apple pie and pumpkin pie, which we were too engorged to get after, but will today!

I forgot one thing I'm grateful for: that my housemates appreciate the fine art of gluttony as much as I do!

Dear God

2009-11-26T14:16:00.000-08:00

Thank you for:
> A hilarious and loving bunch of friends... David, especially, for inspiring me and entertaining me, and Meaghan for taking care of me
> My extended family for letting me live vicariously through so many; Doug and Jan for partially raising me
> My mother for her adventurous soul and comfort
> My father for his wisdom and guidance
> My sister for her support and inspiration
> My wonderful "in-laws" for unconditional love and acceptance (may they make a safe return from Pakistan today!)
> My boyfriend simply for existing... I am so blessed to be in love with my soul mate.
> A fabulous job with brilliant coworkers and managers
> The health and resources to play my heart out
> The chance to live in a beautiful wonderland of snow, sun, mountains and beaches
> My dog
> Liberty and democracy
> Food
> Snow
> Food

This morning Meaghan and I ran in the Race to Feed the Hungry, a 10k in Sacramento that 30,000 people participated in. Meaghan creamed her time goal of 11:30/minute miles and ran the entire thing... her first race and the longest she had ever ran. SO awesome! I bet my time goal of 9/minute miles and ended up pulling 7:45/minute miles. Need to stop underestimating myself!

Can't wait to eat tons of food tonight... we've got quite the menu planned!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

North Peak

2009-11-08T11:58:00.000-08:00

Boyfriend was sorely disappointed when his visa to go to Pakistan with his family didn't come in time, despite the embassy having had his application for over a month, so we stuffed Whiskey in the back seat of the Subaru with the rest of our gear and headed to the Sierras.

We hobo-camped Friday night in the desert outside of the entrance to Yosemite. There were coyotes and who knows what roaming around the sage brush. Whiskey dutifully pissed on the side of the tent and the car tires to let the critters know that this was his territory.

After a cold but comfortable night on our Walmart blow-up air mattress, we had a leisurely breakfast and arrived at the trailhead a little before noon. Donned crampons to traverse the steep, icy banks of Saddlebag Lake before turning the corner and seeing North Peak.

We picked our way up the valley and traversed until we came to a snow-free route to the shoulder, then walked up to the summit. Cool summit views.

The descent had some super icy sections, so we happily got to swing some ice axes, and Boyfriend, the constant gentleman, dutifully escorted me down some of the sketchier sections, arm in arm, like he was taking me to the Prom.

We made it back the car just as it was time to turn our headlamps on. We sped up to our favorite Topaz Lodge (fried food extraordinaire) for a $10.99 prime rib buffet. Stellar day!

Axolotl

2009-11-04T19:45:00.000-08:00

My boss's sister, Rossitza Todorova, happens to be a very cool artist in the Reno area. She recently started a project drawing 200 animals, submitted by her fans. I tried to be a pain in the butt by submitting the most random animal I could think of, but she mastered it!

Introducing, the Axolotl.

I highly recommend checking out her other work here.

Mom & Pops

2009-11-03T19:39:00.001-08:00

The parents came down to stir up some trouble for the weekend. Dressed like hooligans.

Couches, Stashes & Pirates

2009-10-22T18:32:00.000-07:00

Some riveting things happened in the last week:

1) We picked up two super nice black leather couches - for free! - from a friend of a coworker.

2) I went a beasty mountain bike ride with the dogs up a cool hidden stash of the Truckee area I hadn't been before

3) In the meantime, Jason was up in Chelan at a costumed Pirate wedding:

Day 1

2009-10-10T21:45:00.000-07:00

Boreal is officially open, and Boyfriend & I launched on Day 1 of our 100-Day Year.

Also went to the film premiere of Teton Gravity Research's new movie, Re:Session. They tricked us... turned out it was a friggin ski movie. But we had to admit; those skiers are hitting some sick lines these days. It's just that snowboarders make it look so much better. And we're funnier.

But the best part was the trailer for the upcoming TGR/Jeremy Jones film, Deeper, which I've been excited for since seeing the pics/stories from Jones' blog. He's taking riding out of the park and into big mountains where it belongs.

Check out the trailer:
http://www.tetongravity.com/deeper/

Pit bulls Suck

2009-10-07T22:24:00.000-07:00

Jason was taking Whiskey, Juneau and Lola (Whiskey's girlfriend) for their regular walk today, when a neighbor's pit bull, who they normally keep in the house, ran out onto the street and attacked Whiskey. Jason got the pit bull off Whiskey, but it then turned and latched on to Jason's hand and wouldn't let go. Jason had to dig his finger into the dog's eye to get it to release.

Meaghan rushed Jason to the emergency room to get stitches on the fifteen puncture wounds in his hand. Jason talked to the dog owner, who promised to help with the $1,300 in medical bills (but we'll see about that). Jason filed his report with animal control; we're not sure if they'll do anything about it.

Whiskey somehow seems fine, besides a few nicks.

The other dog-owning neighbors heard about it, rallied together and came over to bring Whiskey treats and Jason some banana bread.

We did get some good news... Boreal is opening on Friday, so guess who's going snowboarding this weekend!!

Winter Wonderland

2009-10-04T15:11:00.000-07:00

Just last weekend I was lazing around on a floaty toy in the lake, working on my tan.

Today we biked in the snow.

MAN I love this place.

Best impulse buy ever

2009-10-03T22:21:00.000-07:00

Boyfriend and I both played "dress up" today.

He bought himself a black leather vest in his slow progression toward fulfilling his fantasy of being a tattooed Harley-driving card-carrying member of the Hells Angels. (Pictures to come... I've yet to convince him to walk around the house wearing the vest -- with no shirt underneath -- just to hear the squawks that would come out of Meaghan).

I bought myself some cowgirl boots in my slow progression toward fulfilling my fantasy of being a true trailer trash country girl kickin' it on the porch of my double-wide on my 10 acre ranch, using my Walmart lawn ornaments for target practice.

Schnee!!

2009-09-30T19:14:00.000-07:00

It snowed last night!

Pleasantly Lost

2009-09-26T22:02:00.001-07:00

Today we got lost searching for some fancy place called Emerald Pools, and ended up three miles
deep at a couple of cool lakes. Not a bad detour.

Jason (accidentally) hauled a cooler of beer:

Midget Launch:

Mandatory woogie shot:

What a team:

Big Blue to Big City

2009-09-22T20:30:00.000-07:00

Sunday I had my (hopefully) last race of the season, a 7.5 mile trail run around Emerald Bay and out to Bliss State Park. It was by far the most beautiful trail run I've ever done; running along rocky bluffs that dropped straight into crystal deep blue water. At one point I got so distracted checking out view that I smacked into a tree. And I wasn't the only one; I saw several other runners with bloody knees and pebbles embedded into their palms.

I ended up getting 2nd place in my age group, which also happened to be last place in my age group (and the skinny blond chick that beat me was only 2.5 minutes ahead of me; if only I had known!). But overall I was in the top quarter for women, which felt pretty good, since most of the women in the race looked like they regularly ate steroids for breakfast. And the finish line was awesome; you could run through and dive right into the lake. Boyfriend, as always, was there to give me a hug and food at the finish.

