Colorado is white

We love the snow.  Taos was a beautiful wintery picture, from the high desert valleys to the alpine cirques.  Rolling into Taos from Albuquerque, where we got some help from a mechanic with the van and her lack of power (or so we thought,) all I could do was stare up at the snowy peaks.  The van was still so very low on up hill starting power that we almost got stuck in the main plaza of town because traffic nearly made us stop on a hill off of which we could certainly not have started.  Plus if we staled, it was so hard to get her started again. ???  But we parked successfully and made our way to the out door gear store Julie wanted to check out.  She was on the look out for skis.  You see I am traveling with 2 pairs of skis that I had not yet used and she had the sense to sell hers before she left, and just know that what you need and want is out their for you when you get there.  Well maybe she did not rationalize it like that but that is how she lives and I try to take as many lessons from her as possible.  

The gear store, Mountain Outfitters (please visit them,) has their skis on sale but none in her length.  So we start to look at maps of  the snowy candies of the area.  Shane, the local, backcountry expert, store sales person offers up oodles of bata on the Taos backcountry and is so helpful with his asking about our needs that once he learns of Julie's lack of skis he is on the internet to Telemarktips.com to see if they have any classifieds for Julie's want.  No; and anyway we want to go tomorrow to the mountains.  Shane is quick with a new plan.  Gretta, another employee, has 3 pairs of skis and she has been threatening to sell one of them.  Oh really!  Out comes Gretta to tell Julie about the 3 pairs of K2 Dawn Patrols she owns and obviously it is the only ski for her.  She and Julie chat while Shane and I discuss the Taos backcountry some more.  Gretta has to think about it but we leave the shop with the promise of a phone call before 5 pm.  

I am changing the oil on the van when Gretta calls with her offer to sell bindings and skis with her skins for a great price.  What a way to live, Julie now has her complete set up to go skiing tomorrow.  She arranges to make the exchange in the morning.  After a few more errands we are off to the hot springs for which Brain, a fellow VW Vanagon owner we met while changing the oil, has drawn a map.  Ahhhhh!  (Really they are only a warm springs but what a nice bath after being on the road for 4 days. )

The next morning we are delayed from our rendezvous by the van staling out and not restarting and killing the battery.  After a little help from AAA we are back to it and meet Greta at her house to scope out the sweet deal Julie has manifested.  The skis and skins look great and Greta is happy to pass on one her dear possessions to "the right woman."  The van starts (we are never sure if it will this week) and we roll out to the mountains.  

It takes us a few hours to unpack the van and find everything we need and pack it back up onto our backs before we strap on our skins and begin the 2.5 mile skin up to Williams Lake.  Julie has split the weight evenly among us and after only 10 minutes realizes how heavy this will be at 10,200'.  I pack off as much as I can from the outside of her pack and we keep at it slowly.  We pass under beautiful open avalanche chutes to our left which Shane told me about; Bong Chute, Pinky Chute, the fingers.   Maybe I'll get to ski these gems sometime.  We actually take the normal time to get to the lake (which is frozen and covered with snow.)  The lake is under the rim of a 13,000' cirque.  Wheeler Peak is the highest and the highest in NM.  Setting up our camp in the fading sunset is mostly my job as Julie has a terrible stomach ache.  I eat a cold dinner of food we had made back at the van.  Off to bed under the shelter of our rain fly.  Cold cold and nauseous.  Julie is cold and I am sweating and wishing I could throw up because I think I have food poisoning.  We agree to get out and pee and switch sleeping bags.  Julie is happily warming up in my down bag and I am, while going through the uncomfortable throws of food poisoning.  I try sitting, laying, tossing turning, until it finally leaves my system in the early morning.  (a mild case.(Julie had the same thing as the stomach ache when we arrived.))  Waking in the morning I am whipped but cannot lay in the sleeping bag doldrums anymore.  We eat a light b-fast and go back to the bags to warm up and rest.  Around noon we dress to ski.  The sun has at last begun to soften the snow all around the basin.  A tiring climb up the west side snow fields yields stunning views into a new higher cirque and back across the whole valley we had skied up.  The wind is bitter cold and power snow funnels down the north faces.  But the sun feels nice and after a little food and water we are ready for our first turns of 2009.  Nice?  I do enjoy myself in the corny scraping mank.  Julie finds the challenge of spring crust snow kicks her ass and drains her confidence.  We eat dinner in silence as Julie licks her wounds.  It was a good day of breath taking beauty.  We light the twilight with a fire.  The warmth is a blessing as the veil of frozen dark falls over us.  We are now veterans of the cold night and having steered clear of the salmon salad we head to bed.  The wind is so voracious that our fly sometimes goes flat onto us.   We are warm but the noise of the flapping fly is too much for Julie's sleep.  Around 12 the snow squalls begin and since we only have the fly, snow begins to drift in around us.  Yes this is not very fun to sleep in; the flapping fly and cold powder piling up on our bags, stuff, and boots.  We wake warm enough, not hot.  The grey snow clouds are still flurrying.  At b-fast we make enough water to drink with the stove but the fuel is spent.  Cold hard boiled eggs was supposed to be hot hard boiled eggs with parsley and cilantro.  Oh well eggs is eggs.  Julie goes back to warm up before packing as with no fuel we are obviously going down today.  I go for a little ski in the fresh 3" of powder.  We pack and clean our backcountry site of any human remains besides tracks and go down.  Down takes me 15 mins even with most of the weight this, skis are a wonderful thing.   Julie's not far behind.

