Temporary New Look

For some reason last night I looked at my blog and was extremely annoyed by its appearance. I have been wanting to do something new but wasn't ever motivated so just now I picked a new template and am going with it for the short term. I want to create my own template but don't really have the time right now.

I think the new template looks really funny. There may be a chance that it will change looks over the next couple of weeks.

What I Did With My Saturday Morning

I had previously written about how I thought skiing at ski resorts was overrated. This point was solidified once again yesterday morning.

I went touring with my buddy Matt. This time our destination was the Kessler Peak trees up Cardiff Fork in Big Cottonwood Canyon. It was a beautiful bluebird day and the snow was going to be phenomenal. Last week the Wasatch Mountains were pounded with several feet of new snow.

As we began our tour we came across a small side slope that had some sparsely spaced trees. It looked nice enough that we decided to take a small detour and give it a run. What started as a small detour turned into a large detour as we pushed onto the longer slopes above.

It was probably the most grueling skinning I've done. Whoever broke trail decided to break a steep one instead of mellower switchbacks. My skins had a hard time getting purchase on the track and I'd often find myself sliding backwards after working so hard to get up. As Matt said "we are definitely earning a lot of vert today".

The skin track took us to the shoulder just below the summit of Kessler Peak, just to the side of "God's Lawnmower". Instead of skiing the more mellow swath of God's Lawnmower (it honestly looks like someone too a gigantic lawnmower straight down through the trees) we opted for the steeper slope on the south-east side of the shoulder through the pines. It was money.



Hands down the best turns of the year. Knee to thigh deep blower. Face shots abounded and there were many whoops of enjoyment. It was the kind of snow that makes you bear the powder grin from ear to ear.



It wasn't without incident though. Partway down Matt and I each pulled out small sluffs of new snow. After Matt pulled his he stopped and was hit by it and there was enough snow that ran that is came up to his waist. As I was skiing I saw that he had pulled one, noticed that I pulled one and skied out of the way. (In the image the one Matt pulled is to the right of the ski tracks and mine is to the left). We both were fine and didn't face any real danger from them, but it was definitely one of those moments that reminds you that you have to careful and on top of things 100% of the time in the backcountry. We did have a short discussion of what happened and how to avoid it again in the future. We then skied big open slopes back to the main skin track.

After a couple minutes of rest we headed back up to ski the small slope that we had first set out to ski. Even on the smaller slope, the skiing was still amazing. Hands down it was the best tour of the season so far.

Resort Skiing is Overrated

I grew up skiing resorts and have skied resorts ever since I was 5 years old. A few years ago I decided to branch out my skiing to the backcountry as well as the resorts. For Christmas about three years ago Jess got me a pair of used Alpine Trekkers and a pair of used skins. Later that season I picked up a beacon and commenced to go on a couple of tours.

The next year I toured more but probably still spent about 80% of my ski time in resorts. Last year my ski time was split about 60% resort, 40% touring. So far this year my time has been about 50/50 but that will quickly change.

This past Monday Jessica and I went night skiing (she boarded) at Brighton. After about two runs I had my fill of the resort. It was all right, there was new snow, but there were so many people that it was almost ridiculous. If there hadn’t had been new snow we both probably would have said “let’s just go”.

Yesterday we went and skied Solitude. It was better than Monday. There wasn’t any new snow, but it snowed recently so it was still decent. We had fun (especially with the little ‘chocolate scavenger hunt’ type game they had going on at the resort that day) but still wasn’t super stoked on it.

The previous Saturday I went touring up Days Fork with my buddy Matt. It was dead. We saw about seven other people the whole time on the trail. Six were snowshoers who stayed on the main skin track and one was a solo skier we passed once we hit the steeps. The environment around us was absolutely serene. In all we spent about three and half hours worth of skinning to make two laps. It was totally worth it.

I could get behind skiing a resort on a super deep pow day if it wasn’t packed with people. I’ll keep skiing resorts, especially now that we are beginning our family, and it is the best place to go to teach the kids (only one, but undoubtedly we’ll have more). But from now on if given the choice I'll choose to go touring.

How To, Part II: Finding Songs on Your New iPod Shuffle

Now that you are the proud owner of a 30 GB iPod Video Shuffle you probably are getting sick already of always having to listen to shuffle. I know you must be asking yourself "Eric, how the devil do you know what to do, you can't see the screen?" Have no fear, you can actually find music you are looking for and have fun at the same time.

