Skiing in November

I made it up to Stevens both Saturday and Sunday this weekend. Saturday had a few inches of powder, and Sunday had almost a foot of the fluffy stuff. These conditions aren't far from normal in February, but to have a foot of fresh powder on top of a 48" base on November 21st is just unreal.

I was hoping to start the season more in shape this year, what with basketball, racquetball, and swimming nearly every day for the past three weeks. The "training" didn't help. The outsides of my thighs are killing me. Better than the insides of my thighs, I guess??

Spring Break 2009

What I envisioned as being a very boring and lame spring break, without any plans, has turned into an action-packed thrill ride! Four out of the last five days I've been up at Stevens Pass, and today was possibly the best day of the year snow-wise, with a foot of fresh powder on top of the ever-growing annual base depth high (low?). I wish I had brought my camera today, I was almost completely submerged in the powder on the backside after a fall, and there were also some really cool images I could have taken showing the snow height. Six foot packs of snow on top of buildings, and snow piled up to the roofs of buildings.

Tomorrow I get to visit a friend's lake house cabin for two nights, which sounds like a perfect ending to this unexpectedly nice week! Apparently there will be about a dozen folks up there, and all of the meals have already been planned!

A few updates...

Days skied: 21
Pushups count: 11749
Situps count: 10132
Frog Squats count: 5630
Weeks until summer: 11
Weeks until good weather: 18
My guess for Dr. Chako's table position: 5 (because I know him way better than The Wife does)

Three Day Weekend Hijinx

Three day weekend for me this week. I spent Friday morning up at Stevens and re-learned how to snowboard, day 17 up at the pass this year, not bad! The snow was slushy, and I stuck to groomers all morning, but by the end of the morning I was doing laps on the backside, which tired me out quick. My boots are a bit too big, and whenever I do a toe-side turn my heel comes up out of the boot, so I am putting all of my weight on my toes, particularly the big knob behind my big toe.

Once I tired out boarding, I hit the Foggy Goggle for a beer and catching a few March Madness updates. I caught one of my two championship-game teams, Pittsburgh, struggling against E. Tennessee State, which isn't a good omen for the games to come. My bracket is in shambles as of Saturday night, but at least all of my Final Four teams are still intact, which can't be said of half of my pool for picking Washington to make it to the Final Four.

Parents made it home Friday afternoon about 30 minutes before I got back from the pass. It was great to see them again and hear their fun stories from Arizona. It is sad not to have the house to myself anymore, but I also missed having them around. I can't make fun of them nearly as much when they aren't here goof-balling around to make fun of. We watched basketball until the last games of the day were over.

Andrew and BAM picked me up, and we headed up to Kenmore to one their college buddy Ross's house. We got a poker game going, and I cleaned house. Poker is easy when you get cards and hit flops. We followed up poker with Liar's Dice, and played a dozen rounds of liar's dice, which lasted until 4am. Liar's Dice just might surpass Quarters as the game kings play. I don't think I ever won a game of Liar's Dice, but I had a majority of my buy-ins paid for by side bets.

Alarm clock woke me up at 11am, nice and hung over. I didn't really drink that much the night before, but when my head hit the pillow on Friday night, I knew I'd be in for a rough morning today. Yes, indeed. I chugged cranberry juice and hopped on the motorcycle and headed down to Tacoma for the PLU BBQ ultimate frisbee tournament. Riding a motorcycle for the first time in a month, in 40 degree weather is one of the best hangover cures I have ever experienced. I felt fine on the ride, but when I got to the fields and changed into my cleats, I nearly toppled over because my head felt like it weighed 30lbs from still being hung over.

I just made a guest appearance today for a few games with the WSU team, and we won the last game of the day in thrilling fashion. Down 4-7 at the half, then 4-8 after the next point, we mounted a very nice comeback to win the game on universe point, 13-12. I stuck around for burgers and beer while watching the showcase game, then motored back up to Seattle.

Tomorrow I go help Marc install a hot tub at his place, watch more basketball, and yes, probably even drink a little more beer.

Stevens Pass Day 16: Best Day Yet

Well, I've done a piss-poor job of keeping the ski tally accurate, but through meticulous notes, I have determined that today was day 16. Conditions were perfect. It was a Monday, four feet of pow. in the last 48 hours, lightly snowing... the conditions were perfect. My one slight snafu was forgetting my jacket, with season's pass inside of it.

