Long week...

Caught up with Timmy right here on the commute in Thursday AM - fog lifting above the Rhino and a marmot sitting up on the rocks overlooking his terrain. It rained and generally felt like norcal this week, except for today (Friday) where it rose to over 80 in the flatlands.

It's been a busy week, not much time to post the latest news. We got 3/4 of our ponies (horses actually) last Saturday and it's going relatively well considering we're new to all this! I wasn't here for their arrival as I made an emergency trip to Marin last Friday night until Monday to visit my mom who got transferred to the ICU after having some negative side effects to her 2nd back surgery in 4 months. She contracted pneumonia and had some serious pain killer withdrawals. Truthfully, there were times when I wondered if she was going to live through the weekend. But she's SLOWLY recovering and finally acting more normal - 2 weeks later. Very sad to see her in such a compromised state.

But on a happier note, the dual season of spring skiing and cycling is in full roar. It's a cool place here where you can ski the high peaks in the mornings and ride singletrack in the afternoons all within a 10 mile radius! Yay! We live here! Sorry, I had to (...inside joke if you've read OC and my stuff long enough).

Friday, before flying out, i skipped work to go ski Crooked Couloir with DV8. Last time we were on this particular couloir was 2003 during our Montezuma's Revenge "training." That year, it was later in June and MUCH more melted out and we only went UP it as I thought it too steep to ski down, and too narrow for my tele-ability at the time. This day (May 30th), however, was a completely different story. A virtual snowfield instead of a narrow couloir that only got to 40 degrees at its steepest. No worries on the Guides, as long as it softened up a bit.

DV8's skis stand up on their own! They're weightless I tell you!

The classic bike approach into Brainard Lake. The few mile road ride into the trailhead is always a sweet start to the day. The road is closed at least until Memorial Day, but this year it'll be closed for a few more weeks because of the amount of snow we got late in the year. Audobon is the rounded 13'er that DV's skis are pointing to; Crooked is off the south face of it.

Mt. Toll is right above DV8's head in the above shot. Audobon is the mass on the right. Below we check out the route - Crooked is the only continuous couloir to his right.

Below, DV8 kicking and axing up the middle of the couloir.

Unlike MOST of our spring days, we got to the top EARLY! Usually we're there when it's already too warm and rollerballs are tumbling down the mountain! We had to wait well over and hour on the top for the snow to melt into corn. Each day is totally unique up high. He was just on Toll the day before, one mountain over from Audobon, and was kicking in steps shin deep on the way up at the same time of day we were heading up today.

Check the vid link (Tunes by Deep Turtle playing Fritz the Cat):
http://www.dropshots.com/meriwether#date/2008-06-06/22:36:03