Graduation Day!

We finally finished WTS (Wilderness Trekking School). After five lectures and five long all day field trips, we are finally equipped to explore the wilderness... or something like that. Actually, we can now officially go on level C hikes through the CMC and sign up for Basic Mountaineering School next spring, if we so choose.

So, you might ask, what was entailed in graduation day. Well, we had to get up at 5am, meet our classmates at 5:30 and drive to Stoney Pass near Bailey to start hiking by 8:30. Without following a single trail, we were able to follow a 13-leg route that we mapped out using topographic maps and features, compasses, and some newly-mastered skills. Aside from the thunder, lightening, and brief rain in the afternoon, it was a fun, 8-hour hike. Over the course of this class, we've bonded with some neat people and managed to survive our over-zealous instructor. After dinner and drinks it was really nice to get home just before it was totally dark.



Check out the whole album -- nice bear-claw marks on the trees in the first two pictures!

Our first Bolder Boulder

We did good! We both finished under the time needed to get into a qualifying wave for next year's race (62 minutes).
Check out our results and mile splits: Laurel, Dan.
Check out photos taken at the race: Laurel, Dan.

The race was a zoo -- something like 54,000 people. I think we ran 10 kilometers in the forward direction and 1 km side to side trying to get around people. The race is started in waves that are released a few minutes apart to provide some spacing along the course. How many waves? About 50 waves of runners and 30 waves of joggers. This video shows just one wave starting:



There was live music all along the course, people on the sidelines cheering and giving high fives, two troupes of belly dancers, Elvis, the Blues Brothers, people handing out beer and food (chicken, bacon, chips, grapes), people with hoses and squirt guns, a slip-n-slide, a guy holding a hula-hoop for people to run through (which I did after grabbing a few grapes)... and then some of the runners: in gorilla suits, a few kids dressed up as bananas, a guy in a solar panel costume, a guy in a "riding an ostrich" costume, a "gorilla holding a guy in a cage" costume, a guy strung up like a marionette, a French maid, a bride with her team of bridesmaids, some graduates, etc.

There was a lot of energy in this race. I haven't run a race in 15 years and now I'm pretty psyched to get back into it.

After the race we met our friends Ann and Sean in the stadium and hung out for a while. We got great snack packs and got to drink free Michelob Ultra at 9 AM. We stayed to watch runners finishing the race for an hour and a half. On our walk back home we stopped to watch the professionals race -- their fastest times were less than half of ours. Very impressive.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Once again, Boulder hosted another rainy weekend. This spring has been abnormally wet, which is good for water levels, but bad for rock climbing. We did manage to get out a bit, though, despite the cloudy skies.

On Saturday we hopped on our bikes and headed for the north of town. We got to the Anne. U White trail head and went for a little hike. We rode back home and managed to have lunch before it started drizzling. We tried to go out again in the evening to do some mountain biking, but we turned about after hearing some thunder.

Sunday morning the skies seemed to be clearing a bit. After the pouring rain Saturday night we didn't think the clearing would have dried up our local crags so we hoped on our bikes and headed for the canyon. We got to Sugarloaf Road and went up to Betasso and biked the loop. On our way back we hit the Boulder Creek Festival. There were hundreds of vendors and entertainers. We walked around for a while until once again, we heard thunder and headed home.

Cheyenne Buffalo Ranch

On Monday Laurel and her parents headed up to Cheyenne to check out some Buffalo.

WTS Survival Day

Today was our 4th WTS field trip -- Survival Day. The highlight was shelter construction. We paired up and had 30 minutes to construct an emergency shelter out of whatever material was in our packs or could be gathered from the surrounding area. That's not much time but we were all able to get some pretty decent shelters started. To get a sense of what we were making, read this (pdf).


This has sorta become our team motto so we made up T-shirts.

South Park

Saturday we went to South Park with Laurel's parents.

Actually, we went to Fairplay, home of South Park City -- an outdoor museum of recreated and restored buildings. It was neat seeing some of the history of the West. Click on Mr. Hanky for more pictures.

After Fairplay we stopped in Brekenridge -- huge ski resort. Even thought it's not ski season anymore there was a lot to do and see.

On the way back to Boulder we had a nice drive through the mountains. Oh, can't forget to mention that we had a huge New Orleans breakfast at Lucile's to start the day.

Three peaks

Laurel and I did a 12 mile hike on Saturday, hitting the three main peaks west of Boulder -- Bear Peak, South Boulder Peak, and Green Mountain -- as well as the First Flatiron. We gained (and lost) over 5000' elevation over the course of the hike.


