Winter 2.0

You know, the only reason the snow began to fall here is because we made plans to leave home. For several years, we have gone on vacation for mid-winter break and been tortured by phone calls from friends about the massive dumps of snow at home. So when the snow started to fall on Monday and we saw the predictions for the next few days, we decided to cancel our trip and stay home.

Backcountry conditions were dangerous and there was literally nobody but us at Hyak so it was the best scenario: feet of fresh, untracked snow on completely safe slopes. We played all day on Tuesday and Wednesday.

H

Tele-Ed

Julie, barely visible thru the snowfall

Sometimes It Works Out

On Saturday morning, as we were heading out the door packed and fed, ready for a day in the backcountry, we turned on our transceivers to check them and found that mine was not working. Ergh....no backcountry for us. But just a few minutes later, the phone rang and some friends were coming up to lift ski  so we joined them in the beautiful sun at Hyak.

Take 2, Sunday morning, we headed out to try again on the same tour of the Crooked Couloir (and with a borrowed transceiver). But a few days of sun and traffic going up the Phantom made it look like an ice climb, not a skin track. There were a few scramble sections up waterfall ice, which would've been okay if we had brought our crampons and/or ice axes but we had not. And so we turned around, rappelling the few sections we had already come up. Another failed attempt to ski in the backcountry...

Monday morning, the sun had gone away and the visibility was too low for the Crooked, so we headed out to Silver Peak, which we have skied in the spring but only explored in the winter. After a somewhat long tour, we had a great couple of laps on an arm of Silver, even finding fresh soft snow that hadn't melted in the sun of the past few days.

All that anticipation of fresh snow had finally been rewarded with the real thing. On our way out, we stopped at the warming hut for lunch... 

...and the snow began to fall and wouldn't stop for three days. More skiing pics to follow, only in much more snow!

Just When You Give Up...

...the snow comes.

When Ed suggested we go mountain biking in February, Brandon thought this idea was 'blasphemy'. "It just feels wrong to be biking in winter. We should be skiing!", he huffed. Given that we had three sunny days and no new snow, I thought biking sounded fun. So we met Ed & Julie after work on Friday for some riding on the Black Diamond (town, not difficulty) trails.

Ed is always way ahead of us...

It was as if I completely forgot how to mountain bike; I fell a lot and now have some great bruises. After our ride, we enjoyed some beer and good food at the Swinging Arm Bar & Grill. A great way to start our weekend...

It seemed like we would never get snow again. Just in time for the VertFest Randonee Rally @ Alpental,  we got a few inches of fresh snow to make it a bearable course instead of a slip session. And, by God's grace, the sun also came out and we had blue skies for the race.

The Traslin brothers and another Canadian led a brutal pace. 

B is the last guy in this group at the second boot pack section.
[photo taken by Mill Creek Multimedia]

Ryan (the late Monika's boyfriend)
showing his "remember Monika stuffed kitty support" in a big way!
[photo taken by Jason Hummel Photography]

Mike Traslin (2nd place) showing off Tim's T-shirt, nice.
[photo taken by Jason Hummel Photography]

Heather accepting her first place winnings in the womens 1 lap race
[photo taken by Mill Creek Multimedia]

Post Race

We both had a lot of fun, if you call sweating, coughing up blood, and panting fun, which we do. I finally got first place, which isn't a big deal, but was a long time coming (I came in 2nd multiple years) so I was excited. B was disappointed in his performance but I think he did great and will keep improving.

As I type this post, it is snowing steadily outside and there is more to come, the weatherman says. Welcome, Winter 2.0, welcome.

Awe & Wonder

I didn't know her well but I feel compelled to post a tribute about Monika Johnson, a backcountry skier that died out in the mountains this week.

On the same day that Monika fell through a cornice to her death on Red Mountain, I went for a jog in Snoqualmie Valley in the afternoon light. The sun filtered through the trees in a way that caused a short-circuit in my brain, an electrical storm, a seizure. Wearing my black VertFest tee-shirt, I went down to the ground and spent some time unconscious and in that 'in-between' reality.

Monika won the VertFest every year, hands down, beating many men and all the women by a huge gap. I admired her athleticism, but more than that, I admired the life energy that overflowed (literally could not be contained) through her smile and twinkling eyes. When you live life fully, as Monika clearly did, it is apparent to all who meet you immediately.

It wasn't until the next day that we learned about Monika's accident on Red Mountain. For the next several days, many in the backcountry ski community prayed for her safe rescue. On Saturday, the sad ending came in her body being retrieved from the backcountry.

My thoughts might appear disconnected and random but follow me a bit further...I am grateful for my life, even and especially with the affliction of seizures, for they serve as a reminder. I am grateful to know -as Monika did- that life is an amazing gift that we should spend not squander. For those of you with dull eyes, you will get the point too late. Perhaps as a final tribute in Monika's memory, God sent snow today for the first time in weeks; and, although I've seen it a bazillion times before, a smile spreads across my face and I look at it in awe. Go find the awe and wonder...

Monika Johnson- RIP February 2011