I walked up to the counter and asked what my options were. The guy behind the counter said he could print me out another pass for $10. I declined, because I am a cheapskate, and gave him a counter-offer.
Me: "I can print you out another pass for $10."
Attendant 1:"Hmm...can I hike up to Southern Cross and just go ski on the backside?"
Me: "Um... what? You are going to hike up the mountain?"
Attendant 1: "Well, I need to warm up anyways, since I forgot my jacket."
Attendant 2: "You're WHAT?! Hiking up the mountain?! You're crazy!"
Attendant 1: "I guess that is OK, I don't see why not."
Me: "Excellent."

I wound up sneaking onto a chair, so I didn't have to hike, but that would have been interesting.

The Moose Drool hoodie kept me warm and dry all day long, despite one amazing swan-dive face plant of mine in the powder off Southern Cross. I thought yesterday was the best conditions of the year, but today had another 16" on top of yesterday's morning base, and I hit the mountain much harder today than I did yesterday. We hit the glades off of Southern Cross, the trees off of Big Chief, and had powder runs on the backside all day long.

Yesterday I made an impromptu trip up to Stevens, even though I was supposed to play a triple-header of ultimate games, and then host a hot tub gathering. I woke up and it was snowing, which meant two things: 1) I really, really wanted to go skiing 2) The ultimate games would either suck or be canceled. It turns out 2 of the 3 games were canceled, and I invited the Tacomites over to hot tub without the host.

Yesterday marked the first time I had to put chains on the Saab, as I was unable to get the car out of the parking lot. By the amount of snow accumulated on the car, I'd say it snowed a good 8" while I was up there yesterday. Having to put chains on was somewhat of a bad beat, because if I had not used the chains I could return them for a full refund in April. My parents will be back Friday with the Honda Pilot, so I was four days from getting my $70 back, but, I'm sure I'll use the chains in the future. Actually, chains were required on the pass today, but somehow Kristy and I made it up and back without having to put them on.

I met up with Chelsey for the first time yesterday, and I was disappointed. For all of her love of snowboarding, and going up 30 times a year, she wasn't the sexy super boarder I expected. Granted, she's been sick for 3 weeks and had boarded the past two days, but she was blowing it. I did get a big spray in, which I promised her if we ever met up on the slopes. And I did get to see her make a couple of incredibly gnarly spills... like seeing a jump, heading into the jump, then biting it right before the jump and face-plant-sliding 15ft down the mountain. We mutually ditched each other after a couple of runs.

I've got cohort party night tonight, to which I am bringing 18 tall boys of PBR, playing cards, and a shit load of dice... if that does not spell party, I don't know what does.

Spilling the Beans (Juicy Mega-post)

My loyal readership (my mom) called me out for pulling a Schaefer (i.e. not posting for a while). The reason I have not posted since Feb. 18 is not due to lack of action in my life, in fact, quite the opposite. In honor of my poker playing brothers Cayne and Doc. Chako, I shall begin with bullet points. Since Feb. 18, I have:

--Started a relationship
--Fallen for someone else
--Hiked to Scenic Hot Springs (with a college friend I have not seen in five years)
--Played hookie and gone powder-day skiing
--Lost 4" of my hair
--Hosted a teaching cohort poker night
--Ended a relationship

All while taking six classes and teaching two days a week. Not much time to blog, and I've got a huge project due Tuesday that I should be starting now.

Let's begin at the top. This post roughly details how Erin and I met. It was spontaneous and magical, in a way. I had no expectations of anything happening when I invited her over to watch Survivor, heck, I was pretty sure she was still in a relationship. She wasn't, and I felt like a gift had just been dropped in my lap, and I went for it. Turns out she had a small crush on me, and fireworks ensued.

Then something weird happened. I've never been in a situation or relationship where when we are together, everything is nearly perfect, but when other people are around I can't stand her, or when we aren't together, I don't spend time thinking about her. She is almost my dream girl when it is just the two of us, but when other people are around, she reminds me way too much of Stacey. The personality traits that I like, are the same ones that I can't stand. Erin is opinionated and wears her heart on her sleeve, but she tends to piss a lot of people off. When we aren't together, I think of reasons why we aren't going to last, and why I should try and break the relationship off.

To spice things up, two days after Erin and I first hook up, I rode my motorcycle down to Georgetown to play pickup ultimate. I run into Wynne and Lora from the Tacoma team, who I haven't seen in months. Wynne is playing on Riot now, and another Riot woman, Surge, is there. We get to talking, and it turns out Surge was one of two people that rode up to Stevens with Michelle the day I first met Michelle skiing with Jeremy and Sam. I invited her to go skiing the next weekend and she turned me down. This was before Erin, and I was pretty sure Michelle wasn't interested. Talking with Surge and Wynne, apparently I was wrong.

