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Thursday, April 23, 2009
Andrew's West Coast Video
Recently, my brother came to visit from Texas. He spent a few days here romping around the East Bay, Sugar Bowl, Tahoe City, and San Francisco. We had a great time! He put together a fun video of his trip....
West Coast Idea from Andrew Davila on Vimeo.
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West Coast Idea from Andrew Davila on Vimeo.
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Monday, April 6, 2009
Helmet Head- Put A Lid On It
Many of you probably heard about the incident in the news that, more than likely, made ski and snowboarding helmet sales go up. Though hindsight is 20/20, these sort of incidents will naturally bring up the discussion of helmet use. People argue that a helmet could have made the difference in this accident, so here comes the question... should I wear a helmet? A couple of weeks ago Eric, Keeley, Traves and I took a trip up to sugar bowl. There was a girl in our group lesson who wore a helmet due to a prior accident. When she was young her parents took her to the Alps to go skiing. She fell, hit her head, and lost her memory for a few days. So now on the bunny slope, even in a group lesson, she wears a helmet.
I 've never put much thought to helmet wearing before now, but recently Eric and I purchased new helmets. In my younger days I thought helmets were stupid looking and I never wanted to wear one. Now I'm beginning to understand that a helmet could save a life. Even beginners fall on the easiest terrain and can become injured. Although having an accident like that is rare, it could happen to anyone. When planning to back country ski I think a helmet is a necessity, but what about on the bunny slope? I'm starting to see how they make sense all the time. I guess it's just because you don't see a lot of people wearing them on the slopes. Most people rely on their health insurance to save them.
I went on Wikipedia to see if I could find any interesting facts about ski helmets, but there wasn't much there. I did find, however, that some people criticize helmets for having an "increased likeliness that wearers might injure others in an accident because of the hard material."- HA! It goes on to say that a wearer will also have limited visibility, limited ability to hear others, and people will ski faster when wearing one. There is also a quote by a Dr. Shealy from Rochester Institute of Technology. He says " There is no evidence they reduce fatalities, we are up to 40 percent usage, but there has been no change in fatalities in a 10-year period." I used my helmet the last time we went skiing, and let me tell you, it was great. My visibility was fine, I took off the ear muffs so I could hear everything, and I definitely don't go any faster just because I have one on. I'm still a super-slow-safety-skier, and proud of it.
Reading some other blogs and feeds about helmets helped me understand how important they really are, and wearing one confirmed it even more. Even though some people criticize their ability, most skiers seem to find them helpful. Helmets might not change the mortality rate of skiers, but they probably help the injury rate. Head injuries are the more common injury that can be obtained while skiing, according to some research I've done. Why not wear them? You wear a helmet when riding a bike, a motorcycle, and out door rock climbing. So why wouldn't you wear one skiing?
Andrew Davila looking cool in his helmet at Sugar Bowl
I 've never put much thought to helmet wearing before now, but recently Eric and I purchased new helmets. In my younger days I thought helmets were stupid looking and I never wanted to wear one. Now I'm beginning to understand that a helmet could save a life. Even beginners fall on the easiest terrain and can become injured. Although having an accident like that is rare, it could happen to anyone. When planning to back country ski I think a helmet is a necessity, but what about on the bunny slope? I'm starting to see how they make sense all the time. I guess it's just because you don't see a lot of people wearing them on the slopes. Most people rely on their health insurance to save them.
Eric skiing with his new helmet
I went on Wikipedia to see if I could find any interesting facts about ski helmets, but there wasn't much there. I did find, however, that some people criticize helmets for having an "increased likeliness that wearers might injure others in an accident because of the hard material."- HA! It goes on to say that a wearer will also have limited visibility, limited ability to hear others, and people will ski faster when wearing one. There is also a quote by a Dr. Shealy from Rochester Institute of Technology. He says " There is no evidence they reduce fatalities, we are up to 40 percent usage, but there has been no change in fatalities in a 10-year period." I used my helmet the last time we went skiing, and let me tell you, it was great. My visibility was fine, I took off the ear muffs so I could hear everything, and I definitely don't go any faster just because I have one on. I'm still a super-slow-safety-skier, and proud of it.
