Godspeed Strange Cat

Last week Jo and I rented the movie The Happening. I spend too much time alone in the wilderness with an active imagination to watch horror movies often. Having watched it, I wouldn’t call The Happening a horror movie, but I didn’t know that at the time. Before the movie I was busy distracting myself from settling down and let the dogs out one last time. As soon as they went through the door a squabble erupted with lots of growling and barking. The source was a tan Siamese cat they had chased into a tree.

I wrangled the dogs back inside and investigated. He was about 20 feet up in a skinny aspen tee in our back yard. I climbed the tree to get him down, but it took me a while to get up the tree’s skinny trunk. As I approached him I could see he was still pretty scared. To avoid me he tightrope-walked about 8 feet out from the trunk on a garden hose sized branch. Even with his extraordinary feline balancing talents he was having trouble staying up right. As he balanced near the end, his weight made the branch flex down and he fell. In a demonstration of further feline agility he caught himself and hung cliff-hanger style from his paws. Dangling by only his paws as the elastic branch flexed up and down it was only a matter of time before he lost his strength and fell. I slid down the trunk like it was a fire pole, took off my jacket and ran underneath of him. Holding my jacket like a trampoline I talked to him calmly to “Let go and I’ll catch you.” He hung on for an eternity, which was reality more like sixty seconds. Then mustering all of his strength he did a trembling, slow motion pull up, kicked his feet up and dangled from all four limbs below the branch. He monkey walked, dangling by all fours back to the trunk and pulled himself up onto the top of the branch where it met the trunk. Safe on the trunk, I decided he’d had enough trauma and let him be.

After the movie (bad movie…), I decided to go back out and check on him. He was still there. It was a bitterly cold night which I doubted he could survive, I had to do something. I climbed the tree again pausing about 6 feet below him. He looked at me for a bit and then a dog barked. I made my move and lunged upward on the tree. He tried to escape back out on the narrow branch, but I was too quick. My hand landed right behind his head and locked. I had him. At first he struggled, but after realizing this was futile he went limp. I pulled him into my chest and held him tight as we started down. Down climbing the narrow trunk with only one hand was not easy, but with meticulous foot placement I was able to get down.

He turned out to be an adorable cat. He was very timid, but would open up and become affectionate with a little attention. He had obviously experienced some trauma before he wound up in the backyard. He wasn’t neutered, so we isolated him from the rest of our animals in Jo’s office. She isn’t a cat person, but she got quite attached to him. He definitely like her more than I, maybe we got off to a bad start with the tree and all. We have way too many animals to adopt him. I plastered signs all over the neighborhood, put ads on Craig’s list, and in the Denver post. After a week, no love. My theory is that because my cat deck is visible from the road and the cats can be seen relaxing on it easily that someone abandoned him in our backyard. It’s only a theory, we’ll never really know. After contemplating putting him on a plane to my Mom’s, we decided to accept an offer from a single mother in Colorado Springs to give him a good home. He left last night to start his new life. God speed sir, I wish you well in your new home.

January Snowboarding

Andrew, Jess, Chris and Lizzy came out earlier this month for a winter visit. We planned 4 days of snowboarding in Summit County. Andrew got us discounted rooms at the La Quinta in in Silverthorne, which was a lot more ghetto than I remembered it but worth the discount. The first day we went to Loveland Ski Area for a taste of local flavor. Loveland is great because it's close, it's got steep terrain, and it doesn't attract the out of towners that the destination resorts do. It was super cold and windy, but there was fresh snow was falling. The trees on the Northside of I-70 offered the best shelter and freshest snow.

The Parking Lot



Looking Down from Cloudbase

We spent day two at Copper Mountain. It was Chris's first day on a snowboard. After giving him a lesson Andrew, Jess, and I headed off to the Copper Bowl. Intrawest has done a good job of marketing Copper Mountain as destination resort. Even though it was a week day there were a ton of vacationers and tourists there, it felt more like Breckenridge than Copper. I wasn't impressed. The best snow was actually under the lift lines and in the trees on the blue runs closest to Vail Pass. There were a couple spots where blind commitment at speed was necessary to avoid post holing and make it through the flat spots. This theory is sound, good snow can always be found in the harder sections of easier areas. The people riding there don't go on them and the people who are good are all riding the hard areas of the mountain. Example: go ride the front side of Vail on powder days because everyone is in the back bowls. Hmmm.

Lizzy and Jess

Alex and Lizzy Teaching Chris

Chris's First Run

(He was linking turns by the end)

Trees

Hiking Out from the Good Stuff

In the Clouds

Jo came up that night and we all hung out in the hotel. After eating dinner in the lobby I practiced landing the helicopter on Chris. It worked out good the first time, but the second and errant gust blew a rotor into his chin. He was a good sport about it!