(see big map)




We also got to see Saddle Rock without the fog (compare with this pic):

WTS Snow Day

We spent 11 hours on St. Mary's Glacier, needless to say this was a long, long day. We met in Idaho Springs at 7:15 and then traveled on to the trailhead. At 10,000 it was cold and VERY windy. We bundled up and headed up the glacier practicing self-arrests without ice axes and cutting in steps up the snow. Due to the 40mph winds and the slushy snow conditions our instructor decided we should go to another spot for the rest of the day's activities.

After lunch and descending to a wooded area, we headed up towards a steep section of the mountain. Here we practiced self arresting with ice axes many, many times. Then after learning about rope handling techniques we practiced roped travel and passing pro on snow.

After glissading we mapped our bearing directly to the parking lot and postholed cross-country to the cars.

Wet weekend

Saturday we took a hike to find Saddle Rock. It was wet.


Sunday we had our 3rd WTS field trip -- Snow Day at St. Mary's Glacier. We practiced kick-stepping with mountaineering axes. We did a lot of self-arrest practice with the axes (feet-first, head-first, head-first belly-up, and head-first belly-up with-packs). We also did some rope-team practice. At the end of the day we glissaded down our practice slope and hiked out cross-country through the woods back to the parking lot.

Sunday was pretty wet and cold too.

April Weekend

It seems that I passed my cold on to Dan this weekend. Unfortunately, he seems to have gotten it a lot worse than I had it. So, he stayed in Saturday to try to get better. Even though it was foggy and lightly raining I decided to go to Sugarloaf Mountain (halfway between here and Nederland) to summit. But, it was so incredibly foggy up there I couldn't even tell if I was at the trailhead. So, instead I went to Betasso, hiked the loop, checked out Bummer's Rock, and previewed the link trail from Boulder Canyon to see if we could bike it.

Sunday was our second WTS field trip. We met up with our team over in Evergreen at Genesee Park. We spent the day traveling off-trail to locate points we plotted at home. We used our compasses, maps, and pace counts to find trees with tape on them. Both Dan and I located the points our teams were supposed to find! Afterward we had dinner at BeauJo's with Ann and Sean (from our team). Next week is snow travel day! Yay!

Unofficial impromtu bike week

Apparently this was bike week. Sunday we biked after our WTS field trip. Monday we biked into the Canyon. Tuesday we biked to Chautauqua and hiked most of the way up to the top of the First Flatiron. (I think we figured out where the Baker's Way route starts. Too bad this week's great weather didn't last or we'd be climbing right now.)


Wednesday afternoon we biked over to sign our lease for another year. Thursday evening I biked to Mt. Sanitas for some bouldering and then did the hike up and down the mountain. Friday afternoon I biked to the bike shop to volunteer and that evening we biked over to an Indian restaurant for dinner. Laurel biked to school at least one day this week too.

Ride into the canyon

Laurel got another chance to try her new mountain bike today. Just before 7pm we headed out towards Boulder Canyon. We had to pedal fast to get there and back in time for 24 but we made it. Tomorrow evening we hope to scope out the Flatirons area to see if it'll be dry enough to climb on Saturday.

WTS Field Trip #1

Today was our first field trip with our Wilderness Trekking School (WTS) class. Today's topic was dry land travel, but up at NCAR there was quite a bit of snow.

We practiced using a compass and reading topographic maps. We hiked over to Bear Canyon and practiced stream crossings. We headed up towards Bear Peak a bit and learned to cross snow-covered talus and then continued off-trail for a while. We circled around the NCAR Mesa and then scrambled back to the parking lot.

Once there we reviewed important pack contents and the ten essentials. After some knot tying we went to the Dark Horse for food and beer.

When Dan and I got home we hit our bikes (I got a new mountain bike yesterday!) and went up to the Cottonwood Trail. A fun day!

Kohler Mesa hike

Forecast for today was rain in the afternoon, so we went for a cloudy hike in the morning. We explored some trails near Chautauqua that we hadn't been on before.

Cross country skiing at Brainard Lake

Laurel and I went cross country skiing today in the Brainard Lake area. We skied up the road and the CMC Ski Trail to the Brainard cabin, but it was closed. We stopped there for lunch anyway.

After lunch we started up the Beaver Creek trail which leads to the summit of Mt. Audubon. It didn't take long to get to a familiar vista:

August, 2008:

April, 2009:

We only got a mile and a half up the trail before deciding if we went any further the way back would be too difficult for our skill and ski gear. The way down had some nice hills -- the first time down this one I chickened out and fell before going over the ridge, so I was psyched to not fall the second time around:



The only other time I've been on XC skis was probably 5 years ago, so I was pretty spastic all day. I did OK... aside from a handful of falls, a face-first encounter with a tree, and a few shoulder tweaks.


