sense of place and the affects on the individual

At Miami my Thematic Sequence was about conservation. In the last class our final project was to write a paper or create a project about Sense of Place. I really didn't understand the goal of the project until I was almost finished with mine, and could do a far better job now... 6 years later. (Have I really been out of school for 6 years? Yikes.) As I drove home from Denver a few nights ago I was struck with a bizarre yet interesting (to me, at least) realization that a lot of music (American or otherwise) reveals with amazing accuracy a person's sense of place. Hopefully this doesn't sound arrogant, but I really feel like I could describe a songwriter's relationship with their local geography, even if I'd never heard the song, with pretty good accuracy. It is actually a common theme that an artist conveys their surroundings more than they might realize? Or is it intentional? Maybe it's a reflection that as a musician you express what you know/see/feel best. I guess that makes sense; unless you were hoping to make a very specific statement that was the opposite of what you were surrounded by, that's exactly what you would do. A few examples are probably needed here.

• Listen to any (ANY) Lynyrd Skynyrd song. You can practically smell the bayou, the whiskey and crawfish,
• It is impossible to separate the Red Hot Chili Peppers from California. I can almost feel the Pacific and the southern California sun beating down on my face.
• Grab your nearest Andean pan flute album and tell me you can't feel the damp clouds rolling in over the lush mountain valleys. (Liar!)
• What does the Jamaican state of mind sound like? Queue up the Bob Marley album of choice.

This made me think about what else reflects that we, to a certain degree, are a product of our surroundings. Vocabulary and hobbies are a few examples. I wonder what interests would occupy my free time if I didn't live in Boulder or hadn't been exposed to the Rockies at an early enough age to pine for their bounty. If I grew up on the Pacific coast, for example, would I have an interest in sea kayaking but care less about skiing? If I grew up in Australia would I have a passion for scuba and detest winter?

late season resort powder!!!

A few weeks ago Colorado had a really nice system come through that dropped good late season snow across the whole state.  Since I felt like I hadn't had a really sick powder day this season, I watched the forecast and kept an eye on the storm until I decided Thursday was the day to head up to the hills.  I called off work and went to Breck for what was largely considered to be the best day of the season there.  It was one of those days where the lightly falling snow muffled every sound except the euphoric involuntary screaming of [Wahoo! / Yeeeahhh! / Sick!], heard in the distance ...which you found yourself repeating after you got off the T-Bar and dropping in to discover it was so deep you couldn't see your skis, boots, or even knees at times (... followed up with Matthew McConaughey's high pitched stoned giggle a la Dazed And Confused...).  Spring skiing felt really good.  Here's a little story / lesson learned though:

Before one of my laps on Boundary Chutes (untracked trees, steep but so deep you hardly need to turn to maintain safe speed) I'm on the cat track and this guy comes down from George's Thumb bowl talking about how he might have been dreaming, but could swear it was up to his waist at one point.  His wife confirms.  I think to myself, (a) that's ridiculous, they have to be messing with me, or (b) waist deep would be the most erotic snow experience of my life, so what if they're telling the truth?  I decide to call an audible and check it out.  When I get back to the top of the T-Bar, I cut over and take the Imperial lift to the top.  It wasn't too windy, but blowing over the ridge into George's Thumb bowl.  I start to believe the wind could actually make waist deep a reality.  When I got to the other side of the ridge, the wind changed directions.  I was overtaken by what I believe was the hardest gust of wind I've ever experienced.  I stopped when the next pole marking my cat track disappeared into the whiteout, probably only 20 feet away.  After about 30 seconds, which felt like an eternity, even with wearing a neck/nose gaitor, the windward side of my face was completely numb.  I buried my face in my armpit - only to expose an unzipped pocket that I later discovered was unzipped and had a baseball sized ball of snow in it from this 30 seconds... I had a mini-panic attack thinking that the wind was not going to stop so I had to get back to the trees but I couldn't see to get down safely.  I literally could not see past my skis in the whiteout but I decided to just go for it and drop in where I was.. and nearly took a fall into a 10 ft natural quarter pipe (the wind eventually let up).  Once I did get my bearings I made it down just fine, discovering that it indeed was deeper, but not quite waist deep.  That's just silly (although I did share the T-Bar with a girl who told me her little sister was over her belly button in Blue Sky the day before, and she seemed to be telling the truth).  Lesson learned: the grass is not always greener.  After that I had windburn so bad that the right side of my face actually peeled like a sunburn.  Crazy.

