Be Informed

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TAX THIS

Yo all you skiers and boarders out there, Eagle County Commissioners want to tax you like the government. Whoa, they are the government! They want to get ya with a sales tax on lift tickets. I have no problem with this as long as it is on one day tickets and not season passes. I say make the bubba family from tehas on Christmas vacation flip the bill ;) Actually no one should flip the bill, what are they doing up there with all of the tax revenue they are already raking in from property taxes, and the tourist industry? The days of $120 lift tickets are just around the corner, so start getting in shape, and be prepared to find another mode of transport up the mountain. Cyn and I hope to be riding the lifts less this year (as long as the snow pack cooperates).

True or False?

Damn, No Global Cooling!?!?

Just as my hopes are raised for Global Cooling, they stomped out by another article on Global Warming. So which is it? Does anyone know?

Global Cooling!?!

What more could a ski bum ask for!
I typically don't rant about a politically sensitive subjects like this, but rumor has it the Arctic Ice Cap doesn't want to melt away like some are saying it will. So the question posed; is global warming... A) Sound scientific analysis based on good data, B) Typical temperature cycle of our global environment (which we have limited data on), C) propaganda used for political gain, or D) a combination of some or all? I guess only time will tell, but for now I just hope that this year we get half as many powder days as we had last year. Why half? Cuz any more would just be greedy, and more people would probably want to move here ;)

Colorado Wildlife

The infamous Croc-o-rosebud!

This fine specimen is rarely seen in this part of the country.

Get Ya Bronco's Tickets He'yah

If anyone is interested in Denver Broncos Tickets for their game against the Green Bay Packers August 22nd at Invesco Field let me know. I have 3 tickets for this game I would like to sell.....

James Peak~ 13,294'

St. Mary's Glacier is on the route I traveled to James Peak

This made the first 1000' of vertical very easy.

Mt. Evans in the background

Top of the Glacier. Anyone know why most of the glaciers in Colorado are on east aspects?

The road to James Peak

Can you see the Ptarmigan?

Mt. Bancroft, and Loc Lomond

Another view of Mt. Bancroft and Loc Lomond

From the top of James~ Winter Park in the background.

Great views and beat the heat of D-Town, not a bad way to spend a Sunday

Broken Critters

Yesterday was a good and bad day for critters in the Littles house hold. Good in that we did our part in helping control the pet population, and bad in that everyone took a trip to the Vet to get spay and neutered...

So why didn't I get them spay and neutered sooner? Well Zeus the dog was from a good breed of ranch dogs in Sedalia, and I thought about studding him out for a while. Ike the cat was a stray kitten I found in a bush in front of my old house in Castle Rock, and I just never did. Why now? Cyn and I will most likely be staying in her place in Denver for the next couple months. Her landlords have a couple of cats that are all "outdoor cats" and a cat door installed for them to roam about, so Ike had to get the spay for the move. Zeus was a bonus, I basically got a 2 for one deal in that I took them to Planned Pethood Plus, a local spay and neuter clinic in Denver. Most vets would have charged in the neighborhood of $400 just for the dog neuter, PPP charged around $240 for both when all was said and done.

So now the dog gets to sport the ultra sleek dish look while I am at work for the next 2 weeks. Absolutely no licking! With this rig on his head he can hear Cyn all the way in DC, which explains some of the random stuff he does.

Still not totally with it this morning

Poor dude slept all afternoon, evening and night. He still tried to follow me around the apartment though, I would find him laying in strange spots where he probably just crashed out.

The cat was the quietest she has ever been in the car. I haven't seen her since we got home from the vet, for all I know she may have run away for good after her first trip to the vet.

Check out the Clinic at: http://www.plannedpethoodplus.com/

DC in a Day!

I had some time to kill on friday while Cyn was at work, so I decided to attempt the super tour (by foot) of the Mall, in Washington DC. I had 5.5 hours to do the 6.7 miles, hitting all of the major monuments along the way. (I really just needed some exercise after spending the previous day at work and on a plane) I kept things entertaining by giving ma, and pa little a tour of DC via TXT messaging.

The World War II Memorial

"Freedom Is Not Free" ~The Korean War Memorial

Lincoln Memorial

Outside the Lincoln Memorial

"The Wall"~Vietnam Veterians Memorial

Vietnam Veterans Memorial

Vietnam Womens Memorial~The Nurses

The White House

The National Archives

The Capital Building

And Again.......

Done by 1:15 with with an hour and fourty five minutes to spare, time to take a nap under a nice shade tree........

Two Down One to Go!