The other night Jess and I were driving and wanted to listen to the Voodoo Glow Skulls so we had a good time figuring out how to get there. Just follow these steps:

1-Turn your iPod on.
2-Press "menu" a bunch times so you get all the way back to the first menu (you won't know, so press it six or seven times).
3-Scroll the wheel to the left until the clicking stops, this will put you on "music", press the center button.
4-Scroll the wheel to the left again until the clicking stops. Scroll the wheel to the right one click. This will put you on "artists", press the center button.
5-If you don't know what the last artist was you listened to, scroll either all the way to the left (or right depending on where your desired artist falls in the alphabet) until the clicking stops.
6-Scroll for as long as you think you need until you think you are close to your desired artist, press the center button.
7-This puts you on the "albums" menu so press the center button two more times (one time puts you on the "song" menu and the second time plays the song).
8-Listen to first part of the song and determine who the artist is.
9-If it isn't your desired artist, press the "menu" button three times to get back to the "artist" menu.
10-Repeat steps 6-8 until you dial in the desired artist.

This is actually a pretty good time. It took us about 5 minutes to dial in the Voodoo Glow Skulls but we had fun getting there. It's also a great way to play music trivia because no one can cheat and look at the screen. You'll also be forced to become really familiar with what you have on your iPod.

Good luck and happy hunting!

How To, Part I: How to Turn your 30 GB iPod Video into a 30 GB iPod Shuffle

I thought that I would begin a "how-to" series on my blog. This is my first go at a how-to so I hope it goes well.

How to turn a 30 GB iPod video into a 30 GB iPod shuffle
1. First you must own a 30 GB iPod video.
2. Place iPod video in the outside pocket of your backpack, with the screen facing outwards.
3. Place backpack in car.
4. Place baby in car.
5. Now get backpack and baby out of car.
6. While getting both out of the car, accidentally drop backpack, face down, onto the ground.
7. Rewind back to step 6 making sure to bounce the face of the backpack off the bike parked in the garage.
8. Bring backpack and baby inside.
9. Remove iPod from backpack. If it looks something like this:


then you were successful.

An interesting part was figuring out how to get to "shuffle songs".

Recycle those old electronics

I recently read an article about a great electronics recycling company. The name is Second Rotation. Second Rotation will buy back some of your old electronics, giving you cash that you wouldn't otherwise get for that junk sitting in your drawer. If your stuff is too old, or too damaged, they will still take it back and recycle it for you. They have a series of standards that they follow so you know your stuff isn't just ending up in the landfill. It's better to sell the stuff now. The longer you wait, the more the price will drop.

The best part is shipping is free in the lower 48 states.

I went through some our stuff like one old cell phone, a Mini Disk player, and a camera and we'd only get about 25 bills for our camera. I don't think we'll take them up on that offer since we still use the camera. Although once one of us gets a new cell phone I'll definitely send in the old one.

It's nice to see that someone has created a viable, accountable way to help recycle the massive amounts of electronic waste we have in this country.

That's a funny looking hat.

The long-sleeve t-shirt I was wearing today got a hole in each elbow. It's a wicked old, worn out shirt. I said to Jessica "grab the hole and try to rip off my sleeve". She did, and it ripped right off. I put the torn sleeve on my head as a hat, then I took it off. Jess tore off the other sleeve, put it on her head as a hat and said "quick, put on your hat, we have to go find the neutrons."

We had a good laugh and then took the picture.

Yet another reason why I love my wife, she says and does silly things that she wouldn't when other people are around.

Blog Post Overload

Yes it's been a little while since I've posted.

However, you can get your dose of blog post overload over at Jessica's blog.

She did a great job of covering everything we've been up to.

The Best Sandwich, EVER!

The sandwich to which I am referring is the cold turkey sandwich. However, this isn't your typical cold turkey sandwich, it is THE cold turkey sandwich. The sandwich of all sandwiches.

Ordinarily one enjoys this sandwich immediately after Thanksgiving. As many of your know, we spent our Thanksgiving in Southern Utah so we didn't get to enjoy homemade Thanksgiving dinner.

Well we had a gift certificate and come coupons for a turkey and we picked one up after Thanksgiving. Since it was going to be free I got us as much turkey as I could for free and we ended up with a 21.5 lb turkey! We cooked it up right nice on Sunday and had a small Thanksgiving dinner.

The best part happened Monday for lunch, the cold turkey sandwich. I look forward to this sandwich all year long. Everyone has their own way of making the sandwich and I have to say all those ways are wrong.

There is only one way to make the cold turkey sandwich, Miracle Whip (trust me, it's essential), lots of cranberry jelly, and ample amounts of turkey.

So far I've enjoyed three cold turkey sandwiches and there are many more to enjoy. If you don't believe me that it is the best sandwich I'll make you one.

This is 100

Wow, phenomenal isn't it? This is post #100 for me on my blog. I thought there'd be more fanfare. You probably thought there'd be something more exciting. Well...Are you ready for this?

I bet if you squint hard enough fireworks will shoot out of your computer.

Did it work?

UPDATE: Apparently this post is boring and it sucks. Jessica started reading it and didn't finish. She said "I got bored". Hmmmmmm...