Surge says, "Oh! You're the guy that could keep up skiing with Michelle, she was talking all about you on the drive home!"

This, two days after Erin and I hook up. God damn it. Wynne and Surge ask if I'm in a relationship, and I say, "Does two days count?" Wynne and Surge now are on a mission to hook Michelle and I up. Two hours after pickup that Saturday, I get a text from Michelle, wanting to know if I want to go skiing on President's Day. The day of skiing was an unexpectedly good day, and I actually got up to the mountain before Michelle left from Seattle. I found some good snow and let Michelle know that it was worth the drive. As soon as I texted her, I headed in for lunch and hammered out a homework assignment on my laptop, knowing we'd ski hard all afternoon. Productive and fun ski day, who'da thunk it?

So I'm seeing Erin, and loving the time we spend together, but when we're not together I'm thinking about Michelle. Other people in the teaching cohort are starting to gossip about Erin and I, and it is getting a bit weird. I'm not willing to jump into a relationship with Erin 100%, because of where my head is at when we're not together, and my indecision only stirs the rumor mill in the cohort, making things more awkward.

Last weekend, I get a bit of a reprieve from my whorish ways. Jenna and Andy, newlyweds from Beaver, WA, come over to the city. Shannon also comes up from Tacoma, and I have not seen her since graduation day, five years ago. Shannon, Jenna and I were dorm friends from the first semester of college. We went on December trips to Whistler, and a spring break ski trip to Colorado. It was great to see them again, and we played cards (we played a ton of cards in college) Friday night. Saturday, we hiked to Scenic Hot Springs, a hot springs that is private and apparently not open to the public. The hot springs actually has its own blog, and the latest blog entry at the time was that the hot springs are "running cold." That isn't what you want to hear when you've never been to the springs before, and will be spending the majority of your day driving and hiking to the springs.

We missed the forest service road our first drive by, and really had no clue how to get to the hot springs. Shannon had the brilliant idea of taking a digital photo of the google map before we left, so if we got lost we could always check the map on the camera. We checked the map a few times and knew a clear-cut for the big power lines were south of us, and that we needed to cross that clear-cut, so we started tromping through the snowy forest. Absolutely no trail to follow. We eventually find the road and footprints in the snow to follow up to the hot springs.

The hike was difficult. It was steep, and the trail was a combination of ice and powder. If you stuck to the footprints, you'd be on ice, but if you didn't use the foot prints, you'd have to hike up in a foot of powder, which makes hiking uphill a grunt. We were rewarded, though:



I snapped this photo on the way out. Jenna, Andy and Shannon are standing next to the hot springs, which is tucked into the snowy hillside. The hillside overlooks the Stevens Pass basin, and is really an incredible spot. When we got to the hot springs, there was a couple already there, who turned out to be two of the hot springs' caretakers. Randi and Matt were incredibly nice people, and they gave us the lowdown on the hot springs rules, and how as long as people are respectful of the hot springs (i.e. follow the rules and pack their garbage out), they are welcome.

We make it back to Seattle and pretty much just crash. I think we went out to the Duchess for dinner, but we ended up hitting the post UW basketball crowd of dooshes. Eventually they left, and we got to play some shuffleboard, which Andy and I dominated. We walked home, Shannon left for Tacoma, and Jenna, Andy and I watched "The World is Not Enough" on whatever station plays Bond movies all the time (TBS?). Andy and Jenna left the next morning after walking up to a cafe for breakfast. It turns out that Shannon is pretty big into rock climbing and mountaineering with her boyfriend, and they have a ton of random gear (including two spear-fishing poles?!), so hopefully I can get up rock climbing with them this spring and summer.

Reprieve from soap-opera life aside, Michelle invited me to go skiing Thursday. The problem with skiing on Thursdays is that I am supposed to teach a class of 4th graders on Thursdays. But... but!! the snow report says a foot of powder. What do you do? What DO you do? I chose to ski. I concocted a ridiculous scheme to get out of school Thursday, which included scratching my back non-stop through our Wednesday teacher after-school meeting. Steve was sitting right beside me, and eventually says, "Chris, you're scratching like crazy, you alright?" Thanks for picking up on the bait, fishy! "Oh yeah, I'm fine, just itches like crazy." At 7pm I give Steve a call on his cell phone and say, "Steve, it turns out that itch is a big rash! I haven't had a rash since I was 12 and had an allergic reaction to penecillin. The rash has spread up the side of my neck and I'm going to see the doctor tomorrow at 10am."

