(Click on any photo to enlarge) Its been a while since I've posted anything on our blog so I thought I would give a quick winter update to let friends and family know what we are doing when its NOT hiking season. Christi is roughly four weeks from her 50km trail run that she has been training for since November. The Way-To-Cool Ultra Marathon is in the Auburn area in mid March. She has done it before and knows what to expect. She has been very diligent in her training this year as she wants to improve on her previous time. The hardest part for me is trying to keep her from doing too much. I think she is ready and will do very well.
As for me- I have been skiing as much as possible, which is usually 3 to 4 days a week. I teach clinics on weekends for Rossignol at different XC areas around the Tahoe basin. My real job has slowed down because of the weather so I try to supplement my income by teaching skiing.
When I'm not up on the hill I stave off boredom by dabbling in gear construction. I have become quite adept at making backpacks, arc style quilts and bivy sacks.
Above is a prototype pack I made for Funk. As soon as I packed the pack, RB thought we were going hiking. This would be a Ultra Light Pack made for people with base loads of 8 lbs or less. The pack weighs 10 ozs. Below is an Astro Bivy I made for Funk when he did his Tahoe Rim Trail solo trip. The Bivy weighs 4.5 ozs.
Above and below are the arc style quilt I made that has now seen 3 JMTs and numorus other Sierra forays. I have been comfortable down to about 16 degrees with Capilene on. It weighs 24 ozs. Funk now wants me to make him a quilt for our TYT trip this year.
Other than that things are the same up here, we're finally getting some much needed snow although it means we may not get into the high country until late July! Next on the docket is Mt Shasta in April. I will be taking my friend Jeff and it will be his first 14er! Wish us Luck.
