Journey of the Cloud Riders

What a banner year it has been in the Mid-Atlantic! Records have been set, deep snow found its way all over my face, and I might even make the bold claim that we have more (and better) snow than the wild west! That been said, it was absolutely my pleasure to travel to WV's finest backcountry skiing at Whitegrass for an epic powder day.

The journey of the cloud riders began at quite an early hour that day. As people were returning from the bar or going to bed, my boy Brian and I were waking up and hittin' the highway. I had returned from New England just hours earlier by plane, so getting out of a warm bed was tough, but the thought of 3 feet (!) of fresh pow made it easy as voting for education bond referendums on the local ballot.

I rendezvoused with Brian on the way to Canaan Valley, we jammed hard and snow surfed in the Volvo:



The video doesn't show it, but there was a solid rooster tail of snow billowing off the roof of the car when I steered into the plowed, fluffy drift briefly. The residual on the hood made it hard to see! We stopped for a moment to gaze at this awe-inspiring drift, we estimated 20+ feet tall!


The drive itself was almost as awesome as the skiing, the MD highway department was using some big dawg machinery, that thing cuts a swath 6 feet by 9 feet!

On the way into Whitegrass we got our car stuck in a drift- even with chains on! During the process we met some cool folks , one fella named Christian from the Air Force joined us for the day. Its so neat when people band together in a crisis. He was a real dude who had just spent a bunch of time in Alaska, of course skiing on the teles up there. Despite his first time to Whitegrass, he was just as stoked as us to be in WV and he did a superb job helping us break trail. You can't tell from the photo, but at one point his upper chest plowed through pow- and he is 6.5 feet tall!


I really can't put together the words to describe the skiing itself, it was so magical it pretty much changed my life. Now I can see why people drop out of school, live like a dirt bag and relentlessly pursue pow. Brian can speak to this pretty effectively, he got his face pretty darn soiled:


Of course it goes without saying the deeper the snow the bigger the bliss, and there is NO such thing as too much snow in a winter wonderland!


We discovered a true local gem of a powder stash, an entire pipeline of untouched, waist deep pow to plow! It was a sight to see and made the long-ass haul out there worth every breath! I mean whats there to say about wild and wonderful WV that hasn't already been said?

I think the next videos can practically speak for themselves, first Brian:



Then me:



I literally had snow smack me IN THE FACE it was so deep in places, there is no other feeling like it. If skiing deep pow isn't heaven, I don't know what is. That day was a day that will go down in my memory as a turning point in my life, before I was a powder virgin, now I'm a Cloud Rider.

White Fluff at Whitegrass

Ok, so I've been quite literally chomping at the bit to wet my brow in pow since we started getting pummeled with snow here in the Mid-Atlantic last month. That chance came last weekend in none only than wild and wonderful West Virginia, it was a banner day during a banner winter! A soft, untouched meadow explains it waay better than words:



My powder hound buddy Brian and I skinned all around Whitegrass that day, under blue skies and super duper fluffy powder. It was the kind that you could pick up with your hands and then blow it away like pixy dust, yea baby, real deal West Virginia champagne powder!

Brian was super stoked after skinning up just a few hundred yards!

The higher we went, the deeper it got, particularly in the meadows:


The temperature dropped fast when the snow came and there was an splendid effect on all the trees as the individual snow crystals stuck to them, it does get any more winterlandish than this:

Our first long run down was so magnificent we just had to skin back up for another go, on the way back up, we paused and look around to a clear view across Canaan Valley in all its splendor:


I'm not gonna lie, the number of times the snow was this good in my life I can count on one hand and it was tough to handle it! It was so darn easy to get lost in the bliss and forget what you're doing, wipe out and eat some snow:



Minus the sporadic cloud cover, we had some great views from atop Bald Knob:

The last long tour of the day took us from Bald Knob to Weiss Knob via the pipeline trail. We were the first to traverse the route and enjoy it to the fullness!

We were all smiles all day, I don 't know about Brian, but my teeth ached from too much exposure to the cold.


All in all one could not have asked for better conditions. Atop Weiss Knobb we found a mellow log and took lunch out in the woods; ate sandwiches, had a cold beverage, smoked mini stogies and wallowed in the bliss. I think bringing PBR on extended ski tours is a new tradition for me, and smoking a lil cigar during the breidl jausen just about put me past the tipping point of contentment. We estimated the snow pack up there at 4400 feet to be between 5 and 6 feet, truly remarkable! Now I'm proud to say my powder palette has been sufficiently broadened by a superb secret stash found only in Wild and Wonderful West Virginia.

Snow Storm Stopover

Sometimes in life things happen in weird and mysterious ways. Our perpetual state of flux carries us along through experiences that shape us as people and it is often a series of conscious decisions that determines the outcome. It was by no mistake that last weekend I got stuck in San Francisco and got to spend time with some great folks.

For work I had to travel to my office in central CA and spend a few days on a project. It was a nice 5 day business trip with Monday and Friday being travel days. I was anticipating either a longer or shorter stay, so I booked a more expensive refundable government airfare with flexibility that would come to be key later. The tone of the trip was set early on at Washington Dulles, I volunteered and got bumped to a slightly later flight and received a free roundtrip voucher to the lower 48, woohoo!

