What an abysmal winter...

Well, here we are... it's been a whole month since I've even looked at this thing. But there's much to recap.

First things first... big middle fingers go out to my love-hate relationship with Arizona. I realize that Arizona doesn't really get in to the whole "winter" season thing like other parts of the country, but occasionally we get a few glimpses of what could be. December was a great month with a series of three storms over the Christmas holiday that just dumped on the higher elevations. Since then we've been suffering through one of the driest months in decades. Not a single ounce of precipitation until yesterday. Slopes are either wind-scorched or iced over from the sun. Even though that mother of a nature tried to redeem herself, she's still not off the hook in my book.

My lady and I went up north two weekends ago to climb an icy Humphreys with our crampons and axes. What would have been a perfect day to summit was spoiled by timing. We didn't actually make it up north and onto the slope until after noon. After a series of equipment malfunctions -- thankfully at the lower elevations -- we decided to call it a day after hiking a couple miles or so on the established trail. Bummer. We never even made it to the rock field. Her crampons we just slightly too big for her boot and shimmied into two pieces on several occasions. We celebrated failure with beers back at the car and a brew at Flagstaff's Beaver Street Brewery (http://www.beaverstreetbrewery.com/). Well worth the postponement!

Three weeks ago I completed the half-marathon here in Phoenix. In the week leading up I finally decided to drop from the full marathon to the half due to never-ending complications with my knee and IT band issue. While somewhat disappointed, I just wanted to make sure that I could focus my efforts back to hiking and climbing without further injury. Looking at the calendar, I have 18 weeks until I'm on Rainier. That really isn't too much time left. I need to get some long distances and high elevations under my belt before then...

Mt. San Antonio, aka: "Mt. Baldy" -- 10,064 feet above sea level

This upcoming weekend, I've scoped out Mount Baldy, in California (just northeast of LA). I'm looking at about a 10-mile hike up the ski hut route and Baldy bowl with about 4,000+ feet of vertical. They too have been experiencing much of the drought this past month and apparently there's already the early spring conditions forming in the snow pack. I'm eager to get out there and really put some mileage on the crampons and axe before all of the snowpack succumbs to wet avalanche.
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On the gear front, looking through my inventory, I am fairly close at having everything I need for my Rainier climb. I've been really blessed to get nearly all of my gear at heavy discounts -- a lot of which comes via SteepandCheap.com. I don't mind giving those guys a plug, because I'm still looking at an average total savings of over 30% on everything. So far I have been really pleased at the performance of everything. There's been the occasional mishap, including a stray crampon edge slicing a piece out of my insulating pant while climbing off-trail at Humphreys, but each accident has been nothing a good dose of tent glue and goretex patches  can't fix. I even went ahead and sealed all of my seams on my ice tool gloves just to further waterproof 'em to the fullest extent.
I went skiing this past weekend for the first time with my lady and a few buddies. I already feel the calling to the backcountry on them two planks. Though I'd peg myself as an avid snowboarder, I can quickly see how much I've been missing by not trying out the skis sooner. Furthermore, it was a great chance to test out all of my layers, especially in really windy conditions. So far, so good -- everything seems to be working well in conjunction with each piece. Ultimately, I've saved a lot of weight in finding quality materials and at the end of a ten-plus hour day, saved weight really enhances performance and stamina.

I can't wait for this weekend. Baldy, here I come!

Cheers!