Winter Camping

I love sleeping in tents. I think my tent feels more like home than my home, even though I’ve never actually lived out of a tent. Anyway, I’ve been badly in need of a night in a tent, so I headed up Mill D with a friend to sleep in the snow. The problem with this is the new “No Overnight Parking” sign at Spruces. They don’t allow winter camping anymore at Spruces since the boy scouts used to trash the place with their “winter camping” under picnic tables, but I didn’t realize that they didn’t allow overnight parking at all. We parked across from the sledding hill and hiking up the road to Spruces. It didn’t take very long. Figuring out the summer trail that left from where we parked would have been just too easy. Also, the looks on the faces of passing drivers were pretty priceless.

digging down through the immense 2 feet of snow (sigh)

I couldn’t believe how thin the cover still is in some places. I want more snow!

home sweet tent

goodbye sun, hello cold

Once the sun set, the temperature dropped pretty quickly. I took off my sweet new altimeter watch and hung it up in the tent to see what the temperatures were really like. It got down to 26 (F) before we went to sleep, but it was 31 (F) when we woke up. Not too bad. I had a 5 deg bag, so I was toasty. In the morning, I put my watch back on my wrist in my sleeping bag, and within a few minutes it was registering 85 deg!

arty ski boot through tent mesh shot

I did get the opportunity to try out my new Primus stove- the multifuel one that Backcountry has been trying to unload on SAC for the last year. I finally gave in and bought one a few months ago, lured by the promise of the ability to adjust the oxygen intake for high altitudes. It worked really well. I keep hearing that you’re suppose to turn over the fuel bottle if it starts to freeze so you can get liquid fuel, so I tried it. The result was a pretty spectacular fire ball that almost set the rice packet on fire. It was awesome.  : )

new stove

It was kind of a long night because I didn’t do the best job of flattening out the place where we put the tent, but it was super awesome to be sleeping in a tent for a change. I really enjoyed checking out the ice that formed on EVERYTHING in the tent overnight. How have I not noticed that before?

icy tent zippers

I am a big fan of nights in the backcountry.

First Day Back in the Wasatch

A selection of photos from my first day back in Utah after Christmas:

It’s good to be home. : )

Knitting with my own hand spun yarn

So far my blog has been way more yarn than snow, and that makes me a little sad. I need more snow in my life. Right now I’m at home in Tennessee, and it looks like we’re going to get some tonight, so that will have to sustain me until I make it back to Utah and start doing some skiing worthy of blogging about.

In the meantime, here was my one-night-wonder project from last week. I finally decided to do something with my mini-skein of yarn that I spun myself on my very own (marginally pathetic) drop spindle that I got like 4 years ago at a medieval fair in Oklahoma. I had hoped to someday make enough to knit a hat, but I got my first taste of using a spinning wheel a few weeks ago, and I’m sorry to say that I’m just not going back to the drop spindle. Anyway, here’s my yarn. I did not dye it- it came that color.

A mini, mini skein

This picture shows more of the true color (I really want a better camera):

What to do with this meager amount of yarn… it was a puzzle. I settled on making a coffee cup cozy for my grandmother. I found a pretty button at the LYS, and I just went with a simple braid. It took all of about 30 minutes to come up with the idea, knit it, and sew on the button. I used sz 8 needles so it would be closely knit. I think it turned out pretty well.

Cool. So now I just need a spinning wheel. : )

December already?

Wow… it’s almost halfway through December! How did that happen? I’ve been busy trying to get my paper ready for publishing, learning to telemark, and trying (desperately) to finish my Christmas knitting, but I did take time out last weekend (since the snow sucked) to do my Christmas cards.

I wasn’t feeling very Christmas-y this year, so I only did a few cards for my immediate family, but I did try a new technique. I found a really cute card at a coffee shop (for $7?!) that had a design embroidered on it. I used to do sewing stuff like that, so I decided to try it. I was decently pleased with the results, especially given that I just did everything free hand. Here are some examples:

I needed a thicker black pen.

my personal fav

The whole batch.

