It's gone!

Turns out the lack of snow doesn't make a very exciting picture. But the snow in our backyard is gone!!!

Even closer...

Maybe this won't be there anymore by the time I get home. Fingers crossed...

Almost there....

Alright, people, this is what's standing between us and spring:

To be honest, the fenceline along the south side of our yard still has a 3-foot wide strip of snow all along it where it's always shady. but that's not maintaining a swamp in the middle of the yard as it slowly melts away. When I look out the window, I look at this snow and try my best to send mental heat rays its way.

Tour of Anchorage

Well, yesterday was the tour of Anchorage. The weather was gorgeous, with crystal clear skies and bright sunshine all day long. In the morning it was warmer than its been recently (around 10-15 degrees at the start, instead of the -5 to -10 that have been typical for the past week+) and afternoon highs must have been right around freezing. Trail conditions were rough, owing to some really strong winds over the past week or so with no new snow in weeks. The groomers were able to get most of the windblown debris off of the trails, but at the cost of softening up the snowpack so that the 1500 skiers in the tour turned many sections of the trail to a slow, sugary consistency. The worst was one section of about a half mile of uphill trail along the coast which had accumulated a ton of windblown dust that was groomed into the aforementioned sugary snow. As I skied over it I thought to myself that it looked and felt like I was skiing over sand. These poor snow conditions slowed the race down considerably: the median time for the mens 40K race was 2:50, compared to 2:35 last year.

I would say my day took the trajectory of the weather, rather than the snow conditions. I kept a steady pace for the first 30K (with one quick break to check my blood sugar, have a snack and swig some coffee at the pit stop Beth set up for me where the route went past our house - thanks again, babe!) and had enough juice left to pick up my pace a notch for the last quarter of the race. This included the biggest hills of the day and I got to pass a lot of people on my way up them, which was some much-appreciated motivation and a nice reward for my effort. I was even able to muster a sprint across the finish line during which I passed exactly zero people who were in my race, but it still felt good.

All in all, I finished in 2:41. Considering that the race was about 15 minutes slow due to course conditions I was surprised and very happy about the time, which put me in 103rd place out of 265 racers. Thats in the top 40% and my goal was to be right at the 50th percentile. Finally, although I was (and am) quite tired, I wasn't sore or in pain with the exception of a blister on my right foot.

So to review: beautiful day, better than expected finish, happy skier.

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Postscript: Beth took some pictures, so if I'm not drooling or snotty in them I'll repost them or link to them here once she puts them online.

Bike Commuting

Well, I've been meaning to write a full post about bike commuting for awhile now, but haven't gotten around to it in part because I didn't have any good pictures to go along with it. Then when I did get one picture I put it up as a mini post with a promise to write more later. But lets face it, I'll probably never get a bunch of good bike commuting pictures because I'm rarely, if ever, going to take the time to stop riding, dig out a camera and take a picture before I go on my way. And neither is Beth, and no stranger is going to stop and take off his or her gloves to take photos for us on a cold dark morning. So no good pictures, but what I do have are questions, so I guess I'll use that as the basis for a post. Actually, it's pretty much the same question from everybody, so this should be pretty easy...


"why ride?"


Its always some version of this. Sometimes the implication is that I'm stupid, sometimes that I must be really hardcore, sometimes a super-environmentalist and sometimes just insane. But it boils down to the question of why a person with a perfectly good car in their driveway would leave that car in the driveway and set off over snow and ice in total darkness at temperatures down to a few degrees below zero. It's actually not any of the reasons people assume, and although its probably easiest to refute the idea that I'm super tough or that I do this because of strong environmental convictions, hopefully I can argue that I'm not stupid or crazy either.

First, the environmental aspect. It's 6 miles, roundtrip, by car to drive to work, so thats a maximum of 30 miles a week. I'm not saying thats an inconsequential distance, but for someone who is willing to drive 160 miles roundtrip to go snowboarding, or over 200 for a weekend getaway (this coming Friday), its tough to cite environmental concern as the justification for biking to work.

As far as being really tough, unfortunately I'd say that the discomforts of biking are pretty minor - comparable, actually, to the discomforts of driving. So far this week, I've had one ride where I was cold on my forehead because I didn't have my hat pulled down far enough, and other than that I was either just fine or even too warm while riding. By comparison, it would have been a lot colder to sit motionless in the car for 5 minutes waiting for the engine to warm up. I guess that this works as my argument for not being stupid or insane, too, in that biking in the winter is actually a whole lot easier than it would seem.

For example, it seems like slipping tires would be a big problem and sudden crashes a constant risk. But for the most part traction is just as good as any dirt trail in the summer. Of course, for the few icy patches there are 294 steel studs in each tire, which are a luxury I don't have in the car. All in all, its more than enough for a surefooted ride.

Then there's the question of being cold, but again it turns out to be easier than I expected to stay warm. Here's what I wore Monday morning when it was a couple degrees below zero:

• thin ankle-length socks


• bike shoes with neoprene covers


• bike shorts


• windproof, non-insulated pants


• t-shirt


• long-sleeved athletic shirt


• light fleece jacket


• paper-thin flourescent yellow jacket for visibility


• thin hat with ear flaps to fit under bike helmet


• neck gaiter


• cheap leather mittens

Basically, the only extra layers on that list are the shoe covers, neck gaiter, bike shorts and reflective coat, but out of those things only the shoe covers are something I had to buy to stay warm while biking. In fact, I actually take off layers in the morning between walking Bella and leaving for work.

