Snowmans Blog

Personal Update (Journal) - Sept 15 2006

So what's been happening over the summer? Obviously I haven't had time to do this blog thing, and I've probably slipped further out of sight than usual.

Last winter was far too hectic, and that set me back on a lot of things. I was working a lot on the Avalanche Blast product until late fall, only to find that a deal had been made by the inventor to sell it to another company. (I was in touch with them a bit, but the market in North America is so small there isn't much opportunity in it, and it's obviously not where their emphasis will be.) That meant that all of the fall work to keep the avalanche center (csac.org) running was rushed. And that propagated into my avalanche class schedule, delaying promotion of the classes and resulting in break-even class sizes. An odd winter weather pattern didn't help.

So I reached spring more than a little bit worn out. I'd hoped to ski tour in the Cascades but good weather for it was not abundant. Mt Hood Meadows offered a late season pass, and for $100 it was possible to ski as many days as you wanted from the beginning of April onward. I didn't have any other planed this spring so I did that, which allowed for good skiing in the conditions that were not so good for the backcountry. It's a long drive to ski there for a day so I made a few trips of 2-3 days each and camped in my truck in the parking lot. Without night skiing the lodge closed early, and there isn't much to do in a truck, so the nights were too long. I love living out of the truck on summer trips in good weather but it's not so great in winter. At one time in the past I had a VW bus for just this reason.

I'd also been planning to go explore central Nevada, hoping to get some skiing in some of the remote but high mountain ranges out there. I'd also seen signs for cheap property the previous fall when I made a detour through the area enroute from Las Vegas to Bishop. The realtors website listed numerous lots for $5000. Because of the ski pass I wanted to get my use out of it was May before I got down to Nevada. The old blue Mazda truck was reaching the end of its life, approaching a quarter of a million miles, and 4th gear out of 5 wasn't working. So I was hoping it would get there and back, and I avoided some rough access roads I would normally have explored. But it made it there and back, with additional problems not arising until later when I was home.

In Nevada I went to Kingston, which is in the middle of the state. I found there were not so many lots left for $5000, and some are in a flood plain. But there was one good deal left and I purchased a lot to build a cabin on. This is actually owned by the avalanche center to be used to build an office, but the office has always served as my home as well. It's the primary benefit I get since there isn't enough money raised for any kind of salary. So this was the first big news of the summer. During the time I spent there, about 2 weeks, I did get two days of skiing in with the second one being pretty marginal. I also explored and camped up and down the valley and went to the closest of the many hot springs in the area. Kingston is in the high desert at almost 6000'. It sits at the base of the Toiyabe Mountains, with Bunker Hill adjacent to town reaching almost 12,000'. The unexplored skiing and climbing possibilities are endless.

During June I was just feeling worn out and I spent a lot of time working on the computer to improve the avalanche center website. I changed the primary domain name and all file extensions, which was a lot of work. I also tried to make some progress on automating the membership processing. One thing that took a lot of time last winter was checking that all the information got recorded in the right places. Hopefully that will work more reliably now.

In July I guided a climb up Mt Adams, which was really the only climbing I did all summer. Shortly after that I took a trip to Philadelphia to visit my parents. My brother came from Boston and we had a nice time since it's not common for us to be able to get together like that.

With the truck having just about died I had been watching the ads in the paper for a new vehicle. I can't afford or justify more than about $1500 or so. Just before leaving for Philadelphia I found an old van I decided to buy. It's a large 1978 GMC which is partly converted for camping. It's going to guzzle gas, but ultimately it's for longer road trips and especially winter trips. (I have a second Mazda truck that is ok for regional trips but I don't trust it too far. I'm debating having the engine from the dead one rebuilt for the good one, or just buying a rebuilt. Next year, if its holds up well until then.)

So in July I bought the van but found that it needed a lot of repairs. I drove it up Marys Peak, a steep 4000' drive, and it overheated. The radiator was bad and I had a shop down the street replace it, which was a trying adventure of its own. The guy wanted $300 for the part, which I could buy for $150 and other shops charge $200 for. So he said I could get it and he'd put it in. He claimed it was bad and I had to exchange it. I have to take his word, but I've never had a bad new part before. Meanwhile this guy is also starting up his own Budget Truck rental outlet, so he's only able to work in the garage about 15 min at a time between phone calls. After a week the work was finally done, and he charged extra labor for partially installing the first bad radiator. So the total was about what I could have paid a radiator shop, and it would have been done in a day. No more going to that guy.

I took it up Marys Peak again and to the coast. The brakes didn't seem too good and it still had a loud ping going uphill. A trip to Les Schwab for a free brake check confirmed the rear ones were shot, and I decided to replace those myself to save money. I had the tune-up checked by a shop down the street in the other direction and they said it had been done recently, and didn't charge me anything. The guy also recommended removing some unnecessary an non-functioning things. But I still had a loud ping so I took it to the guy I used to use regularly and he claimed it needed a new EGR valve for $200. I looked that up and found it's easy to do so I did that myself as well, but the part is $100 and had to come from out of town. So finally after all of that it's mid-September but the thing is running ok. And here I am on McKenzie Pass camping in it to greet the first snowfall of the year.

I had hoped to go to Nevada again to work on having a septic tank installed, but with the van needing all the work to go on a long trip I never made it. I had also planned at one time to go to a conference in Russia during September, but I realized at some point that I'd rather spend the funds on work in Kingston and that I really had to catch up on too many things to keep running from one adventure to another with no breaks. So since the middle of July I've really just been working on the van, or waiting for work on it, and trying to catch up some more on avalanche center work.

Now I'm wishing I had gotten away since the busy fall season is here. I have to start thinking about the avalanche center auction, update all the store webpages for this years products, fundraise, etc. And at the same time I need to get a decent start on planning and promoting courses. It's already snowing here today at 5300', which is unusually early. But they're predicting an El Nino winter which is usually drier than average. I'm hoping its not one of those years with a good start and then no snow. If it's at least a reasonable snow year I'm considering getting a season pass at Mt Hood Meadows. I figure with the van it will be easier to camp out for a few days of skiing at a time. And during the main winter season the lodge is open at night for night skiing. It has wifi so I can get my most essential work done in the evenings. I'll have to see how that pans out yet.

Well, enough for now. It's not complete, but I hadn't expected to write this much and these are the highlights of the past few months for anyone interested in what I've been up to.

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