Dinner

Fun with the Heli

We headed up to Vail on Friday. It was one of the best days I've ever had in Colorado. When I lived in Utah my roommate Dre and I had a 6 inch rule. We would only pay to ski if there was more than 6" of fresh powder, otherwise it was backcountry only. The snow in Colorado doesn't offer the same luxury, but lift tickets are cheap so it works out. Our day at Vail was epic even by my old standards. We met John and Allie and even though we didn't strap in until 10am, we still made fresh tracks down groomers on our traverse across the mountain to the back bowls and Blue Sky Basin (proof of my theory). It was a mission to get there we all endured a flat endless catwalk that was hell on a snowboard.

Starting the Day

Chris and Lizzy on the Gondola

Andrew and Jess

Jo and John

Andrew Riding the Endless Catwalk

Looking Down into Sun Up Bowl

Jess, Jo, and Andrew Cutting Across Tea Cup Bowl

John Throwing a Rooster Tail

The Blue Bird

Finally in Blue Sky Basin

We split up into different groups in Blue Sky Basin. Jo, John, Andrew, Jess, and I spent most of the day carving out pockets of fresh powder in the trees at the boundaries between different bowls. The powder was up to our waists in spots. At speed you could throw a 20 foot rooster tail on command. We rode straight through the day, breaking up into smaller groups until about 3pm. We all met up for a quick lunch then tried to sneak in a few groomers on the front side before the lifts closed, but didn't make it resulting in a bit of a hike. It didn't matter though, it was such a good day the sorest part of my body was my face from smiling!

A Beautiful Sign

Starting Out Above the Trees

Alex

Jess

In the Trees

The Blue Bird in the Trees

John

Jo

Jo and Her Rooster Tail

Alex and Andrew in Earl's Bowl

Andrew in the Trees

Alex in Earl's Bowl

Jo and Alex

The funniest part of the day was when Jess crashed on a small ridge. She's gonna kill me for posting this, but it is just too funny not to. We've all been there and crashed for seemingly no reason before. Listen to the grunt as she hits and then we all make excuses.

The next day we drove up to the top of Loveland Pass so Andrew and I could take a backcountry run. We didn't have beacons or shovels so we hung high on the shaded south side of the bowl, dropping into the main chute at treeline. The top of the chute was super fun, like a steep natural half pipe that went on forever. After a while we stopped so Andrew could get out his camera. Unfortunately, it flattened out significantly after that so the video isn't that great, but you can get an idea.

Loveland Pass

Warning

Our Crew

Scoping our Hike

Hikers on Top of the Proffessor

Fresh Tracks

Strapping In

The Bottom of the Chute

Nana Caught on Camera

Nana, our New Foundland mix, has a bad habit of stealing food off the counter when home alone. I would describe her food drive (a better word might be passion) as relentless. A notable example happened last summer. I was super hungry from just finishing a long ride and had cooked a Kashi Whole Wheat Veggie Pizza to eat on my way to work. I left it on the oven to cool while I loaded my bag into the truck. When I walked back into the house, less than 1 minute later, she already had it more than halfway down. Time was short, so I went to work hungry that night.

Dogs are products of their training so I have only myself to blame. I have tried several methods to stop Nana's counter surfing, but they have all ended in failure. In the attempt below I tried a product called a Scat Matt. It's a thin strip connected to a 9V battery that shocks you when touched. I tested it on my finger tips and it scared me, but it didn't really hurt. I doubted it was enough overcome Nana's food drive. The video proved that theory correct and also reveals what a professional Nana is.

Watch as I set the camera up and walk out. The bait is a piece of bread, the Scat Matt is on the edge of the counter. All of the dogs follow me to the garage door then move to the front room to watch out of the front windows. Nana stops on the way to the window to take an initial smell to see if there is any food. Then she continues to watch me pull away. Once I'm gone (at about 1:45) they all loose interest. She comes back into the kitchen, sneaks around the table and makes another pass to identify the target. Once it's identified (at 2:19) she is surgical and precise in her strike. She makes a clean entry, grab, and exit, then heads outside to eat her prize.

The Woopy Wing

With snowboarding season in full swing I thought I would share some videos about something I discovered on the Oz Report last year, the Woopy Wing. The Woopy Wing is a semi-rigid inflatable hang glider type wing used with ski's or a snowboard to soar for short periods down a slope. It's used in a manner similar to ski gliding. It was invented by French designer Laurent de Kalbermaten and has been around in several different versions for quite a few years. From what I can gleam without being fluent in French, the only commercially available wing is the smaller Woopy Jump version which is seen in the videos below. The inflatable wing has a small carbon fiber spare combined with two battery powered fans to maintain shape until ram air is sufficient. Pitch is controlled directly (like a hang glider) through two handles while bank is controlled via weight shift or wing warping (similar to the Wright Brothers) by asymmetrical inputs through the handles. All the info above is the result of what I could gather from bits of information here and there. If anyone out there has anything to add or corrections please feel free to leave a comment. I am slowly de-coding the Woopy Wing website which is written in French only, Here. The Woopy Wing is a combination of two sports I love, hang gliding and snowboarding. If I ever get my hands on one, I'll be sure to post my progress.





