Moscow Mountain Has Snow!!!



Tuesday night (Nov. 28) my friends Trevor, John, Elizabeth, Harlow, and Chambers, along with myself, made a night time ski up Moscow Mountain through a now defunct ski area called Tamarak. Of course the dogs with were with us, both Diesel and Denver, and Elizabeth's dog Kinsey.

It was bitter cold, some of the coldest temps I've experienced since living here, -4F windchills. Still it was well worth it. The snow was light and fluffy, almost too fluffy for skinning up. We took the "Harlow" route, which for those who don't know Harlow that means you look for the most strenuous route up the hill and that's the one you take. In his defense it is usually the most direct route, but something about hacking through brush and scrambling over cliff bands when there is a road bed that works just as well.... Anyways, it was a clear night with a half moon, there was new snow so the reflection was incredible, and the views from the top were spectacular.

The photo is of Johnny, myself, and Trevor (left to right) sporting the dog smile. And the other is of Trevor (in front) and myself skinning up the hill.

It's going to be a good winter!

Snow is HERE!!

We got the snow... we are ready to go. Lindsey and I went up to our favorite little hill, Lookout Mountain (http://www.skilookout.com/), on Saturday. It was Lindsey's first day and my second day, I joined a crew on Thursday for opening day at the mountain. This is my third year in a row being present for opening day at Lookout. The snow pack was GREAT for a first snow! Unfortunately we were forced to stay on groomers all day long. And Saturday was a little bit of a downer day because one run into the day a member of our group got taken out by a snowboarder right in front of the lodge. She got hit just below the knee by the out of control punk (who, after getting an ear full from me and our friend Bennett rode off before we could get his ticket clipped and his insurance info). Two of the people from our group drove her down to the hospital where she got 19 stiches (8 inside, 11 on the outside) for a fee of $540. Not bad with insurance, unfortunately she is an entrepreneurial American, runs a cleaning business and a student so that means NO health insurance U.S.A. U.S.A.! (at least we can bring "freedom" to all who posses large quantities of fossil fuel. That was kind of a bummer start to the day, but we did have fun as it was a sunny blue bird day, and all of the seasonal winter ales from the North West's micro breweries are now available. We did a big tailgate in the parking lot and celebrated the sun and snow.

This year the snow fell all over the course of about 3 days, there was 38 inches at the summit 20 at the base. The areas under the trees look great, the brush is already packed down and all we need is another foot or so (which may come this week). This has led me to a little theory, of which I hardly doubt is original, but it is at least logical (in my opinion). Last year we did not really get to ski the trees at Lookout until February, after there was nearly 10 feet of snow. However, 2 years prior we had been skiing them by late December. This year if it had not been for the above freezing moisture event on Wednesday last week which created a nearly unskiable crust layer, we would have been skiing the trees this November, and we still may if the snow comes in hard this week. I believe this is because in the last two years our snow has come in little bits of 4-6 inch storms with several days between them. This gives the snow time to fall off of all the branches of the brush and shrubs. However, when the snow falls like it did this year with nearly 40 inches in 3 days all of the brush gets weighted down and hidden for the next snow fall. In fact the warming that has been occurring since that big snow fall may prove to be an EXCELLENT thing for the skiing this year, as all of that snow is solidifying into a thick layer of base, covering all of the logs and brush that are so adapt at killing a beautiful day of early season tree skiing.

Okay, got that out of the system. To the news of the day/last month and a half. Things have been good here. We've both been pretty busy. I wound up spending 4 out of 5 weekends in late Sept, and early Oct. in the Wallowas prepping winter huts for Wing Ski tours (http://www.wingski.com/) and another guide service there Wallowa Huts (http://wallowahuts.com/). Out of that I've got about 15 nights worth of backcountry lodging, and an extremely affordable Avalanche II course. For those that don't know it is a course that is 8 hours in the classroom and 16 hours in the field learning about avalanches. You learn techniques for searching for victims, reading snow pack to prevent victims from ever appearing and learning to travel in ways that mitigate human/avalanche interactions.

Lindsey has been extremely busy with work and her school work. Between traveling to Indianapolis, Coure d' Alene, and Boise for conferences/meetings she has conducted her research for her PhD and compiled the data. She has set a date for December 14 to defend back in Ames. She will not be allowed to officially graduate until next May (thanks for being so accommodating ISU). The U of Idaho is posting the tenure track position intended to replace the current position Lindsey is in, so at the end of this May her position will no longer exisist. Of course she will be applying for the tenuralbe position, which is pretty exciting. There are other positions currently open in her field, but they are in other less "desirable" places in the country, but all of those places have Forest Entomology, so we have not ruled anything out.