Green Christmas Ideas

As wonderful as this time of year is and how great Christmas is, it must be the most wasteful holiday of the year. Everyone is exchanging gifts (more products produced for this time of year) that are no doubt boxed up and wrapped, sometimes shipped, sometimes delivered in person. All of these things equal waste.

This has been on my mind as I have been preparing for the holidays. I have been contemplating what I can do and what I can help others do to reduce our impact during this time of year. I recently found an article in a Wild Oats magazine that I picked up last time I was there, and I wanted to share some of the ideas:

-Conventional wrapping paper (especially extra-glossy & metallic papers) can't be recycled a lot of the time. Use newspaper, paper grocery bags, or even canvas bags as wrapping instead. Many of these alternative wrappings can be colored or decorated to look festive. (This will also save you some cash. How much do spend on the wrapping that is just going to get ripped apart and discarded?)
-The first idea often doesn't feel very "holiday". If you feel you must use festive wrapping paper reuse papers, ribbons, gift bags, boxes, etc whenever you can. When buying new paper avoid metallic and extra-glossy paper, and buy recycled paper whenever possible.
-Instead of shipping packages (especially heavy packages) purchase gift cards or something local for the recipient.
-Avoid products with excess packaging or better yet give a homemade gift or a baked gift in a reusable tin or container.

Implementing some, or all, of these ideas isn't hard and every little bit helps. I am far from perfect as I have purchased gifts this year online and am having them shipped to our house. All it takes is everyone doing at least a little. I am, however, wrapping all of our gifts in newspaper and other papers, bags, and boxes we have saved from previous occasions.

What are other ideas that some of you have for reducing our impact during this time of year?

Here I sit, still at work

The office is completely dead, yet I'm still here, what can you do though? Hopefully leaving soon. Sometimes things take longer than expected and it's unfortunate that it has happened on a Friday.

It has been nuking all day so that should make for an interesting drive home. Tonight Jessica got a babysitter for us so we can go climbing at the gym together. After that we'll be cleaning the house and getting stuff ready for Penelope's birthday party tomorrow.

The new snow will be extremely beneficial for skiing at Alta! This is going to perhaps be the best first birthday ever (who else got to go skiing on their first birthday?)

Christmas Came Early

Well sort of...The stuff I won from the Backcountry.com Adventure Contest finally arrived. The crazy/best part is it all arrived on the same day!

I scored a new ski helmet, goggles, and sunglasses from Smith (although the sunglasses weren't in the box). I've had the same ski helmet for about five years now. It is a super old design, have practically no ventilation, and it made me look awfully funny. The goggles are super rad. They are the new I/O. The goggles feature a design that is truly interchangeable. I am very excited to get out and give the new headwear a whirl.

I also got some nice "casual" shoes from Montrail. They are super comfy and it will be nice to have a pair of shoes to wear that aren't either Chacos or trail running shoes. Although I still prefer Chacos to anything.

Thanksgiving in Southern Utah

This year we decided to take a trip for the Thanksgiving holiday. We decided to pack up and head to Southern Utah for some places we haven't been to. We went Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef National Parks.

We had both been to Bryce when we were younger, but didn't remember much of it, and neither of us had ever been to Capitol Reef. The original plan was to get a hotel for Thanksgiving night and then camp. After checking the weather and seeing that the nightly lows were supposed to be in the mid-teens, we opted for a hotel every night. It actually work out quite nicely.

We were able to find Thanksgiving dinner at the Ruby's Restaurant, inside the Ruby's Best Western. We were also able to find a nice indoor pool and hot tub as well. The place we stayed had closed theirs for the season.

We spent Friday driving the scenic drive, hitting up the lookouts, and then hiking down through the bottom of Bryce Canyon. I was absolutely amazed by the formations. It definitely ranks highly in my favorite national parks list. The hike through the bottom of the canyon was the best. Even though we passed quite a few people at the start and at the end, we were able to find solitude through the middle section. The perspective from being down in the canyon was amazing.

Saturday we drove "scenic" Highway 12 to Capitol Reef. This was the most amazing section of road I have ever been on in my life. As you're heading north you are on top of a plateau (maybe it's a mesa) and then all of a sudden you drop down into the bottom and your amidst slick rock, canyons, and huge walls. As you climb out the other side you quickly find yourself on top of a spine is wide enough to fit a two-lane highway and a couple feet of dirt on each side before the drop into the canyon, on each side. Unfortunately the camera was packed away in the trunk so we didn't get any pictures. I will make a trip just to drive that section of road again.

By the time we got to Capitol Reef we had just enough time to get in one hike down a side canyon that gave some great views of the main section of the park. The huge sandstone walls (and splitters) were awe inspiring. We saw absolutely no one else on the trail and enjoyed complete solitude the whole time. I have a feeling that a trip will be in the works in the springtime to make it down to climb some of the cracks we saw.