Amber being a super-slow-safety-skier
Reading some other blogs and feeds about helmets helped me understand how important they really are, and wearing one confirmed it even more. Even though some people criticize their ability, most skiers seem to find them helpful. Helmets might not change the mortality rate of skiers, but they probably help the injury rate. Head injuries are the more common injury that can be obtained while skiing, according to some research I've done. Why not wear them? You wear a helmet when riding a bike, a motorcycle, and out door rock climbing. So why wouldn't you wear one skiing?
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
The Fitness
One of my challenges in transitioning to an active lifestyle from a period of relative laziness, is balancing the activities I love with the activities I need. I've gone through phases where I cycled for fitness, worked out at a traditional gym, dabbled in jogging. Most of these lacked the fun factor to keep me motivated (with the exception of cycling, another story). Lately, love of climbing, hiking and skiing has made motivation a non-issue. What has become an issue is finding a balance between those activities and other fitness pursuits that can improve my overall fitness and conditioning.
The great thing about climbing, is it so fun that you just ache to go to the gym on a regular basis. Any climber will tell you that time off leads to a mighty itch to go climbing, but regular gym climbers can measure that itch in a matter of hours. As someone who works full-time, with a long commute, gym nights are nearly the only way I can regularly maintain and improve my fitness for weekend activities. Climbing is invaluable for the desire it instills for physical improvement, and the mental improvement necessary to control the head-game.
Crack climbing at Spicer Terraces
Unfortunately, at 5'10" 220 lbs., climbing alone is not working well to trim the fat. Additionally, I feel that I'm coming to a place in my climbing where losing a few pounds could be really helpful on some of the harder climbs, especially roofs and overhangs. Amber and I have been working more and more cardio into our routine, but it's difficult to maintain, especially when, some days, you just want to climb.
So we've beet trying to rotate through 3-4 workout variations to mix it up. One is a relatively long, high-intensity cardio, sometimes with no climbing at all. Another is a medium-intensity cardio, followed by a low-to-medium-intensity climbing session. Sometimes we cardio just long enough to warm up before climbing and some days, when we want to be ambitious on the wall, we do no cardio at all.
Great Western Power Company
I read somewhere that you don't want your cardio exertion to cut into your climbing recovery, and vice versa. Ideally I'd have 3 days for cardio each week, 4 days for climbing... and a 5 day weekend. If only this were the case!! The other downside to the "work out every single day so you can
So far our plan seems to be gaining some traction. I feel an improvement in my energy levels over previous routines, but am yet to see any weight loss. We do factor in weekend activities as well. I especially love cross-country skiing since I can keep my heart rate up and burn calories all day long while feeling joy, not the boredom of a chore. Hopefully I can translate some of this into new energy for hiking, and do some shorter but higher-intensity days in the hills around here.
Cross Country with Amber and Kenneth in Bear Valley
Monday, March 9, 2009
swoosh swoosh swoosh WOOSH!
Greetings Blogworld!
Things have been crazy around here. We last wrote about our snowcamping experience on a beautiful but frigid moonlit night on the snowy white flanks of Mount Shasta. The storm that had blown through the week before kicked off a near-non-stop barrage of pacific storms that have more than tempted us to go and enjoy the deepening snowpack.
So we've been running around doing this and that, keeping the laundry and the food runs ahead of the calendar so we can bug out for long day trips and 'vedge' out the next. This month is a little smoother sailing. But there are still more snowdates to come, and despite this high looming over us right now, hopefully a few more storms.
So don't worry, there is a lot of things in the works. Some test footage from a new camera. Tales of triumph and tribulation. Nutritious, delicious snow, and more. We'll slap some cool posts together in the coming days and and over the next few weeks as our winter hopefully produces another good run before it gives way to spring and skiing gives way to more hiking and climbing...