The van starts but I lose the spark and let it sputter and die.  It won't start again.  Lucky we can push it.  With the help of 2 passers by we position the van ready for the down hill, lots of it since we were parked at 10,200.  We are off on another adventure.  To a hot springs I think!  

love zach

Short but sweet (like snowy mountain top suweeet)

Hello from the inter mountain west where we are enjoying cold snowy weather.  Thats right Julie has skis now so we were able to get out into the backcountry here at Taos, NM.  Taos mountains are gnarly 13ers.  and we camped for two nights at 11,000 feet right under their icy chins.  More stories to come but the battery need charging and I am tried from soaking in warm springs at the bottom of the Rio Grande canyon all day.  Love to all.  Life is sweet.

zach

on ward oh!

We are leaving Austin, Tx and our friends here, after more than a week of fun.  We caught a taste of the vibrant music scene here last weekend as South X Southwest kicked off all over town.  SXSW is a 2 week multimedia festival with excited artists, musicians and filmmakers coming in from all over the world.  We love that sort of thing but our love for mountains and snow are trumping all right now so the ETD is 10:00 am.  We'll be cruising on to NM for high wintery places.  Thanks Summer, Paul and Talula for all your love.  (Especially Lula!)  Here is a picture of Talula, aka Yoda.  Love Zach.

The Mardi Gras of Last Week

A week ago today we revelled in the streets of New Orleans, La (NOLA.)  The partying was the culmination of many prior days of parties, parades and foolery.  Rising before the sun we put on the masks we finished the night before and waited for the cab to take us down town while filling our belly with nurishment.  The cab dropped us at he corner of two now forgotten streets while we balked at the calm of the city.  We arrived 2 hours early to the St. Anne's Parade bringing the only color and life to the sleeping streets.  Although we were very early for the parade, we were only slightly early for the bar.  The manager at the corner bar, Bud Rips, called the bar tender upon a request from the truly, truly, outrageous Gem.  Let me introduce to you the crew, Gem, an 80's cartoon rockstar, Coco the gorilla, the Spirit of 

Mardi Gras, and myself, Boy Titty.  We all entered the bar fifteen mintute after our arrival the street and ordered our first drink of the day, 3 bloody maries and a screwdriver.  The bar tender gave us money for the juke box and the party started.  Yes indeed the party got off to a great start.  Other revelers started arriving to the bar to begin the excesses of the Fat Tuesday.  By 8:45 you could see costumed people brightening up the streets in every direction.  Other friends of ours started arriving and by 9:30 we were making our way down the street in the direction of the critical mass of revelers.  People had great costumes and loved to share their libations.  We rounded a corner into a street choked with colorful bodies and the sound of marching drums setting the tone.  The potions I had quaffed at Bud Rips began to send me high as a kite, and I left the crew for another bunch of hooligans.  The Skeleton and Zebra were having a riot on the same street and they shared their drink with me!  I

 was intrigued by a house party happening near the middle of the dancing street mob.  Skeleton and I made our way to the open house but separated along the way and I ended up wandering through the garden in back amongst fabulous characters.  The garden unfirled straight back with waterways and sculpture still amid the strolling and dancing revelers.  The people were from all over the country gathered in for the multi-day party.  I met a singing elvis robot, and it sang for some beads.  Wandering back to the 

street I began marching with the parade finally under way at who knows what time.  I fell in line with Skeleton and Zebra as they marched up trailing the brass band.  So went my day with many other grand adventures in the silly and absurd.  I wound down at about 7:00 pm.  Other friends came to join the group and some left in the afternoon to return to the realm of  normality (as far as is possible.)  It was great to share this party with everyone.  I want you all to remember that Gem is outrageous, truly, truly, outrageous!

Rust to dust

Riding on the van is a little slow these days as we are basking in the glow of post Mardi Gras.  As the hang over wears off and we begin to think about moving on we had actually begun to pack up our special home on wheels.  But a few days ago I was doing a vehicle inspection and my finger went right through the wheel well into the side wall of the van body.  In other words I poked a hole in the van where water and other stuff could get into the van's interior and make a mess.  Of course this soft metal patch had always been there but prior to my investigation the severity of the problem had not need to be fixed.  So now I have an interesting scenario for some mental flossing.  I really have been hoping not to be overly involved in repair projects.  Yet I also have been hoping to go to snow wintery climates.  So to drive the van, with it's puncture into it's underbelly, up into snow country is only asking for trouble.  Or so my mind believes.  Somehow I cannot let the illusion of perfection, a van that is totally ready to handle the elements of the mountain west, disovle into a paradise of being, the van is fine in its isness and can survive what it survives because that is what we all do as living creating beings.  In my journey along the road of "choosing what I want from how I am feeling" this is a great lesson.  I don't really want to be doing the work to fix the now many finger holes in the drivers side of the van wall.  But I want to get on the road and be driving soon, and I don't feel good about spending a lot of money on a repair of this sort.  Why do I feel that these choices are conflicting or have to happen in an order and if I am really interested in making change in my life and lifestyle, what other choices can I envision?  Today we worked all day to ready the van body for a coat of fiberglass hole repair.  I started off strong wanting to accomplish the task ahead but soon found myself feeling like there was something else to do that would be more me.  Every time I came back to the grinding and buffing I would feel this enormous "blahhh" towards the job I think I need to do because I can and it will save me so much money.  So that was today.  We'll see how the meditation goes tomorrow.   Bye for now.  Zach