I couldn't get up to the mountains in the weekend after Thursday, but was able to head up the following weekend.  On the 4th Ryan and I headed to Salida on Friday night to use our free day at Monarch (thanks Gems card!).  It had been snowing by the foot in the Sawatch range all week, and I had heard good things about Monarch, so I was very excited.  Monarch did NOT disappoint.  When we woke up on Saturday they were reporting 6" of fresh overnight, so we hurried up to get as many fresh tracks as possible.  Holy cow.  Even the main runs were fairly untracked.   After several laps with Ryan, I headed off to the hike-to terrain to see what kind of trouble I could get into.  After about 10 minutes of hiking I was simply too excited and just dropped into what I could see hadn't really been touched.  It was like sand dune fresh powder up to the knees.  I was beside myself!  I had to stop to take some pictures to remember it.  Ex:

After my first lap through this goodness I skied back over to Ryan to give him a chance to enjoy the powder.  The long story short there is that one day in the future he will look back on the experience with excitement... but that might be a while.  I think next time when it's that deep he'll bring his skies instead of snowboard.  Ahh well.  The whole Monarch set can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/brett_burch/sets/72157616676291062.  

The next day I went up to Eldora after hearing how good the snow was up there in the glades.  I skied with a friend from my Avy 1 class, and was not disappointed yet again.  I had heard about how terribly icy the skiing at Eldora usually is, but that was definitely not a problem after a foot of fresh snow.  We were able to find some decent stashes in the glades even a few days after the storm.  Note to self: check out Bryan Gully at the bottom of Bryan Glades again... that was the first time this season I had skied two days in a row, so I was tired on Monday, but it was really worth it.  

This season is finishing on a really good note.  I'm going to be climbing the next 3 Saturdays, but if I can myself out for some more skiing in May or June, I'll be really happy with how this season finished.

several crazy weeks

I haven't posted anything on here in a month... Since the previous post / rant I have moved into my first condo... and am therefore a new home owner. I'll keep the long story short and just say that I didn't close on the day that I wanted to, but still was able to move in and wound up finding a new lender to close with 3 days later. All is coming together well at the new place... even Tacoma has adjusted and enjoys the new terrain to explore. Friday I had my housewarming party, and hope it will be the first of many. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. We kept it small enough to be cozy, but maybe next time I'll crank it up a notch and test the capacity of the place.

Aside from the move, I also am newly AIARE Level 1 certified. I took the class up Boulder Canyon at Eldora Ski Resort.


I learned a lot, and we had decent snow for digging and skiing despite the incredibly dry winter in the Front Range.

The class was 2 nights of lecture followed by 2 days in the field. Our first day in the field was primarily spent on beacon practice, and timing teams digging up dummy avalanche victims. It was pretty tough, and made me think twice about the severity of being stuck in a slide. I really hope I never have to dig a buddy up, knowing they'll be purple if I find them at all. The second field day we dug a snow pit and did more layer analysis. The snow science was really interesting to me, and I think I'll wind up getting my level 2 next year. The payoff at the end of the second day was the backcountry skiing. Since conditions were not very favorable, we weren't able to ski anything very steep, but I got my first out of bounds turns in nonetheless, and enjoyed it. I have to say, though, 2 days on alpine trekkers have reinforced the need to either switch to tele skiing or get an AT setup before I start seriously considering big tours. This, plus my signing up for some rock climbing and snow climbing classes definitely are a step towards checking off more of my 2009 goals, mentioned in a January post.