As Thursday came around, the forecast was looking grim for the DC area- they called for 30+ inches of snow! So I called United and asked for the next available flight home, which was Monday the following week, oh man. However, we worked it out so that I would spend the weekend in San Francisco, with friends- perfect! The price of my fare didn't go up either, woohoo! I even saved the government money by staying with friends and not at a hotel! Life is darn good.

In fact, it gets better, my flight into SFO from Fresno coincided with Ashley and her 2 best friends: Megan and Akilah, we all met at the baggage claim. Ashley's mom (Mrs. D) came and picked us up and we headed straight for a late lunch at Starbelly (check it out here: http://ericspursuits.blogspot.com/2010/01/touch-and-go-starbelly.html). Ashley and her friends were in town for the Kaiser Half Marathon race, an interesting coincidence. I really had some fun hanging out with all these women throughout the weekend, we were a bit directionally challenged, but we made it everywhere we wanted to go without too much of a hiccup (and help from Esmay- the navigator). After eating a tasty lunch we all headed to do a bit of window shopping in SF, which was great- because all the while the DC area was getting pummeled with snow! Ashley's best friend Akilah had a flat up on Nob Hill, which had a stunning view of the city, and we caught it just at last light:


The ladies went to their respective places to stay and Ashley's mom was super helpful in dropping me off in the Presidio to meet with Leslie. That night I would spend time with Leslie and Dan at one of the best restaurants I have eaten at in SF, and it was Bhurmese! Nowhere else can you get such a tasty tea-leaf salad!

The next day, I woke up at Leslie's sauna-like flat (shes likes to live warm!) and we had a quick breakfast before heading to the climbing gym. Some great memories came back from climbing with Leslie and Dan last Spring, I was pretty amazed at how strong they both were, as they climbed on lead like crushers. Me, I felt out of place like Sarah Palin in Washington, with quivering and fully extended limbs hauling myself higher without style or due diligence. We had a great time nonetheless and afterwards I accompanied Dan to Berkeley to check out some camping gear and the campus of a world famous school. Dan is going to be cooking for a whole crew of Yosemite volunteers/climbers this summer and needed to be properly outfitted for the task! We finished our East Bay excursion with a light lunch and he dropped me off for an early dinner at Ocean Beach with a great view that happened to have a bunch of beautiful women sitting with me (;

Ashley's 2 best friends, herself, her lovely mother and myself feasted at the Cliff House Bistro. All in attendance thoroughly enjoyed the food, the atmosphere and most importantly, the company. This was to be an early night, because all the girls had to rest up for their respective races in Golden Gate Park the next morning! I made plans to meet with Mrs. D the next morning at her hotel and we would cheer on the runners while we relaxed to coffee and cake at an outdoor cafe (it was a theory at least!).

Leslie was particularly helpful and dropped me off back at Mrs. D's hotel where we embarked on an adventure to find the Kaiser Race. Megan was running the 5k, while Ashley and Akilah were running the 13.1 miles and so our primary mission was to get to the 5k finish to meet Megan. Road closings and crazy SF road layout made the drive from Nob Hill to Golden Gate Park take a bit longer than usual, also there was a stop for several litres of coffee (;

We made it to the race and found everyone. Mrs. D probably thinks I'm crazy because I led her running after Ashley towards the end in our cheering pursuits, we actually ran our own race! Everyone had a great finish and were stoked with their times, so we headed north towards Ashley's parents place in Santa Rosa, stopping along the way for a few Kodak moments:


Dinner that night during the super bowl was a gourmet feast! Mr. D grilled a phenomenal tuna steak and put together a rissoto, Mrs. D prepared a delicious salad. I was thoroughly impressed, and great wine flowed like water! Woohoo for accomplished runners, good food and good company! Before I knew it I was headed back to peace in the east and a cool 2+ feet of snow to greet me, the whole way reflecting on how fantastic a brief trip I had to CA.

I can't take hardly any credit for how this trip came together. I got some great friends who are so accommodating to me- they made it happen. If a blizzard hadn't come, Ashley's flight hadn't arrived on time, my airfares weren't so flexible and any series of unfortunate events happened and the universe was not aligned to make this wonderful weekend happen- it would not have. Sometimes flux can be fine-tuned to our best advantage and thats what makes life so grand.

Monday afternoon at the MoMA

When travels for work take me through the Big Apple, as they often seem to do these days, I can't help but desire to catch a quick piece of it. As a vacation destination, NYC is hard to beat, few other cities can throw down such an array of sights, sounds, smells and tastes to keep even the most continuosly-attention-obsessive, fast-paced people stimulated. So, when a long layover appeared on my itinerary again I knew I couldn't waste a New York second in seizing it!

My only wish was that I could have spent more time at the Museum of Modern Art, it was a trip marked by brevity. Even so, that didn't hamper my enthusiasm to practice turbo walking on the sidewalks with other New Yorkers, eat some tasty Indian street food after wetting my mind in fine art and taking it all in in true NYC style.

