transformers

might just be the most amazing thing i've ever seen at the theaters. i just came back from the opening night at the beartooth.

i want a muscle car!

nothing to see here, move along

- termination dust is on the Chugach for good. the mountains are 1/3 covered in snow. every day the line comes down a little bit more. i cannot wait for snow.

- i'm becoming a workaholic: come in to work at around 9am, leave after 8pm...

- who would have known? NUMB3RS is fun. rob morrow is a great actor. he has that 'working class' thing going on. and he did star in Northern Exposure, the 90's series about a lower-48 doctor moving to an alaskan village. i intend to watch that soon.

- yesterday i missed work for the first time since getting a real job (september 2005). guess i should have taken that flu shot after all. i was kept in bed all day, til 7pm or so.

- my dad's in lima, my mom in lochcarron, my brother in manchester, and i'm in anchorage! how strange.

I'm back! sort of

Plans for today: get new climbing shoes at AMH (my leather ones are all stretched out), watch the Barcelona v Sevilla soccer game at the Peanut Farm at noon, go rock-climbing with Clare and Luke at the rock gym at 2pm (can't climb outside, it's been raining all week), do laundry, go to Rachel's housewarming party at 7pm, and finish the evening with the last showing of Knocked Up at the Bear Tooth.

The best thing on the net right now. Period.

Don't take my word for it. See for yourself. Here's the original. Here's the priceless Kill Bill remix. A thing of beauty.

Spring skiing

About three weeks ago Yin (a coworker) convinced me to try backcountry skiing. We went to Turnagain Pass, about 60 miles south of Anchorage, in the Kenai Peninsula. The usual approach to backcountry skiing is to attach a pair of "skins" to the skis. These surfaces prevent backwards movement. Coupled with special bindings, which release the heel, you can effortlessly slide up the mountain. I don't have skins or AT bindings. They're spendy. I chose the harder route instead: borrowing snowshoes and hiking up, skis and boots dangling from my backpack. Neither of us had avalanche beacons/shovels, another essential of backcountry ski trips. Needless to say, we stayed clear of any potential avalanche chutes.

Near the summit I let Yin take the lead by some distance - I didn't want him to take me down in case he slid, meaning I didn't know exactly how much longer before we reached the summit. And then there it was, I was now walking on the ridge of the peak. This was probably one of the highlights of my life so far. Walking on the summit spine is an unbelievably scary feeling. There's nothing I could do at this point except concentrate on every single move. A misstep and I would have slid 2500 feet, probably encouraging avalanches along the way.

Even though the peak is probably not more than 2500/3000 feet one still feels on top of the world. This only encouraged me to take up mountaineering. I cannot wait till next winter.












This is as far as we got. Well, I actually went a little bit further, but not up that second summit. As inviting as it looks, the trail to the top sits on overhanging cornices. That's basically asking for it.

Oh, and did I mention the skiing down part? True, you do climb all day for about 7 minutes of ski time, but there's just no words that describe skiing down a naked mountain.

I love Alaska.