Frantic

Makes me tear up just lookin' at the little guy...

The oscillations in temperature lately have left last weeks feast reduced to mere table scraps. Not to mention, the recent heat wave has awoken the bears. Whilst adrift in my own world set in the back country I became numb to such threats of wilderness. Needless to say the giant bear track I saw on the Stove trail yesterday was more than enough to strike fear into my heart of hearts. In fact my entire sympathetic nervous system was getting ass-fucked by the dramatically over sized shot of adrenaline it received by the realization that I might become a giant dog's dinner. This realization was followed by the flailing of arms and frantic, almost reckless retreat I made down the mountain.
This would come to be known as the 'second' time I have had to retreat in fear from the top of the Stove. The first time involved bears in a very roundabout and self-fulfilling prophecy kind of way.


Sticky albeit steep snow on the north ridge of Picnic Rock



Other than that, things have returned back to normal. Spring break is officially over, school is back in session, and the snow is shit!! Hopefully we can get some more inches before the real heat gets here.


The north ridge is sweet. Steep, featured and very wide open right now. The sun set alone was worth the fear that came later.


Evening time right outside our little home front.

Spring Has Sprung

The magnificent bowl of the Stove! I'm a tiny dot near the center of the picture.

Its true, we have actually had five consecutive days of blue bird weather here. Its jaw dropping, really. Tomorrow is the last official day of EMT class where we will be engaged in practicals all morning and then taking the state written exam in the afternoon. I'm so psyched!!!!!

The week has been sprinting past me while at the same time thumbing its nose at my futile attempts to grab hold of it's shirt tails and be dragged along for the last few days that remain of my spring break.



Since the weather has been popping off sunny like gangbusters I have made it my quest to try and get out snowboarding as much as humanly possible. Turns out that 'as much as humanly possible' for me equals about three times in the span of four days. My knees are screaming at me like some queen of the harpes monster and I find myself taking 'old persons' naps that last as long as normal sleeping routines. Its cool though, I need the exercise, and the down time in between mountainous romps.
I did have a particularly nice day up on the Stove on Wednesday. I had the good fortune to hit the bowl and do some lines I hadn't had a chance to do yet. The chute was particularly nice and even though the snow was a bit crusty up top, the sunshine and the exposure more than made up for it.


The avalanche danger has been ridiculous for a few days. We had almost a foot and half of snow in the city, which means almost 3 feet in the mountains. All of this followed immediately by sunny days, slightly warmer temps, and lots of wind loading (I even noticed some hoar crystals one day).


This is a new drop I hadn't tried before. The runway to the drop sucked but the landing was pretty deep and fluffy.




My fave.

Today is my second rest day, and it looks like we will be heading out climbing today! Psyched!! There is still a lot of work that needs to be done on the Whale Wall and we almost have all of the permits and paperwork in place to start bolting. I just applied to a deckhand position for the summer so I'm feeling good about my options for work and play. I have one more day left in my break to get up and shred so now all I need is some fresh powder in the mountains and its a go.
I hope everyone else is having a good spring break, or soon will be. Look forward to hearing all about your adventures!

Frontin'

Yesterday was a beautiful day. Today there was an eternal blizzard.
Yesterday I got to play with space-aged-barbarian-looking power tools. Equipment you might find in the arsenal of a space marine, used to slice through the grotesque and bulging arm of a space orc.
Today I played in the snow. There was too much of it. Slow, wet, cumbersome. Yet, I had fun.


I finally landed the fallen tree jump! I did a big frontside 180 but had to slam on the breaks hard and fast because I was feet from hitting a tree. Psyched!

It's spring break now. In 3 short class sessions I will finally be done with the EMT course and (hopefully) become a certified EMT in the state of Alaska!!! Psyched!!