One Last Time

Well, I thought I would finally post about the last good day of backcountry snowboarding here in the little ole town of Sitka. Early May we had an unusual bout of cold weather (lows in the city were between 38 and 42) for nearly two weeks. The weather pattern worked itself out so that it would rain at night (which meant snow in the mountains) and be mostly clear during the day. Perfect. Plus the earlier you got up there, the better your chances were of actually riding on some decent powder, which by the way we had seen a severe lack of for almost 6 weeks! I had gotten used to riding on the buttery stuff, but nothing, and I mean NOTHING, compares to making those crispy turns in feet of of fluffy powder. The difference is like night and day. So when one particularly cold night came along I found myself hiking up the Stove at 8 in the morning unsure as to what I might find.
Fortunately the temps had stayed cold from the night before long enough to give me the best late season present ever. My first few runs had me floating on stay puft clouds of powder and for a couple of fleeting hours I had that 'giddy as a schoolgirl' feeling. But the days conditions changed quick, and before I knew it the powder had gone and left me with an entire ridge of untouched butter to carve. It was still incredibly fun and I had one more really good day out.
A week ago I returned and finally took my board down with me. The snow at that point was still in abundance but melting fast. I hit a few runs for funs sake and had a good time on the easily maneuverable slush feeling very nostalgic as I walked back down. Now that the summer job is in full swing, and the weather is getting warmer and warmer all I can do is look up at the Stove from time to time and think about all of the amazing times it has shown me over the past season.
Heres to the Stove!!!!

The Angles of Eternity

Upon closer inspection, these are loafers. What a busy last few weeks it has been. New job, new place, new weather patterns, new pants. Our previous soujourn from the wicked wich of the grey and rainy has ended. Not only do we find ourselves in a perpetual state of reinforced depression reigning from the sky to ruin all our outdoor fun, but things done changed! (once again). Change is good.

Steph and I have removed ourselves from the confines of our cabin by the sea and relocated, for the summer, to a incredibly spacious one bedroom loft. Don't worry, we can still see the sea. On top of moving I have left my job as a paraeducator at the elementary school and now find myself gainfully employed (again, for the summer) as a deckhand for a local charter fishing company. What a whirlwind! I am, as always, filled with conflicting emotions and overall incredibly psyched to be where I am right now. In other words I feel very lucky. The psych to climb could not be any higher. Unfortunately I haven't done ANY climbing in the last three weeks. GAH!!!! Unless you count climbing with your eyes. I have been blown away by how motivated I can stay on the table scraps of other peoples climbing adventures. Nick, Jimmy, and Dom, have kept me pining away for Northwest rocks and continued progression in strength training. I get by with a little help from my friends ya'll. Not to mention the countless videos from DPMclimbing.com; yes, its true, I became a member so I could watch those videos on 'The Stash'. I just hope all the time I've spent watching people climb translates into myself being able to actually climb. I did however take my first step towards beginning a climbing oriented training regime. I finally hung the metolius finger board my friend Nick gave to me before he moved to the far East (that would be D.C., not Japan). Plus, I've scoped out one of the most incredible pieces of unclim,bed rock I have seen so far. A stunning orange and brown arete that juts out from a small hillside practically screaming to be climbed. Its not exactly on public property, nor do I have a crash pad, but trust me, I WILL climb it!! There is a ton of rock here, its just always an access issue of one color or another. Not to mention a lot of it is just plain hard to get to. My time is measured in days now, beofre I will be working 12 hour days 7 days a week. I was hoping to get out climbing a ton before I started my new job but as I mentioned before the weather is just not cooperating. I have read a number of good books lately, Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, and Chipp Kid's The Cheese Monkeys. Plus I finally jumped on the cultural band wagon that seems to be set aflame by the success of the series and subsequent transformation of literature into motion pictures and started reading the poorly written but highly entertaining Hunger Games by Suazanne Collins. Snowboarding has tapered off a bit only because of the same reasons everything tapers off here and that would be weather related. Still, we continue to get snow in the mountains becasue of the weird fluctuations of temperature that occurr at night. The snow isn't great though, mostly soft wet snow that's only good to run when it is either cold enough to make controlled turns or thick enough to land in.

The last trip we wnet on was a week ago when we had the good fortune of getting a huge group of people together to head out to Kruzoff island, home of the volcanoe Mt. Edgecumbe. The trip was nothing short of epic!!! Our friends Ivan and Tasha water taxied us out there, a mere 10 miles from Baranoff island. Once we hit the shore it was a four mile hike to the shelter where we would spend the night, and then in the morning we made a three mile hike to the summit of Mt. Edgecumbe which is only 3,500 feet above sea level. Not a monster undertaking in terms of summits but a monster committment in terms of transporting a snowboard, clothes, food, water, and sleeping bags a very long distance. The weather cooperated mightily. We got to the shelter Friday night, and Saturday morning we were standing on the summit letting the snow fall lightly onto our red faces.

The motley crew

Jeremiah and Me

Giving Tasha a small pep talk before heading down. It was the girls first time snowboarding! The run down the mountain was awesome, wide open, good snow up top, and fun easily moved around snow at the bottom. The entire run was about 1.5 miles long. The next day I was wiped. 14 mile roundtrip hike with loaded pack, epic snowboard run, and beautiful almost primordial scenery and environment, and a bottle of Crown Royal and a case of Reineer was enough to set anyone's weekend ablaze with epic goodness. Well, that's about it. I'll let you know how my initiation into the fishing culture here goes.

The view from the slope of Mt. Edgecumbe. I'll leave you with a link to one of the most inspiring/helpful blog posts I have read in a long time. Sonnie Trotter on climbing and keeping it simple when it comes to trainng. Sonnie Trotter has never been someone who gets a lot of press for his ascents, although he should, and you definitely won't see him being whored out across the running banners on 8a.nu, but the guy knows his shit!