He passed on Saturday, May 5th at 2:30, with his head arched back, his legs kicking - stubborn as always and not unlike the position he usually took when I had to drag him away from a potential dog fight or rotting salmon. He was not in pain; he just wanted one last sniff in this world.   [Read More... ]

Friday night. I drive past Pyramid Peak in Turnagain Pass looking casually up. I wanted to climb it all winter but my friends are snow snobs; they'd rather ski one run of good powder 5 times than skin up a wind hammered ridge. Now that it's spring they're all out doing spring things - like gardening and river rafting. For some reason I want to get one more ski day in. Looking up at the peak thoughts come and go; "Tomorrow should be an easy day. Almost too easy. I could climb Pyramid and then go ski elsewhere..."

I spend a lazy night next to a campfire watching the moon drift over the Kenai Mountains. Ranger hangs out next to me. He misses his old friend Pharaoh who used to chase him in circles when we camped. I miss him too. That night it freezes and I shiver inside my cheap flannel sleeping bag. Ranger, in his thin coat, shivers so hard he wakes me up so I dig out a jacket and throw it over him.

The alarm sounds at 6:30 am. I sleep till 8. Coffee follows and then I jump into the car and blast to the parking lot where I strap the skis to the pack and start booting uphill. Somewhere in the back of my mind it registers that there is no snow for at least 2000'. It also registers that there is brush for 2000' but I choose to ignore these thoughts.  [Read More... ]

Mt. Elliot, located on the ridge east of Wolverine, is one of the few peaks in the front range I hadn't hiked up yet.  So when Yvonne managed to drag me away from fishing for a day we headed out for a nice afternoon jaunt. We brought Ranger and his buddy Lucy (Eric and Julie's dog).

We hiked up and over the ball field, stopping a couple times to talk to friends who were out enjoying the day, and then dropped down past Black Lake to the shores of Williwaw Lake.  We then tromped up a southern gully to the ridge, turned right and scrambled to the summit.    The summit is the farthest bump East of Wolverine which makes it out of the way for a pretty insignificant peak unless you're running out of fresh peaks to climb.  [Read More... ]

Summer is here! Well... officially it's still spring but right now it's as hot as it gets around here so we're calling it summer anyways. Things are a little hectic right now as we try and figure out whether we like winter or summer more... monday we run, tuesday we ski, wednesday we bike, thursday we hike... and this weekend we float.

Koven - who turns 6 months old this week - has been restricted to short dog walks and serious play time -- but yesterday was amazing so after work I decided to introduce him to the Chugach. We took it easy and hiked up McHugh stopping often to throw snowballs and enjoy the view. Shorts and a t-shirt all we wore all evening. It doesn't get much better than this.

More pix after the jump.  [Read More... ]