LA comes to visit

2009-09-14T20:50:00.000-07:00

Carie & Scott came up to visit. Scott was a trooper, biked in a 100-mile race with like 12,000 feet of climbing, and then went mountain biking with us the very next day. Carie led her first trad route.

A great weekend, except that today I find out that Kanye West made a giant fool of himself on the VMA's and robbed my girl Taylor Swift of a special moment in winning best female music video. Mom, did you see that? I think Kanye is probably the first person that I would actually punch in the face if I ever saw him.

Any band girl can relate to Taylor's music video.

Though I have to say, I think Beyonce's "All the Single Ladies" is, indeed, a better video. Boyfriend doesn't like that song at all.
Boyfriend: "What is she saying? If you like it then you shoulda what?"
Me: "Put a ring on it!"
Boyfriend: "I don't like Beyonce. That's a very bad bad song. Isn't it, Whiskey. Very bad ideas being put into girls' heads these days."

The Crew Comes to Visit

2009-09-07T19:21:00.000-07:00

Boyfriend's friends came down from Seattle for the weekend. We went:

Climby climby

and mountain biking

... same old, same old.

Back to school

2009-09-02T22:18:00.000-07:00

Financial accounting started tonight! Feels good to be back in school. Assets = Liability + Equity, everybody. Just so ya know.

Here's another equation for ya:

Fun^2 + Cuteness + Fur = My Puppydog

10m beating

2009-08-29T15:03:00.000-07:00

Old Man's Girlfriend Bootsie and I did a 10m trail run race this morning. My first race on a trail, and though it was one of the beastier and steepest runs I've ever done, I felt fantastic! Bootsie is training for her first marathon so was a fun running buddy. It was hilarious hearing her cuss out the hills. Our wonderful boyfriends met us at the finish line... conveniently, as there was free beer. A few photos I snapped of her along the way:

Roy & Jackie come to visit

2009-08-25T22:04:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, I tried to run 8 miles and almost croaked. Nice view though.

In the meantime, Boyfriend was building us the bed frame.

Roy, Boyfriend's old buddy from Chelan, and his girlfriend Jackie, came and visited. We went for a lil hike, which involved scrambling up a river bed, which meant Jake and I both ended up missing a jump or two and landing fully clothed into the pools.

Last night we went put-put golfing. Boyfriend won overall, and I won a free game cause I pwned the last hole with a hole in one.

Useless information cause it's 12:49 AM and I'm bored

2009-08-22T00:18:00.000-07:00

Boyfriend is outside doing something very manly... building a beautiful bed out of logs he dragged out of the woods. He never ceases to impress me.

I'm inside doing something ridiculously girly... shopping for yet more clothes using the gift card Mom gave me from Forever 21. Want to see what I ordered? Of course you don't. But I'll give you a hint. (It's shoes.)

In other news...

Today, I figured out that 80% of my calorie intake during my day came from french fries, popcorn and Doritos. The remainder was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Cause apparently I'm classy like that.
Was 5:5 for jumping in the lake on my lunch break this week.
Despite promising myself I'd never run another race/benefit/fun run again, have found myself signed up for a 10m trail run next weekend. Blast.
Have two gnarly looking sets of stitches on my calf from getting two wanna-be-cancer moles removed. Word on the street is that the scientists in Berkely did about a month's worth of lab tests on the critters trying to figure out what the heck they were, only to decide that there was 'round a 20% chance of it being melanoma. So my dermatologist chopped those puppies off right quick. He told me "no swimming to avoid infection of the wounds" but... see point 2. Hey, it's 80 degrees and sunny. I'll take my chances with gangrene.
The Rat and I are starting plans for our snowboarding-rap video. We've settled on our music... "Low" by FLO Rida (better known as the "Boots with the Fur" song).
And the quote of the day: "Every time I have to spell a word over the phone using 'as in' examples, I will undoubtedly draw a blank and sound like a complete idiot. Today I had to spell my boss's last name to an attorney and said 'Yes that's G as in...(10 second lapse)..ummm...Goonies'"

It's My Birthday!

2009-08-17T22:30:00.000-07:00

Actually it's not, but we baked this really sweet cake anyway.

Update from downstairs:
"Hey! That's MY cake. Not Whiskey's. Jason's."

The Art of being Cheapskates

2009-08-15T22:19:00.001-07:00

Boyfriend and I had a date-day today hitting garage sales and thrift stores for furniture and kitchen supplies that we're missing now that Old Man has moved into his own place. We were very successful.

For $100 at a garage sale, we picked up a full antique dining table with four chairs, two serving plates, eight liquor glasses, two books, a centerpiece, four mugs and a workout ball.

We then hit a thrift store and picked up $2.50 art pieces and $2.00 stuffed animals to bring home to the woogies. Here they are doing impressions of their new toys. Juneau is showing off his best alligator face; Whiskey is pretending to be a border collie instead of a goat.

Dreaming of winter

2009-08-14T21:12:00.001-07:00

The weather has dipped below 80 degrees... signs of winter!

So let's watch a snowboarding video and shop for this year's jacket.

Casey Makes Food

2009-08-11T20:59:00.000-07:00

The Spanish Feast

Empanada

Sangria

Bruschetta wrapped Shrimp

Casey comes to visit

2009-08-10T22:27:00.000-07:00

Casey from our Switzerland trip came up to stay with us to a few days. We took advantage of his mad lead climbing skills and took him down to Lover's Leap for some climbing. Followed by Donner Summit, then floating on the river, then Peanut Gallery after work. And made him cook for us (meal photo to come).

Climbing Lover's Leap wall

Climbing Donner Summit

And then floated the river

Week Review

2009-08-05T19:25:00.000-07:00

Gorgonzola Stuffed Meatballs with Creamy Tomato Gravy. Rachel Ray is a genius! I should have taken a picture of it. Try this one at home. Complement with a good bottle of red wine & some french bread to soak up the extra sauce.
Rough time trying to do the Hole in the Ground trail this weekend with a hard tail. Decided to nap a lot on the lake instead.
New band on the playlist: Kings of Leon. Why haven't I heard of these guys before?
Thinking the next vacation should have something to do with sailing, somewhere with palm trees. Who's in?
Looking forward to seeing my boy Casey this weekend! Lucky bloke has the whole summer off before his PhD program starts again, so after returning from the Swissland he gets to climb his way up the west coast.

Switzerlandlandland

2009-07-28T14:04:00.000-07:00

All the photos are here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/littlefrantz/Switzerland

The captions tell about the trip. David will hopefully be uploading his photos soon!

Off to Switzerland!

2009-07-16T01:59:00.000-07:00

Mission: Eat buckets of fondue, chase a goat, and climb the bad boy on the left. Or get halfway up it, crawl into a crevasse and cry like a baby. Either way, it'll be a good time.

Hahahahoohoohoo

2009-07-14T20:15:00.000-07:00

So our friend Casey has pretty much planned our trip for us, and I just googled where we're staying the first several nights. OMG OMG OMG OMG.

Prep for the Swizzaland

2009-07-12T18:59:00.001-07:00

This weekend we shopped (a lot), I ran 8 miles and then bunkered down on the driveway to rig up a crevasse rescue pulley system, dismantle it, set it up again, dismantle it, set it up again, dismantle it, set it up again...

