...nwood...

8:15 p.m. on a Thursday evening at the height of a May heatwave. Despite its heavy load Esther's Mini Cooper cuts and jukes through downtown San Francisco traffic like Baron Davis driving to the hoop. I fish out a crusty camelback hose from the mountain of gear occupying the rear 3/4ths of the vehicle - musty sleeping bags, stained parkas, world weary T2 telemark boots, an ample cooler of beer and a smelly bear can. Peering through the sun roof I verify the security of Esther's brand new Voile Mojo splitboard and my battle-scarred K2 World Pistes. Despite the advanced hour of our departure and the miles of mountainous road unfolding before us we gaze out into the east-bound 580 dusk and entertain carefree dreams of perfect turns carved on the spring flanks of Mount Dana, False White and other Eastern Sierra gems.

(Originally posted on TelemarkTips.com)

This past weekend sure was a sleeper. As the Thursday weather reports predicted rain up to 8,000' followed by wet snow, my inbox started filling up with messages titled "Bail!" and "Have you seen the weather???" from my Bradley Hut companions to be. I alt+tabbed back to MS Query Analyzer and wondered if I should just come into work instead of taking my planned Friday off. It looked like it would be that, or another solitary day in the apartment mining belly button lint.

(Originally posted on TelemarkTips.com)

Caption: First flight leaves Kaslo for Carlyle Lodge

Longish introduction which may seem to have little to do with subject at hand:

I've realized that there are a number of obstacles hindering my fledgling
movement to introduce Backcountry Touring as an Olympic event. For
starters, many Olympic host cities will not be able to provide the

A few quick words about Pear Lake Hut this past weekend (4/15-17). Our fearless crew (Justin Desantis, Jen Evans, Roger Miller, Jen Jackson, John Melvin and myself) after a unanimous decision on tall stacks of pancakes at the Wuksachi restaurant (no wussy Mama Bear orders in this group!) departed the Wolverton trailhead at about 10:30 am.

Read the full story on TelemarkTips.com

Originally posted on Snownet.org

Friday evening found most of the RLPP (Red Lake Peak Posse) in
attendance at Jen Jackson and Roger Miller's annual Holiday Cookie
Party. We fortified ourselves with Karen and Tom's Haystacks, sampled
intimidating homemade double chocolate mocha sandwich cookies, munched
raw veggies, and quaffed beer and cider. Topos, snowparks and cookie
recipes were traded and there was much anticipation of our impending
adventure.

The following morning I treated my sugar hangover with Peet's Aged