Nothing to see here

Move along and take that camera with you.

Rock vs. Knee

The rock won.



The kneecap is fractured. Looks like someone's snowboarding season is over.

New Year's Day Tour

On New Years Day, I went on a backcountry tour near Alta with Jeff Johnson and Dwight Curry. We started skinning up from Alta to Cardiff Pass. From there we dropped into Cardiac Bowl on some OK snow. Then came a long skin up to Cardiac Pass. The view was worth the effort but the snow was very wind hammered to the trip down into the bowl left something to be desired. We then made our way back to Cardiff Pass with a short detour into the bowl. The run back to the car was over some very sketchy sun-baked crud. Not an epic day of Wasatch powder but fun nonetheless.

The start of the trip up to Cardiff Pass. Jeff in yellow, Dwight in black.

Surveying possible routes from Cardiff Pass.


The bottom of Cardiac bowl


From Cardiac Pass looking down into Cardiac Bowl and the less-than-stellar snow.


Jeff and Dwight living out their Eiger Sanction dreams and trying to summit Mt. Superior.


Panaorama from Cardiac Pass looking into Mill B South Fork and the Salt Lake Valley (covered in a winter inversion).

Ricky's sense of snow

The furballs got to experience snow for the first time.


They've also been meeting the neighbours.

Where we spent our vacation Pt. II

More photos of our trip to Washington state

Seattle at dusk from the roof of our hotel

We popped up to Vancouver and went for a hike with my Mom to Grey Rocks in Deep Cove

Ayla at Deception Pass St. Park

Ayla on the ferry between Whidby Island and Port Townsend

View north from Hurricane Ridge in Olymic Nattional Park

Ayla on the Hoh river

Spruce sapling in the Hoh valley rain forest (wettest place in the lower 48 states)

Kelp on Rialto beach on the Olympic peninsula


Sunset at Ruby beach on the Olympic peninsula

Mt. Ranier

Ayla and Mt. Ranier

Ayla by the Reflecting Lake with Mt. Ranier (of course)

Stroll

Out for a stroll in Little Cottonwood canyon, Red Pine trail.

Where we spent our vacation

We were in Seattle from September 20 - 22. More photos to follow from Vancouver, and the rest of our trip through Washington.

Stealthy

Ricky finds some great hiding places.

Backpacking in Nevada

We spent Labour Day weekend backpacking with friends in Humboldt National Forest near Jarbidge, Nevada.

We hiked in on Saturday. Here's a view from the trail up to Emerald Lake:



Emerald Lake, close to our campsite:




There was some stormy weather on Sunday, but we were well sheltered near the lake.

















Some people spent Sunday on the ridgeline, hiking to various peaks. Others (like me) only did a little hiking.
Colin's self-portrait at the summit of an unnamed peak. You can see the Matterhorn in the background. He also scrambled to the summit of Cougar.



We hiked out on the Monday. The trip back was somewhat eventful: there were a number of grass fires in Nevada and Idaho on our way back to Salt Lake City.

Settling in

The furballs have adjusted to their new home (and we can't resist posting cat pictures, in case you hadn't already noticed).



Ricky's preferred evening activity is sleeping on the couch with a human pillow.










Bubbles, on the other hand, finds the office more to his liking.











The fireplace also gets the feline stamp of approval.

Big Mountain

Today I rode from home to Emigration Canyon up to Little Mountain, then all the way up to the Big Mountain pass, the highest point on the Mormon pioneer trail. Tough ride.

Utah Backcountry, March 2006

The top of Montreal Hill in Big Cottonwood Canyon. First Utah backcountry trip.

Camping at Amethyst Lake

We finally got to try out some new backpacking gear in the high Uintas near the Wyoming border. We actually tried to do this hike last weekend, except that there were thunderstorms and hail (we're really not thrilled about hail). We went to the art festival in Park City on Sunday instead (no pictures, but we did get a metal art crab).

	This is the Amethyst Lake meadows in the afternoon. We camped at the edge of the meadow.
Here we are the next morning, awake and vertical without the aid of caffeine.

After breakfast, we continued along the trail to the lake. The name is not an indication of it's colour - maybe it got it's name from the mining in the area? It's a fairly large, clear lake with nice views of the Ostler-LaMotte range.

More house photos

The front of the house before the big move (the sign post came down the day before).









The backyard is going to need some work. On the other hand, the covered porch means year-round grilling. We're pretty psyched about that.










The basement (dirty, not very exciting).









The bathroom.















The kitchen from a couple of different perspectives. This was taken a couple of days before moving in. The refinished floors look pretty good here.








The entrance.