Goodbye, Facebook.

Goodbye, Facebook. I've been trying to determine the value/cost of Facebook to decide whether or not I should continue with my page. Initially, I found great value in connecting with some of my childhood friends, and I have even connected and renewed some of these old friendships. Initially, the value was high and the cost was minimal (in terms of time spent). But now the tides have turned. I feel like the value I get is virtually non-existent relative to the time wasted. For this reason, I have decided to delete my Facebook account. For those who enjoyed seeing my sunrise pictures, my mountain climbing pictures, or some epicurean musings, I will try to continue that on my blog. In fact, I will try to go back to the beginning of this year to post about some of my adventures. Please feel free to comment and I look forward to continuing with some of the renewed friendships! You can also follow some of my adventures on Strava. http://www.strava.com/athletes/1051665


In January I had a trip to Utah for work, so I connected with Dave and Scott to do a little climbing. We climbed the south ridge of Superior and then on to Monte Cristo. It was a pretty sharp ridge as you can see in some of the shots. I'm so much more used to hiking on glaciers than rock, so I felt a little exposed.

This is the view from the summit. Click on it to see the full view.


Then in right after I got home, I went climbing with my good friend Will Thomas. On the descent, I jumped of a little ledge and landed right on a rock under the snow. I sprained my ankle badly and broke my crampons. Ouch. Sorry, no pictures of tfhe ankle, but here was the view we had.


About two weeks later, Melanie and I decided to go night skiing for Valentine's Day. Despite my ankle hurting pretty badly, I had a fantastic time and think this is one of our best dates in the last 10 years or so!

Just checking to see if this pic is able to be blown up. I added this in the "Edit Html" tab and the message below in the "Compose" tab. I want to see if this is the difference between them blowing up and now blowing up when you click them...



Yep! It worked, so here is the other one.

Fort Lewis Half Marathon

I ran my second half marathon today. In some ways I expeccted to be faster on this one, but in others I didn't. One problem was a busy schedule with lots of travel which held me to only about 3 runs in the last 3 weeks. Perhaps even 4 runs in 4 weeks. Not a good way to train.

I started out well with about a 7:30 pace for my first mile. My intention was to kick it at the beginning and then pull back a little later, and then kick it again at the end. However, my plan was thwarted by the mileage signs. I know my pace pretty well so I was just using my watch. To my amazement and dismay, I didn't hit mile marker 2 until 19:30 into the race. I have never run that slow! This kept me wondering the rest of the race what my actual pace was and how far I had actually run.

I ran well and felt fine until about mile 11. Things got tough there. An older guy came up behind me and said, "Almost there!" I turned back and said, "Let's do this!" We then made a plan of who we were going to pass by the end. We passed that guy in no time and really stepped up our pace. He was a great motivation for me. We were both hurting so we kept each other going. Thanks, older dude...whoever you are!

I think I ended in almost exacty the same time as I did in my previous race! (at least based on the race clock.) It was 1:47 and change. I was hoping to beat the 8 minute mile, but it would not be so on this run. It also didn't help that it was full sun the whole way and about 75 degrees by the end of the race. Here are a couple of shots...

Recent Trip to Camp Muir

Stuart and I decided to head up to camp Muir in the middle of the night. We began our hike at about 1 am and made it to Muir by about 6:30. We crested the clouds at about 4:30 just in time to see the sun hit the tops of the clouds and also to light up Mt. Adams in the distance. I did not do well on sleep deprivation...

Also, can anyone tell me why my pics don't blow up when you click them in the blog? Is there a way to do that?

Here is a shot of the moon just as we were breaking through the clouds. It was awesome!

Here is Stuart heading up the mountain in the wee hours of the morning.

Mt. Adams looked beautiful in the morning light!

I am about to head down on my skis.

Stuart was glad to have his skis on his feet instead of his back.

Panoramas above the clouds.

Easter Pictures

We took some fun pictures in the kids Easter outfits.

The kids obviously get their good looks from Mommy!

I'm not actually smiling...I'm grimmacing. He loves to pull my hair.

You would think someone would have told me my hair looked like this prior to this shot being taken. I can thank the little butterball for this hairdo.

Snow Caving

Here are some shots of Ben up snow-caving with the scouts. It was a beautiful day up there and we had a great time playing in the snow. Ben got some new snow shoes, which he wore the entire time he was up there!

Here is Ben snow-shoeing out of camp with his pack on. He packed his sleeping bag and all of his clothes. I only carried his sleeping pad. He is quite the hiker and camper for a 6 year old!

Family shots

We decided to use the new camera to try to capture some shots of the kids for a Christmas card. One indoor and one outdoor. Will didn't last long for either one so we likely won't get a family picture with him smiling until he is a little older...or happier.