For me the research is going as well as can be expected. I have plenty of funding to see me through the next 2-3 years of research. I will be presenting my work at the Entomologicial Society of America (ESA) meeting in December so I am pretty excited about that. Meetings are always a good chance to get your ideas out there with other professionals so that you can discuss them, and hopefully lead to new lines of research.

As to holiday plans things do nothing but speed up. We are having some friends up from Boise for thanksgiving, and having a big Moscow Family dinner at our place on Thursday, then hopefully skiing as many of the rest of the days of the break as possible. My meeting is in Indianapolis December 10-14, so Lindsey and I will fly to her folks place in Minneapolis on December 8, then I will fly to Indy on the 9th. After presenting I will be back in Minnesota briefly before heading to Ames to be with Lindsey's extend family as we celebrate her brother Charlie's graduation from ISU.

After that we will be home for a few days. We will then load up the car with the dogs and head to Southern California so see my family. We will do like last year and stay with Marty for an evening on the way there, and on the way home spend New Years with him. Then back to Moscow to start enjoying the snow!!! Oh yeah, and to work too.

Cheers

More wood cutting in the Wallowas this weekend. Lindsey and I made a trip into Big Sheep basin this weekend to work for wing ski tours. By helping Roger, the owner/operator of the company, he gives us 2 free nights in one of his backcountry ski huts for each day that we work. This was Lindsey's first trip into the Wallowas, and it was my first time when the fall colors were this vibrant. It was a beautiful weekend, the larch were changing color (bright yellow) as well as the aspen, and to top it off the area we were in was burned in 1989, so all of the understory regen is deciduous. Many of those understory plants are turning a bright color of red.

We spent most of the day splitting and stacking firewood. Lindsey and our other friend Linsy (yes that's how it's spelled) spent much of the day stacking the wood that we split. They did an incredible job of creating very nice and neat stacks with very little sway or open spaces. It was pretty impressive. One of the photos is of those piles at the end of the day, and of Lindsey using a very specialized tool (sledge hammer) to straighten the pile.

Of course the dogs made the trip with us, and they spent most of the day digging in random places in the meadow and chasing anything that made noise....I think they are still sleeping today as a result.

It looks as though the dogs and I will make another trip in there this weekend to do some more work as there is plenty more to be done. Certainly there will be more photos from that next week.

So last weekend (Sept. 22-24) Diesel and Denver and I made a trip into the Wallowa mountains of North Eastern Oregon. Lindsey was unable to attend as she had some professional duties with her department (http://www.agls.uidaho.edu/fcsed/). For those of you who don't know about the Wallowas....good...but seriously, they are a very little known range that house the Eagle Cap Wilderness. These mountains rise above a plateau above Hell's Canyon. The plateau is dominated by ranches and sits at about 4000 feet, the peaks rise to about 10,000 feet. It is truely spectacular. My favorite part, they are only a three hour drive from Moscow. During the winter this range recieves a TON of snow, and due to it's location on the Eastern side of the Oregon drylands the snow that falls here is light and fluffy. So this trip was in preparation for that snow. Each fal the u of Idaho takes a trip into Aneroid basin (named for one of the peaks, and shown in one of the photos) and we cut wood for a guide service (http://www.wingski.com). In return we get to make a trip into the huts in the winter to ski. These huts are part of a private inholding in the wilderness area. They were an old mining claim that was grandfathered in, and are now run as a summer work camp, and winter ski huts.

This was another PHENOMINAL weekend in the Wallowas, it always is. There was good people, good weather, and lots of good work accomplished. We have been invited back for the next couple of weekends to do some more work at another one of the company's facilities in the same range, another work for ski exchange. This time Lindsey gets to go, more on that later.

So school is back in session, Lindsey is teaching at the University of Idaho, I am still working towards a graduate degree in Forest Entomology.

We both worked this summer, Lindsey for the U of I (the good one) and I on my research. However, we did get to play a little. We took a 4 day river trip down the Lower Salmon River, and yes the dogs came too. Here are some photos. River trips are one of our favorite things to do together now. They are right up there with ski trips, but almost better because the dogs can be with us on these trips.

These are some photos of us on the 18 foot cataraft that we spent most of the time on, and one from the 16 foot stern frame raft that we were on for the last day. Our friends Johna and Katie were on the raft with us for the last day, Denver was obviously very happy to have Johna on board.

In an attempt to communicate more freely with friends and family spread across the country (or is it us that spread?) we are setting up this page to communicate our life happenings. Because of course everyone cares what we are up to....