Funny how the little white lies spin completely out of control for me. Then, of course, it snows 2-4 inches in Seattle and school gets put on a two-hours late schedule, and I probably could have just skipped without repercussion, anyways. I feel bad about lying, and while Michelle and I were riding the chairlift, I wonder out loud how long it will take until I tell Steve about my rash story. I think once I've been teaching for a few years I'll have to track him down and let him know.

Skiing Thursday was unbelievable. Michelle and I got to the mountain right as it opened, and there were a dozen cars before us in the B lot. I usually park in the F lot. We had a foot of fresh powder all day long, and I had numerous turns in snow up to my knees. We hit the mountain hard in the morning, starting on Double Diamond, hitting the back side, Schim's Meadows, and the cliffs off 7th Heaven. We popped in for lunch, spent, and drank a beer and ate a slice of pizza. After a leisurely 45 minute lunch, we head back out and decide to do some hiking in the back country.

We take our skis off and start hiking the ridge on the back side. We pass a guy in his 40s on the ridge, who catches back up to us at the ski area boundary. Michelle asks where he is headed, and he says there is a really good section of trees just outside the ski boundary, but warns us that we have to cut over after about 1k vertical feet, or else we'll have a long hike back to the ski lift. After hiking the ridge for five minutes, a long hike at the bottom of the run is not what we're looking to do, so we ask if we can follow him. He obliges and introduces himself, his name is "Wolf."

The glades section is perfect. Untouched powder, trees 10ft apart--I couldn't have asked for a better run. The three of us end up doing the hike and tree run a second time before Wolf and us part ways. Michelle and I do a non-hiking run on the backside, then drop into Tye Bowl from the backside for the second time on the day. I had never dropped in from the backside before, and you have two options: a skinny, steep chute, or an easier tree section out to the right. In the morning, we did the easy way, but for the last run of the day, I decided to try the chute. There are a few rocks sticking up here and there, but it looks doable.

I jump-turn into the chute, and on my entry I clip the side of the chute with my ski tip and lose a ski. I tumble uncontrollably down the 50ft chute, losing both of my skis. When I come to a stop, one ski is with me, and the other is about half-way up the chute. Looking back up the chute I see that I've just tumbled over rocks and a little 3-5ft cliff. I didn't feel a thing on the way down, all I could think is, "shit! shit! shit! I have no health insurance!" When I came to a stop and still had control over my limbs, I was happy. Stupid and happy. Michelle was able to ski around the easy way and knock my ski down to me from the middle of the chute.

Before heading back to Seattle, we had another beer and some curly fries to complete an amazing day of skiing. We drive back to Seattle and even though she didn't bring a suit, we decide to hot tub at my place to make the ski day perfect. As we're drinking our beers and soaking in the hot tub, she lets me in on a little secret. Her family has owned the Denver Broncos for the past 20 years. !!! The first thing that pops into my head is the Simpsons episode where Hank Scorpio buys the Denver Broncos for Homer, and Homer groans as the players out on his front lawn bumble and stumble around. Apparently Michelle's grandfather founded Regent Oil, one of Canada's biggest oil companies, then bought the Broncos and when he passed away, the shares were split between his sons. Michelle's dad just sold his shares of the franchise to her uncle, who is apparently not the nicest guy in the world (and he's the guy that fired Mike Shannahan on New Years Eve, which was seen as a good, but kinda ruthless move).

An hour after Michelle leaves, Erin comes over and we hop in the hot tub. I've got one dream girl as a friend (Michelle), and I'm with another person who is a dream to be around, but I just don't see us working out long term. I'm confused to high hell. Saturday I head over to Andrew's parents house for my semi-annual hair cut. We talk a bit about the whole situation and Karen's advice is to be as truthful as possible. I agree, especially after the little white lie snowballed into a flesh-eating rash to get me out skiing on Thursday. When the haircut is done, there is enough hair on the floor to create a wig, so we take a picture that will be sent down to my dad in Arizona, who may or may not have a dime-sized bald spot.

Last night, I have a few people from the teaching cohort over for poker, including Erin. We have a really fun time. Erin gets knocked out first, and storms off, hating poker. I get knocked out second when I think I have the nuts with a flush on a paired board... Erin and I play some Wii tennis and baseball. I own her at both, and she is not happy. We go out back on the porch and talk, and she wants me to let her win at games. I tell her I'm not going to, because letting her win by playing down to her seems more insulting to me.

After poker, we play some drinking games, including 21, liar's dice, and asshole. I almost win my poker buy-in back by winning the $1 liar's dice game. Easy money with kindergarten teachers, they don't know math!