I think ours must be defective

2009-07-11T11:39:00.001-07:00

Sugar Daddy

2009-07-09T20:12:00.000-07:00

Boyfriend just got a big raise at his job. Mmm mmm mmm, I'm proud.

BbbbbBear again!

2009-07-07T20:46:00.001-07:00

Heard the dogs going crazy outside, so we all ran out and saw Juneau and Whiskey trying to herd a bear. The bear just looked mildly annoyed. I was impressed though... we yelled for them and they both turned and happily trotted back to the house. They got a lot of treats.

Trad Day #1

2009-07-05T20:18:00.000-07:00

Finally, first trad day of the season.

Another great day in the U.S.of A.

2009-07-05T10:11:00.000-07:00

Picked some wildflowers
Ate some really awesome breakfast

Went a floatin'... again.

Saw some fireworks.

Summa summa summa

2009-07-03T17:16:00.000-07:00

One of those days where you roll out of bed, throw on a sundress (Scott will relate to this) and wander down with the dogs through the meadow of wildflowers and let the dogs swim in the pond.

Then the first river float of the season!

Then come home to find Juneau serving as the friendly neighborhood speedbump.

Edit: in other news, I've taken my second small step toward getting back to school (first step is currently studying for the GMAT)... I just applied for community college! Sounds like a step backwards, but I want to take four courses: calculus, statistics, macro economics and business accounting. Whether I end up going the law school route, or the MBA route (or both!), those'll be good to have under my belt.

Lunch Break

2009-07-02T19:06:00.000-07:00

Work, what? Let's go swimming.

Bike Day

2009-06-28T17:55:00.000-07:00

Donner Lake Day

2009-06-28T09:07:00.001-07:00

Everything you needs goes in the back of the truck. Kayak, mountain bike, beach chairs, climbing shoes, cooler, and border collie.

Camping Crazy

2009-06-21T22:15:00.000-07:00

This weekend we went exploring, mountain biking and camping in a new area called Wright's Lake, the southern gate to the Desolation Wilderness.

Whiskey posed in his three personalities.

Whiskey the Sensei

Whiskey Gone Crazy

Whiskey the Canine Warrior

We capped of the weekend and kicked off the climbing season right by hitting Donner Summit.

Perfect Day

2009-06-19T22:02:00.000-07:00

So here's the bear footage. If I had the camera, I would have zoomed in to make the bear seem larger and closer than it really was, but alas, someone with no sense of exaggeration was in control.

Today was a perfect day... a lot of mountain biking with a little work thrown in. At lunch the guys, Beastwoman and I did a super fun 2500' downhill singletrack... then after work the Rat and I rolled out to another fun climb & singletrack in the open meadowy lakey area just outside of Truckee. I'm at a fun time in learning to really mountain bike... like that magical place when you're learning to snowboard where you start to really connect your turns. It's good to remind myself through mountain biking how good it feels to progress to the next level. Hopefully this will help me break through the mental barriers and fear that have been keeping me from progressing as quickly as I want in climbing and snowboarding.

BbbbbbBear!

2009-06-18T21:20:00.000-07:00

Went for the Tyrolean downhill during my lunch break with the IT guys from work. We came flying around a corner only to be faced with a big, fluffy bear sunning itself on the trail. One of the guys was wearing a helmet cam and got it on film.... I'll post it when he sends it to me.

Lil Yeti Music Awards 2008

2009-06-16T20:32:00.000-07:00

We did actually hop on our other bikes this weekend and do a couple long rides up along the ridges of Donner Summit. On Sunday we repeated one my longer rides from last year, and then turned around and did it in the opposite direction.

So I gotta ask... what was your 2008 song? The one that you listened to the most, stayed on your playlist the longest, or brings back the best memories?

Here is mine. This was my float-on-powder snowboarding song that I listened to on some of the best runs of the year.

Whose bike is it now?

2009-06-13T17:34:00.000-07:00

Boys will be boys

2009-06-11T21:19:00.000-07:00

Very smart men have bought my two favorite blonds, Autum and Austin, engagement rings within the last month!

Not to be outdone for "Boyfriend of the Year" award, mine bought himself a motorcycle.

Swine Flu Lite

2009-06-07T19:11:00.000-07:00

I was taken out of commission last week by swine flu lite, or at least, that's my theory. Either way I threw up five pounds and am looking fabulous.

Had a lazy sick-person-juicing-it-for-all-its-worth weekend watching a ton of movies. I brought home He's Just Not That Into You (best chickflick EVER). Boyfriend got his revenge with Alien vs. Predator 2. My movie won.

****
Today Whiskey was on the verge of chewing the wallpaper off, so I took him on a long mountainbike ride up and around the ridges of Tahoe Donner to placate him. The amount of exercise involved with just getting Whiskey warmed up is torture to poor stumpy Juneau, who as I write this has not left his bed for the last four hours, recovering.

Whiskey has fully blossomed into the epic athlete he was born to be. Unfortunately, he's learned the word "walk." If I say, "Let's walk through the bills really quick," suddenly I'll have a crazed border collie herding me toward the front door. It's gotten so bad that Boyfriend and I are learning to say, "Are you taking him for a w-a-l-k?" instead of actually saying it. But who knows how long it'll be before Whiskey learns to spell.

I'm going to Switzerland!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-06-03T10:22:00.000-07:00

It's official! Plane tickets are booked.

The hiiiiillls are alliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiive.... with the sound of muuuuuuusic (falallalalaaaaaaa)

Reliving the glory days

2009-06-01T21:41:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure why I always end up getting caught in poses like this.

Mandatory butt shot

One of my teammates was a local journalist who wrote up these reports afterward:
http://www.tahoeticker.com/Outdoors/
(parts 1-4 of the Reno Tahoe Odyssey articles)

But obviously you don't want to read all that, so here are the incredibly important parts, where he mentions me:

"Stage 11: Jeannie was the baby of the team. All of 22, she works with team co-captian Nicci. Young, but also a marathoner, Jeannie grabbed the bracelet from Ty at the Squaw/Olympic Valley turn-off and strode along the riverfront trail en route to Tahoe City.

You could set a metronome by Jeannie's gait. Never up or down — just steady. The rest of us wondered if her iPod was filled with tracks of a clock ticking or faucet dripping.

Stage 23: Energizer Bunny Jeannie matched her stage 1 performance and got us to the edge of Carson 90 minutes prior to our anticipated arrival. Our crew delighted in making the call to wake the other half of the team up (they came into South Lake Tahoe a little cocky — so, they deserved it)..."

Now hold on a minute. I've heard clocks ticking and faucets dripping. They aren't particularly... fast. In fact, I'm pretty sure if you tried to run at a faucet dripping pace, it would take you ten minutes to get out of your driveway.

Huh.

Whew!

2009-05-31T09:40:00.001-07:00

The relay was awesome!

Our team totaled twelve kids (friends of the coworker that roped me into it). Most were casual runners, a few straight off the couch. We broke up into two vans (I was in Van #2) that would tackle different sections of the race. I signed up for (or was signed up for) the longest mileage, 19 total, broken up into three legs.

