We started the week by cutting out of work early and watching two movies at the Seattle International Film Festival: The Fall and Before the Rains, both which took place (at least primarily) in India.  (Correction: the imagination sequences of The Fall mostly took place in India; the movie itself took place in LA.)  The former took place in North India where we didn’t travel, but the latter took place in Kerala, which is where we vacationed.  While The Fall was a much better movie, it was great to see Kerala again in Before the Rains, especially since it was filmed in one of the regions we visited.  We closed out the day with a nice dinner at How to Cook a Wolf in the Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle.

Saturday morning we woke up to a stunning day and enjoyed a nice espresso and a stroopwafel on the porch before heading off to the farmer’s market to pick up a bone-in pork shoulder from Woolie Pigs.  We had Jim and Jess over to enjoy some roasted pig and some St. Joseph that we brought over from France last time we visited.  It was the first time we saw them since we’d left for India, so it was great to catch up and swap stories.  Add to that a delightful cheese platter, a fresh, light soup, a delicious hunk of pork, fresh lemon gnocci, and a few great bottles of wine and you’ve got yourself one hell of an evening.  Provided that “one hell of an evening” for you doesn’t mean “going out drinking with friends and waking up in prison with a  I LOVE FORMALDEHYDE tattoo on your left shoulder”.  I’ll be honest with you: that just doesnt’t sound very relaxing to me.

Jim also brought over his home-brew which we had started before I left; it was awesome.  In fact, I proposed we start making two batches of it staggered so that we always have some beer of that particular recipe on hand.  It would require that I buy a supply of beer-making equipment.  Jim said it would be cheap if you do it ghetto-style like he does.  I said, “I can do it ghetto-style” to which Jess remarked, “You don’t do anything ghetto-style.”  Besides being spectacularly unfair, her statement is also annoyingly accurate.

Sunday, we woke up to another spectacular morning and spent the day lazily reading the New York Times.  One of life’s greatest indulgences is to spend Sunday on a sunny porch with a great cup of espresso while spending hours pouring over the paper.  We finished the day off by sipping Mojitos and grilling bratwurst, chickenbreast, and corn.  Beat that.

Memorial Day dawned with overcast skies.  At least I’m guessing it dawned that way, because by the time Michelle and I got up, it was overcast.  We started our day with our favorite breakfast: a fried egg on a sourdough muffin with ham, arugula, vinegarette, tomato and Beechers Flagship cheese.  We even managed to squeeze in some Bollywood and a dinner of fresh pasta.

After a month of relentless sunshine, it’s funny how refreshing a nice cloudy day can be.

Anyone who has spent time with Mack knows that Semi Awesomeness (SA) is the baine of his existence. In any given situation, he is giving 110% to find a way to make it rule more. This usually results in him pissing someone off and Semi Awesomeness quickly becoming No Awesomeness, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to stop trying. At long last, Total Awesomeness has been found. It was established when Jim and I took Mack and Bromley backcountry skiing last weekend. Bromley was already well established in the backcountry ways, but this was a new one for Mack. While he had been snowshoeing with us in Minnesota, it lacked a certain element of speed. Backcountry allowed him to chase us at full tilt while jumping off cliffs into snowbanks.

The top two maneuvers that established TA were the following:

1. The End-O. There was a reasonably firm top layer of snow on some of the slopes we were skiing. Just firm enough for a dog to stay on top of, but not firm enough to hold the skiers. Jim and I figured out pretty quickly that the best way to manage the dogs (read: keep them from running into the path of a skier and taking a metal ski edge to the jugular) was to have Jim ski in front with the dogs chasing him, and have me ski behind, keeping the dogs between us. Mack was chasing Jim at full tilt, staying on the surface of the snow. Suddenly, he post-holed both front legs up to his chest and did a complete flip. He didn’t miss a beat and just kept on chasing.
2. The Huckleberry Dill. Jim witnessed more of this than I did, but I think I can convey the incident with some degree of accuracy. Mack was blasting through the woods and came to a small ledge maybe 8 feet high. Naturally, he hucked off the top of it, tucking his paws up under his chest for maximum aerodynamics. After a few moments, he stretched out his paws to ready for a graceful, feather-light landing into the snowbank below. The only unexpected element was that the snowbank was seemingly bottomless and Mack disappeared into to a puff of snow. Poof.