Another option is the Kite Wing, which is available as locally as Denver, but I like the Woopy Wing better.

Phoenix Multisport Ouray Trip 2009

Every year Phoenix Multisport puts on a winter trip to the quaint mountain town of Ouray, located on Colorado’s Western Slope. It’s Phoenix’s most popular trip and features ice climbing, snowboarding, skiing, snowshoeing, and hiking. Phoenix took over most of the Best Western Hotel and Condo’s just off Main Street for the multitude of employees, sponsored athletes, members, and friends who showed up for four days starting on New Years Eve.

I had a powerful cold, turned sinus infection the last week of 2008 and wasn’t certain if I’d make the trip at all. Jo left early on the morning of December 31st, while I slept in to fight the sinus infection. After my morning dose of antibiotics and cold medicine I felt well enough to make the 6 hour drive, and was on the road by noon. I made good time over Loveland and Vail passes and the Rhone Plateau to Colorado's Western Slope. When I reached Grand Junction the delirium of 4 hours on the road was setting in and my tank was running dry. It was also to time take my PM dose of antibiotics and cold medicine. Here’s a short story about the gas station I went to:

I pulled into a Loaf -n- Jug on the eastern edge of town. When I stepped out of the truck my foot stuck to a putrid mix of black sludge, spilled gasoline, and what looked like bits of vomit that coated the concrete. On the other side of the pump there was a guy in a tinted 1980’s Camaro suspiciously fiddling with something behind the cover of his tint. Careful not to slip on the coated the concrete, I put the gas nozzle in my tank and went inside to use the facilities. The attendant behind the counter stared vacantly at me as I walked through the door. The locks of his thinning, comb-over mullet rested gently on the stained shoulders of his Loaf -n- Jug jacket. He looked like Jo Dirt’s older, balding brother. I asked him which way the men's room was and he grunted in the direction of a darkly soiled fake wooden door at the end of the candy isle. I'll leave the details of the men’s room to your imagination. When I walked out of the bathroom the vacant gas station had filled with a line of animated characters. I needed a bottle of water to chase my pills with and waited in line for what seemed like an eternity to pay. I was mildly entertained when a toothless man in front of me got in an argument with Jo Dirt’s brother over value of a winning scratch-off lottery ticket. I couldn’t understand what either was saying in the heated exchange, but they seemed to understand each other perfectly. I paid for my water and got the hell out of there.

Back at the truck it took considerable skill to stow the gas pump and maintain my balance on the slippery, frozen mix of gasoline and vomit. I reached behind the passenger seat and grabbed a cloth Whole Foods bag I had filled with cold medicines. I struggled lifting it at first until I realized it was stuck to the carpet. As it pealed away I saw that Robitussin had spilled through the bag and formed a large dark pool. Argh!! The thick “tussin” had soaked deep into the carpet, it would never come out. Protecting my seats from wayward drips I managed to get the bag out of the truck to pick out the contents and clean them. The first thing I grabbed was my tussin soaked bottle of expensive antibiotics. Just as it cleared the top of the bag the lid fell off. Time switched to slow motion as I watched in the pristine white pills shower down into the sludgy gasoline and vomit below. Some landed vertically like lawn darts in the sludgy mix then expanded as they slowly dissolved in the moisture. I rescued as many as I could, but all were tainted.

Now I was in a jam. I was about to spend the next 5 days in a mountain town where the closest thing to a pharmacy was a Ma & Pa general store. I had already started taking the antibiotics and my sinus infection was beginning to subside. If I stopped taking them the timing was perfect for my infection to rebound into an antibiotic resistant one. It was late on New Years Eve and I didn't have the time to find a pharmacy and get a new prescription filled. I'd have to salvage what I could and force them down until I got back to Boulder. Defeated, I put the bag back on top of the stained stop carpet behind my seat and continued my drive on to Ouray. The bloated pills I rescued reeked of gasoline and reminded me of the incident as I took them twice a day through out the trip.

