Travels of the Pantengliopoli
This past Saturday Erik, Carey, Alisa, Rich (Alisa’s husband) and I all skied the Hog Loppet, a 30k “race” from Mission Ridge outside Wenatchee to Haney Meadows at Blewett Pass. It was a bluebird day with temps in the 40s.
The race covers 18 miles and starts at 6400 feet. The first 3 miles has a LOT of down, over 1000 feet, which makes for some comical moments when everyone is on waxless fishscale cross country skis, or skate skis. Ass-craters littered the slopes. Continue reading →
Well, now I can officially say that flying in a helicopter is superior to jury duty. After missing my first opportunity to go on a training flight with the Snohomish County Helicopter Rescue Team because I was compelled to fulfill my civic duty, Andy and I drove up to Taylor’s Landing (the SC Sheriff’s heliport) and hitched a ride on the 1974 Huey that is their aerial workhorse for Search And Rescue missions.
We spent some time going through a variety of hoist procedures on the ground, in the hangar, while waiting for some weather to move through the area. Once done, we rolled the heli out onto the pad and strapped in. Andy and I were passengers, but had flight helmets with radios and were able to listen in on the comms and ask questions if we had them. The 15 minute flight to the training area was excellent — I couldn’t help but be reminded of Vietnam War movies as we flew.
Once at the training area, the Rescue Technicians (the same position Andy & I are applying for) were lowered to the ground on the hoist, along with their gear. The pilot then set it down and we got out. The crew ran through four rotations of hoist lifts, using a litter, a “screamer” suit (basically a reinforced nylon blanket with hard-point lifting rings) and a strop (like a horse-collar that you’d lift a swimmer with). Andy and I were used as the subjects for the screamer suit and I got hauled up in the strop — super fun, if also just a tiny bit disconcerting.
There’ll be a lot more of these trainings coming, if we’re accepted onto the team. Looking good so far!
http://www.king5.com/news/local/Two-climbers-missing-near-Alpental-83759752.html
I can’t really go into much detail about things, but the highlight of my weekend was being involved in the effort to help track these guys down and get them out safe. Feels good to be doing this kind of work again.
It has been a fairly dismal snow year here in the Pacific Northwest. Our passes to the Snoqualmie resorts lie crisp and fresh, untouched, in our helmets. Amid the organized chaos of involvement with 3 or 4 Search And Rescue teams between the two of us, we’ve had precious little time to use those passes, even if there had been snow to play on, so when we looked at the schedule and realized that the last weekend in January was blissfully free of commitments, we decided to ski tour both days and make the most of it. Continue reading →
After ushering in 2009 in a moldy, half-frozen yurt, we made plans to close out the year in comfort and style. Caribou Lodge had been good to us despite poor skiing conditions in March and it came through again for New Year 2010. Continue reading →
Many of you will be familiar with this stuff already, but Aunt Tilley (Margo) wanted a more thorough explanation of the graph in my last post, so I wrote it out for her and figured I might as well put it up here, too. Continue reading →
We took Jessica out for her third backcountry weekend in a row, aiming for the trifecta of difficult skiing conditions. We were lucky to find 15″ of new snow that had been subject to 2 or 3 days of above freezing temperatures and several inches of rain. Had to be some of the soggiest, heaviest skiing I’ve ever done, but we had a good time, dug some pits and did some beacon practice before running home to the beer and dry clothes.
This was a Cascade Backcountry tour, and a beacon/travel education day for a couple of friends who are new to touring.
The very ambitious (and never really serious) plan was to head out the XC trails from Hyak and scoot out to Twin Lakes, then up to ski the east slopes of Silver. Coverage along the XC trails is pretty good, with only a few bare patches, but even at 3400 feet there’s only 18″ of snow on the ground, if that.
Since both Jessica and Leigh were working on new boots, we made it a travel day and skinned up to just shy of Windy Pass and did a nice big beacon search clinic. Great fun, and everyone did a great job. It’s a treat to go out and have a blast with enthusiastic people when, if it were just me, I’d probably stay home and eat pancakes, waiting for better snow.
Occasional sun and great visibility was a bonus. Surface hoar forming everywhere, with particularly impressive formations in the creeks and riverbeds. Had we dug a pit, I’ll bet we would have found some near the ground, but we were occupied with beacon work.
Wednesday’s whirlwind adventure was an interesting experience with a very interesting guide. The day started with a history of Turkey’s national hero, Ataturk, and the glorious revolution of the early 1920s. It really started to get fun when he started telling the ‘real truth’ about events that we all thought happened in Greece, but really, apparently happened in Turkey. Continue reading →
Today was a very long and tiring day. I did a whirlwind tour of the Antalya region of Turkey. We hugged the coastline, visiting a number of really fascinating sites, and took in the general amazing beauty of this region of the country. I was out the door at 7:30 this morning and not back to my room until 11pm. I’d love to know how many miles we covered. Since it is so late and I’m exhausted, I’m going to put off doing a post about this day until tomorrow. It was filled with ups and downs, literally and figuratively. Continue reading →