1/21/07

Today I went backcountry skiing with my friend Chris Nelson. We climbed up and then skied down Kendall Peak. The mountain is just to the north of I-90 at Snoqualmie pass.

For me, the hard part about the backcountry skiing is climbing the mountain. Skiing down is the fun, easy part. To climb, you need skis with Rondenee bindings (bindings that let you take a normal step) and "skins." Skins are thick strips of fabric with adhesives on one side to stick to the skis and bristles that point one direction on the other side. The bristles get traction on the snow, and prevent you from sliding backwards down the hill - in theory. If you try to go up too steeply you can still slide down. That was my big problem - sliding backwards while going uphill. Turning corners can be tricky. You have to keep one ski firmly down on the ground, pick up your other ski and put it down in the new direction. Then you are usually facing uphill, with your skis in a V shape. At this point I was always worried about sliding backwards. Most of the time I was able to quickly pick up the other ski and bring it around, but a few times I started sliding backwards.

Eventually we made it all the way to the top. I was panting so hard I could barely drink water without gasping for breath. The view was impressive - we could look across the freeway to the ski area, and to the east we could see a large frozen lake. It took almost two and a half hours to get up, but only thirty minutes to get down again. The top half of the mountain was free of large trees, but halfway down we entered a forest of 50-year-old fir trees. It was pretty fun.

When I got back to Seattle I went to meet Logan and Heidi at the Aquarium. Logan was tired by the time I got there. Even though he was very excited to see me he got cranky pretty quickly.

We brush Logan's teeth every night. We have a little toothbrush for him, and he has special baby toothpaste. It must taste good, because he likes it. Usually after I brush his teeth I give him the toothbrush to play with. Tonight, he took the toothbrush, looked at me and started to hit my mouth with the brush. I realized he wanted to brush MY teeth! I let him, and he brushed away for about five minutes. He thought it was funny.