Last gasp skiing trip teaser

They say there is no snow in the Sierra this year, Laura has been posting pics almost every weekend proving that wrong. For the most part it is above 10,000 feet, which means some effort is required to get to it.

We headed in from Virginia Lakes on Sat May 24. It wasn't long before we had to walk across snow fields and our walking shoes got pretty wet before we switched to skis and started skinning up over the pass and with a little bit of steep snow and rock scrambling and a bit of fun skiing to Summit Lake.

Grey Butte reflected in the small melted part of Summit Lake

home sweet homes

We set up in a dryish spot and relaxed and ate delicious foods. Appetizers were flavored triscuits with brie and gouda and then bacon wrapped sirloin with bacon mashed potatos and pesto... (yes, this was a trip with Laura, so Moose Lodge hospitality was in full effect.

bacon wrapped steak with bacon mashed potatoes and pesto = YUM

The next day we skinned up a nice bowl and then higher on another slope and skied down. That was so much fun we did the bowl again. There were nice clouds making for interesting light. We took lots of pics.

Laura drops into the bowl

and continues to the creek

an epic fail attempt at a handstand w/ skis

That night dinner was my turn for dinner - I brought dehydrated curried lentils with sweet potato. Luckily we still had some crackers and brie and gouda too.

I tried to get some night pics when I woke up at midnight. I got a few, but I couldn't figure out the K3 cameras modes that I thought would help.

Memorial day we packed up and headed out. It was amazing how much less snow there was on the way out compared to hiking in. That meant hiking instead of skiing back from the pass, but it wasn't too bad. Then a stop at the Whoa Nellie Deli and on to the Tufa at Mono Lake to take pics. I got brought out the big lens and took a bunch of detail pics and pics of gulls and osprey.

osprey bringing a stick to the tufa top penthouse suite

same pic - cropped in even more

There will be more details and pics in a trip report eventually. I'll put the link here when it is done.

and here it is:

http://www.electricant.net/grundyman/lastski2014.html

Thanksgiving and so on

For Thanksgiving I went to Flagstaff for the traditional Ethiopian feast. Lots of good food and interesting conversation with a mix of scientific types - from Linguists and Astronomers to a herpetologist. I continued to eat lots of deliciousness for the remainder of my trip there.

While there I did some climbing at the Pit with Dawn. Here she is hamming it up on True Value. I even managed to get an on-sight - Sling Fest (it didn't have bolts before).

Speaking of hamming it up - here I am in an egregious gratuitous double toe-hook bat hang in Joshua Tree from a while ago.

Here I am sending Go Granny Go at the Buttermilks. 

Jen appears to be a closet member of team color-coordination - here she is on Smooth Shrimp