Darkness is the other potential problem, but except for a couple hundred feet of trail at our local park the route is lit 24 hours a day. On top of that I have my Day-Glo jacket and 2 blinking lights on my bike plus a headlight bright enough to light my way on unlit trails. Beth's got three flashing lights and a headlight so bright that sometimes I think she's a car behind me. So every car, truck, skier, dog-walker and moose can see us coming from a mile away.

In the end, what it comes down to is the fact that biking to and from work is just a lot more pleasant than driving. I don't have to sit in a cold car waiting for it to warm up and I don't have to clear snow and ice off of the car in the pitch darkness. There's no traffic to worry about, and with their studded tires our bikes might even handle better in the winter conditions than our car does. By biking I get to stretch my legs out before I spend the day behind a desk. At the end of the day, biking gives me a chance to switch out of work mode as soon as I start pedaling, but when I drive I generally don't feel like I've left work behind until after I'm home. Seeing the occasional moose at the side of the trail is pretty cool, and yesterday on the way home I saw a fox sneaking across the frozen creek that runs alongside the trail (although apparently my sister saw a fox in DC the other day, which makes this a little less unique). At the end of the day I feel pretty good about having gotten some exercise and burning off some steam on the trails definitely seems to help me sleep better. All-in-all, I'd say I bike to work because I like the ride!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
turns out starting this post inspired me to try to get a couple pictures yesterday on the ride home:

Beth demonstrates the proper form for red cheeks and frozen eyelashes

a self-portrait while riding - if it were snowing my facemask wouldn't be so gross, but all that ice came from me

Beth (in front) and Bryn riding in front of me as we get close to home - the brightness of the reflective strips on Bryn's pants actually confused the camera and made the trail look a lot darker than it actually is

Backcountry Snowboarding - 12/23/2010

On Thursday Beth and I went out backcountry snowboarding with our friends Bryn and Louis. We were ready for some cold weather, but when we drove through a valley and the temperature suddenly dropped to -14 I was thinking of calling it quits. Fortunately, the temperature rose just as quickly as we climbed up the other side of the valley, and did so before I had the chance to give voice to my cowardice.

It was still right around zero when we left the cars, and I was more worried about Bella and Dash getting cold than I was about myself, mostly because Bella has been a sissy about having cold feet recently. But they were both fine all day until the very end, when I think they were so tired that keeping warm was more of a struggle. But thats getting ahead of myself. In the morning, it was easy to stay warm, since as soon as we left the car we started skinning our way straight uphill. In fact, we'd already stopped to take off some layers before we found ourselves bathed in sunshine, and it was probably for the best that the sun wasn't really adding any heat to the mix. This time of year its so great to get out in the sun, though, so we might as well have been on a beach somewhere.

With clear skies and bright sun, the highlight of the day was probably the amazing scenery. The snowboarding was a lot of fun, of course, but the surrounding mountains were just beautiful, and I kept stopping to snap more and more photos of the same peaks and ridges all day. Of course, all day is a pretty short time frame, so with the sun setting as we started back to the cars at the end of the day there was time for one last shot and then the camera had to get put away.

But I guess I shouldn't sell the snowboarding short. After reaching the top of our ridge around noon, we took a quick lunch break before making some turns down the back side of the ridge. Despite almost 3 weeks without snow there wasn't another ski or snowboard track in sight, although moose had made a mess of the powder at the very bottom of the run. We skinned back up to the top of the ridge and took our second run down the front side, where there were a good deal of tracks but the snow was probably still as good as anything in bounds after noon on a powder day. Of all things we ran into Beth's and Bryn's boss' boss at the top of the second run. Someone in his group was impressed with the fact that we'd made a run down the back side, but I think both of the ladies were a bit disappointed to have work catch up to them in the backcountry.

On a final note, it felt really good to get out and make some turns for the first time in a year and only the second time in 2 years. I had a ton of fun with the fact that I can go out and charge pretty hard right off the bat. I also loved the fact that my split board handled the chopped up snow on the last run like a champion. It brought back the feeling of riding my first Never Summer through that sort of snow for the first time - just great control and super steady underfoot.

Anyway, I can't wait to get back out again, even though I do hope its a bit warmer the next time. And a bit of fresh snow wouldn't hurt, either. Now here's the photos:

came really close to suggesting we turn around at 10:06, but seven

minutes later it wasn't so bad.

setting out from the car before the sun rises

above the surrounding peaks

the crew breaks into the sun for the first time of the day

happy to have some sunshine on our way up

Beth drops in at the top of run #1

heading back to the top for run #2

snow-covered mountains

beautiful scenery, all day

the sun was starting to set as we got back to the top

before our second run.

and a closing shot of Bella looking dignified...

Arriving at work

This is what I looked like when I got to work this morning:

It may not look like it, but I'm sweating uncontrollably under all that frost. It was -5 at the house this morning and my eyelashes froze together at one point, but the only part of me that felt cold was the exposed part of my forehead, because I let my hat ride a little too high.

I've been meaning to do a full post about bike commuting in the winter, so I'll still do that sometime, but I thought I'd share this shot now.