We spent Sunday driving home. The nice part of the drive was we spent most of the time driving on Highways and little time on the freeway. We actually drove on a lot of roads that neither of us had been on and we saw lots of places that neither of us had seen. While on the back roads we were able to pass a guy in his jacked-up truck, with his four-wheeler in the bed, and a sticker that said "Shut up hippy". It made me laugh.

Here's an album of our trip (I went back to Bubbleshare because Flickr is lame.

BubbleShare: Share photos - Safe Toys

The Big 1 Triple 0

I'm sure all of you didn't notice, but this blog just rolled over 1,000 visits since I added the counter earlier this year. It isn't a momentous occasion but one I wanted to mention anyway.

Okay, I'll admit, it was easy fodder for a quick blog post.

A full blog post report on our Thanksgiving Southern Utah trip will be coming later this week.

Grandeur Peak

This past Saturday we decided to hike Grandeur Peak here in Salt Lake. Grandeur is the first peak between Parleys Canyon and Millcreek Canyon. I had previously run up the Millcreek side earlier this year so we opted to tackle the West Ridge. It has been a little while since we last hiked and thought it would be a good test run before this weekend.

The trail starts right at the mouth of Parleys and ascends 3100 vertical feet in 1 3/4 miles. STEEP! Needless to say Jessica and I both got worked. It was fairly grueling on the way because the trail is so steep. It had been a long time since either of us had put in any kind of vert.

It was a great day for hiking. The temps were a little low, but once we got moving it felt very nice. There was hardly any wind until we reached the ridge just below the summit, but we only had to endure the chilly wind for a few minutes.

Once we reached the summit we were rewarded with outstanding panoramas of the Salt Lake Valley, the Wasatch Range, Parley's Canyon, and beyond.

It was a beautiful day to out hiking. It is by far one our most favorite things to do together. Unfortunately we didn't get out as much as we should have this summer, but sometimes that happens. We will definitely be taking advantage of this weekend and the remaining days until the winter arrives (which I am praying will be sooner rather than later.).

You can see the rest of the pictures from our hike here. (I can't remember how to post the Flickr slideshow in my blog...I know there is a way, or at least there used to be a way. If anyone knows please tell me.

Do you know why I pulled you over?

"Well no sir" (okay...I knew).
"You were going 44 in a 30."

As it turns out I didn't know I was going 44 (didn't look) and didn't know it was 30 (didn't see the sign).

That was the glorious event that transpired driving home from the Buchanan's two Fridays ago. I completely forgot to blog about it, but then as I was paying my fine online just now I remembered I needed to post about it.

The most ironic part of the whole thing is we just renewed our auto insurance in October and for the first time since Jess and I have known each other we both had completely clean driving records and were bumped up to the "highest" level of insurance.

So I just paid 132 bills my speeding mistake. 82 of them go to pay the fine and 50 of it goes to traffic school so the ticket doesn't go on my record. So we're out 132 clams but at least we get to keep the good standing with the insurance.

All that is left is going to traffic school.

Good thing the sewer got fix...

...because I got really sick last night.

Penelope got sick Thursday night, had her first throwing up incident. I think whatever she has she gave to me because last night I had my first throwing up experience in about 10 years. Definitely didn't enjoy it, but it did actually make me feel better. My day has been spent trying to catch up on sleep and getting better.

Did I mention that being sick sucks?

Sorry sir, you can't use your own bathroom

Wednesday late afternoon we get a paper put on our front door. It is from a company saying they have be contracted by Salt Lake City Sanitation to install a new pipe in the public sewer. The paper then continued to say the installation would be happening on Friday at 8:00 am and that we shouldn't use the sewer at all during that time (washer, sink, toilet, shower, etc) because our private service line will be blocked and any water usage will flood our structure.

It is now 10:00 pm Friday night and we still can't use anything. The paper said the process would take 10-18 hours to complete! The good news is I was at work most the day and Jess was watching some kids from the ward for half the day.

The bad news is something the workers did caused a bunch of sewage to come up in our toilet (like the toilet overflowed) and it got all over the floor. The worst part is we haven't been able to clean it up because we can't flush the toilet.

Gross...and lame.

No Posts

I was called out in the comments of my last post (thanks Honey!) for not posting very often. Here's how my days have gone for the past week or so:

Wake up, go to work, work all day, come home, eat dinner, play with Jess and Penelope for a few, work until bedtime. LAME! Work has been super-extra-wicked busy lately and it is spilling over into my home life. I'm not very stoked on it but hopefully after this weekend it won't happen anymore for awhile.

Halloween was fun. Penelope was a spider, she was cute. Jess and I dressed up as Jim and Pam from "The Office" Check us out on Jessica's blog.