Maybe I’ll come up with some neater designs and sell them for $5 next year.  :)

Some Thoughts on Snow

It’s snowing again!!! I didn’t take any pictures because hey… it happens all the time. I still just can’t get over how beautiful it is. It must be a Southern thing. Until I moved to Utah, I could probably count the number of times I’ve seen it snow on two hands, and now every single time it snows, I still have that same feeling of excitement. Ok, so it’s partially due to skiing (as in, it’s snowing so let’s plan a dawn patrol), but it’s just so damn beautiful to see snow on the trees. Mix snow + trees + Christmas lights, and I could just stare forever.   : )

Explora-touring ‘09

It finally snowed last week. By snow, I mean that the originally sweet-looking trough that the GFS showed early last week crapped out, but we still added about a foot to our snowpack on N-facing aspects through storms on Thursday and Saturday. On Saturday, I went out with some friends for some beacon practice, and we proved once again that Pieps is the way to go. On Sunday, I headed out with one of my favorite people to check out conditions around Grizzly Gulch. Alta was ridiculous, and much of the good stuff at the resort was tracked by the time we got started.

early season Alta zoo

Most people go around the gate that blocks the road to Albion Basin, but L and I prefer to try to limbo under the gate. Sometimes it works. Sometimes not so much.

a little lower...

The weather was beautiful! The snow was super shallow on S-facing aspects, so we hit quite a few rocks on the skin track up. We saw a few other groups, but it seems like the majority of people stayed at Alta.

A little ways up the road, we saw THE COOLEST THING. Something that can make two atmospheric scientists freak out. Something that made us spend about 15 minutes taking photos.

 

Beautiful crystals! Hundreds of them! They were just sticking on the side of this pole. We had a lengthy discussion of how they got there. Temperatures during the storm were within the dendritic growth regime (that’s definitely all I saw falling), so where the hell did these cute little plates come from? I guess I need to study more cloud physics.

Anyway, we dug a pit and then went up to Twin Lakes Pass, where we jumped on some wind pillows and got nothing.

We headed up Patsy Marley, with the intention of skinning around the top of Wolverine Cirque. I had mixed feelings about heading up this bowl- it always creeps me out just a little. It WAS convenient that somebody had made their way to the top ahead of us and left a friendly skin track.

The trip around Wolverine Cirque was much more difficult and took much longer than typical mid-season travel. Who knew there were little trees up there?

Think moose thoughts.

We talked about heading around to Tuscarora and back through Alta, but we were both pretty hungry, and we couldn’t resist the sweet turns calling us from Patsy Marley. It was really amazing, and we really didn’t hit that many rocks. I did get one nasty core shot on the S-facing crap heading back to the road.

At the top of Patsy Marley, we saw a skin track going up Pole Line. I would not have thought that there was enough snow for that, but after talking to some of my friends who went that way, maybe I’ll consider going up that way this weekend if the snow materializes.

It’s nice to be skiing again. :)

Finished Ingenue

I have finished my Ingenue, and it looks amazing, which is some consolation for the lack of snow around here.

All done!

It fits great- I made it only about 5 rows longer than the pattern called for. All other modifications I did as I previously described. I can’t wait to make another one!  : )

It’s Wedding Time in Tennessee!

I’m finally back from my trip home to Tennessee. It was a great trip- nice to be around familiar faces (seriously… you can’t go anywhere without running into somebody you know) and drink gallons of sweet tea.

One of my very best friends, who I’ve known since 3rd grade, got married last Saturday. I finished her garter just in time, and she LOVED it. Here’s a picture of it on her leg. I also made the bracelet featured in the upper left.

Le garter

I always ask for the measurements of the person I’m making the garter for, so I know the garter should fit, but I always have to let go of a big sigh of relief when it actually fits. On Saturday we almost forgot the garter. I ran it out while photos were being taken before the wedding.

The placing of the garter on the leg.

The wedding was beautiful, and it’s such a wonderful feeling to get to watch somebody you’ve known for 16 years look into the eyes of the person they will spend the rest of their life with. I’m so, so happy for them, and it gives me hope that there’s still a person like that out there for me. Maybe.

