Gearing up

Finally, I am equipped to go bouldering. After dropping off Veronica at the airport in ABQ I went by REI and got the MadRock Mad Pad with a 20 % off coupon. I also bought the Jemez climbing guide book which includes the bouldering in Ponderosa.

 

Visit

I have had Veronica here for two weeks (March 8-22) and now she is on her way home. The picture above is from her second day here when we went up to Pajarito to ski. During her first week here we also went to Santa Fe and Albuquerque. The Old Town in Abq was really nice. On Saturday it was time for Skiesta at Pajarito with a live band and skiing comps. Unfortunately, Veronica fell after lunch and twisted her right knee badly. I was skiing behind her so I was able to get to her quickly to get the skis off and ask people in the lift to call the ski patrol. They came after a while and put a support around her leg and got her in a tobaggan. There was not much they could do in the patrol room apart from putting her leg in a cardboard support. I drove down to the medical center where they x-rayed and examined her. She got a brace, crutches, and pain killers. It took five or so hours before we got to go home.

The next day we drove to Las Vegas, NV, as planned. We had booked a room for two nights through priceline and got a good deal at Palazzo. We left Los Alamos later than originally planned after a cold shower since there was no warm water (more about that later). It was very windy on I-40 and a lot of tumbling weed was crossing the road - it was like in a western movie. After a late lunch stop in a snowy Flagstaff we turned out on I-40 again and I noticed that a police car was blocking the ramp just after us. After some miles the lines began and we crawled forward for 90 minutes before we got to an exit where we had to turn around and head back to Flagstaff. Apparently, there had been a 80 car accident further west on I-40. One of the men directing the traffic did not give any advice about how to get to Las Vegas so we had to go to a gas station in Flagstaff to buy a map and ask the personnel if they knew exactly where the accident had happened. They phone the department of transport and the woman there advised us to go south and take a looong detour. However, she had also said that the accident happened close to Bellemont which meant that we could go up towards Grand Canyon to get a shorter detour. The road conditions were pretty bad and there was quite a lot of traffic so it was just a matter of staying on the road. The snow and the freezing temperatures continued for a while and when the road finally was clear and the temperature above freezing it was nice to be able to increase the speed. We finally arrived Palazzo after midnight Nevada time so it was a long trip.

The main thing we did in Vegas was visiting an outlet. We got to borrow a wheelchair from the hotel so I was driving Veronica wherever she wanted to go. I can tell that it is not very convenient to get around clothes stores with a wheelchair.

The hotel room was very nice and we got to spend some time in it since Veronica probably had gotten a blood clot on the way to Vegas and in the evening she did not feel well at all. We ordered room service which was the first time for me.

The original plan was to go to Grand Canyon on the way home, but after the last night and Veronicas condition we decided to go straight home. There was no snow and not much wind this day so driving was a lot better. However, since we go out of Vegas around noon we got home around ten and I was pretty tired the last stretch. It is more tiring to drive in the dark on american highways since there are less reflexes along the sides of the road.

When we got to the apartment there was a note saying that the water heater was broken and a new one would not be installed until earliest Friday. They had opened two empty apartments so we could use their showers but being on crutches it is not that funny to get to another building to take a shower. But what could we do about it - nothing.

Saturday we headed down to Abq early to find presents to her brothers. We were more lucky at the malls. It was then time to go to the airport. We had to pack the gifts into the suitcases and they could not have swallowed much more, which became evident when they got on the scale. Veronica had to pay $50 for the excess weight. She got a wheelchair and we had some lunch. Just as we finished eating she heard her name called over the speakers. We went to a courtesy phone and she was told that she had to go back to the check in desk since her suitcases had been found to be locked. Neither of us were aware about that you cannot fly with locked luggage in the US. She gave them the numbers for the combination locks. I was of course not allowed beyond the security check so we said goodbye there with the wheelchair guy . Walking to the car that I was alone again after two weeks of company.

Skiing Santa Fe

The Santa Fe ski area is pretty close but still so far away when you have a season pass at Pajarito (20 minutes away). Today was the first day at this ski area. The conditions were not the best - icy, cold and with total white-out on the highest parts. During the day some snow fell and the conditions grew better. It was the first day with my new Scarpa T1 boots, which I bought on a sale in Santa Fe the day before. 40 % off made it impossible to resist. They sure are worth every penny since I started to grow some cartilage on top of my left foot due to my old T1's which are probably around ten years old.

Colorado skiing weekend

This long weekend was spent skiing in Wolf Creek, CO. We stayed in a very cosy house though all the stuffed animals and a bull horn chair. The house that we had to dig our way into is situated by the San Juan river between Pagosa Springs and Wolf Creek. There was a lot of snow and they only cleared the path for the cars and did not clear the stairs. Luckily I had brought my small showel so I got to work a bit. The first night we only stayed at the house and ate good food and played a vicious card game that meant that you had to drink a lot.

