skiingneedspeople

yesterday was the first day to ski for the season. rather early if you ask any local, though no complaints here on that. i need all the practice i can get. we got picked up early and headed for Keystone, one of five mountains that we are able to ski at endlessly for the winter.

so, as i was steeping my green tea this morning i nonchalantly noted to someone at work who had asked about my weekend that i went skiing yesterday. no big deal, just a light response. soon after i realized, what a great way to fill a sunday morning and afternoon. up early, drive off into the mountains, locate some snowy hill, elevate ourselves on a whole new kind of public transportation, objectively fly down and try not to die. good news is i didn't die or launch myself over the edge, hip hip hooray. i probably should have gotten out of control at least once and had a tumultuous fall. maybe next time.

it's funny if you think about the whole process of skiing. and just to clarify: skiing also means snowboarding. it's just silly to write out both and since skiing is an older pastime than snowboarding it thus gets the privilege of being used. maybe we could make up a new word, our few options would be skiboarding or snowing [um,no] or i guess boardski. i kinda like boardski, but it sounds more like a frat boys nickname. well, you get the picture. oh gosh! wait a hot second, i did see one dangerous soul going down the slick mountains on a skateboard. no joke, this boy was on a skateboard minus the wheels and boots not even strapped in. we can call that snowskating or deathskating. anyways, back to the matter at hand, skiing. tons of people come, pile on too many clothes and entertain themselves by making a constant loop up and down the mountain. i could probably say that basketball is about a silly of a sport as it gets, or football, or even tennis even though tennis is a huge part of my childhood, most of these sports all have the same thing in common. it is all about containment and people are really trying to get after each other whether by physical beating or nailing balls at the other. kinda fun, if that's what you're into. skiing is not about any of that stuff. one of the beautiful things about skiing is that a mass of people are attempting to conquer the mountain and the natural conditions that she emits. helping each other out with technique, skillz, balance, an understanding and so on. skiing needs people, the mountain is activated when people are blazing down it, and no one would want to ski for more than 20 minutes all by themselves. so is this just a theme "to see and be seen"? not quite sure, but i do know that this great activity operates with a community of people, and all are welcome.
some words to live by when in any given week [you or i] might be climbing, playing soccer, running or skiing, understand that "the human body does not wear out with use. on the contrary, it wears down when it is not used."

don'trush
[wow, wrote this a while ago and forgot to hit 'publish'.welp, what can you do? can't delete it. ]

2post1day. such a rarity.

fast track is a term i've head in college counselor's offices and quite frankly i'm not a fan. this directly correlates with adventuring. you just can't rush these things. unless of course there is no other way. like, if you are going to college on the coast of california and you come to find out your city will soon be floating away into the pacific, then you best be gettin' things done. fast. alright, that is a bit extreme but the sentiment it the same. there is no need to push the time where we are engaging with nature. it's not like a hit list of things to accomplish when you are a mega-tourist for the weekend in boston.

horseshoe

denver international airport is in a bad location.
arkansas was nothing less than wonderful.
flying is fun when you have a dave.
flying is fun when you have drink vouchers.
fayetteville is home of the razorbacks and we just beat a&m.
fayetteville feels like home.
rick's bakery makes my tummy happy.
horseshoe canyon ranch is a hidden gem in the ozarks.
climbing lets you enjoy god's beauty.
climbing for 24 hours is no easy feat.
climbing for 24 hours strictly on sandstone makes your fingers/hands/palms feel like they're on fire.

but you will recover and eventually climb again.



i stole this picture of horseshoe.

onwardtosteamboat

a place i've mentioned before annnd abbbsolutely adore [low-al, that's for you] is steamboat springs. and it is only a breathtaking three hours drive from denver, assuming your jetta can make it up the passes. mine just cleared. whew!

so we loaded up some friends, a few bikes and were off into the night. what is it about road tripping at night that makes waking up at your destination so much more of an excitement? well, duh that's easy, it's because you can't see what's around until the sun shines upon it the next morn. having this feeling while being surrounded by mountains makes it to my top five reasons to wake up in the morning. right up there with christmas tree festivities, a packed day of climbing and perhaps french toast. you just never know what you are going to get, but you can bet it's going to be good. like perchance i will get a Huffy, or i'll lead a great pitch, maybe even put bananas in my french toast. there is always a twist of fate when it comes to waking up early and crossing that over unknown expectations. well, not sure there is quite a thing as unknown expectations. that is a horrible contradiction. isn't an expectation something you expect or assume to happen? so how could it be unknown, if you are knowing of it? obviously i'm not doing much mental editing here. i guess it would be more true to say i had expectations of undergoing a supreme time and wasn't exactly sure how that was going to be achieved.

no matter what difficulty trail you ride as long as it posses some level of danger and you act dangerously, mountain biking is the ultimate thrill. i guess you could say the same about skiing since a lot of ski runs are transformed into mtn. bike trails in the winter with thanks to the change of seasons. but i'm still not completely convinced. check back if i survive this winter's ski season. so we located a great "beginner" trail just out the back door of our place and began to snake our way up and down, though mostly up, into the routt national forest. the tall grasses sweeping at our sides and the aspen's yellow leaves shining from above, it was a touch magical. the trail was so nice, i did it twice.
wait a sec. i think i stole that from newyork newyork.

welp, no digital camera + no disposal camera = no pictures.

lumpyridge
it's friday; we do haiku.

