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Tahoe ski bachelor party, Tigger on Skis

 

Check out the videos:      

      

      

Went to a bachelor party out in Tahoe, third ski trip this season, 15 ski days or something ridiculous like that for me this season.  I was impressed by the Tahoe area – apparently they get a ton more snow than Colorado or Utah - though it is generally heavier.  Myself and one other guy got there early on Friday morning and did a hike up Mt Waterhouse and skied down – in a raging blizzard, chains were required to get up the pass.  They don’t require chains for passenger vehicles in Colorado, and I think studs may be illegal – chews up the road too much.  If I’m wrong they don’t enforce it like in California where they pull you over and force you to chain up, have 4wd, or turn around.  The hike up was about an hour and forty-five minutes. And it was worth every minute – one of the greatest runs of my life, if not the greatest. Huge deep untracked powder, giant trees perfectly spaced, big poofy boulder fields, knee to thigh deep bottomless powder.  Spectacular.  Met up with ten-twelve terrific guys at a big home that night,

Colorado Road Trip – Aspen, Telluride, Breck, Vail and White Freeways

View down "Plunge" into Telluride

Took off for a ten-day road trip from Colorado with no particular set agenda other than the first four days were to be in Aspen with my fiance and my family and sister’s family-in-law.  We had a great time as we always do skiing Snowmass, staying in my sis’s aunt and uncle-in-laws’ gorgeous home, taking the little kids to ski school and generally enjoying life.  Woody Creek tavern is always a fun outing, and hanging out in a ski town is fantastic.  From there back to Denver, stayed with a fraternity brother and his family, enjoyed their company and skied Tuesday with Paul at Breckenridge where I have a season pass.  Great time and congrats to him on making full partner at his law firm this year.  We skied a bunch of hard stuff as usual.  Wednesday skied Vail with my friend Kristen who’s on my True Adventure team, then headed to Telluride to see a buddy who lives there and another buddy who’s family has a place there and very generously let us crash with him.  Wonderful town, located in a dramatic dead-end or “box” canyon with sheer cliff wall rising on each side, one of them being the ski resort. 

Skiing Utah – Park City and Alta (vs Colorado)

Went skiing for four days out in Utah with ten or so guys.  I’d been there before for the olympics in 2002 but wasn’t with my hard-core skier buddies, 

Kevin Fired up to Ski Jupiter Bowl, "Jupe"

so it was much more memorable this time.  I love that there are like ten resorts within an hour or two of Park City, and that Park City is only forty minutes or so from the airport.  Also the SLC car rental is small and easy to get to, both advantages over Colorado where the rental cars are off-site requiring a long shuttle ride, and the government slaps a giant tax on vehicle rental, then the 2+ hour drive from DIA into the mountains if there’s no traffic or snow, which there often is that can stretch your drive into 3+ hours, and you face the same drive on the return (however it is a gorgeous drive up and down I-70 and I love it).  Park City also gives you a FREE lift ticket on the day you arrive – we were on the slopes by eleven am counting gear rental, and didn’t pay a penny for our lift tickets.  Very cool setup.  Also this year the snow is superior in Utah, though that isn’t always the case but often is I hear.  Park City I found fun with a bunch of good steeps and short hikes to generally untracked terrain, especially Sunday after an 8-12 inch dumping Saturday nigh 

 

t.  However the runs were a bit short with a long runout at the bottom to the lift each time.  We did lap     

 

 

Some of the crew skiing at Alta

 

 

High Points trip including SC, KY, and GA, attempt at NC

Lisa and I took a five day ”engagement-moon” road trip to the south over New Year’s 2010. One of my projects is to summit the highest point in all 50 states, and a few continents and countries as well. We stayed with some good friends in Indianapolis the first night, then the second day drove to Asheville, NC where we stayed again with friends up in the mountains – celebrating New Years by lighting off a bunch of firecrackers with their five year old and playing dino board games, much fun and laughter had by all. Turns out that in the winter most of these southern state high points are closed to vehicle traffic, and most being drive-ups, this complicated our task. 

