Vibes

Quick uphill from Timberline to Palmer on Saturday morning. I haven’t toured since climbing Mt. St. Helens last spring. I wanted to see how my new skis were on the uphill. My mountaineering skis are Volkl VTA 88 – so 88 underfoot and mostly carbon with a little piece of metal under the binding – Atomic Backland Pure Alpine tech bindings. They’re light, like super light. They’re amazing at going uphill – but leave something…

F0M0

Sitting here at my desk designing a solution for a custom GPT in our finance product and side-eyeing the snow report on Hood. The snow is piling up. It’s been a good season so far. We had a couple good days of hero snow, but it’s got me wanting more. Moar. I’ve started a little list of spring/summer adventures. Definitely climbing and skiing the volcanoes, but also some backpacking weekends south and east where it…

Blaze on

January brought a devastating ice storm to Portland. I’m grateful we didn’t lose power. Our local park lost a huge number of big Doug Fir trees. Many people sustained damage from downed trees, power outages and frozen pipes. I prepped by getting fuel for the generator and picking up some more firewood for the stove. We all stayed warm and cozy when the city shut down for a few days. Ski season has been a…

Mojo Dojo Casa House Campervan

I’m done. For now. I need a mental break from all the decisions. I’ve never heard anyone talk about the sheer number of decisions necessary in a project like this – I guess the same as building a house? I wanted to get the electrical system finalized this weekend so that I could run the diesel heater. I don’t want to add up the hours I’ve spent on this project. While rewarding, it’s been relentless.…

Small Chalet pt 2

It’s been a productive few weeks in the shop. The upper cabinets are in, mattress is back in and stowed with the folding bed. Lights are now on separate circuits with dimmer switches on each. I built a custom switch panel for the Espar heater controller and installed it in the upper cabinet along with some spare switches for future lights… LEDs in the garage or in the upper cabinets. Next week I’ll install the…

Small Chalet

Fondue and beer après ski. That’s the vision. Some random pictures from the last couple of months. Some observations: What’s been rewarding: Next up:

Small Bathroom

I’ve been busy. It’s really a life philosophy. And I’m well-suited to it. The bathroom is (mostly) finished. Remaining are the cabinet shelf, doors and countertop. There is a backlog of projects in the shop… and I need to move the van project along as ski season is upon us. I’m pausing to post some pictures because I’m beginning to hear the finish line. It looks like this: Skiing all afternoon and then après ski…

Miles from Nowhere

All The Places

You love are going to burn.

The Duck Place

Phone pics from Prague last week.

Fit.

Creeping up to the magical 40 miles / week running right now. There are always those things you wish you could tell your younger self – I’ve been thinking a lot about that this summer as I close in on another decade. I’ve rediscovered the joy of long, slow runs. My training has historically been spotty except when training for a race, where I’ll get more disciplined about periodized training and making sure the build…

Palmer

Croissants with strawberry jam, strong coffee, dinosaurs from Japan, and endless corn snow. We camped out Sunday night and got to the mountain early. Great day to be on the mountain and always a treat when the Palmer lift is running.

103 bpm

Weekend Work

I snuck away for a quick overnighter to Hood on Friday, but had to get back to my weekend work Saturday morning. For the past 4 weekends I’ve been remodeling a bathroom in our house. One thing I’ve noticed in how I work is that I tend to be too precise. And it *always* bites me in the ass. For example, the 4x post with the tape measure sitting on it is the end of…

Praha

I spent last week working in Prague. It was a week of long days, nights and early mornings. I made the most of the early morning hours to run through the city and take some photos. I brought my Fujifilm XH-1 with a Viltrox 23mm lens. I’ve been enjoying shooting that this focal length (35mm equivalent on a full frame sensor). Most of these are either with the Fujifilm or an iPhone 8 plus (on…