Ran-duh-nay: French for “Can’t Tele”.

Despite the fact that we won’t be able to “harmonize with the mountain” or do other hippy shit, Michelle and I are determined not to buy tele gear for backcountry skiing, partly because we appreciate not becoming a lawn dart any time you enter snow of different densities.

Many factors contribute to choosing the right randonee gear – factors such as finding the right compromise between stiffness and comfort in the boots, stiffness and weight in the bindings, and weight and width of the skis.

Selecting gear can become very complicated, so whenever choosing new equipment, I find it very helpful to take time to figure out what factors are most important for me personally, and then I focus my search based on those factors.

For me, it comes down to three key items. First, I don’t want to be some chump trying to climb up the hill with some sorry-ass old school Dubtronic 2000′s. Second, when I show up on the scene, I want to do it with some bad-ass motherfuckers, not some wussy shit. Third, when we’re all chillin’ back in the cut sippin’ on cognac and sprites, I need all the ladies to be diggin’ how tight I done rocked my setup.

Armed with my three key points, I set upon the Internets in search of the perfect binding. I have settled on the Marker Dukes, based on the following review at BackCountry.com:

You best get yosef a pair of these less you be a chump trying to climb up the hill with some sorry ass old school dubtronic 2000′s. yesterday i done showed up on da scene with these bad motherf’ers and all the beyotches be like “waa?” and i’m all like “yo fo sho, mang” and then they says like “oh no you d’ int!” and then i slap them in the face and say “check yosef, foo”. Then we all chill and lay back in the cut sippin on cognac and sprites while all the ladies be diggin how tight i done rocked my setup, son.

The bindings probably won’t be perfect, but they should be close enough.

Note: The quality of this version is lower than the Quicktime version available here. For best results, watch the Quicktime verison. Some of the music in this video contains explicit lyrics which may not be suitable for children or work.

And, to top it all off, the base of the mountain is only at 1000 feet because it’s so close to the coast, which means that you’re not at altitude, which is mercy on your endurance. The only downside is that t’s in the Northwest so you never know what the weather will be like, and since it’s so low, if it’s warm, it could be raining on the mountain. Which, believe it or not, is what happened to our trip with Pat and Val. Not to worry, though, it’s still skiing, and the skiing was great!

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The snow was really heavy and wet, and it was deep, deep deep. This was a different kind of “powder” skiing that we enjoyed skiing at places like Grand Targhee, Aspen, or Chamonix, France; no, this was heavy. If you weren’t carrying some serious speed, there was no way you were going to make a turn. And, as Michelle will testify, even traversing could be an issue. But, as far as local skiing goes, this was the best day we’ve ever had with under an hour’s drive to get to the mountain from our home!

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Overall, the skiing in Chamonix was absolutely incredible, and the level of difficulty was variable, although even the areas considered to be easier was relatively challenging. The family areas contained plenty of very difficult terrain, although technically only rated as “red”. (Black is the most difficult, Red is intermediate, Blue is moderate, and Green is easy.) We skied a black run at the Grands Montets, which contained pitches with slopes at what we estimated were close to 60 degrees. Allegedly, the off-piste skiing at the Grands Montets is the best and most difficult in the area, although we did not do any of that there. Next time!

We put together a video of the ski trip. You can find a downloadable QuickTime version on the Video page, in two versions: short and long.

Note: The quality of this version is lower than the Quicktime version available here. For best results, watch the Quicktime verison. Some of the music in this video contains explicit lyrics which may not be suitable for children or work.

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Video: Skiing in Chamonix.

Skiing in Taos

Video: Skiing in Taos (Quicktime)