Snow is in the forecast for the mountains, but it's been 70+ degrees in Boulder for a while, so it's doubtful much will stick in town even if snow falls. With the nice weather, last week I took my first hike up to Mt. Sanitas right outside of Boulder. It's about 3 miles round trip, and the views are well worth the work to get to the top. You can see quite a ways to both east and west, with great views of the Indian Peaks to the west. There seemed to be decent bouldering along the ridge, so I'll definitely be doing some climbing up there this summer. It's tough to talk about summer already, but it seems inevitable. I'm disappointed in this ski season, but imagine few future seasons will compare to my first real one last year. I hope to get some more days in this year, and the storm coming in this week should help, but only time will tell... fingers crossed!

on listening and interference

Recently I feel like there has been a lot of interference in my life, preventing me from clearly hearing. Some of it is necessary, and some not. I'm within days of closing on my first home (condo) purchase, so phone calls and emails with financial lenders, HOA managers, my Realtor, etc are inevitable, as are trips to buy boxes and packing tape, reserving a moving truck, replacing my renters insurance with homeowners insurance, etc. Other distractions, mainly regarding my as of yet unfulfilled search for my future wife, seem extremely unnecessary and are clouding my decision making, head, and frankly irritating me to no end.* It has started to affect my sleep (I am NOT a morning person, but haven't slept all the way til my alarm sounds for quite some time), and more importantly, my prayer life. I'm currently reading a book now called Practical Prayer, which has reiterated to me the importance of simply listening in silence during prayer. This has honestly been difficult... to listen to God, if that makes sense. I don't mean actually waiting to hear a voice, but hopefully you understand that. I suppose this happens to all Christians from time to time, but recently more than ever I feel like I have been unable to interpret God's intentions, pleadings, and guidance in my life.

This morning the noise was tangible, with a ringing in my ears that would not subside. In an attempt to rid myself of this weight, I headed up to Sugarloaf Mountain, a familiar face with a vantage point that could just about cure disease. I drove up in silence, parked the Jeep, and headed up the trail to a clearing where several of the Indian Peaks (Sugarloaf is the bald hill under #22 in this picture) and Longs Peak - all of which are within Boulder County - were in plain sight. There were a few folks at the trailhead, but after a few minutes they headed off in another direction, and I was left alone. Every now and then a plane would fly overhead and make a bit of distant noise, but for the most part it was silent except for birds or the wind through the pines. After a while the ringing in my ears faded, and I felt like I could accurately hear again. I sat in silence for quite some time. I prayed. I took in the scenery. I simply listened. I became acutely aware of the smell of the pine and dirt around me, and the cloudless sky. I memorized the panorama to the west. I don't know how long this went on for, but after a while the time didn't matter. If I had to guess I'd say I sat in the same spot for at least 45 minutes. It might not sounds like it, but that's a lot of silence. And it was terrific. After the sun moved behind a tree and I got cold I decided to head to Nederland for some hot chai. When I stood up, I felt almost as refreshed as Peter Gibbons after hypnosis. I drove to Nederland in silence again (no radio stations come in up there anyways) and drove home a different way, down Boulder Canyon... in silence. [I know I've written this before, but I am continually made aware of how special Boulder - and all of Boulder County - is. Unless I move out of the Front Range, I have no desire to leave this county. It's amazing the bounty that can be found right out my front door.]

On my way home I stopped at Home Depot for a wardrobe box. Immediately upon walking through the front door I was acutely aware that I was being bombarded with noise once again. It made me think about whether everyone else could hear it or if they had actually let themselves become accustomed to it. The apathy displayed by voluntary subjection to such poison was horrifying. My point is this; when looking around, just people watching even for a minute, it seems so many lives are full of frivolity and superfluity. Noise. Interference. It boggles the mind to think of what we could collectively accomplish if we didn't waste time worrying about these things. I suppose what is frivolous to one may be imperative to another, but still, I think we could largely agree on a vast majority of what goes on in this world and devote time to more important matters. Who among us, after all, can add another hour to our lives by worrying? I can dream, I guess.

