Eiseman

An update from the White Room!

The hut trip up to the Eiseman Hut was exceptional. The skin in turned out to be no problem, and Elaine rocked it in a bit under four hours including some decent length breaks. No bonk…just arriving in smooth, happy style. There were a few other people up there, and truth be told they were about as much fun as a group of bankers applying to be monks, but it was no matter. We ate well – tortellini and pesto – stoked the fire and went to bed early. The snow the next day was decent to exceptional. The key was you had to go way into the trees to find the goods. The area around the hut offers nice skiing, although I have to say in terms of sheer beauty I prefer the Fowler-Hilliard or Jackal Huts. There were also a fair amount of snowmobiles in the area, Elaine and I are not fans of these. I know, I can hear the moto crew now…we want to be out there just like you do. Fine, but my activity, skiing, hiking and biking, does not reek the air with gas fumes and echo buzzing sounds off three mountain ranges. Simply put, the snowmobilers do not know we were out there. We, however, were forced to know they were out there. I'd have no problem if they banned these things from the woods for good.

Came back up to the hut, packed up, and began the long descent, past the 16 folks coming up – snowshoers pulling sleds, 50-year old women carrying 100 pound packs, teenagers updating their Facebook statuses on their iPhone – strewn apart from beginning to end probably over four hours. Past that chaos, into a sweet aspen grove, where we marveled at the jumping ability of snowshoe hares. Then it was down to the car. Went into Vail, took advantage of two free hours of parking ($25 normally on top of a $105 lift ticket per person…good God!) and walked the streets, checking out the rich and famous and wondering how a ski jacket could possibly cost $1,500!  We contemplated torching the "Predator Animal Fur Store" (no joking) but thought that would be frowned upon by Johnny Law, so we left instead and headed to friendlier, less haughty environs.

I work on weekends, but yesterday I got in a dawn patrol run before work that was exceptional. Deep powder made the lines through the trees perfect. It wasn't a lot, but it was perfect. The best run of the year, one of the top three tree runs of my life.

Elaine and I are finally getting a camera! Well, we have a big camera, but I find that stays in the pack and doesn't get used. So we found one that is about to be discontinued, found a good deal, and pulled the trigger. It even is waterproof and shoots HD video. Cool. I figure we have a lot of cool things that are happening right now that we will want images for in the future. It's coming in Friday. I have a feeling this blog is going to improve dramatically after that.

OK, enough computer time. Off to send a winter package off to my sister, and then take a run or three on skis somewhere in the woods with Elaine. Oh, and we're getting married on Valentine's Day. Well, technically we're already married, but this will be our ceremony. If you are a friendly face, you are welcome to come. And if you are not and are looking to raise a rukus, may an avalanche bury you, and you be forced to suck from an Avalung tube for 30 minutes before we come and dig you out and save your sorry butt!