I was back in our nations capital over the weekend to visit Cyn. It was awesome to see this rock'n chica, aka my wife, in person again. Its amazing how true the saying "separation makes the heart grow fonder" is. Although this has been a fairly long tour, I truly believe we will be stronger from our experiences with it. I have to admit I married a strong woman, she has kept things together very well, and made this as easy as possible on us. Now that we are in the last leg of the trip it is very apparent that Cyn is now suffering from short timers disease, being that she only has one month to go until they let her out of captivity.

Hagar Mountain 13,195'

So in keeping with this years theme of getting back into the things I love to do, I set out to climb Hagar Mountain on Sunday. I had been eyeing this peak from Loveland Pass during the ski season and now that we've hit mid July I figured the snow pack would be down enough to do a ridge run from Loveland Ski Area. A snow climb in the late spring would be great in this area after the snow pack settles. Hagar Mountain is 13,195' and sits at the north end of the Dry Gulch Basin.

Hagar Mountain is the high point on the left center of the photo

The Continental Divide Ridge line was my ascent and descent route. After gaining most of my vertical for the day in the first couple of miles from the ski area, the ridge run was a tedious up and down hovering around 13,000 feet the whole way.

The saddle before my final ascent to the peak left me looking at this. The ridge dropped from 13,000 to 12,600 then back up to 13,195 to the summit. A bit of a grind but worth it.

This is the summit formation, the climb was all class 2 to this point. The final scramble to the top is considered class 3 with a couple class 4 moves thrown in. The north side of the summit (left in photo above) is entirely exposed, the route to the top for me was on the south west side.

Another look at the No Fall to the north

Cheese'n at the top... Hi Cyn, wish you were here ;)

Looking back at the ridge approach.

The little saddle just before the summit

Lots of open space to the north (Vasquez Wilderness Area)

This basin looks like it holds quite a bit of snow during the winter, possible playground, only consideration would be that you would have to climb back out over the divide to get back to your car, as its miles and miles of wilderness to the north.

Totals for the day 7.5 miles, 4000+ Vertical

Soul Mates!

You just know when you've meet your soul mate. That was the case for me, and here's some proof:

"Exhibit A"~Boy with Orange Monkey Lips

"Exhibit B"~Girl with Orange Monkey Lips

Any questions?

DC for the 4th

I was lucky enough to head out to DC to spend the 4th of July with my wife for a nice long weekend. All in all it was a great trip. The weather stayed overcast for the majority of the time keeping the temp's slightly below Africa Hot!

We headed to the Marine Corp Memorial which overlooks the Lincoln Memorial, and Washington Monument, to watch the fireworks. Extremely large crowds were expected on the Mall for the Firework celebration so we steered clear.

The view's were great and the pictures just don't give it justice.

Monday I headed into DC while Cyn went to work. I hit up the metro and tooled around for a while.

Great Trip, and another item crossed off the list of things to do before the show is over.

Still Making Turns?

Last winter is one for the books, some people are still rock'n the turns in the high country. Since my ski buddy isn't in town right now I have been focusing my attention elsewhere with the Road Bike, Mountain Bike, and running as of late. I particularly like this little reminder, when thinking about next skis season which in reality is only a little ways off there is a lot to be excited for ...... here! I may just pack up the boards and find some turns this weekend. Rumor has it the snow pack is holding surprisingly well for this time of year. Some say the snow pack right now is like late May in typical years. Hmmmmmm.......

I Got Screw'd

There has to be something said for the car companies adding the tire pressure gauges to the warning lights in cars. I picked this little guy up Sunday morning before I headed out to DIA to bring Cyn back to the airport. After dropping her off the tire pressure warning light came on before I left the airport complex and was able to fill my tire with air before heading home. I may have found myself changing the tire on the side of E-470 if the dash light didn't exist. Thanks VW (for once)

OUCH!

Life is Good!

What can I say, I have an amazing partner in crime. I received a surprise package at DIA Thursday night in the form of a pint size wife with a big o'l smile on her face. Cyn decided to surprise me with an unscheduled trip home over the weekend. This is an awesome thing, being that I was missing her like you read about. We had a great weekend of walks, lounging by the poolside, dog parks, dinners and just strait up quality time together in person! I cant help but feel like the luckiest guy in the solar system right now. Man, i love my wife!

Sweet No. 17!

After a 22 year vacation, the C's are back, and the icing on the cake is that they BEAT LA!

The home town fans were treated to a 131-92 ars woop'n of Kobe and Co. in game 6 to take the series! Ya that's right, I got my green on today!

New Wings!

I ran across this cute little bugger the other day. First day trying out the new wings. He/she could only fly about 5-10 feet when I ran across him/her.

The li'll guy made it up on the window sill out of foot traffic.

Mom/Dad weren't to far away.

(Sitting on the top branch of the tree below the window)