A few days before the weekend Wolf Creek got some fresh powder but we only found traces of that in the woods. I got to try my new used skis in the powder and it was very nice to be able to float on top more than with my other skinny ones.

My new used skis (but mine have Rottefella R8's instead).

Wolf Creek is a pretty good ski area. With fresh powder the top part must be excellent. Now it was too bumpy for my taste. The slopes far left were really steep but there was some great powder among the trees in the less steep part.

Burns supper

Last night was my first Burns supper, which is celebrated in memory of Robert Burns. He wrote Auld lang syne, which probably most people know. The important ingredients haggis and scotch were of course served. I wonder which Scotsman will continue Chris' tradition next year?

First skiing in many years

Trail map of Pajarito Mountain, Los Alamos, NM.

This weekend I have been dropping my knee and freeing my heel again (e.g., been telemark skiing) for the first time in several years. The last time was problably four or five years ago. On Friday I went up to get some skiing hours during "lunch". It was so nice to be back on the slopes again. I had to rest a lot but it went ok. On Saturday I had to keep up with the alpine skiers and that was tough as the altitude here really gets to you and as my legs are pretty weak. On Sunday I only spent two hours on the skis and then I was exhausted.

The ski area here has about 40 slopes and four lifts. However, one of the lifts only open when there is lots of snow and only during Saturdays and Sundays.

Thanksgiving trip

My first Thanksgiving in the States was spent in Moab, Utah. We took off Wednesday afternoon heading towards Durango for a nights sleep. On the trip we tried to only eat at micro breweries so in Durango we visited Steam Works. Durango has a very picturesque city center which we explored briefly in the freezing temperatures. We played some pool after the dinner at Steam Works.

On the second day we drove towards Blanding, UT. I had found a guide to sandstone bouldering outside Blanding on DrTopo. We had lunch at a gas station/supermarket in Monticello, which was what we could find that was open. After a microwaved burrito we were ready for some bouldering. The DrTopo guide did not have a very clear description about how to get to the boulders. We were supposed to drive a certain number of miles on a paved road and then take left into a dirt road. We missed the dirt road and had to turn around. We then took the wrong dirt road and finally decided to try out the boulders there anyway. Unfortunately, Henrik had a bad shoulder so he only hiked around taking pictures. After a while he offered to go to look for the real place and it was just a bit further back towards Blanding. The area was a bit spread out and we walked around a bit and tried a few problems but we did not find that much nice problems to climb. We called it a day and headed north towards Moab. On the way we took a detour to the Needles overlook to catch the sunset there. There was overcast so we were not sure whether the sun would appear or not. We got lucky and the result is shown in the blogs header. By the way, I had a close encounter with some deer on the way to the outlook. I was just changing station on the radio and all of a sudden several deer were crossing the road. I was able to avoid them but it was a close call. I do not think I have ever been that close to hitting something.

Sunset view over Canyonlands National Park.

In Moab we met Walt's friend Caroline and went to have dinner at one of the micro breweries. It was Thankgiving so there was a special menu for the evening. I had the turkey with gravy and it was really tasty. The plan for the Moab visit was to do some mountainbiking but when we woke up the next morning there was quite a bit of snow and really cold so we gave up the mountainbiking plans and went to Arches National Park, which has around 2000 natural arches. It is a magnifiscent place and we hiked around to the different easily accessible arches during the day.

Me under Delicate Arch, Arches NP.

Henrik on-top of Double Arch, Arches NP.

Sunset at Balancing Rock, Arches NP.

The next day we drove to the northern entrance to Canyonlands National Park. There was fresh snow and the view of the canyons was astonishing. We also visited the ... arch which has a huge drop below it. We had to wait some time before all the other I-think-I-am-a-professional-photographer people had finished their business. When we driving along the road there was a coyote that crossed the road and I had the wrong setting on the camera to get a clear picture and I forgot to change it before it was too late. I learned a lesson there. The dinner was at another microbrewery where the whole ceiling was covered in different outdoor gear - kayaks, parachutes, bikes, ...

A cairn at Canyonlands NP.

A view through an arch at Canyonlands NP.

On Sunday we were homebound but we had some stops planned along the way. The first was to drive into Canyonlands from the eastern entrance to go to the areas we had seen from the Needles overlook. We drove as far in as possible and strolled around that place for a while but it was not that magnifiscent so we headed back. On the map there was a place called Indian Creek and to me (and I guess to the others as well) this is known as the crack climbing mecka. We took a rough dirt road and continued for half an hour before we reached the creek where we had to turn around. Still no well known cracks in sight. A bit further along the paved road we saw the area to the left but we did not feel like exploring it since we already had spent an hour looking for the place and we had several hours driving to get home.

The last stop was at the Mesa Verde National Park, which is well known for its ancestral puebloan cliff dwellings. We drove around to some of the sites and worked our trigger fingers on our cameras. It would be nice to go down into the dwellings but we were too late for that and just observed it from a distance.

Cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde NP.