Eventually everyone but Erin leaves, and we head to bed. We talk, and completely open up about our relationship. She sheds tears about not being able to open up to me, and I talk about the weird and confusing struggle I'm having. I tell her that I really like the time we spend together, but for some reason when we're not together I think of reasons why we're not going to work out, and that seems weird to me. I feel like I should be head-over-heels for her, but I'm not. I tell her I can't give her 100% of myself, because I honestly don't know what I want. I don't want her to be in limbo, because being in limbo is worse than breaking up.

She likes me and hates me at the same time for being honest. We both think this is a conversation most couples have months or years down the road, and we're having it on our third week together.

And here I am, 12:30pm on Sunday. Still confused, but happy that I have told the truth and gotten things off my chest. Paper time, then another group of friends over for hot tubbing and Catan.

Whew.

Topless in February

I went skiing for the 10th time this season on President's Day. The snow was much better than expected, which was a fun surprise. I kept up with Michelle this time, which was also a surprise. And for my third surprise, I am blogging from the porch, topless, two days later. I'm listening to the woodpeckers and other birds while going deep in a FT tourney. I like Februaries in Seattle.

A Busy Week

Well shit, a lot has happened in the past week. I will channel my inner business-side and prepare a bullet list.

--Went skiing twice at Stevens
--Rock Climbed
--South Park Marathon
--Led two rounds of MASH in my cohort class during lecture via google group chat
--Paid up on a dinner and movie bet, for being outlasted at Fantasy Football
--Had a kick-ass super bowl experience
--Wowed my master teacher with another fun and interactive math lesson
--Getting ready to host the next Seattle Home Game!

So the math lessons last week confirmed my hypothesis of roller-coaster teaching. Wednesday's lesson was terrible, and Thursday's was amazing. I'm starting to pick up on what makes lessons terrible or amazing, and I'm trying to keep the lessons as active as possible for the students, while still keeping the learning going. Some days, like Thursday, it all works out and the kids have fun while learning something new.

I went skiing up at Stevens both Saturday and Sunday. Saturday I carpooled up with J and Sam, and we met a few more of their friends up at the pass. All of their friends are national and world-level ultimate frisbee players, which means they are all incredibly athletic. One of the ladies in the group turns out to also be a former member of the Canadian Air Force, AKA the Canadian Aerials Ski Team. I've never met an aerialist. She has got it going on, and we hit it off. I got her digits, since she's also got a pass to Stevens, and we hope to go up many more times this season. As the conversations continued, she finally asked, "How old are you?" I told her my age and she said, "Oh." Probably not a good thing. I think she is a few years older, but that ain't no thang, baby! I hope the hot tub and house-sitting for parent's for the next two months will offset the age gap.

Right after skiing, J, Sam and I headed to Marc's to pay up on our bet. Marc and Sam were the only two of us to make the playoffs in our fantasy league, and Sam was too much of a pussy to join in our bet this year, so Marc won without winning a playoff game, so lame. Marc decided to redeem his dinner and a movie by choosing AAA Chinese Buffet--an all you can eat Chinese buffet--and then going to watch "My Bloody Valentine" in 3D. I snuck beers into both the all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet and the movie.

Sneaking the beer into the buffet was much harder than the movie theater. I borrowed J's car keys with a bottle opener and took a plastic cup into the men's room with me. Luckily for me, the urinals had little curtains separating each urinal for privacy, so after I finished my business, I took the keys to the bottle of beer and tried to open it. The fucking things kept jingling, and there was a dude in the stall next to me, that must have been wondering what the fuck was going on. When I finally got the lid started, I let out a big sigh, "AAAaaahhh" to cover the fizz from the beer as I opened it. I left the beer bottle on the urinal, washed my hands, then resumed eating dinner with my beer. My time spent in the men's bathroom had me come to the realization that the new worst job in the world would be men's bathroom attendant at an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet. There were some nasty sounds and smells in that bathroom.

My Bloody Valentine in 3D was terrible. The best part was the naked girl stomping off, boobs jiggling in 3D. The 3D ads in the Super Bowl the next day just freaked me out--is 3D really here for good? I don't think so.

Sunday at Stevens was just Kristy and I, and we intended to go early and leave early in time to watch the Superbowl. Apparently we were not alone, because the mountain was packed until about 1pm, then it was empty. We actually stayed around later than I thought, and ended up getting 20 runs in. My knees were beyond shot by the end of two consecutive days of hard skiing (laps on double diamonds are fun, but god damn!).

I dropped off Kristy at her place and went straight over to the Montlake House and caught the end of the 2nd quarter and the huge 100yd interception return and Larry "Big Hands" Fitzgerald attempt at a touchdown-saving tackle that turned into receiving a knee in the groin... OUCH! The party was a blast, with a handful of guys and a couple football-savvy ladies (so hot). We played some liar's dice afterward's, and I probably should have won, but botched a call when we got down to 3 players. I had the game in the bag!