For now, here's a shakycam xc skiing video tidbit:
Things have been crazy around here. We last wrote about our snowcamping experience on a beautiful but frigid moonlit night on the snowy white flanks of Mount Shasta. The storm that had blown through the week before kicked off a near-non-stop barrage of pacific storms that have more than tempted us to go and enjoy the deepening snowpack.
So we've been running around doing this and that, keeping the laundry and the food runs ahead of the calendar so we can bug out for long day trips and 'vedge' out the next. This month is a little smoother sailing. But there are still more snowdates to come, and despite this high looming over us right now, hopefully a few more storms.
So don't worry, there is a lot of things in the works. Some test footage from a new camera. Tales of triumph and tribulation. Nutritious, delicious snow, and more. We'll slap some cool posts together in the coming days and and over the next few weeks as our winter hopefully produces another good run before it gives way to spring and skiing gives way to more hiking and climbing...
For now, here's a shakycam xc skiing video tidbit:
Thursday, February 26, 2009
SHASTA!
Trip Report - Snow camping at Shasta and Transceiver clinic
Mount Shasta
February 13 - 15, 2009
We finally did it. We went snow-camping. It turns out snow camping is a lot colder than you think, but Shasta was beautiful. We took the long drive up to Shasta and stayed in a very nice hotel on the first night, called the Cold Creek Inn. Eric, Kenneth and I decided to take a transceiver workshop up at the mountain. I didn't realize how close we were going to be the mountain but Shasta stood proud above us the entire time we were there.
Shasta in all it's glory!
The Cold Creek Inn was quaint. We stayed in a suite that had two rooms and everyone was comfortable. We got there really late at night, so the hotel having late check-in was very helpful. The hotel provided an interesting breakfast of oatmeal, Nutri-grain bars, fruit cups, boxed juice, and tea. I'm pretty sure we still have a V8 in the fridge from the hotel as well. After our morning "meal" we headed to a mountain gear shop named The Fifth Season, and met our workshop leader, conveniently also named Eric. After meeting at the store, the group there for the workshop drove caravan style up to Bunny Flat.
Walking on Bunny Flat
Bunny Flat sits at the foot of Shasta. Shasta appears intimidating at first, but it's beautiful features are the real dominating factor. The workshop was a lot of fun. We had to use our transceivers to find other buried transceivers in the snow. They were buried a few hundred feet apart, but not to deep. It seemed like a really easy task, but I can only imagine how nerve racking using a transceiver could be if there was an actual life attached to the other end of one. It's an important thing to learn if one wants to travel in back country snow.
Kenneth searching for a transceiver.
After the workshop was over, we enjoyed some tuna sandwiches and Bugles by the car. Over lunch we decided it would be a good idea to get camp set up before the sun started to go down. We piled all of our gear into backpacks and onto the sled, and went to go find a spot to camp. At first, Kenneth was going to snowshoe, and Eric and I were going to ski. Eric had some trouble going up hill on his Telemark skis, so we ended up going back and getting our snowshoes also.
Our wonderful sled.
We found a spot not too far from the car, and started to set up camp. Snow camping is hard. Usually it takes us about 5 minutes to set up a tent, but I'm pretty sure this tent took almost two hours to set up. First you have to pat down the snow with your feet. You have to wear snowshoes though, or you will sink into the snow. Then you have to figure out the snow stakes.
The stakes we had weren't working so great at first, so we had to reassess the situation, and start over from scratch. After figuring out the stakes, we had to prop up our A-frame tent with a pole. That took forever because the pole kept sinking down into the snow. OK, so we have a tent up, now we need to build a trench in the snow floor of our tent. We went to a snow camping talk at REI, and Zoo (the guy giving the lecture) told us that you build a trench so that the cold air drops into it, while you sleep above it. I don't know if that worked or not, I couldn't tell the difference, but I know it took a long time to shovel out the snow.
Time to build a kitchen.