Our team started early in the morning in Reno with the rest of the fatties, but pleasantly surprised ourselves as we moved to the front of our start-time group. The first van of kids took us from Reno up into the hills just east of Truckee, where my van met them to take over.

Leg 1: 5:30 PM, 5.3 miles, 7:30 minute/miles
My vanmates brought us to Squaw Valley, where I took over to run it into Tahoe City. My leg took me along the bike path along the Truckee river, including sections I hadn't run before, so I was pleasantly distracted the entire time. The highlight was finding out I could actually run a sub-8 minute mile again. The lowpoint was getting passed a by a skinny blonde chick in short pink shorts with a bunny ears and a floppy tail. I almost cried.

Boyfriend, the constant caretaker, met me at the start for a hug, midway through for a kiss, and at the finish with cookies, Reese's peanut butter cups, flavored water & a diet coke. He knows me well.

My last vanmate brought us into Homewood on the east shore of Tahoe. Our jaws dropped when we saw a resting runner doing pushups in the parking lot. What types of freaks do these races attract?

We were all hungry, and had a long break while the other van took over, so we headed down to South Lake to find food. A couple other teammates and I had a Thai food craving, but luckily someone talked us out of it... "Really, is that what you want to be burping up at 2:30 this morning?"

So we ended up at my favorite bar & grill, which just happened to be serving FREE BEER from Deschute's Brewery. I hate beer, but my teammates had been discussing the pros and cons of imbibing before their second round of running. The fact that it was free answered that conundrum.

Unfortunately, Van #1 was done bringing the team into South Lake sooner than expected, around 10 PM, so our first runner had to bust out a 1,000' hill in four miles sooner with his porter still sloshing around in his stomach. He kicked the hill's ass, and when we asked him how, he said, "The buzz kind of takes the edge off everything."

Leg 2: 1:30 AM, 6.2 miles, 7:30 minute/miles
From South Lake, we dropped down into the Carson Valley in the pitch black. At 1:30 AM, it was my turn again. I put on a headlamp and ran down a dark, lonely country road.

The teams were spread out by now, so I never saw another runner. The headlamp barely illuminated the road ahead, and the few houses along the road had turned off their lights for the night. Did I mention I'm scared of the dark? Specifically, zombies from the movie "28 Days Later?" The fast ones? I couldn't even listen to my tunes, because I was afraid one would sneak up on me. I had to turn around every minute, scan the road, and see if I could pick up any movement. Probably helped me run faster, but still, I was overwhelmed with relief to finally see the beacon of light ahead that marked the next handoff.

Our team had gotten a hotel room in Carson, so we headed there while the other van of runners took over. Once again, they were done faster than expected, so we had only an hour of sleep before we were called into the old western mining town Virginia City to take the baton (actually, a bracelet) for the final section.

Leg 3: 10:00 AM, 7.5 miles, 8:30?? minute/miles

We moved down from the hills around Virginia City into Reno. I was super excited that my last leg was the longest and hottest of the three. Super.

The last leg started on sidwalks in Snoqualmie-ridge style suburbs, which morphed into sidewalks in business districts, which morphed into gravel on the side of the road of industrial districts.

I specifically told my team not to let me know how much farther I had to run. I plugged into my MP3 player, and told myself I just had to run until my legs fell off, which they were close to doing by then. My right knee was smarting and my left hip was cranky, but my marathon helped me now... I knew it wasn't going to get any better, so might as well keep running.

My finish line magically appeared just in time. My team, Boyfriend, and Whiskey were waiting. I must have grinned seeing the dog, because after I handed off the bracelet to my teammate, a guy came up and said, "Dude, I've never seen anyone look so happy at the end of a leg."

Whiskey and I jumped in the river... it felt so good on my burning legs. Boyfriend drove me to watch my team finished, then took me out for a breakfast taco, followed by Cold Stone, followed by pizza, followed by driving home for a nap. Feels soooo good to be done.

Except I just found out from David that I may be going to Switzerland to do some climby climby in July, so I've already got my next training mission cut out for me.

Truckee is being blasted by thunderstorms today, so I've got a good excuse to sit on my butt and eat for all of today.

Wish me luck!

2009-05-29T11:40:00.000-07:00

In a few hours I'll be starting the first leg of the Tahoe-Reno Odyssey. Send thoughts of energy, sleep and fresh knees my way.

Summer!

2009-05-22T20:05:00.001-07:00

Today I kicked off the beginning of summer. At the end of my run, I dove into Lake Tahoe fully clothed. It was just warm enough that I could float there for a while, gaping up at the blue sky and still snow-capped mountains.

Soaking wet, I walked back to the office just in time for happy hour and the start of a three day weekend.

Mmmm, mmmm, summer.

Speaking of summer, here's a shout-out to http://lotsobiking.blogspot.com. Bookmark this one! Two friends of ours are biking the coast of California in two weeks and will be tracking their adventures online.

Dawn Patrol

2009-05-21T20:53:00.000-07:00

This morning I woke up at 5 AM, stumbled up Mt. Rose, and skied one of the chutes with two coworkers before work. The snow needed another good hour to cook, so it kind of blew. But hey, every day snowboarding is a great day.

Days #4-6

2009-05-20T21:36:00.000-07:00

Heck, let's just abbreviate this sucker.

Went to Vegas. Love Vegas.

Carie was there. Stayed for cheap.

Rolled from all-you-can-eat, all-day buffet to the pool,

gaped at the casinos and saw the free water/pirate shows.

Boyfriend bought me a necklace I was drooling over (not real, don't worry),

Went to Death Valley. Hiked up some cool sand dunes.

Said hello to Mt. Whitney.

Said goodbye to Carie. Drove home, was reminded how much we love Tahoe, hugged the dog all night. Decided that nomatter where we go, home is always the best.

We spent the rest of the weekend lovin' on the woogie and enjoying the beach.

Day #3

2009-05-19T21:58:00.000-07:00

Day #3 | Monday | Arches

Our butts sore from the day before, we drove out to Arches National Park to hike around. Boyfriend became obsessed with the idea of getting on top of an arch. And that was basically the day.

Slicky

2009-05-18T20:59:00.000-07:00

Day #2 | Sunday | Moab

I woke up to the sound of happily mooing cows. The screened sunroof of the tent showed blindingly blue sky and leaves of a windblock tree jittering. I pulled on some clothes and crawled outside. Sure enough, we had camped in the middle of a cow field, and some cows were working their way around to say hello. I kept sneaking closer, hoping to catch one of the little ones, until the big bull stepped out from the bushes, gave me a snort and a glare, and shepherded his family away.

I walked up a hill behind our camp. I really love the desert, even though I feel so out of my element. It's the lack of people, the dry heat and the openness. I think every person has a "habitat"... the ecosystem they feel most happy and most at home. In order of ranking from "home" to "this blows," mine go: high alpine, dry pine forest (Tahoe style), eastern-WA style desert/farmland, fur tree forest, Moab-style desert, beaches, rainforest, suburbia, cities, anywhere in the midwest.

We got breakfast burritos and rolled up to the Slickrock trail. I had done the trail a few years ago, and was curious to see if it was any easier, now that I feel a wee bit more comfortable on a mountainbike. It wasn't. At all. The heat was relentless. The entire time I was thinking, "Pool. A big pool. Big deep pool. With ice cubes in it."

