Unsolicited Gear Review

I was looking through the comments on this site recently and some unknown (and potentially spammer) said that my writing had gone downhill... Well, unknown person, let me tell you a little about myself. Winter is MY FAVORITE season and if you live in New England, you would see that there is NO WINTER this year!! This is making me very angry, bitter and sad!! I am trying not to put that into this blog but when I am writing about our adventures and I look around and see green or brown grass and no snow but caked on ice from days of melting and freezing and melting and freezing, it's hard NOT to put that anger, bitterness and sadness into all this writing so take your "I really liked your writing, but your blogs have become boring" comment and shove it into Mother Nature's behind where it belongs... and maybe that will make mother nature start dumping again... :)

Ahhhh... glad that I got that off my chest.... Moving on...

This is my completely unsolicited gear review! I am going to write about 3 of my favorite pieces of my "casual" cold weather gear - although the first piece is more technical! As I already said, I LOVE Winter! It's my favorite season!! I love when it's cold and I love when it snows. I love putting on all sorts of layers and going out to have fun. People all around me complain and complain about the cold, but I really think it's because they don't have the gear. Find some good gear, find some fun things to do in the snow, and I'm sure you can learn to love it too.

Piece #1: GoLite Running Tights - A few years ago, my mommy got me a pair of GoLite running tights for Christmas. I think I actually picked them out for her because I needed some tights that had ankle zips for snowboarding (the whole, don't have anything but your socks in your boots, concept) and so I picked them out from Title Nine or Athleta and my mom bought them and sent them to me. The first season, I used them exclusively for snowboarding, but then that summer, I started running with my dogs. Then I continued running through the winter and I found that the GoLite tights were A MAZ ING!!!! I coach in the winter as well and so I go run with the dogs at 5am. It's ALWAYS cold in the winter at 5am. These pants are perfect for the 15-30 degree mornings. They have a nice fleece layer that keeps you warm (none of the running pants that I have seen in the stores have that feature) and the outside are slightly windproof so those 30mph windy mornings, you can't tell. PLUS, they have ankle zips!!! You can see pics from the Turkey Trot from 2010. I have been scouring the world wide web for the same pair of pants so that I can buy a second pair and I haven't found the same pair. I'm assuming there was some exclusivity with Athleta or Title Nine and neither of them sell em anymore. These might be the same pants but they don't have the pretty reflective print on them (mine have a big hibiscus flower on the calf -- my favorite type of flower). So, I'm going to keep mine in really good shape so that I don't have to worry about replacing them soon.... but again, they are A MAZ ING!!!!

Piece #2: Last Winter, I was looking for some boots to wear in the snow. I wanted something that I could slip on quickly to take the dogs places or wear to work. I have these awesome pair of Sorels that I can slip on and they are uber duber warm, but I bought them at a sample sale for like $20 and they are slightly too big... Yeah, I can't really drive with them because I can't feel the pedals... Sort of a problem.... Three features that were a must: 1) Waterproof, 2) Slip On, 3) Warm!! So, you are probably thinking, "oh, she got a pair of Uggs"... Oh, no she didn't... :) Most girls models of uggs are missing the waterproof feature! At the time last year, there were a pair that were waterproof, but they were pushing the $200 mark and I do not pay that much for shoes or anything that will be worn casually. So, I scoured zappos and other shoe sites to see what I could find. I finally settled on a pair of Keens. Oh, look at that, more discontinued gear that Jenny loves... Awesome!! So, the boots are far from sexy and I have gotten teased at work for wearing them. But they are waterproof and they are super warm!! I can throw them on, trample through the snow, and my feet stay warm... EVERY TIME!!! For example, this Sunday, I went to the dog park with the little rascals and one of their friends. It was 17 degrees outside and I wanted to go to Target afterwards. So, I put the Keens on, took all the dogs to the park, lasted an hour and if I had on some warm pants, I probably would've lasted longer, and my feet stayed toasty warm the whole time!! Love toasty warm toes!!

Piece #3: Puffy coats from SteepandCheap. Prior to last winter, I used to tease Nate that puffy coats were not a requirement for winter. That was until he bought me one!! Now, it's like I have an addiction. I have 3 in 3 different styles. I have my long black fancy one that I wear to work and would wear out on the town if we went out on the town. It looks like this coat only it doesn't have the faux fur stuff and it's black... :-) Then this year, I bought this coat and another style that isn't on backcountry anymore. If you don't want to click on the link, the second style is a waist-length puffy that is 750 goose fill and it's so warm and the third style is a light weight puffy that has a big enough hood for a helmet, but is light enough that you wouldn't sweat your gonads off... All three purchased from SteepandCheap (because I love deals!) And I wonder why everything I love no longer exists... HA! :) And the bonus track of all three coats, they all fit my gorilla length arms!! The first coat even has thumb holes that I can wear with my gorilla length arms! Ahh... a little bit of heaven!!

