Thursday, May 29, 2008

"Baring" the Pain

About the time this picture was taken I was realizing that climbing Mount Baring was turning out to be a little more hard core than I had anticipated. I'm actually in the process of climbing down a seventy foot wall of soft snow backwards. It was a little nerve racking.
At 6,125 feet Mount Baring is not that tall of a mountain, but it is very imposing. It's slightly overhung 3,000 foot sheer north face has claimed the lives of many insane climbers and base jumpers alike. Luckily we stayed as far away from the north face as possible.

Can you see me in this picture? The town of Baring is a mile below us and Mount Persis is on the horizon at the right (I climber that in April). The weather on Wednesday was absolutely gorgeous. But that didn't keep this trip from taking 11 hours! Due to the complete lack of a trail, the crazy steep slopes, and the 4,000 foot elevation gain I was planning on maybe 8 hours. Throw in getting lost, scaling 45 degree mud slopes, questionable route finding, waffling, equipment failure, equipment recovering (after falling out of the bag and rolling downhill a LONG way), the aforementioned slush wall, and a little loitering and the extra three hours is understandable.
Despite all that this climb was awesome. My new crampons worked like a dream on their first run (thanks economic stimulus package and REI spring sale!). The views were dramatic and I caught a glimpse of ten of the mountains on my to-climb list. Most importantly, we actually made it to the summit.
Not bad for a Wednesday.

Friday, May 23, 2008

Mothers Day

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY


Its a hard job but somebody's gotta do it! After two months of two kids I think I am finally getting the hang of it. If only we could get that little Violet to sleep better. Luckily theres a day where you get french toast in Bed, and everyone cleans up for you while you take a load off (I could use a longer break but I bet some of you are thinking that too, lets get together and go to a spa for a couple days, what do you say?).
Here is the card my family made for me.
The Flower Ginny made me and the chocolates Ben brought me from San Jose (he returned from a conference he was attending and presenting there only two days before mothers day.) If you are interested in these fine and large chocolates check out http://www.jsc.com/ for the scoop.
I'll leave you with two photos of the proof I have of motherhood:
Viriginia InesAnd Violet Iris

Hope you all had a great Mothers day!