Great, we finally got camp set up just as the sun started to go down. We were looking forward to a beautiful moonlit night, and hoping to eat something soon. Next, we had to dig out a kitchen. Snow camping requires a lot more digging than regular camping does. It just kept getting colder while we were setting up the kitchen, and Eric and I were starting to feel the absence of our puffy jackets. Some how I managed to forget them, but we had enough layers to survive. I will never make that mistake again, though.
The sunset was marvelous.
Making dinner was interesting. You can never leave your mitts off for too long on a cold night near Shasta, so we had to do things quickly. It was uncomfortable, to say the least. It took forever to boil snow for water and most of the time we just sat there, cold, staring at each other, wishing for hot food. The good thing was that our food only took about five minutes to make once we had boiling water. We feasted on a ramen spaghetti recipe invented the night before, and hot chocolate.
After dinner, everyone pretty much just wanted to get into their warm sleeping bags and sleep. Eric managed to take some beautiful night shots of our surroundings, but that was about it for the night's activities. There was no campfire, no singing to a guitar, no drunken conversations, no s'mores. It was cold and boring. I think Kenneth might have had a sip of bourbon but that's about it. The night was beautiful though, it was a full moon and the snow glistened. It looked like a million diamonds were spread all around us in a meadow of white. The night was still too cold to enjoy for long. The temperature dropped to about 18 degrees Fahrenheit, and we were feeling it.
Eric's night shot.
It was a long night. A cold long night. I actually fell asleep, which still amazes me now. I slept with my head in my sleeping bag all night and with my booties on. When morning finally came, I was so relived. It was crazy to see all of the people coming down from the mountain that spent the night up there. We thought we were crazy for snow camping, but some people climbed half way up the mountain just to camp! Everyone that stopped by our camp said it was very windy. I'm glad wind didn't play a factor in our experience.
Morning at Shasta was also beautiful, and cold. We took a second to enjoy the wildlife visiting our site, but then immediately tore down camp and proceeded to find the nearest, warmest, yummiest breakfast place in town. We found a restaurant in town called Lalo's, and their breakfast was the best part of snow camping. Boiling water again for two hours to make oatmeal wasn't going to cut it for this crew. We needed hot tea, coffee, omelets, and bacon. It was crucial to our sanity levels.
Our little snow camping friend.
Shasta is a very magical place, but I would only snow camp there again if I was planning on climbing it. Snow camping just for the hell of it doesn't make sense. It's cold, uneventful, and well, COLD! I can't wait until we go car camping again. I'm going to cook a hot meal on my propane stove, have a nice warm fire, and enjoy some drunken banter with a dripping s'more in my hand. Nothing compares to it really. I would definitely go back to Shasta, hopefully to ski next time, or to snowshoe around. Although we will probably find ourselves at a nice hotel (or motel) that night, were it is nice and cozy.
Mount Shasta
February 13 - 15, 2009
We finally did it. We went snow-camping. It turns out snow camping is a lot colder than you think, but Shasta was beautiful. We took the long drive up to Shasta and stayed in a very nice hotel on the first night, called the Cold Creek Inn. Eric, Kenneth and I decided to take a transceiver workshop up at the mountain. I didn't realize how close we were going to be the mountain but Shasta stood proud above us the entire time we were there.
Shasta in all it's glory!
The Cold Creek Inn was quaint. We stayed in a suite that had two rooms and everyone was comfortable. We got there really late at night, so the hotel having late check-in was very helpful. The hotel provided an interesting breakfast of oatmeal, Nutri-grain bars, fruit cups, boxed juice, and tea. I'm pretty sure we still have a V8 in the fridge from the hotel as well. After our morning "meal" we headed to a mountain gear shop named The Fifth Season, and met our workshop leader, conveniently also named Eric. After meeting at the store, the group there for the workshop drove caravan style up to Bunny Flat.
