WT-2 Ski Day

Going up!
Originally uploaded by surferdwa.

As the snow began to melt off of Pajarito, I decided that the skiers in the group needed an official send off to the season. Ryan Maupin (group leader), Mike Prime, Tim Overly, Anthony Puckett and myself boot packed up under Aspen lift and were greeted with heavy snow at the top.

Skiing down was exciting, with previous sets of turns from the last powder day were frozen into treacherous valleys of doom. Fun was had by all though, and Andy was there with Nina to greet us at the bottom.

Farewell, Pajarito. Until Next year.

Tessa's Ascension

Lining up at the bottom of Super Chief
Originally uploaded by surferdwa.

Tessa's Ascension took place last night. The Ascension was a Randonée race at Ski Santa Fe. It was a benefit for Tessa (linked above) who was a ski patroller at Santa Fe and died while in the peace corps. She loved backcountry skiing, so they dedicated a race to her.

What is Randonée you ask? Well, first you suffer like a dog for 30 minutes going UP the ski hill... and then a short jaunt down. The fastest guy did the round trip in ~28 minutes. It took me 33, and I was the 5th fastest time.

End result, a whole lot of fun!

Visiting Headquarters

Capitol III
Originally uploaded by surferdwa.

Jeff and I went out to DC to give a presentation at DOE headquarters this week. It was a short but cool trip. We got in around 5:00 on Thursday and took a long walk around the Mall and had dinner in China Town.

The presentation went extremely well, and I'm thinking about a "change of station" for a year as a technical advisor. The DOE rotates scientists and engineers in from the various labs to read reports, sit through presentations and give advice to the management on technical issues. Sounds like it could be fun for a year... at most.

Boot Packing in the spring

Boot Packing in the spring
Originally uploaded by surferdwa.

I had a busy week at work. I'm heading out to DOE headquarters in DC to do a presentation on our latest work. I had to get the presentation into classification by 2 pm so it could be processed in time for the trip.

1:55 I had the presentation to publications, and at 2:00 I was in my car and on my way up to Pajarito. Ryan and Mike had gone up at lunch, so there was a nice trail stomped into the snow. 30 minutes later I was at the top of Aspen and ready to head down.

Snow conditions were perfect spring skiing. Not slush, not ice, just sweet skiing. What a way to relax.

Breaking in the new dog house

Breaking in the new dog house
Originally uploaded by surferdwa.

After weeks of working on the dog house between rain showers, it is finally complete! It was a great project. Tiffany and I worked together, I got to buy new tools, and Nikki even likes it!

I'm not sure how much time Nikki actually spends "inside" the house, I mostly see her sitting on top of it, which is apparently what huskies do.