estes park locals
new sights of rocky mountain
death to the approach

shit, don't you deck now
twin owls are a lovely sight
one-hundred foot crack

[how does the rule go with contractions? don't = 1 syllable, while do+not = 2 syllable]

augustair

i can't help but believe that nostalgia's thick as the august air. well, maybe the august air in texas and not so much colorado. nonetheless, something about the combination of a dense draft and the sweltering heat gets down to our core that evokes this nostalgia. which ever it may be, the most insane smallest of details come to the forefront of my mind and i have no idea why.
the sound the boardwalk made when my friends and i ran up to the rotating spinney ride at fiesta texas.
the cold concrete on my feet when i walk outside onto the patio at my grandma's house on a winter day in albuquerque
the crunching leaves under my shoes as i waltz out of studio on a friday afternoon to a deserted campus.

i drift off to reminisce and are amazed at the minute things that consume my head. it simply amazes me. this past weekend i went home to san antonio and it, for obvious reasons, couldn't have come at a more precise time. i talked and laughed with great friends, danced in my mom's new house, swam in a pool for the first time this summer, and attended church with david robinson. for so many reasons i couldn't live in san antonio, though the city fills a part of me that reaches the spots only nostalgia sees, and that's something to speak of.

yes, it's the alamo and yes i've only been there once. sad, yes i know.

suchbeauty


...and the wildflowers are coming up everywhere—lupine and wild iris and Shasta daisy and a dozen others. The aspens have their heart-shaped leaves again, trembling in the slightest breeze. Massive thunderclouds are rolling in, bringing with them the glorious sunsets they magnify. The earth in summer is brimming with beauty, beauty of such magnificence and variety and unembarrassed lavishness, ripe beauty, lush beauty, beauty given to us with such generosity and abundance it is almost scandalous.

i stumbled upon this description of our wet colorado spring and its astounding aftermath. i want to understand that beauty is more than: being essential to god; it is the essence of god.

youwannago?

what gives a person natural impulse? is it the things they have done that day, or the day previous or even the last 1,671 days previous of that which create this natural tendency to act with impulse and spontaneity? when we act spontaneously, often the repercussions of our actions are not known, or else we might not act out in such a way. when driving home from winter park this weekend and coming upon the mt. evans exit my friend shouts out..you wanna go? it was getting later in the day and i know the drive up isn't a super short one and man i'm really hungry, it would probably be in our best interest to skip out this time. maybe next time when we are heading back this way with a few hours of daylight left and the gorgeous colorado skies are beaming at us on a not too hot summer afternoon, yes then we will go. awhat?! who am i and why am i thinking such thoughts? against my awful judgement we took the exit and drove just shy of 14,000 feet. we saw echo lake, the chicago lakes, summit lake and even frolicked around to catch some great views of guanella pass. mmm mmm this place is beautiful. hopefully my spontaneous self that i know is in there will always be at the forefront.

anewmexico

sometimes it only takes a day's travel to get back to where your heart belongs. lately my mind has been in a place of oddity [for me at least], a place where people annoy me, time can't stop for even a few minutes and joy is mostly found when alone or around a 'few'.

do you ever think you find yourself in that the dilemma of desire is too much to live with, and so we abandon and disown our desire?

last weekend i flew down to albuquerque and got the chance to spend some time with my grandmother. i know i have been told more than once and by more than one that i ask A LOT of questions. do i? the majority of conversation with her was no different as i was enamored with her life and the smallest of details that got her to where she is today. her's is such a journey to be appreciated and so amazingly well remembered that i was left pondering past years and realizing that what i could remember did mean the most to me. funny how that works out.

i went for a trail run in the sandia mountains and couldn't have felt better about getting out in the southwest desert heat, jumping over boulders and running up the sand of a trail. i didn't see another person on the trek which was fine by me and i somehow managed to get terribly lost in the thicket of cactus country. awesome.

[sandia mtns.]

intothesun

oh my, montana is one overlooked state! i can't believe how many older people [whatever that means] said that they had never been there. a few drive throughs, even less visits, no live theres and plenty of never beens. i felt privileged. the destination was just shy of the canadian border and the plans were to beat ourselves up with bikes, trails, rivers, rafts, fishing rods, tents or no tents, and the most of which beauty.

Our experience of beauty transcends our ability to speak about it, for its magic lies beyond the power of words. Perhaps that is why it is so healing—beauty is pure gift

there is so much that we adventured i could write a short story on the trip and i'm sure still leave something out. we were mostly flying by the seat of our pants but one sure thing we planned was a bike ride from the west end of glacier national park to the east side. for the most part each national park has a designated road that winds you throughout giving unapologetic views of its pleasing landscape. most who travel this route do so in the comfort of their vehicle and hopefully at least with windows down. we had something else in mind and thought what better way than to experience glacier on bicycles. grand idea, right? well, currently my max mileage has not quite hit the double digits since i so wonderfully live 4 miles from work. needless to say, ready i was not. however, 32 enduring yet beautiful miles later we made it up to the 6,646 ft. pass and luckily oxygen was on our side since we live in the mile high city. it was such a heighten sense of accomplishment that we passed out for two hours right off the foot traffic of so many visitors at logan's pass. once refreshed we began the descent. i can barely explain the rush and feeling that surged though me when i flew down the other side of the pass. definitely a little scared at times but tried my best to not hold the brakes and keep my eyes on the road and off the beauty for fear of the most epic fall of my lifetime. a significant less amount of time it took us to crawl up glacier and 17 close calls later we exited the east side of the park. to my surprise the atmosphere on one end was drastically different than the other; we entered in density and exited on expanse, though both stunning in its own respect. we then proceeded to hitchhike....with our bikes.... but that's another story.