Walking on Bunny Flat
Bunny Flat sits at the foot of Shasta. Shasta appears intimidating at first, but it's beautiful features are the real dominating factor. The workshop was a lot of fun. We had to use our transceivers to find other buried transceivers in the snow. They were buried a few hundred feet apart, but not to deep. It seemed like a really easy task, but I can only imagine how nerve racking using a transceiver could be if there was an actual life attached to the other end of one. It's an important thing to learn if one wants to travel in back country snow.
Kenneth searching for a transceiver.
After the workshop was over, we enjoyed some tuna sandwiches and Bugles by the car. Over lunch we decided it would be a good idea to get camp set up before the sun started to go down. We piled all of our gear into backpacks and onto the sled, and went to go find a spot to camp. At first, Kenneth was going to snowshoe, and Eric and I were going to ski. Eric had some trouble going up hill on his Telemark skis, so we ended up going back and getting our snowshoes also.
Our wonderful sled.
We found a spot not too far from the car, and started to set up camp. Snow camping is hard. Usually it takes us about 5 minutes to set up a tent, but I'm pretty sure this tent took almost two hours to set up. First you have to pat down the snow with your feet. You have to wear snowshoes though, or you will sink into the snow. Then you have to figure out the snow stakes.
The stakes we had weren't working so great at first, so we had to reassess the situation, and start over from scratch. After figuring out the stakes, we had to prop up our A-frame tent with a pole. That took forever because the pole kept sinking down into the snow. OK, so we have a tent up, now we need to build a trench in the snow floor of our tent. We went to a snow camping talk at REI, and Zoo (the guy giving the lecture) told us that you build a trench so that the cold air drops into it, while you sleep above it. I don't know if that worked or not, I couldn't tell the difference, but I know it took a long time to shovel out the snow.
Time to build a kitchen.
Great, we finally got camp set up just as the sun started to go down. We were looking forward to a beautiful moonlit night, and hoping to eat something soon. Next, we had to dig out a kitchen. Snow camping requires a lot more digging than regular camping does. It just kept getting colder while we were setting up the kitchen, and Eric and I were starting to feel the absence of our puffy jackets. Some how I managed to forget them, but we had enough layers to survive. I will never make that mistake again, though.
The sunset was marvelous.
Making dinner was interesting. You can never leave your mitts off for too long on a cold night near Shasta, so we had to do things quickly. It was uncomfortable, to say the least. It took forever to boil snow for water and most of the time we just sat there, cold, staring at each other, wishing for hot food. The good thing was that our food only took about five minutes to make once we had boiling water. We feasted on a ramen spaghetti recipe invented the night before, and hot chocolate.
After dinner, everyone pretty much just wanted to get into their warm sleeping bags and sleep. Eric managed to take some beautiful night shots of our surroundings, but that was about it for the night's activities. There was no campfire, no singing to a guitar, no drunken conversations, no s'mores. It was cold and boring. I think Kenneth might have had a sip of bourbon but that's about it. The night was beautiful though, it was a full moon and the snow glistened. It looked like a million diamonds were spread all around us in a meadow of white. The night was still too cold to enjoy for long. The temperature dropped to about 18 degrees Fahrenheit, and we were feeling it.
Eric's night shot.
It was a long night. A cold long night. I actually fell asleep, which still amazes me now. I slept with my head in my sleeping bag all night and with my booties on. When morning finally came, I was so relived. It was crazy to see all of the people coming down from the mountain that spent the night up there. We thought we were crazy for snow camping, but some people climbed half way up the mountain just to camp! Everyone that stopped by our camp said it was very windy. I'm glad wind didn't play a factor in our experience.
Morning at Shasta was also beautiful, and cold. We took a second to enjoy the wildlife visiting our site, but then immediately tore down camp and proceeded to find the nearest, warmest, yummiest breakfast place in town. We found a restaurant in town called Lalo's, and their breakfast was the best part of snow camping. Boiling water again for two hours to make oatmeal wasn't going to cut it for this crew. We needed hot tea, coffee, omelets, and bacon. It was crucial to our sanity levels.
Our little snow camping friend.