Yesterday, I saw enough of my cohortmates on google chat that I started up a group chat with about five of them. By the end of math class, we had about a dozen people in group chat playing MASH. It made math class amazingly more fun, and I think Natalie wound up married to Newt Gingrich, living in a shack under the Viaduct, with octuplets, and riding a magic carpet to her zookeeper job.

Today, I got back from morning class and went to Costco with my mom, both for her trip to Arizona with pops, and also to make sure I don't die while they are away. We stocked up on the essentials: Beer, wine, and mac & cheese. After Costco, I hit the climbing wall and finally got a few problems I have been working on for months, so that was a huge boost to my climbing esteem!

Seattle Area Home Game is still on for this Saturday!!! Be there or be square. That's right, 90 degree corners, equal sides and all.

Stevens Pass Day 7: Picture Day and Fruit Cake Snow!

I headed up to the pass after school on Friday, solo. Chelsey warned me that the snow was bad on Monday, but I was not deterred. The sun was shining and I brought my camera in hopes of getting some good sunset pictures from the top.

I took Big Chief up to the Double Diamond chair, but just as I got to DD, the lift closed for the day. The lift operator suggested that I head back down on the groomer, because "Skiing off the groomers today is like skiing on last year's fruit cake." I was tempted to prove him wrong and drop down the bottom portion of double diamond, but I relented and hit the groomer. I strayed off course a few times to test the snow and the lift operator wasn't lying.

We had a ton of snow in mid-December, then it rained 13 inches in 48 hours, then it warmed up to 40 degrees. We had a weird weather inversion on Friday as well, where down in Seattle it was 35 degrees, but up in the mountains it was in the 40s--which did not make for good skiing. The snow is a mix of slush on top of ice. I forgot my ski goggles, but luckily did not need them in the sunny weather. I slip-slided my way down Tye a dozen times while I waited for the sun to set, but the sun set behind 7th Heaven, which means no good sunset shots. I did catch a parachute-skier lift off right as ski patrol was closing up the back side, so that was pretty neat. I also shot a few pictures for the ski lift math problem I posed a few posts ago. I'm thinking about adding visual aids to the math problem and trying to pose it to my class either this spring or next Fall :)

Stevens Pass Day 6: Twilight, Math, Burn

FUN MATH QUESTION AT THE BOTTOM!!!

Oh man, I wish I had brought my camera today. I checked numerous weather forecasts last night and they all said a big storm was coming late today. With my luck, I decided not to get greedy--go early and leave early. I made it up to the mountain just before opening, and the views on the drive there were spectacular. High clouds with a slit of blue sky between the clouds and the mountains, which let the sunrise beam through and light up the mountain in what I can only describe as twilight blue. The clouds ranged from salmon to yellow, it was a very good wake up distraction.

I took Big Chief to Southern Cross, the quickest way to the backside at Stevens, and was greeted with another amazing view. I was now above the clouds, and could see mountain tops all around, with the clouds covering the valleys. The chair lift descended into the abyss on the backside, and I followed it to the bottom, with a smile and burning legs. I rode ten chairs on the backside, all involving double-diamond terrain, and I got worked out. At one point, the lift operator said, "Nice face shots!"

I looked at him quizzically, then he pointed to his face and said, "Your beard--it is covered in snow!"

Cool! I had only fallen once, and that is when one of my skis came off from a rather jarring hit with a mogul--but I stopped on my remaining ski without face-planting. The snow on my beard must have been from a face shot I was unawares of, sneaky face-shots.

As I rode the chair lifts up I came up with a math problem for my future students, involving the number of chairs on the lift, the time it takes to reach the top, and the individual number of each chair. I haven't hammered out all the details yet, but I'm thinking of asking something along the lines of:

1a) Chairs on a chair lift are numbered 1 to 200 consecutively. At the beginning of the lift you are on chair 1. In front of you is chair 200 and directly across from you is chair 2. Just as you get on chair 1, chair 102 unloads at the top of the lift and is directly across from chair 101. After riding the chair for 8 seconds, you are still on chair 1, but now directly across from you is chair 4. How long does it take you to unload at the top of the lift?

1b) Now you are on chair 35, and directly across from you is chair 200. How much longer until you unload?

Guesses? Show your work!

Extra credit question: is this skiing type of question one that would favor well-to-do kids over low-income kids? Is it still worth using in class if it favors one subset of kids over another?