The views were great. It was overcast most of the day but warm. The sun came out a few times. Even though the snow was melting and conditions weren't always great, there was still a lot of snow (see stop sign at right).

On the way back we skied the Little Raven trail to the Lefthand Reservoir road. The trail was mostly uphill but we got some really nice runs down the road. There were a few places I was able to get air off a few bumps (GPS said top speed was 20 MPH). It was nice to finally get some speed and be able to control the skis.

By the end of the day we had skied just under 10 miles (map).

One more day at Eldora

It actually rained in Boulder Fri/Sat. Not used to that. This morning we realized that means fresh powder at Eldora -- 18"!

The skiing was great. Even got Laurel on a few diamonds!

Spring Break

Keeping it short since there's a lot to tell. Pictures below link to full albums, one for each day.

Sat. 3/21: Flew to LaGuardia. L wins 4th annual Autocracy Poker Challenge.

Sun. 3/22: Hung out with Furlani family. Hiked in Agawam in the morning and then made s'mores in the afternoon with grandparents, cousin, aunts, and uncles.

Mon. 3/23: Showed Gramma and Grandpa F. Boulder pics and had lunch with them. Took Amanda shopping and had dinner out with Jackie and Paul.

Tues. 3/24: D went to work in Marlborough. L went to Lincoln to see kids and teachers. We both had dinner with John, Sarah, and Sophia.

Wed. 3/25: Drove to Bristol to see Grandma and Grandpa R. Had lunch and looked at pics. Afternoon with Tim and very pregnant Diana :-) Dinner and drinks at Christine and Dave's.

Thurs. 3/26: Walked around the Cloisters in way-upper Manhattan. Drove around and around Newark Airport trying to find gas station. Flew to Geneva.

Fri. 3/27: Arrived in Geneva after little sleep. Yummy French pastries for breakfast. Donna showed us around her school, Old Town and other Geneva hot spots. Lunch at a cafe. Back to apartment for a nap, then out again to see Lake Geneva and hip neighborhood. Dinner at home.

Sat. 3/28: Weather canceled planned hike, so we went to Italy instead. Stopped for short hike to waterfall before reaching border. Drove under Mont Blanc, hiked to very old ruins on top of hill. Walked around Aosta, had pizza, did some shopping, and saw Roman coliseum–like ruins. Dinner at awesome Italian restaurant. Spaghetti is very yummy.



Sun. 3/29: Went to CERN. Saw very big parts of particle accelerator (if you've seen the LHC rap video, what we saw was the CMS mentioned at 0:52). Did not see black hole. Lunch in Geneva at Indian restaurant. Small hike in town where D found snail shell. Watched Warren Miller movie to get psyched for skiing.

Mon. 3/30: Skied at Chamonix—Brevent/Flegere area. Some runs were in the clouds and visibility was 10 feet. L very scared. Most of day visibility was OK. D had tons of fun, L did not die :-) (L had fun, too) Dinner at local rural French restaurant. D and Donna had melty cheese, meat, potato, and pickle dish. Regional specialty.


Tues. 3/31: Day that never ended. Flew to Newark, shuttled to LGA, flew to Denver, bus to Boulder. 24 hours of traveling sucks.

Wed. 4/1: Very tired. Lots of laundry and groceries. Nice to see Flatirons again.

125% Tuesday

We chased the sun all the way back to Boulder today.

Big Wall Nuts law #1: If we fly for X hours to reach destination Y, then we shall remain at destination Y for a minimum of X days.

We had a great time back east and in Europe but it was a bit hectic. More to come...

35 mile bike ride

Today we went for a long bike ride. There were some neat looking paths and trails on the map out by Loiusville and Superior so we biked south to try to find them.


View Larger Map

Along the way we had great views of our Flatirons and the bigger snowy mountains behind them.


After 20 miles or so we got to some mountain biking trails. They were very rocky but not too steep, so we were able to stay on our bikes most of the way.

CMC snowshoe trip

View Larger Map

Our 3rd CMC trip was a snowshoe starting at the East Portal of the Moffat Tunnel. It was a big group -- 17 of us total! The way was easy going until we left the trail. A few of us took turns breaking trail up that steep hill. The group stopped for lunch at the top while a few of us headed a bit higher.


After finishing lunch and waiting for a few stragglers we got to run down the huge hill, a bit off to the side so we'd have nice fresh snow to plow through. According to the GPS my max speed was 10 MPH.

On the way down the group split up a bit. On parts of the hill we got cliffed-out and had to figure out a safer way down. Eventually we regrouped at a meadow. The snow was wet enough from being melted by the sun that we had a snowball fight and made a funny-looking snowman.


After the trip we had drinks and dinner at the Sundance Cafe in Nederland. Good chow and fun time socializing.