Shasta is a very magical place, but I would only snow camp there again if I was planning on climbing it. Snow camping just for the hell of it doesn't make sense. It's cold, uneventful, and well, COLD! I can't wait until we go car camping again. I'm going to cook a hot meal on my propane stove, have a nice warm fire, and enjoy some drunken banter with a dripping s'more in my hand. Nothing compares to it really. I would definitely go back to Shasta, hopefully to ski next time, or to snowshoe around. Although we will probably find ourselves at a nice hotel (or motel) that night, were it is nice and cozy.
Friday, February 6, 2009
Free Your Heel and Your Ass will Follow
You don't always need a lift to enjoy good skiing. Nordic skiing offers a number of ways to enjoy the snow covered wilds without the cumbersomeness of snowshoes or the trudgery of postholing. The unifying concept is that in one way or another, your heel can pivot free and allow forward motion under your own power.
There *was* a trail here at some point!
Amber and I took up cross-country last season. Even though in some ways it is more challenging, Amber preferred it as an introduction to skiing since she could work on balance and technique without the mental stress of always being pointed downhill. In the process we've fallen in love with Nordic skiing.
The Summit Lodge at Royal Gorge, a large, groomed, Nordic trail system
For one, Nordic skiing can be very economical. A trail pass for a groomed cross-country center typically costs a of fraction of the price of a lift ticket at a downhill resort; there are even nooks and crannies where you might find free groomed skiing, and the savvy can leave the Visa Card at home and cut their own trails through the virgin white.
A variety of Nordic skis
While the more downhill-oriented Nordic equipment, like telemark, can rival the cost of high-end alpine gear, the price of a high quality cross-country or backcountry touring set-up is comparable to a bargain basement alpine ride. But enough about money, it's the skiing that is so freakin' fun!
One side-effect of Nordic skiing is the strange, sudden growth of antennae
They say going up is half the fun, and it's just that part that seems so boring to some folks and attractive to others. When you get a good rhythm going, and you have good form, gliding forward in a continuous motion seems almost effortless (though in reality it takes a surprising effort to maintain such a smooth stroke). Climbing steeper hills can require interesting techniques or special gear, but just when you're peaking, then comes a downhill portion beckoning you to relax your lungs and take a free ride down.
Snowbound roads make great ski highways (Glacier Point Road, Yosemite National Park)
It's a total interval workout, whether you're touring over rolling hills, or alternating climbing and carving. I find it really gets my juices flowing, and while alpine skiing is exhilarating, Nordic skiing has its own special rhythm and harmony that I think, is an even better high. Plus, after a long day in skis, getting your tracks on the up and the down, you'll sleep better than any chair lift ever did.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Climbing with Hans
A few weeks ago, Eric and I were at the climbing gym when we noticed that Hans Florine was giving a lecture. (Hans Florine is an American climber famous for holding the world record for the fastest climb up El Captain, in Yosemite.) We thought to ourselves, "hell yeah we should go to that!" I was actually amazed that the bouldering wall and big walls didn't completely lose climbers when his lecture started. I guess that goes to show who the real climbers are.
The Nose of El Captain
Hans was hilarious. He showed us some video of him and Yugi (his climbing partner) hustling up the nose on El Captain, more than once. He shared stories of failed attempts, and records that were broken three days later by his rivals. Hans prepared a slide show of information we needed to know about the climb, and the history of his ascents. There were other hard core climbers in the audience, and some of them had also climbed with Hans before.At the end of the lecture Hans was signing books, posters, and DVDs. We ended up buying a copy of Wall Rats, which is a movie about Hans Florine taking a couple of advanced child climbers up the the nose El Cap. Good thing they took credit cards! We also got a signed poster, which is always a plus.
It's been so much fun learning the history of climbing. It's a relatively new sport, and some (if not most) of the record setters are still alive to tell their stories. Not many sports have that going for them. Seeing people like Hans go out there and tell their stories reminds me why I like climbing. It creates adventure, laughs, stories, and friendships. And I love all of those things!
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