On a personal note, this year I’m starting to feel like it would be OK again for me to get shaken up a little bit, and take a few falls, if you know what I mean. I’m still pretty tentative, but on a relative basis it’s a huge step up from where I was last year. When the snow was firmer I got in a few runs on the NASTAR course, trying to go as fast as I could, and now I’m hitting some rougher terrain with more confidence, and taking some falls. I keep thinking it would be fun to ski some steeps in Tahoe one of these weekends, but of course there is always so much to do.
Fun & Adventure
Exploration, outdoor adventure, activities, new things
Skate skiing before work
I admit it. When we pulled into the Badger Pass parking lot this morning, in the dark, I had serious reservations about this being the right time to go for a skate ski. But, we had done the backward calculation, and figured this was when we needed to start to make it in to work … Read more
Second Boulder Day
Le Conte Gully from Stoneman’s Bridge I stopped on my way to work yesterday morning and took a picture of Le Conte Gully. Like 2 years ago, it is filled with beautiful yellow bushes, that, if you were to go up there, would provide a splendid foreground to Half Dome from a unique perspective in … Read more
Fall Color in Yosemite
Once upon a time, a reporter asked a long time Yosemite Interp Ranger where to find the best fall color, and the ranger replied, “About 3000 miles that way” and pointed east. Ok, so we’re not Vermont, when it comes to fall color. Most of our forests are coniferous, but Chris and I managed to … Read more
Another new speed record on The Nose
Hans and Yuji did it again! Another fantastic record, this time cutting off 6.5 minutes off their previous record. The final time was 2 hours, 37 minutes and 5 seconds. Tom and I sadly missed the record-setting effort, and the cheering and hoopla in the meadow, but I couldn’t resist mentioning it here. An amazing … Read more
Santa Cruz
Initially, I thought this site was going to be about things to do in Yosemite, but as it has morphed into just a little personal blog – the easiest kind to write – I might as well include my little vacation to Santa Cruz. My parents came out to CA for a visit. I’m not … Read more
Vacation to East Coast
We got back from this trip September 8, but there has been so much going on in the interim, that I haven’t had any chance to post anything until now, and there’s so much to do still, that I’ll keep this short. We flew from Fresno, CA to Logan airport in MA in a long … Read more
The record-breaking day
There’s been a great deal of excitement and story-telling about the new speedclimbing record on the Nose, recently obtained by Hans Florine and Yuji Hirayama. 2 hours, 43 minutes, 33 seconds. In addition to the details from Hans, ElcapPics turned in an entertaining and suspenseful narrative on Supertopo. It was very exciting, the media was … Read more
Whisky Bill on Fresno Dome
I’ve promised myself that no matter how late it’s gotten, or how many other adventures I’ve had since then, that I would put something up about the amazing day that I had climbing with my friends, Bruce and Em, on Fresno Dome, the day after the Pano hike . Fresno Dome is one of those … Read more
Yosemite Pano Project – part 2: the hiking
The Pano project was also the perfect excuse to go to a Yosemite spot that I’d never been to before. Plus, the prospect of hiking with strangers also provided motivation for prioritizing some ‘training’ hikes leading up to the end of the month. Between the Fern Ledge hike, and the Pano hike, I took a … Read more