Stevens Pass Days 3, 4, 5a, 5b

On day three at Stevens, this past Monday, Dtran joined me for the first day of the backside being open. He borrowed my board and stayed on the front side while I ripped up the backside on my skis. As I was riding the lift back up one of the women on the lift said today was a "Once a Year" day. It was, because I've never seen the backside of Stevens without moguls. It was an entire mountain with untouched powder. For every other day of the year the turns we made today will form into moguls.

Easily a top 5 ski day of my life, my legs were burning after the first run on the backside. DTran and I met up at noon for lunch, and decided to leave early from Stevens due to us both being exhausted and the winds picking up. I later heard Stevens closed a few hours later due to those high winds.

I took Tuesday off, because I was still nice and sore from Monday's powder skiing.

Wednesday, Day 4, I drove back up to the mountain solo, but a friend was up skiing and staying at a cabin up near the mountain for New Year's Eve. I made it up to the mountain about 15 minutes after it opened, and to my dismay only two lifts were operating due to the still incredibly strong winds. I made one run on Hogsback, then did not want to wait in line for an hour, so I hopped into the lodge and eventually chilled in the car waiting for the wind to die down. Oh yeah, Wednesday also marked the first day I drove the Saab instead of the all-wheel drive Pilot. I picked up chains at Les Schwab on the way up to Stevens and they got me in and out, with a demonstration of the quick-fit chains, in under 10 minutes--I like Les Schwab.

I didn't have to put on the chains, as the Saab handled the snow great. After waiting a half-hour and the wind still gusting over 30mph, I decided to drive back down to Seattle. I hesitate to count the one run as a day of skiing, but at least I got one run in...

Thursday, New Years Day, was day 5a. I went to bed early on New Years Eve--I was asleep by 10:30pm. I woke up early and was out of the house by 7:15am in preparation for an amazing day of skiing. The pass got over a foot of snow, and I just knew the backside would be amazing--because nobody got to touch the snow yesterday due to the high winds. From my house to a highway about 2 miles away I saw exactly 3 moving cars, one a garbage truck. 7am on New Years Day apparently isn't the most congested hour for traffic.

I get about 15 miles from Stevens and the traffic starts to slow down, and I see a few cars coming towards Seattle with skis on their racks. I rationalized that people had stayed up at the mountain for New Years Eve and were coming home. Then more traffic and more cars coming the other direction. The traffic halts to a crawl, still 10 miles from the resort, so I call my folks and see if they can find out what is up. The AM radio does not work in the Pilot for some reason, but luckily my parents were able to check the Stevens website and find the pass closed until noon for avalanche control on Highway 2. Bummer.

But! This time I was prepared to wait out the wind/avalanche control! I brought a book and my laptop with me, and I eventually got to a point in the line of traffic where people were turning off their cars to wait out the avalanche control. I turned off the Pilot and started reading a book my sister got me for Xmas: The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. What an amazing book and lecture. I just found the entire lecture on YouTube. The entire lecture is over an hour, and here it is:



If you were a college professor, with months left to live, what would you do? (Waffles, you can keep your answer to yourself)

So I'm sitting in the car deep into Randy Pausch's book when I see the lights of a service truck approach slowly and a guy yell "Not until 9am tomorrow!" as he drives by. Son of a bitch! I drive back home. That's two days, 10 hours of driving, $50 in gas, and one lousy ski run. I was pissed.

Day 5b turned out to be much better. G-Funk, who was planning on coming with me Thursday, goaded me into going up today, Friday. G-Funk is aptly named because of the band G-Funk and the Special Sauce. He got a co-worker pregnant with twins in his early twenties. It turns out the co-worker thought she was unable to have kids, after trying with her ex-husband and having tests done. Up steps G-Funk and BAM! Twins! Anyway, G-Funk sent me an email with his address and phone number to call on Thursday morning when I left my house. I called him and got no answer, so I drove up alone (and with my results, I'd bet he is glad he didn't tag along). We chat Thursday night online and it turns out he mistyped his phone number by one digit. We do make it up to Stevens on Friday, after waiting to see that the Pass is actually open, and we arrive just before noon.

G-Funk and I board together for a couple runs, then I decide to take off for the backside again. G was still trying to get the hang of carving, and I had an urge to test the powder out. I am not very good in the powder. I had a picture-perfect face-plant on a little tree stash I found, and thought I had to myself. I start going down this relatively steep and narrow chute when I see a boarder sprawled out across the chute at the bottom, not making any effort to move. The brief moment of assessing the boarder is enough for me to catch an edge and face plant all the way down the chute. When I stop sliding, face-first down the chute, my entire being is filled with snow, and my ski goggles are around my mouth.