----

*[This alone could be the subject of an entire post on this blog. It's like I have a sign on my forehead that says, "help me find a wife" or something. I honestly never knew I even had a suggestion box for this topic, but the damn thing is now completely full and then some, so I'd like the incoming flow to stop. I honestly don't remember the last complete day where a family member, friend, or co-worker has NOT made a comment or suggestion about how I should go about finding a girlfriend / that I really should get myself one. I never knew my non-existant love life was so interesting. While I appreciate the encouragement and intent, enough is enough. I'm trying to be a good sport about this, but soon I'm going to have to put a different sign on my forehead... something like, "I apologize for what you're reading, but if what you're about to say has anything to do with the opposite sex then I'm going to drive one or both of us off the nearest cliff." So for those of you who are making these suggestions or puzzled over my current situation, and you're actually reading this, here you go...

I don't care that I'm single enough to let it occupy all my spare time, energy, and brain cells. It does weigh heavily on my mind, but apparently not to the extent that it does on yours. (Neil Young: "...doesn't mean that much to me, to mean that much to you...") Believe me, most days I would gladly cut my salary in half in exchange for somebody to share it with, but I have confidence that this whole situation will work itself out soon enough. Until then, I'm being patient. At the risk of sounding egomaniacal, I haven't yet found somebody that knocks me off my proverbial feet. (I'm not talking about just physical appearance here.) Once I do, rest assured that I'll give her the moon and stars and expect her to do the same for me, but until then, please be patient. That's probably about all I should say on this subject. Thanks for the sentiment, but I would recommend devoting fewer synapses to this endeavor. You'll only end up with ringing ears. If you can't infer that from my facial expression when you talk to me about this stuff, perhaps you need to spend some time up on Sugarloaf and get the interference out.]

good day at A-Basin

Yesterday I ventured out for a solo day at A-Basin. It was the first time I've driven up on a Sunday instead of a Saturday... traffic was completely different, among other things. But the more exciting topic was the skiing, so let's get to that. First off, as a precursor, I hadn't been out in about 3 weeks, so I wasn't sure how well I would ski. There also hadn't been any new snow for at least a week, so I wasn't sure how good the snow would be. It was a crap shoot, and the gamble paid off.

That was my first day on the Pallavinci lift area of A-Basin, and I highly recommend it, especially when Zuma is closed. I did laps on Pali Face and surprised myself at how well I skied. That's not the steepest line I've ever skied, but definitely very fun and worth checking out if you haven't before. I was able to sustain chaining turns for as long as I cared to rather than until I started to get out of control, and my mogul lines improved too. It was as if the lightbulb finally went on this season! Those nagging thoughts in the back of my mind about digressing this season were sent packing for some other year, and I was thrilled at the day.

Sunday also gave me the chance to try out my brand spanking new Light Smoke Flash jacket from Patagonia (50% off!) to see if it was warm enough and wind-resistant enough to stand up to truly crappy weather days on the slopes. That puppy passed with flying (...red, actually) colors! It was so windy (50mph gusts) that the Montezuma side was closed most of the day. At the top of the resort wind was bombarding everyone with up-to-penny-diameter ice crystals which stung any unprotected skin. When Zuma did open, I ventured over once and immediately headed back to Pali Face where the snow was much better. It simply wasn't worth waiting behind a ridge like a penguin until the wind stopped so you could slide down a sheet of ice. Along with being a good day to put my new jacket to the test, it was a real lesson in wind deposition; new snow coverage was replinished throughout the day. At one point in particular I had to stop for at least 2 minutes due to whiteout conditions, and when I pulled my hands from my face (being pelted by the newly deposited fluff...) a brand new powder/corn surface was laid out for me to enjoy.

Now that we're approaching mid-February, I'm anticipating some good spring storms to come through and provide some good powder days for me to close out the season with. Time will tell. I'm looking forward to my free day at Monarch in April courtesy my Gems card. To be perfectly honest, I haven't explored all that much new ground this year, and have to admit I haven't found anything that matches the sustained steep lines of Loveland's ridge or Winter Park's Vasquez Ridge... the potential is there but the snow hasn't been. Next year I might just get some Loveland 4-packs and the Intrawest pass again... we'll see. But not so fast, there is plenty of days left in this season, so I'll keep you posted with whatever new territory I discover.