But it was still a blast, and Boyfriend finally agreed that Moab was in fact, worth the drive.

We were beat when we got back to camp, but luckily found a fake lake nearby (the river looked gross) and jumped in. We finished the day off at Eddie McStiff's (Moab classic) and cruised to a campsite near Slickrock that had been evacuated by the weekend crowd headed back home.

The Trip

2009-05-17T11:19:00.000-07:00

So it was a great trip, but I'm only going to post one day, per day, just because no one wants to write, or read, that long of a post.

Day #1 | Saturday | Truckee to Moab

We left at 4:40 AM. I was jittery for the trip and didn't sleep much the night before.

Whiskey knew, somehow, that he wasn't coming. He looked at the packed car, and back up at us, morosely. Leaving him broke my heart, but a hot desert full of dog-hating national parks was no place for him. But our family seemed terribly crippled without his little sweet face asleep in the back seat. We'd miss him the entire trip.

The morning was beautiful and quiet as we drove east into the Nevada desert.

Before we had left, I googled "US Highway 50" to see if there was anything interesting to see along the way. Not much, apparently. The sites I read called it the "loneliest drive in America," and they weren't kidding. The sparse towns we passed thru were over a hundred miles apart, and contained barely more than a few hundred residents, if that. We had to plan our gas wisely.

Between sporadic bursts of conversation, Boyfriend and I sat in silence and watched the terrain pass. The desert is pretty, in its own way. We thought, it's refreshing to know there is still so much open, wild space left in this country.

One of the rare spots exciting enough for us to pull the car off the road was a giant tree covered in hundreds of pairs of shoes. The ditch below the tree was deep with shoes that had been poorly tossed. All of those shoes... each giving a tiny hint about the life of the person that wore them.

We stopped for breakfast at one of the rare towns, Austin, the remains of an old mining operation. There were six other patrons in the diner... all old timer locals. The menu included a cleverly written essay about the history of the town and an idealic description of what life was like now. Simple and peaceful, a hundred miles away from any other form of civilization. The essay warned of the corrupting and distracting influence of television that was destroying the quality of life in the outside world. I wondered how much an uproar would be caused in Austin when news of the invention of the Internet reached them.

After several more hours of highway, we reached Great Basin National Park, the loneliest park on the loneliest highway in America. Stopping in at the ranger station, which was staffed by one poor young chap, we inquired about nearby hikes and whether he saw many backcountry skiers in the park in the winter. He looked as us pitifully. "Most people don't even know we exist, let alone come all the way out here to ski."

We cruised the scenic loop as far as snow would allow to a viewpoint of Wheeler Peak. We took the bikes for a brief cruise, and then headed back down the road.

On the way off the mountain, Boyfriend nearly swerved off the road as something long-legged and feathered came trotting out from the bushes. "****," Boyfriend swore, "That's a turkey!" I barely managed to talk him out of hitting it with the car and strapping it to the sunroof for dinner that evening.

Soon after, we passed into Utah (enter Mormon joke here). Didn't look any different than Nevada. About an hour in, we passed a dried lake bed and stopped to check it out. We rode out onto it on the mountainbikes (it was still too soft for the car), which left dark tracks in the bed as they broke thru the sun-baked crust. I circled and wheeled my bike until I had written a giant "I Love You" in the sand.

A few miles down the road, the brown landscape was suddenly mixed with shocking green farm fields. We welcomed the contrast heartily. Having been describing the merits of a pizza/salad bar lunch to each other for the last hour, we were psyched to see a billboard advertising exactly that. Some clever Mormon mindreading trick. But when our pizza came, the mushrooms looked... off. Boyfriend saw my confused face and whispered, "canned." That's how deep into the boonies we had arrived.

The scenery steadily improved as we pushed further into Utah, changing from dry brown basin desert to red rock canyons. We were close.

We arrived in Moab just after dark and looked around desperately for a place to camp. All hotels were booked, and we were chased out of the one open campground by a hoard of women dressed in medieval costumes. Finally, we settled on what we do best: find some BLM road, pull off to the side, and set up camp like the good hobos we are.

I'm still alive!!

2009-05-05T19:06:00.001-07:00

You can stop holding your breath now.

I turned 22 last week. Had so much fun at work that by the time I got home, all I wanted to do was go to the gym, clean a little, read a book and go to bed. The Rat and Boyfriend were ticked, but it was my birthday, and I do what I want.

The birthday also came with the realization that my peers are graduating college this year and moving into careers, so suddenly, I've no longer got anything of a headstart on life. The other runners have caught up. I'm back in the competition.

But that's a good thing. The little competitive hamster on a wheel inside of me, that for the past several years has been lazing about, eating sunflower seeds and counting its blessings, is waking up and starting to move its fat little butt again. I've regained a sense of urgency, and have found myself slimming down and studying up, scrambling to be ready for my mid 20s.

Thursday, Mom & Dad showed up for a four-day visit. Unfortunately, it was also one of the only four-day periods where it actually rained in Tahoe. But we were set on making the best of it. On Friday, I took them for a bike ride along the Truckee river and up into some nearby hills. Dad naturally proved that, at mid-50s, he's still in better shape than any of us. Mom showed her incredible attitude that I can only pray to inherit... skidding around a corner too fast, Mom flipped over the handlebars and landed face down with the bike on top of her. Spitting dirt and smearing the blood welling from a gash on her forehead, she stood up, cracking up, and got back on the bike for another round.

Later that evening, I brought a bruised and battered Mom along with Dad & Boyfriend to a play tactfully named "My Name Ain't Betty Crocker." Turns out it was an educational play on domestic violence. Halfway through, I couldn't handle much more depression (and Boyfriend was starting to make grumpy comments), so, being the bad person I am, we left midway through to get some food.

The rest of the weekend was spent watching movies, going to the Donner Party Memorial Museum, walking the beach, and bowling. It's tough to find things to do on a rainy day in Tahoe... but I think we made the best of it.

On Friday (or early Saturday morning), I leave for a week-long solo trip to Moab. I am so excited I can't stand it.

Running Sucks

2009-04-25T18:17:00.000-07:00

How do you turn a tilapia into a delicious dinner?

A: Feed it to the dogs and make fajitas instead.

I hate training for stuff. Today, after we went up to Donner Summit to do a little snowboarding hike, all I wanted to do was go to the lake, sit in the sun, bust open a book and throw sticks for the dogs. But no. While Boyfriend got to go to the lake, sit in the sun, bust open a book and throw sticks for the dogs, I had to go run 13 miles. On pavement. With buzzards flying overhead ("Check it out guys, another little fatty going for a run. I give her three more miles before she drops.")

Parting is such sweet sorrow

2009-04-19T18:40:00.000-07:00

After a late working night, my boss and I were anxious for a girls' night. Saturday we met up with a bunch of girls down in Reno, hopped on our bikes, and headed downtown. First stop was lunch at a great brewery, then a bakery that lured us in with the smell of freshly baked brownies, which we bought and brought to a wine bar next door, which gave us three glasses of zinfandel and a glass of champagne to complement the gewy chocolate goodness, then to a cafe for pick-me-up coffee, then to a new bar, then to another bar that specialized in chocolate cocktails, which I passed up in favor of a "Blue Sage" specialty cocktail that tasted literally like the fresh smell of sage after rain.