I am becoming more and more of a gear head and I have a lot more awesome gear that I can share with you -- of course, I'm also a cheapskate and most of the gear no longer exists, but at least I am starting to know what to look for!! If you need any help with something to keep you warm (for next winter since I have officially given up on this winter) ask away and I can give you some suggestions! :)

Goal... Out the Window... Kinda like this Winter...

For the last few weeks, the weather people have been bragging that it's the warmest winter we have had and "yeah, there is no snow"... Well, poo on you!!! There was talk of a snow storm for this weekend and I woke up Saturday morning hoping to see at least flurries... I got out of bed and took the dogs for a stroll to Echo lake and now only were there no flurries but it was warm out (32 is warm for this time of year). I was so bummed!! I went back to the house and thought of things that we can do. As much fun as hiking a mountain sounds right now, coming down does not sound like fun at all. Last weekend, there were parts of the Sherburne trail that were essentially bullet proof and with no snow and no groomers coming around to take care of it, it was only going to be worse this weekend. Heading to the east snowfields would be good except that I probably wouldn't be able to walk for 4 days after (hip achage) and we both put some good scratched in our gear from the last time we came down the Cog Railway side. So.... what to do... I looked at Nate and said, "Yup, this 100k idea... total waste!!!" We haven't given up yet, but we aren't going to force ourselves to do stuff just because... If we get snow, we'll go up north and have fun. But if we don't get snow, we aren't going to force ourselves to climb up some hill and pretend to enjoy coming down the hill and please oh please don't fall because hitting ice pack SUCKS!!!! So, there you have it!! I'm going to keep counting and hopefully, we can get to 50k but if not... Oh freaking well!!! :) There's always next year!!

So, in our dilemma to decide what to do, the dogs were jumping all over me and I decided I had to at least get out of the house. I started walking down the access road to go to the top of Cathedral Ledge. There are two slabs of ice that are pretty good to go for ice climbing and for the last few weeks, we have seen tons and tons of ice climbers hanging around these two slabs. As I was walking up to them, I saw this:

If you can't tell what it is, it's prosthetic boots for someone without feet. All morning, Nate and I have been b!tching and complaining that there is no snow and how we can't find anything to do... I saw that and my perspective starting changing a bit. I sent the pic to Nate and was like, "that's pretty sweet!" and kept walking up the access road. At the very least, I was going to climb to the top of Cathedral Ledge and yell down, "Make a decision already"... :) I walked up the access road and noticed how soft the snow was. I kept walking and was like, "wow, this feels like a groomer"... so I kept walking and was like, "well, why don't we just ride this?" The snowmobilers had essentially groomed the road and it was really nice. I texted Nate and was like, "Let's do laps on the access road. The snow is really soft and it's like a groomer". Since it did not require a $50 lift ticket, Nate was in! 

I walked back to the house, got some breakfast and my gear together. I got a new backpack and was totally psyched to try it out. Off we went: 

Nate and scout with cathedral ledge in the background. 

We skinned to the top, it took 30 minutes! :) We switched over our gear.... that took me 10 minutes... Nate 2... :) We went down! It was super nice and really awesome to just connect a whole lot of turns together. We decided to do another lap. This time on the way down, it was a lot more scratchy but still nice to connect a whole lot of turns! All in all, it was nice to get out. It was nice to practice just turning and it's nice not to have the pressure that we have to climb no matter what!

This winter sucks big hairy balls... so instead of being bummed about it, we are just going to make it up... I have done some things that I have never done and probably would not have done without giving ourselves a goal. I got to climb Mount Adams and I summited Mount Washington with hiking boots and then with my splitboard. I climbed a lot of other mountains that I have never heard of. There are a few more mountains that I would like to climb... not necessarily with downhill gear so if anyone is interested in going for a hike this spring... :) 

Our laps up Cathedral ledge brought in a whopping 1,161 feet. That puts us at 35,087 feet. 

Thank you young man for leaving your prosthetic boots out where we could see them. You probably have no idea how inspirational that was, but it was! 

Winter, where are you?

This winter has been the worst winter for snow since I've lived in New England... Top it off with my right hip flaring up again... Thus, this whole 100,000 feet of elevation has been pretty interesting... :)

Three weeks ago, we took a rest weekend. As I said above, my hip was flaring up and we were both exhausted and the lack of snow, we decided that a weekend at home to do stuff around the house, sleep in and just chill was much needed. So, last weekend, we decided we would head back up north and we would find something to do. We got a late start, it's becoming our motto and we skinned up Tuckerman's to hojos and then came back down the Sherburne trail. At the top, we saw 3, counting mine, split boards and I was happy and sad that it's getting big. Sad because I'm no longer the only kid on the block with a split board and that also means that there are a lot more yaa hoos that are trying to do backcountry... happy that it's starting to come along and with that means better equipment.

Here's the one picture that I got on that trip:

We were at 32,088... We added 1,838feet. Thus we are at 33,926feet.