Merry Festivus!

Tis the holiday season and I hope you all are enjoying family and friends and gifts given and received. Since my last post I have left Joshua Tree and headed north hoping to catch at least one more day of climbing but it was not to be. I got into Bishop late and with the weather clear I spent the night, found some friends still in the area and planned on climbing the following day. It was a cold night so half the campground gathered around our campfire and as we drank into the night thinking of a warm sun the next day a light flutter of snow began to fall. And continued to fall which we would discover throughout the night. We awoke to several inches of snow and with no hope of climbing that day or days to come.

Mission Ridge Ski Area

I met up with Keith and Lisa in Bishop and they were kind enough to give me a place to stay with the snowy conditions and all. Keith had hopes of making it up to Mammoth mountain to check out all the newly fallen snow. I decided to stick around a couple extra days before continuing north towards Oregon. We spent a full day in Mammoth skiing. It was my first time on skis in 15 or so years, I had switched to snowboarding after several years of skiing. Well, after that first day I discovered I wasn't terrible at skiing but that I also had a long way to go before I could fully utilize my randonee setup. Also that my legs through having carried my large ass up to the base of many climbs in the last three months were in fact in no shape for skiing. I could barely walk the that night. It didn't help that the mountain was above 9,000ft which made sense after getting winded hiking up fifteen feet to retrieve a lost ski.

After a good day of skiing I continued up north towards Bend and Salem. After driving through quite a bit of snowy roads and icy passes I made it to Bend which had very little snow. I had actually hoped to find a partner the next day to maybe get a climb in to two. Again I awoke to several inches of fresh snow and more falling in Bend. A quick trip into town and checking the weather, it called for more snow and also none of the nearby ski areas were not quite open yet. They were hoping to open within a couple days. I headed to Salem to bug Paul and Shawana during this peaceful holiday times. I hung out a few days as more snow falled, my hopes to head further north were being impeded by the road conditions but more importantly the crazy drivers of Oregon and Washington whom were apparently not well versed in snowy conditions. After a couple days seeing it not getting better nor a whole lot worst I continued on to visit a buddy of mine, Chris living in Wenatchee, Washington. The trip from Salem to Portland was interesting with a good amount of snow falling and the interstate was far from clear, of snow crazy cars or truckers. Past Portland the roads were better and after 8 hours, which should have taken 5 I arrived in Wenatchee to a Bad Sweater party. Drinking was done, friends were made and the next day several of us headed to Stevens Pass for a day of skiing. After a rough start of a refresher I picked up where I left off and started making headway with my skis.

Chris around sunset

The following day we "borrowed" some season passes of friends out of town and hit up another ski area, just Chris and I and had another great day of skiing. My legs were quite sore this time. Christmas eve we attended another party, this one more family and friends, not mine but I think everyone else knew each other. It was hosted by a family from whom the husband/father was quite the local climber who had set up quite a bit of the Leavenworth climbing scene and who was also in the middle of putting together another guide book for the area. It had in his backyard a small barn which had turned into a bouldering gym, I'll get pictures later, where I proceded to spend the entirety of the party at climbing with the kids and later some adults. We had previous knowledge so I came prepared with shoes and chalk. Besides a nice assortment of climbing holds on the walls and structures in the middle he had taken various rocks and glued them to his walls which really added to feel. After several hours there I was able to run inside before departing and have some food and meet the hosts again.
Chistmas day was quiet, Chris and I went skiing again and now my legs are very sore.
Hope everyone is enjoying the holidays.
Catch ya later,