Today Boyfriend & I headed out to Alpine for its closing day. It was 75 degrees and fantastic. People cried, people threw themselves off cliffs, people binge drank and threw snowballs, but in the end, as the last chair came to a stop, everyone cheered to salute another great season of memories.

The bridge to my violin reappeared, so I started working through some scales today and opened up a bluegrass fiddle book. I'm adding this to my list of goals: learn to play Bluegrass Blossom by the end of the year.

Aaaaaaaw

2009-04-16T19:27:00.000-07:00

Boyfriend surprised me with flowers today. Aaaaaw.
Reminds me of the first Valentine's Day he bought me flowers. He never buys girls flowers, on some poorly realized principle about it being a scam.
"Wow, I'm... shocked! What made you change your mind?" I gushed.
"Well," he proceeded matter-of-factly, "It's like training a dog. You give it rewards when it's well behaved."
He didn't quite realize what he had said until he saw my face.
"Wait, wait," he backpaddled. "That didn't come out right."
Uh-huh.

Love him anyway.

Technical Difficulties

2009-04-13T20:14:00.000-07:00

I haven't played my violin in months, and was starting to really miss it. I'm not sure what's quite to miss; I never quite got as comfortable with the violin as I was with the flute or tuba. Even when I was practicing on a near daily basis, the best I ever managed to squeak out was a couple of simple Russian fiddle tunes. I was almost starting to get control of my own gag reflex at my playing by the time I stopped practicing for good.

So tonight, I opened up a dusty book of scales and laid bow to string. But that was about as far as I made it. I stared blankly at the scales, realizing that I had nearly forgotten to how to read music. Is that... a C? Or an E? Oh dear.

I procrastinated by replacing a few strings and tuning up the violin. But as I was tuning, I wasn't careful about evening out the pressure between each string as I tightened, and suddenly, the little bridge exploded out from under the strings and flew across the room. After an hour of hunting, I still haven't found the dang thing. So much for that idea.

Jason and I did have a grand time this weekend soaking in the sweet spring sun. It was tank top weather, so in between runs on lovely corn, we could work on our tans on the chairlift. We had good intentions of going to church on Sunday (they offer a service right on the ski hill), but we ended up dozing off in the lawn chairs at the barbecue at the bottom of Sherwood lift.

Old as... CD Players

2009-04-10T18:05:00.000-07:00

Boyfriend turned 27. In other words, he turns 30 in three years. I made him a cake to make him feel better about it.

End of Trouble

2009-04-06T22:47:00.000-07:00

Boyfriend comes home tomorrow, so time to behave again.

Saturday night we snuggled up to watch "Marley and Me" over pizza and sobbed our eyes out. "Don't ever die, Juneau, don't you ever leave me," the Rat sobbed. Juneau just looked at her like, "Are you going to eat that last slice?"

Sunday night we picked out "Australia." And... uh... look what we found!

On a scale of 1 to Jason, Hugh Jackman's character is about an 8. The Rat tried to convince me he wasn't her type. How can THAT not be your type?

ANYhow. I think Old Man Housemate was feeling a bit put out that we had taken over his projector screen, so he brought home "The Punisher" tonight and kicked us off.

It was alright; it gave me a chance to get a headstart on the epic cake I'm baking Boyfriend for his 27th birthday, which was Sunday. I'll post pictures tomorrow.

Besides hogging the projector screen, I got in two long, lovely runs this weekend with the woogies. We explored a new trail and spent some time soaking up the sun by the river.

In the evenings when we got home, I attacked our house with a fury and got it all spring cleaned. Feels great!

Girls Gone Wild Part II

2009-04-02T21:55:00.000-07:00

Still a girl-only house, and the evidence is mounting.

My clothes and shoes are now organized in my closet by color... but everything that had to come OUT of my closet to get it to that point of perfection is now covering my floor. To get to the door, you have to climb over three backpacks (still full of gear), three bins full of gear, a pile of old Halloween outfits and an army of stuffed animals.

The mess has forced me to move into Boyfriend's room, and as I write this, my toes are freshly painted and the room reeks of polish remover. Scattered across over his bed are trash magazines, CD's, a border collie (either sleeping or intoxicated by the polish remover fumes, I can't tell), and the second book in the Twilight series. The bedstand holds an empty wine glass and various colors of nail polish. He'd be horrified.

In this brief but productive period of aloneness, I've created a book of goals, and have been tracking my progress daily. Goals like, "Take a multivitamin every day" (failed two out of three days so far). "Study for the GMAT" (the study guide hasn't been touched yet, but given, I haven't finished reading Glamour or even started the latest Twilight book.) "Train for the relay." (I have managed a couple of lazy jogs on the beach, but yesterday opted out and ate three slices of pizza instead and went out for wine with my colleagues.) "Clean for 30 minutes, or one room, each day at home." (I would have, but the Rat had rented 'Bridget Jones' Diary,' so that didn't happen tonight.)

But, it's only 10:30, and if I shut up now, I may be able to make my "Get 8 hours of sleep per night" goal.

Girls Gone Wild

2009-03-30T21:26:00.000-07:00

As Boyfriend is gone for a few days, The Rat and I suddenly found ourselves alone, in the house, with no boys. OMG!

We quickly settled on a plan to show the boys that we don't need them to have a good time. We popped in a pilates tape and worked our butts and abs to technopop. Or, we tried. Every time we got down on the floor to do leg raises or the Grasshopper ('nuf said) the dogs took the opportunity to sit on us and chew on our faces. Trying to do sit-ups when you've got Juneau trying to make out with you adds an extra element of challenge.

We then went on a mission to watch a fantastically stupid girl movie, but somehow ended up on Kite Runner. Oh well, we'll just save the special feature disk of Twilight until tomorrow.

We're both missing my better half, though the Rat won't admit it yet.

Sweet Spring, Ready for Summer

2009-03-29T10:43:00.000-07:00

(Above: The Rat, my wonderful girl housemate, floating on Lake Tahoe)

I feel blasphemous for saying this, but I'm dreaming of summer. The hot, sandy beaches and clear, crisp water of Tahoe. The smell of sage and dust cruising around on my bike. Relaxing on a smooth granite rock, anxious to get my turn to climb over so I can go back to napping. Floating on the Truckee river, drink in hand. Wearing nothing but bathing suits, shorts and flip flops all weekend. Windows wide open to the fresh air at work.

And come August, I'll be dreaming of powder turns. It's a vicious cycle.

But I can't complain about spring in Tahoe. While this is the season of wet, 40 degree nastiness in Washington, this is the season of tank top corn skiing and chairlift tanning.

Yesterday was fabulous. After a couple of hours of swishing around Alpine, we cruised down to Reno. I was on a mission to spend about a tenth of my bonus to help make up for all of the other folks out there giving into recessionitis. I walked out of Ross with two new pairs of jeans, a dozen new shirts, a new pair of shoes, and a model pirate ship. Snowboarding and shopping... what else can a girl ask for?