Unfortunately my photos from inside the galleries did not come out very well, crowds and interior lighting variety did not help either. Anyway, art is meant to be enjoyed and interpreted first hand, not through the lens of an amateur photographer. Tim Burton had an awesome exhibit complete with a life-size Edward Scissorhands and all kinds of cool movie props, but wow he is very weird. I spent the most time in the impressionist galleries, it felt like no matter how deep I looked into a piece there was always something new to observe or was previously obscured. Needless to say, time flies at the MoMA, keeping in pace with the rest of NYC.

Until next time!

Somewhere on Ave of the America (6th ave)


Can you spot the Empire State Building?

Touch and Go Starbelly

Sometimes, a pilot will land a plane and then take off again immediately. This is called a "touch and go" and usually occurs when the pilot aborts the landing and decides instead to just lift off. That is a bit how I felt the other day when I had a long layover in San Francisco, because I touched down, ate a meal with friends and then took off again!

We could not have planned it better, my friend Chef Dan swooped in his coup and scooped me up at the airport and then we headed straight for the Castro district to a place called "Starbelly." Now let me tell you Chef Dan is a foodie, he cooks and is the executive chef at the Concordia Argonaut club in the city. Few people I know can match his enthusiasm for life, he is just so darn happy to be on this planet and the good vibes radiate onto all those around him. We sat down and right away he is making small talk to the wait staff and getting everybody stoked about life, what a guy!


While we waited for Leslie to arrive, Dan ordered the chicken liver pate at the recommendation of our server and I was most pleasantly surprised! It was rich in flavor and texture was so smooth in my mouth, this was my first pate and the bar has been set high! Leslie cruised in with a few climbing mags for me, a real nice gesture and I was darn happy to see her. Despite some setbacks lately for her, she remains strong and keeps a high quality of life seemingly with ease.


The main counter at Starbelly was the wood from an old, refinished bowling alley lane, polished like the real thing too! We all ordered different dishes to try items on the menu (first time to Starbelly for everybody). We split a pork belly sandwich, a burger with fresh bleu cheese and a specialty pizza. There was more than enough food to go around and everything was so rich in flavor. The Chef (of Starbelly) walked by our table and Chef Dan made a point to tell him how good the food was he prepared! I could not agree with him more, fabulous ingredient combinations. We all had a bit of catching up to do it, so the conversation was well lit too. We chatted about climbing a lot, some misc. gossip and family.

It was super nice to catch up with some good friends who have had such a positive impact on my life. I thoroughly enjoy spending time with folks that have a great outlook on life. I love it when a plan comes together, sad that I had to leave, but exciting to look forward to going back to the city of open-mindedness.

A conference in Sequoia sempervirens country

The titans of the tree world reside in Northern California. Coastal redwoods, or Sequoia sempervirens as they are known scientifically, scrape the sky like the tall buildings of Manhattan. The most magnificent redwoods grow more than 300 feet tall, few other plants on the planet can defy such a feat.

Unfortunately, my trip was not about redwoods, but was a "Data Management Summit" that just happened to be where the worlds tallest trees congregate. Arcata is home to Humboldt State University, part of the CA state university system and sits in an area of quite unique natural beauty. Our work was conducted in the Redwood Sciences Research Laboratory, a pretty neat place which sits on a hill overlooking the Humboldt campus and Arcata.

Getting to Arcata took 3 legs and a long day, but it was well worth the trip. It was tough sitting in the conference room with one entire wall a view into the Arcata Community Forest. So at lunch we all went for walks in the forest behind the lab. In my experience taking photos in the redwood forest is notoriously difficult, the lighting is terrible for point-and-shoot cameras like mine.


In a few areas of the forest, there was only second growth, which means the original forest was cut once for timber and then allowed to grow. In these parts, redwood trees have astonishing growth rates.


Above is my colleague August enjoying our short, lunch jaunt into the redwood wonderland, or as he would say "E-wok forest" of Star Wars. My last night in Arcata, August was even nice enough to take me to the rugged beach so I could touch the Pacific before I went home. The sand was black and very fine and the water was freezing! No surprise there.

Winter Running

Its been pretty cold lately here in Northern Virginia, almost too cold to jog. I feel like running in the winter months takes a certain kind of person, perhaps not as extreme as those who can jump through a hole cut in an iced over lake like they do in Russia, but it does take a certain amount of gumption. To me though, the crisp air and quiet solitude more than make up for the extra hassles that are involved. Careful layering, gloves and courage are all that is needed. Those who take up New Years resolutions to start running again for personal reasons probably think its crazy to run outside when warm gyms are available!

I have a number of nice circuits in the large park behind my house. Some take me to the creek where there is a nice waterfall, others follow the cross country horse-back riding trails, but all offer a nice variety of terrain. I like to think of the park as my little retreat from the hustle and paved-over metropolis that is Northern Virginia. Even better though, is getting back home after a cold run. A nice, wholesome home-cooked meal with a delicious beverage and then relaxing is about the best thing that a man can ask for!

Snows in the forecast tonight, perhaps there'll be might be enough for a ski tour tomorrow!