Steve's 50th party

This was a great party! Here's a shot of me holding the guys up. (L2R - Bob Wood, me, Bob Horan, Chris Kulish). Now that I think of it, the chronology is interesting. Bob Horan and I climbed everywhere when I first came out to Colorado, Castleton Tower, Supercrack & the Titan in 2 days was a highlight for our first trip to Utah. Chris Kulish and I met because we had (past tense) the same girlfriend. Standing Rock was one of our big climbs. Bob Wood & I have done quite a bit of canyoneering as of late w/ a few first descents mixed in.

Thanks to Mia for setting it up. A few friends showed up that I haven't seen for years, namely Bob Horan & Chris. I didn't get too many pictures 'cause it was just too much fun.

A few more 50th related pics here.

Steve is 50 !!

This was my present to myself on my 50th birthday! It was a real joy to hike to Chasm Lake junction (topo) by myself. I sprung the question on Mia in the morning - "Do you mind if I take a little hike, honey? without Julia and you? Please?" How could she say no .. on my 50th?

I was well rewarded with bitter cold but blue skies. A nice winter day on Long's Peak. I hadn't been close to the Diamond since my accident over 10 years ago. Nice to hike to 11.5k and not a bad time either - for 50. Hah!

Sorry for the ugly mug shot. I'm usually much more handsome but you try holding the camera at arm's length in a 60mph wind AND trying to capture oneself AND the Diamond AND look good when your face is frozen. Well the looking good didn't happen ..

I was back in plenty time for a shower and shave before we went to Radda Trattoria for dinner - Great Italian Food!

Julia paints her Papa's toenails

I never thought I'd see the day that I'd get my toenails painted - only 5 of them but still ..

Here's a closeup of the master, Julia, at work.

Cheesebox Canyon - BoyZrUs Canyoneering Trip

The West Fork of Cheesebox wasn't a gruntfest of slotness (Hmm, that doesn't sound so great. Oh well.) like some of our recent trips but it was a winner in variety and beauty. The water was cold though and we used many tricks to stay out of it. We still got wet. Real wet. Don't let the pics fool you you. Both Bob Wood & Charlie King wore wetsuits under their clothes and were happy about it. Luckily there was only one real swimming section. Of course, when Charlie or Bob went first, they'd say - Only chest deep, no problem. This translates to nose deep for me!

There's a lot to exploring to do around here. Without trying we bumped into an Anasazi ruin and Charlie found a nice arrowhead point.

After the canyon, we continued driving on Cheesebox Road. It became much rougher and turned into 4WD before we hit a decent dirt road. Another half hour of wondering where we were driving and we found a good camp. Here's a great view from close to camp. Wooden Shoe Canyon is in the distance. There's roads all over the place around here and they ALL go to cool places that need exploring. It's a definite problem! Since I strained my foot in one of the pools and Charlie hurt his knee, we decided to explore by vehicle. Gorgeous country ... Saw turkeys too.

Here's part of the route we took. Red is road. Blue is our canyoneering route. At our most northern point, the snow got too deep so we backtracked for 1/2 hour until we could travel East to Blanding (not marked).

All the trip pics are here!

Skiing Butler Gulch - last day of 2006

Our sitter gave us 6 hours and Mia & I took all of it!

Butler Gulch was great. Lot's of powder, no wind and not very cold. Even the trailhead access road was in good shape.

I'm finally getting used to my new ski gear - the plastic boots and fatter boards. The snow was over my prosthetic, knee high. (Yah, that's me to the right.) I'm starting to like skiing again. My eyes are wandering higher .. to the ridges .. like what we used to ski. I can feel the pull ..