Another old, old friend

The maid of honor was another old, old friend of mine. Not old in terms of age, but we’ve also been friends since 3rd grade. In elementary school, every single Friday night we would take turns spending the night. Crazy memories.  : )

Skinny Lace Wedding Garter

It has definitely been a year of weddings this year… I’ve been invited to 7, and wedding #4 or 5 (I lost count!) is this weekend. I’m flying home tomorrow morning. Which means it’s spectacular that I finally finished knitting the bride’s wedding garter last night.

My friend who is getting married has been in my life a very long time- I remember when she joined our table for lunch in 3rd grade. It’s amazing that we’ve been able to stay in touch, and I’m so happy to be a part of her special day.

I’ve knit 4 wedding garters this year. The first two were from a pattern by Diane Willet. I really love this pattern, and I was happy with the results.

Rebecca's Garter (Diane's pattern)

A few months ago, another friend asked me to knit a garter for her. She’s a very small person (her thighs are only 14 inches around… I’m jealous!!!), and I was afraid that this garter would look huge on her. It also takes a long time to knit, so I decided that I would benefit from redesigning Diane’s brilliant pattern. I wanted to make it skinnier, with smaller lace on the sides and with only one ribbon.

Here’s a photo of my finished design, which Diane graciously gave me permission to post online for the use of others:

Angie's Garter (my redesign)

You can see that it looks very similar. Here’s a close up of the lace before I put the elastic through it- here you can see the differences in the lace.

I didn’t like using bias tape for the casing for the elastic because it didn’t seem very formal, so I went to JoAnn’s to look for a substitute. I ended up finding a scrap of 100% silk fabric that PERFECTLY matched my pretty merino lace yarn, and that’s really the way to go. I bet it feels better on your leg, too.

Anyway, I just posted the pattern on Ravelry here. I had some problems with the full .pdf because it was pretty big, so the version on Ravelry only contains the pattern itself. The full version, complete with detailed instructions and pictures that show how to finish the garter can be found here.

This is not a great pattern for learning lace, just because the tiny needles make it difficult, but if you have some experience knitting lace, it’s not difficult at all. The repeats are decently easy to memorize.

I’ll hopefully get some cute pictures of the garter on the bride’s leg this weekend, so I’ll post those, too.

Second Ski Day

Ok, so this actually happened last week, but what with the NASA conference downtown and moving/Halloween over the weekend, things have been a little insane. Anyway, I knew this storm was coming, and I knew it was gonna be COLD (GFS said -12 deg C at 700 mb), but I wasn’t sure about the moisture, and I wasn’t following it very closely. On Tuesday it began to snow, even in the valley. It was very entertaining to listen to the people on TRAX complain about the cold.

By Tuesday night, this was the view from my back porch. Note that this is the first time my Cocorahs rain gauge has seen precipitation, and yes, it’s very badly placed.

Wednesday morning was the optimal time for a dawn patrol, but I had to be at the conference by 8:30 am for a talk on the North American monsoon (which was my research topic for my M.S.), so the dawn patrol was pushed back to a dusk patrol. On the way home from the conference, I spoke with some people who were out in the morning. Reports indicated really great conditions on shallower slopes (~ 1 ft fresh), but only because the old snow was pretty hard. I was super excited to head up for some turns.

We got to the parking lot (upper Alta), and the wind was insane. Temps were ~ 12 deg (F), so it was pretty cold. We were really disappointed to find that most of the new snow had been scoured away… even on places like Greeley. There were a few people trying to get in their turns, but there couldn’t have been more than 6 inches total on Greeley Hill based on the weeds sticking up.

We briefly discussed Gunsight, but we weren’t comfortable with the level of risk that line entails this early in the season (mostly due to rocks). Rather than heading up that way, we continued skinning up Alta. We made it almost to Cecret Lake without seeing any super awesome places to get good turns, but skiing down the “groomers” (well, they’re groomers when the resort is open) was pretty fun, and it was great to get out and get some cardio.

When we got back to the car, the sunset light filtering up canyon was really pretty. And, of course I took a tumble walking back up to the parking lot. It’s not a day skiing unless I fall on the icy pavement.

Alta’s making snow, and I think Solitude is set to open a few runs November 5? Ski season is finally upon us again.  :)