In other news, in the first time in history, season's pass prices are DROPPING next year! Alpine Meadows and Squaw finally figured it out, and have dropped their prices in half! I was so happy I wrote them a thank-you letter. This means Boyfriend and I don't have to give up resort riding next year.

Beast Trip

2009-03-25T18:37:00.000-07:00

Anxious for a good overnighter, five of us decided to head to the Sawtooth ridge zone in the eastern Sierras for some skiing. We left Saturday morning, chasing a forecast of a 2-3 foot dump followed by two days of brilliant sunshine.

The crew consisted of Boyfriend, Boyfriend's Cousin (who was down visiting), our Hippy friend from the Bay, Old Man Housemate, me and Whiskey. Old Man Housemate was going to join us a day later, so there were four of us headed down that morning.

We loaded our gear and climbed into Boyfriend's truck, which heroically made it about ten miles from the house before it exploded in a fireshow of engine fluids and steam. One tow-truck ride later, we were back at the house, using our incredible tetris skills to repack our crap into the back of a borrowed Subaru.

Highway 395 brought us down to the trailhead at Twin Lakes Resort, which was shut down for the winter. The storm had arrived, and big fatty flakes and a cold wind shocked us as we crawled our way out of the car. Dusk was falling. None of us were looking forward to the slog ahead into camp. The boys milled around, kicking their backpacks and shivering. I took a quick walk to go visit a tree, and by the time I had returned, someone had finally noted, "Hotsprings sure would feel good right now."

So we decided to screw the idea of hiking in that night, and cruised out a dirt road to some hotsprings we knew about to soak, set up camp and wait out the storm. The dirt road already had some snowy patches that we had to plow through. We got the Subaru high-centered on one patch and spent twenty minutes digging it out. At that point, I made an executive decision and told the boys we weren't camping there. The storm could bring in feet of snow, and we'd be trapped in the woods with miles of road, soon to be impassible, blocking our exit. They reluctantly got back in the car.

I drove us out of the mountains and east into the desert, where there were more hotsprings, and safer camping.

From the hotsprings, sipping our wine and beers under a clear sky of stars, we could look across the desert valley to the peaks, where dark, beasty looking clouds were unloading their burdon. It was quite a sight... like looking at the edge of Mordor. After a few hours, the clouds had steadily ungulfed the entire sky, and flakes started settling into the steamy water.

We quickly dressed, put on our down layers and wandered back to camp. We dipped rosemary bread into campfire-melted emmentaler and gruyere cheese fondu for dinner, accompanied by porchetta.

The next morning, there was a good six inches of snow around and on our tents.

The desert around Bridgeport rarely sees more than four inches of snow on their biggest dumps, so we could only guess that the Sawtooth cirque had some dumpage. We rolled into town, stunk up a diner and then took over the local laundromat, drying out our gear and sorting the food.

Boyfriend found an interesting magazine as he was waiting for his clothes to dry.

As we spread out the food, we realized we may have bought a bit too much (5 lbs of bacon, anyone?). Oh, what the heck, pack it all.

At last, we were at the trailhead, and we actually started hiking (though still aching for some hotspring action). There was two, three feet of snow covering the normally dry trail, so we could skin right from the car. Still, two to three feet of snow means a beast-haul of breaking trail with big multi-overnight packs on, including fighting nasty blasts of wind, so we took turns climbing into the cirque.

We found our old camp site after a few hours of skinning. Hippy and Cousin got busy digging out a snow cave while Boyfriend and I got a fire going and started cooking up that night's dinner... cajun and pineapple sausage dogs.

It was bitter cold that night... cold enough that Whiskey buried himself right on top of our heads and kept trying to crawl into our sleeping bags at odd points in the night. So cold your water froze if you left it out for five minutes. The snow cave ended up with a skylight, so Hippy and Cousin shivered miserably through the night.

We didn't start to thaw out until the sun reached camp that morning, bringing with it typical California t-shirt weather... an odd shock after the night. We spent hours that morning sipping coffee and trying to make a dent in the pounds of bacon we had brought.

The Bacon Tree

At last, we saw Old Man tracing our track up the valley, ever so slowly, as our track had filled in with snow during the night. We sat on sunny rocks and cat-called at him as he fought his way to our camp.

We shoved some bacon in him, let him drop his pack, and then we started the mission for the day: breaking a trail up the first 2000' of the 4000' climb to the Matterhorn. The weather was beautiful and the snow was stabilizing. The powder was awaiting!

In the steep, deep snow, it took us nearly four hours to break trail up 2000'.

It was brutal, but well worth the views and the perfect, incredible, OMG powder on the way down.

Back at camp, we started a two-hour long endeavor of cooking up euros, complete with falafel, meatballs, peppers and cucumbers, couscous and grilled onions. Delicious.

Meanwhile, Old Man got in a fight with a bobcat (aka, a tree) and lost a chunk of his lip.

The next morning was Mission Day. We were all business. And by all business, I mean we milled about camp for two hours before finally rolling out a little after 10:30. We were grateful for the track we had set the day before, as we made good time up the first half of the climb.

We set a train-style trail-breaker system for the next 1000' through the valley, taking 10-minute turns busting through the deep powder.

At last, we reached the base of the Horn.

On the way up, we had been seeing and hearing mellow sluffy rock-triggered slides on some of the steepest, sun-baked faces. All of the other aspects were reading stable, but it was still enough of a stresser for me to opt-out of the last climb up the steep chute and pull a marmot -- take a nap on a big slabby rock in the sun instead. I had already been to the summit and skied the chute, so I wasn't desperate to summit that day. And it was getting late, and I was hoping to encourage the guys to turn around while the snow was still uncrusted and we could still exit back to the car in daylight.

But of course, I underestimated their stubborness. Boyfriend led the 800' pitch up to the summit ridge. It was a bit nerve-racking to watch, but Whiskey was having the time of his life... we never did meet his father, so now I'm convinced his dad was a mountain goat.

From the ridge, it's a post-hole haul to the base of the Horn, where you scramble another 300' to the summit. At 5:30, the boys were still postholing along the ridge, and realized how late it was getting. They decided to turn around and drop in, enjoying the lovely wind-packed powder down the chute.

None of them took a picture from the top of the chute, so I stole this one from our trip two years back:

And below, that little black spot in the lower left is a snowboarder.

I met up with them for the last 3000'-ish feet through fun open terrain and down a jolly chute with high rock walls on either side. We were having too much fun and forgot to take a picture, so I'm shamelessly stealing this one without permission from bgnight at thebackcountry.net so you get the picture:

Arriving back at camp, Whiskey came barreling down our tracks behind us. That dog ran down a 4000' run, in powder up to his neck, and was less than a minute behind us at the end. That's my boy.

We relaxed a bit at camp, but dark was quickly approaching, so we threw our gear on our backs and started heading out. Except for Old Man Housemate realized suddenly that he had left his skins on the summit. Luckily, most of the exit was downhill, so he could ride chunks of it, and I took his board for the parts he had to posthole. It was pitch-black before we reached the final strap-in point. The snow had a nasty thick crust on it. You can imagine that riding down 1000' of steep, forested, crusty-snow slope, in the pitch dark, with super heavy packs on, was interesting. Except that there were patches of snow in the trees where the sun hadn't hit, and the powder was preserved. It was a final hurrah.