After stopping at a car wash to steam the carpet in my truck and buying food (which I forgot in my cold medicine induced haze), I rolled into Ouray just after 8pm. Jo met me at our Condo with John and Tracy who drove up from New Mexico. I hadn’t seen John and Tracy in a year and was stoked that they made the trip. The lingering bitterness I was harboring from my gas station experience slowly faded into smiles and laughs has Jo and I caught up with John and Tracy. John from Denver and his friend John showed up next with a new (used) snowboard for me. He took some time to get it dialed just like my old one. I brought the RC helicopter (here) just in case my sickness flared up and I was stuck in the Condo while everyone was out being active. It was good fun tormenting everyone that wondered into our Condo.

Ouray

Our Condo

Before long midnight and 2009 were upon us. Ouray is known for two things, ice climbing and hot springs. Our hotel had a spring fed outdoor hot tub and swimming pool that offered a perfect view of the New Year’s fireworks. The air temperature was -25C and thick plumes of steam rose from the pools. We shed our jackets at the last possible moment and ran across the icy concrete to the oasis of warm water. As midnight approached the number of bodies in the confined hot tub grew from comical to ridiculous. It was so cold, though, nobody seemed to mind. We all brought in the New Year watching fireworks through the steam, soaking elbow to elbow in the mineral rich water.

New Years in the Hot Springs

Phoenix had worked out half price lift tickets to Telluride for the 1st and 2nd day of the year. The spring water worked wonders on my sinus infection and feeling somewhat better, I was eager to try my new snowboard. Jo was ice climbing so, John and I headed out early meeting the two Denver Johns in the parking lot. The snow was descent for early season, but nothing to write home about. John and I took it easy exploring the mountain and getting dialed on my new board. The slopes were empty, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, and the views from the top of the mountain were spectacular. It was a great first day of the year. The entire trip had dinner in our Condo that night which was filled with more laughs, stories, and RC Heli tormenting.

Telluride New Years Day

(poor quality iphone pics)

Dinner at Our Condo

The next day John and Tracy had to head back to New Mexico. Jo and I wished them well and headed back to Telluride with the Denver Johns. We met up with Jen, Ashley, Ally, Mike, Matt, Todd, and some other Phoenix people and spent the day riding the mountain together. It was similar to the first, but the slopes were a little more crowded. We left early to meet with the ice climbing contingent in large hot springs back in Ouray. There were some mule deer grazing in the baseball field next to the springs that were tame enough to let me get a few close up shots. John snuck up close to the buck, but backed off then he turned and lowered his rack. After the springs we waited an hour for the only restaurant in town with a table big enough to seat all of us. The service was terrible, but we were so hungry it didn’t matter.

Day 2 at Telluride

Deer in Ouray

John Harrassing Them

Our Crew Looking On

More Deer

Patty and Nick

Alley and John

The other John

A & J

Ice Climbing was the plan for Saturday. When I woke up at 6am, my sinus infection was catching back up with me. I decided to catch another couple hours of sleep and meet everyone in the canyon. When did I drag myself out of bed it was snowing silver dollar sized snowflakes in near whiteout conditions. I ran into Chris and Chip and we headed up to the park. Ouray Ice Park is located in a narrow section of Uncompahgre Gorge just outside of town. The walls are coated in thick man made curtains of ice that offer beginner to advanced ice and mixed routes. Chris and Chip are both experienced ice climbers and set up on a steep route called tic, tac, toe. I hung out for a bit then ventured further up the canyon to find the rest of the Phoenix group. They were in a narrow section under a metal pipe cat walk. Scott was up top setting up a new top rope. I hung with him for a bit and he gave me a refresher on 2 point anchor top roping. Jacki was climbing a route below us and I got some good shots of her and with Jo belaying below.

Ouray Ice Park

Chris and Chip

Scott

Jacki w/ Jo belaying

Descending into the Canyon

After a while I headed down to the bottom canyon. The yellow mineral rich Uncompahgre River snaked through the gorge and was the only thing not covered with heaps of snow. The Phoenix crew was gathered at the center of the gorge with several top rope routes set up. Jo was hooking in to climb a route on staircased ice that blended into a steep vertical curtain on the west end of our area. I got a few shots while Rourke belayed her. After that Rob climbed an overhanging mixed route like a rock star while everyone cheered. Ben gave me a basic intro on tool placement and using dual point crampons and I hooked in to climb the route that Jo did. I climbed a bit in my younger years, but with my focus on cycling and hang gliding I have to admit that I’m not much of a climber these days. I made it about half way up and had had enough. I’m pretty sure I could have used my misery tolerance to get all the way to the top, but I just wasn’t feeling it.

The Phoenix Crew

Jo

Rob on a Mixed Route

Alex

After climbing Jo and I headed back to the hotel and enjoyed a mellow afternoon. Saturday night was more of the same with laughs, stories, a little RC helicoptering. Jo and I packed up and headed back to Boulder on Sunday. It was four days packed with good times and good company; I can see why it’s Phoenix’s most popular trip.

Wave Clouds on the Drive Home