Getting the garage floor ready for Cement.
We were headed to Park City, and Lester the cement guy was ready to pour our basement floor, so we quickly prepped the garage with gravel, plastic, foam, and wire reinforcement.
August 23, Crystal Mt. Loop
Heather and Mike were back from world traveling and were psyched to do a good ride, so we went for the Crystal Mt. loop with Francine, Justin, Mike, Kevin, and Heather. It was a perfect day, and I got a good view of my June ski line on Mt. Rainier. Everybody enjoyed the ride, although Mike's head was a little sore from doing a head plant on the way down.
Garage foundation
Francine and I got busy and banged out the foundation in about 2 weeks. Lots of rebar. Lot of work building the forms to only tear them off. Thanks to dad, Larry, for helping on the pour day along with neigbors Matt, Chris, and then Joel who helped pull the forms off.
Summer Project
Some people, like my ski partner manage to ski every month of the year. Personally I enjoy a respite from skiing over the summer. It gets me even more excited when I do get to start the season back up in October or November. This summer, as usual, I have a house project. This year it is a little bigger than normal and involves a new garage to keep our cars snow free over the winter! Hopefully I will get it finished before ski season. Here is a picture I drew using Google SketchUp, a free 3D program.
June 20, Mt. Rainier via Emmons/Winthrop Glacier
I had never had a real desire to climb Mt. Rainier. Growing up in Seattle, it was one of those goals everybody had at one time or another. It wasn't until skiing off the summits of Mt. Adams and Mt. Baker that I thought, hey, it would be kinda cool to ski off Mt Rainier. Well, last summer due to scheduling conflicts I missed out on skiing the Fuhr Finger with Greg. I did do a spring trip to the interglacier and steamboat prow. The top of Steamboat Prow looks down on Camp Shurman and the climbing route was easily visible to the summit. I thought, hey, that route looks pretty easy. So this year when I had a weather window that meshed up with Greg's schedule, I jumped at the chance to go for the summit.
June 5, Beast Adventure Race
This was our second year for the Seattle Beast Adventure Race www.beastrace.com . We returned with the same great team; brother-Kelly, niece- Maddie, and nephew-Jack. Overall we finished 12th out of 35 teams, but we were second in the coed 4 person category. The race started with a canoe section on Lake Washington then restarted by order for the biking/orienteering/running sections.
May 29 - June 2, Panorama, Lake Louise, Banff
The Canadian Rockies is a place I need to ski! My parents were ready to see Lake Louise and invited Francine and I to accompany them on their trip. Thinking of all the Mt. Biking possibilities we loaded up the bikes and headed to Panorama to begin the loop. Then it was up to Lake Louise to watch as the ice receded from the lake surface in amazing warm weather. The scenery is incredible and even though I have skied the ski area I am dying to come back and ski some of the beautiful backcountry ski lines! Truly an inspiring area.
May 22, Anvil Rock - Muir Snowfield
I hadn't made it to Paradise since the floods last fall shut down the park, and with the weatherman predicting only one clear day this week, I decided to convince Greg that he needed to get out of the house and drive me to Paradise 5,400'. We discussed destination options, decided the Nisqually chutes were getting too much sun, didn't really need to visit camp Muir again, how about Anvil Rock 9,500' with a little foray onto the Paradise glacier to jump a crevasse? 
May 19, Teanaway Area with Bob
It was Bob's annual camp-out on the Teanaway river. Francine has made it the past few years, but it has been awhile since I have been able to attend. We were scheduled for Friday-Saturday, but Friday was gorgeous and I had some new motorcycle tires for Francine's bike. So at least we made it for one of Bob's rides. We left our house in the rain and drove down to perfect riding in the Teanaway. Our group started out at about 25 people from BBTC, then splintered in half for a longer/shorter ride. All in all, nice to see old friends and meet a few new ones.
May 8 - 10, Hood River Mountain Biking
Hood River was the destination for the second week of May. Always a favorite for the variety of excellent trails and the great town. Tired of camping, and thinking it was a little cold, we rented a small house just blocks from downtown. We used the rationalization that we could save money by cooking at the house. Unfortunately, Hood River has a great selection of restaurants and we ended up eating out for all three nights. Brian's Pourhouse, for a burger and fish tacos, sweet, HorseFeathers for $1.00 appetizers, and finally 3 Rivers Grill. Actually didn't like the food at 3 Rivers Grill, but they have a great deck. We were able to eat outside all week, since the temps were near 80 degrees. The riding was perfect; day 1 - Whoopee trail, day 2 -Post Canyon, and day 3 -Hospital Hill with a descent on triple bypass.
Francine in the trees on Whoopdee trail
Mt. Adams in the distance
Triple Bypass was good and narrow
May 5-6, Mt. Baker - Coleman/Deming - Close?
It is springtime in the Northwest, and for backcountry skiers, that means it is time to start skiing the volcanos. Knowing that Paradise would be a zoo on opening day, and wanting to minimize drive time, we decide on Mt. Baker via the Coleman and Deming glacier route. Unfortunately due to high winds and bad visibility, we called it a day at 9,100 feet. 1,600 feet shy of the summit. We still got some good turns in, and I even got a good sunburn.
Frank and Greg traverse to base camp at 7,100 feet.
Frank and Greg traverse to base camp at 7,100 feet.
Greg roped up for glacier travel on day 2.
Making a retreat in the clouds
Making a retreat in the clouds
Better visibilty and good turns from base camp down to 3,500 feet
Greg's excellent trip report:
http://www.randosaigai.com/colemandeming050507.html
April 11-16, Sea Otter Classic
Thanks to our friends, Matt and Heidi, we were able to attend the Sea Otter Classic in Monterey, Ca.. Matt does all the marketing for Topeak bicycle products and needed someone to help staff his booth. The Sea Otter is a road and mountain bike festival that typically marks the start of bicycling season.
Francine and Heidi setting up the booth
Singletrack and sheep
Kevin in the hills
Francine in the trees
A stop in Santa Cruz after the festival
April 10, Kendall Peaks
I got off work this morning and checked in with Francine. She said Greg had called last night. I decided to call Greg and see if he wanted to go ski. He was a little groggy, but quickly made up his mind to go. We had heard there was a little new snow, so we were envisioning dust over crust. We were very wrong! The snow was 6-8 inches deep. Nice to get a powder day this late in spring. Today we skied. Tomorrow, we fly to Monterey to work the Topeak booth at the Sea Otter Classic.
Greg makes good turns off Kendall Ridge
Does this look like spring skiing?
April 3, Snoqualmie Mountain - E. Slopes
Great weather brought out the crew for an assault on the East slopes of Mt. Snoqualmie. Here Greg and Frank look up at the East summit of Snoqualmie Mt. We all had plans for the evening, so decided to ski down from a knob on the ridge versus the summit. The new snow of the past couple days made for excellent skinning and skiing.
Greg rips it up
Greg rips it up
Checking out the slide action on the slope we skied.
Special appearance by Scott O. doing the telemark turn.
Greg skis down the gut
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