We were all dehydrated, exhausted and ready for fried food. It was 9:30 when we got to the car, so our only food option was to stop at an all-night casino diner on the way home. We barely said a word as we scarfed down a platter of nachos, followed by onion rings, followed by entrees of burgers, chicken-fried steak and omelettes. We smelled so ripe after the four days, our poor waitress must have been miserable.

A fun trip. But we didn't get home until 2 AM, and I had to work today, so I'm ready to go to sleep.

Roundtop

2009-03-08T20:16:00.000-07:00

A late Friday night had us sleeping late into Saturday morning, despite our best intentions to get up early and go ski. Being lazy in bed, I cocked my head a few inches so I could see the sky out the window. "Sure is blue out there." "We were stupid," Boyfriend said, "we should have gone backcountry this weekend." "It's not too late," I noted. An hour later we were throwing our gear into the Subaru. Whiskey planted himself firmly in the backseat upon seeing the snowboards being loaded onto the ski rack.

Carson Pass is about a two-hour drive from Truckee. You drive the shore of Lake Tahoe, down past South Lake, and then up into the big mountains.

The last time we had been backcountry in Carson Pass was almost exactly one year ago, where brutal winds turned our mission to conquer the Crescent Moon Chute on Roundtop into more of an exploratory camping weekend. A year before that, Boyfriend and Old Man Housemate had been turned back by the same moutain, also by high winds. Twice, Boyfriend had been defeated by the Crescent. I was completely over it, and after seeing it up close, had quickly put it on my "F-that" list of things to never do before dying. But for Boyfriend, it had become an obsession. He tacked a picture of it to his bedroom wall and stared at, every evening, before going to bed. "I've ridden that thing hundreds of times in my head," he told me.

This weekend seemed to provide a window of opportunity -- good weather and a stable, deep snowpack.

Arriving at the trail head, I wrestled Whiskey into his very first backpack. Two weeks shy of his 1-year old birthday (send presents), we figured it was about time he started hauling his own crap -- four pounds of dog food, a chew toy, a blanket, a fabric bowl, and treats. I think he liked wearing it... made him feel like even more of a valuable member of the team.

The skin into camp was already set and easy... just a couple of miles of rolling small hills with awesome views.

It wasn't long before Roundtop showed its mocking head on the horizon. The chute was filled in, beautiful, and trackless since the last dump.

But Boyfriend would have competition for first tracks. The skin trail led to two tents perched at the edge of a frozen lake, with touring skis lining the campsites. Whiskey growled as he passed; Boyfriend merely ignored them and moodily set up our tent farther away than necessary from the others. I waved, introduced myself, and asked them if they had any cookies.

After the tent was up, Boyfriend started digging us out a cooking area, and I finally got Whiskey's shovel-induced dance routine on camera:

At last, the shoveling was done, and Boy, Girl and Dog settled down to enjoy the evening.

The next morning gave us blue skies again. Whiskey was so excited to be alive for another day he did put on another little show just for kicks:

But the Mission was beckoning Boyfriend, and alas, two of his rivals had gotten a head start on him:

We choked down some instant oatmeal, tied our tent to a tree (the wind was starting to pick up), skinned up and headed up. The two blokes ahead of us were planning on putting a boot pack straight up the chute to "test the conditions" before skiing it, which made Boyfriend want to cry. We had planned on heading up the back side of Roundtop and dropping into the chute from the summit. Or rather, Boyfriend would drop the chute, and my pansy butt and the dog would ski the shoulder down.

But as we neared the chute, we could see the two skiers struggling in thigh-deep powder, already slowing down. Boyfriend quickly made a line for the back side, betting the skiers would have to turn around soon and follow him... making him first in line for the descent. Five minutes later, they did exactly that.

Meanwhile, as I skinning up the bowl below the chute, I had plenty of time to contemplate it. Finally, for a single second, I thought about doing it. I mean, come on, I know I can ride steep. I love riding between high rock walls in a chute. But God must have heard my stupid thought, because in my very next step, an entire skin fell right off my splitboard, causing me to retreat to dry ground (a rock) and spend twenty minutes loving my glue back to life so it would stick back to my splitboard. I happily took the misfortune as a sign and radioed Boyfriend,

"So, not so much. I'll take the dog and we'll do a couple laps of the bowl. I love you, good luck."

Whiskey, because he speaks English now and thus understood what was going on, immediatly left Boyfriend's side and started running down the skin track back to me. Man, I love that dog.

While the Boyfriend was scrambling his way up the wind-scoured, icey back side, the woogie and I enjoyed a couple of fluffy laps in the big bowl, sprawled out on an outcropping to soak in the rays, and checked out the scenery.

At last, I saw a flash of metal on the summit. Squinting, I could see Boyfriend leaning over the headwall.

My radio crackled to life. "Hey, let me know what I'm on top of."

"Um, a cornice and about 2000 feet of air," I said. "Move to skier's right about 100 feet around the rocky outcropping."

A few minutes later he reappeared on top of the entrance to the chute. "Okay, you're there," I said. I saw him come to the edge.

"@##* that's (*@#%#$ steep," the radio said. "That's practically a free fall."

Great, I thought. When boyfriend thinks it's steep, that means I'm real real glad I'm not up there.

The crescent gets its fame from the entrance. The chute actually looks quite fun. But to get into the chute, you first have to drop onto a stupid-steep, lethally exposed headwall where if you make one sloppy turn, and you literally fall right off the mountain. You're dead. Period.

"You don't have to do it," I pleaded. "There's a real nice chute about a hundred feet more east. Less exposure. But real nice."

The radio was silent. He was ignoring me.

Five minutes passed, and suddenly Whiskey and I were watching Boyfriend make four confident turns onto the headwall and drop into the chute, smoothly ripping the entire thing and blasting out of the bottom like a bat out of hell.

He flew down the bowl, getting air over a couple of roll overs before reaching us, a big grin on his face.

"Happy now?" I asked.
"Very."

While I would have been prouder of him if he had looked down the chute and turned around, I was proud of him for doing it. And for making it look so smooth and fearless.

Based on how he rode it, you would almost think it was easy. But then, twenty minutes later, the two early-riser blokes appeared on the summit. They took a half hour to gather their courage to enter the headwall, and then, instead of actually skiing the chute, they made fearful, choppy little jump turns, taking five minute-breathers in between each one, even side-stepping down bits of it.

I can't judge... I mean, I would cried and falling-leafed the whole way down, but I didn't even get that far. No, I can't judge, but I can compare. And I got to take the winner home.

Back safe, Boyfriend celebrated with a cookie and a quick rest before we skinned out to the car, and then to South Lake, where beer/diet coke/pizza/fried goods were waiting.

More of Fluffy

2009-03-05T18:32:00.000-08:00

Whiskey Sticks his Tongue out for the Photo

Deepness

Lunch Break

2009-03-04T17:38:00.000-08:00

A 5-foot storm came to Tahoe. After high-centering the Subaru twice in my own driveway, I decided to work from home today.

Lunch break: take the woogies splitboarding. It was chest-deep for me. The poor dogs were swimming.