Forest fires, 65° temperatures and melting snow. Good God, what's this world coming too. I understand spring is coming, but it's the middle of March for crissake, not the middle of June. Went for a ski/skin today and felt WORKED. It was a long, good four days in C.B., evidenced by the extreme fatigued feeling. Back when I was doing the Revenge, I used to go to the Butte to get fit, and would have that same feeling. Tired, but good.

Look back 36 hours. A mellow ski up past Snodgrass, to the villa of Gothic. If you could give me one place to live in the U.S.A., give me a small cabin in Gothic. That would be perfection. It was cool showing Elaine this place. It is, in a word, magical. And as we sat there, in splendid solitude, watching but more listening to the avalanches roll down Gothic Mountain – sheer, intimidating and stunningly beautiful – I realized life has moments of perfection, and this was one. It seems a long way from Libya and Michigan and Tsunamis in Japan, and for that I feel a lot privileged. Maybe we're isolated, but in this world of madness, a little perspective of a beautiful mountain with the forces of nature erupting is exactly what is needed.