Archive for August, 2008

Breaking News

Tuesday, August 19th, 2008

The NWS has issued a special weather statement in effect for western Washington right now. It looks quite promising. The snow level is dropping. For those willing to go high, there is the chance of fresh snow in the Cascades and Olympics later in the week.

The important parts of the weather statment:

IN ADDITION TO THE SIGNIFICANT RAINFALL…THIS STORM SYSTEM WILL BRING GUSTY WINDS AND USHER IN A COLDER AIR MASS WEDNESDAY NIGHT. BY EARLY THURSDAY…THE SNOW LEVELS ARE EXPECTED TO BE MAINLY IN THE 6000 TO 6500 FOOT RANGE.

Keep your fingers crossed.

Restless Dreamer

Tuesday, August 12th, 2008

I do a lot of daydreaming. Most would call me an introvert. I think that just means that I can entertain myself. I take refuge in my own thoughts rather than the thoughts of others. I’m a class A dreamer. Mostly I dream about the future. Those thoughts usually revolve around travel, skiing and climbing.

Once in a while I look back. Here’s a review of last Saturday. Ollie was sick so we were dog free for the hike to Talapus and Ollalie lakes. What great scenery and due to the rain on the way up there were very few people on the trail. We stayed dry and managed to get a few interesting photos of foliage. A couple of the pics are from Jennifer.

Mountain Creek
Mountain Creek

Mountain Flower
Mountain Flower

Talapus Lake
Talapus Lake

Exit 38 again

Wednesday, August 6th, 2008

It was 88 deg F yesterday. That’s hot. I miss winter. But rock climbing helps get me through. Here are a couple of pics from yesterday’s excursion.

Eric climbs under the enormous chock stone towards the “Tunnel of Love”

The Tunnel of Love


Matt enjoying a mountain sunset

Sunset on Rock

Something Missing

Tuesday, August 5th, 2008

I’m pretty lucky. I have a wonderful wife who loves me, a great job, a dog, a house, a car, a good family that lives close enough that I can see them more than once a year, good friends, a fantastic church…. But there’s something missing. You see, it’s summer and there’s not much snow around in the summer.

Someone posted this on an internet forum that I read:

How do “YOU” deal with ski depression?

I don’t deal with it very well. I get extremely bored, but don’t want to do anything, except look at ski gear or watch videos. Mountain biking and drinking helps………..a little..Been trying to deal with it for over half my live, you’d think I’d have it figured out by now.

Is this my problem? Is it ski depression? We’ll find out. In a couple of weeks I’m planning on climbing to the top of a snowy mountain with my lightweight ski kit and carving some turns. I don’t care if the snow is mushy suncupped garbage. At least it will be turns.

My coworkers think I’m crazy.  It’s the middle of summer and when we have a drizzly cool summer day I start checking the freezing level and calculating the odds of fresh snow at camp muir.  This might be madness but they always say, “follow your dreams” and my dream is to ski!

So I pose the question to you.  What gets you through the dog days of summer?