Adventure Engagement

So my girlfriend and I went to get dinner the eve of Christmas eve 2009 at the restaurant where we met – nice place, Four Farthings here in Chicago.  It was a cold, blustery night and there was a freezing rain/snowstorm going on.  We had a great time at dinner and then went for a planned walk on the beach, entailing  maybe a 3/4 mile walk through the snow in the park and over North Avenue bridge which was coated in a sheet of ice, handrails, stairs and all.  We crunched our way out onto the beach with rain and sleet biting into our faces, Lisa still in a great mood but having no idea what was coming.  I had wrapped some fake boxes back at my place that she saw before dinner – none ring-box-shaped to her disappointment.  We continued on down the freezing beach in the dark with wind and huge waves crashing onto the shore.  Lisa finally said she’d like to turn around, and as she did, back to the wind and the freezing rain, I said “well in that case I have something to ask you” and dropped to one cold wet knee.  She proceeded to lose her mind and eventually composed herself and asked me to do it again and said “yes!”  See the videos below for a sense of it.  The first video is pretty entertaining in my opinion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_n7pTOSbG8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zbxo_EbYT8

Does this make me famous?

I think not, but still pretty cool – check out this article in Crain’s Chicago Business, about 2/3 of the way down: http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/mag/article.pl?articleId=32680

I’m on a Toastmasters distribution list and a lady was looking to interview people who had taken Toastmasters to help with public speaking.  I emailed and told her that was why I had taken Second City classes and she interviewed me a couple times.  I believe she is independent and I didn’t realize it would be in Crain’s.  It was a fun shock when friends emailed me the day that Crain’s came out to tell me I was in the article.  No less than four people I know read it without me telling them, which is pretty impressive in my humble opinion.  So I’m not famous… but I think that’s pretty cool.

Late October Dinghy Danger, sailboat’s on the hard

It’s over.  Boat’s officially up on her rack for the winter.  Balanced on some iron rods on a cement parking lot, waiting for the return of summer days.  We keep her about 15 miles south of downtown, up the Calumet River at Crowley’s Yacht Yard.  It’s about a 2-3 hour sail south from Monroe Harbor where we keep her moored in the summer.  My boat partner and I do the trip together most every year and it’s always a great time.  This year we had perfect wind and weather, fairly warm for a late fall day, with a beautiful sun and nice breeze out of the west.  Each year we need to take the harness off our buoy, get the dinghy from shore, pump out the head (where the toilet proceeds are stored), and fill her up with diesel before heading south.  Noteworthy this year was the dinghy pickup procedure.  I dropped Aaron off on shore to get the dinghy, which he promptly did, dropping her into the water and shoving off while I pulled the big boat up beside him.  He got ahold of the boat, stood up in the dinghy and began tying her to the stern of the Imjatse (the boat’s name, she’s an Ericson 28).  I asked him “You all set?” and he said “yep!” so I gunned it as we were in a hurry.  Next thing I hear is “hey! hey! hey!” and I look back to see him laying on his back on the side of the dinghy, flailing around, body half in the water, half in the dinghy, desperately trying to stay out of the water as it slowly heeled over. 

Thirteen Attempt 14er Mount Belford, Six Summit

True Adventures headed to Colorado for a long weekend, Thursday through Monday in mid October 2009.  I took fourteen people from True Adventures out with me.  We met at church the weekend before and I asked how many had experience with mountaineering or winter camping.  Right around zero people raised their hands.  So we were off on a crash course on winter camping and the mountains and altitude!  I taught them as much as I could that day and over a series of emails during the ensuing week.  People were able to either purchase what they needed or rent it from REI or borrow from friends.  I love the first part of a trip – buying gear and packing is half the fun.  We all flew into Denver and managed to get cars and all meet up in Leadville where we spent the night at the Alps motel, quite clean and reasonably priced.  The next morning we woke up and distributed food – all $270 worth from Costco!  We had plenty.  Off to the trailhead for the Missouri basin route up Mounts Missouri, Belford, and Oxford. 

On the trail up into Missouri Basin

We hiked up the very steep first section of the trail about two hours, the girls leading the charge to our campsite where we took a break and set up camp near an old dilapidated log cabin around noon.  After a lunch of pb&j’s on pita we all packed up our daypacks and headed further up the valley, quickly getting above treeline and into a stunning valley with a fresh blanket of pristine white snow. 

Kayaking the Apostle Islands

 

The True Adventures Apostle Islands Crew

We did a True Adventures trip to the Apostle Islands in Lake Superior for a very long weekend last weekend.  I have to say it was one of my favorite trips in recent memory.  The scenery and location were really special, the people were great, trip went smoothly, weather was absolutely ideal (sunny and low 80s), and not a mosquito to be found.  Really spectacular.