I'm going to take a day of rest tomorrow, then hopefully get back up to the mountain for Day 6 on Sunday w/friends!

Stevens Pass Day 2: Andrew and Eddie

Woke up at 5:30am in preparation for another 3 hour drive to the pass. This time I picked up Andrew and Eddie en route. Andrew is a skiing dynamo, and I grew up skiing with him and his family at Stevens Pass. He is a good, good skier. Eddie, on the other hand, has never been skiing or boarding. I volunteered by board, boots, gloves and goggles, and Eddie bought the lift ticket. Andrew and I zoomed off and took advantage of the 6" of powder for the morning, leaving Eddie on the Daisy chair with a few quick tips before we left.

Andrew and I bombed Big Chief for four runs, then caught the bottom of Double Diamond on our way over to Skyline. The back side was still closed, and the 7th Heaven chair was not in operation for some reason, there seemed to be plenty of snow. The run on Double Diamond was a lot of fun, as a normally snowed in run with moguls was a powder run with little trees instead of moguls. I fell into a few of those trees, but the run was still a lot of fun.

At about 11am we made our way up Skyline and were contemplating hiking up 7th Heaven. We had planned on meeting up with Eddie for lunch at noon, so we'd be cutting it close hiking. And hike we did. Unfortunately, unlike on Friday, when the hiking route had been all pathed for Kristy and I, this time I got to path find. And path finding through the powder and 6" on top of the old route is a grunt. I got confused by the snowboard routes, as they looked a lot like the very faint hiking route. I would find myself in waist-deep powder and realize I was going the wrong way. Eventually Andrew and I made it to the top, and a half dozen snowboarders had taken advantage of our trail-blazing and met us at the top. They continued hiking to the top and were about ready to steal my first tracks. Even though Andrew's thigh was cramping, I decided to bomb down to the restaurant, because we were late meeting Eddie and I wanted first tracks for doing all the work, damnit!

The hike and subsequent run really took it out of me, and after and hour long lunch, Andrew and I took the rest of the day easy. We rode up Daisy with Eddie first thing in the afternoon, and got a couple of goofy videos. In one video I got a good initiation spray in on Eddie, so my job as introducer to the winter wonderland that is skiing and snowboarding was complete! Sadly, I cannot upload the videos as they are 102mb and 107mb, just over the 100mb maximum.

*edit oops, forgot to post this*

Stevens Pass Day 1: Perfection

If I keeled over right now, my seasons pass would cost $300 per trip. If I make the trip Monday, it will knock down to $150. I can't wait to get that number down to $20 or even $10!

"This is straight out of Lord of the Rings!" Kristy said of driving into the Cascade Mountains.

Snow was on the road all the way from Seattle, and the scenery was just amazing. The mountains looked menacing, like Mt. Doom, but with a lot more snow. The river alongside highway 2 looked serene, and each rock in the middle of the river had a foot of snow it, which turned rocks into mushrooms.

Since only four lifts were operating, we ended up hiking twice, once halfway up Big Chief and once 3/4th's of the way up 7th Heaven. Both places found us in waist-high powder, making the hike well worth it. I never thought I would hike up 7th Heaven, and I can't wait to see the look on Andrew's face Monday.

After skiing, boarding and hiking in 10 degree weather all day, we ended the day ordering Thai food, drinking beer, and relaxing in the hot tub.

Perfect day.

Finally, My Good Deed of the Year

Well, I cut it close, but today I accomplished my good deed of 2008. I cleaned the bath tub and shower area at my parents' house. I was tempted to take before and after pictures, but I had already started scrubbing the shower tiles and was in a groove. The shower and bath tub have not had a serious cleaning in years, so I had my work cut out for me, and I wound up scrubbing nonstop for the entire 44 minutes and 19 seconds of Death Cab For Cutie's "Plans" album.

When the dust, grime, cat hair, soap, shampoo and yellow stains settled, I could hardly believe my eyes. What was once a predominantly yellow shower area was now back to its original porcelain white.

In other news, I am out-of-my-mind excited for ski season to start tomorrow up at Stevens Pass. They have a web cam going 24/7 and I've checked it a dozen times today. Each time I check it, the snow seems to be coming down harder and harder. The flakes at 3:45pm are just HUGE. The bottom two cameras are of highway 2, and you can't even tell a road is there, much less a 4-lane road. SNOOOOOW!!! Opening day is tomorrow, and I will be going up Friday and Monday, with a possibility of going on the weekend as well. I'm not as excited for the 6F degree HIGH temperature up there on Friday, but if there is two feet of powder, I think I'll be able to deal with it :)