Nick's Wedding!

Location:  Traverse City, MI

Rundown:  Back to the states three weeks after returning to Chile for my buddy Nick's wedding!



Flew out of Santiago at 7PM on Wednesday, August 28th, hopped to Huston, then Minneapolis, then Detroit at midday.  Nick's gregarious, good-timing Aunt Ann was so gracious to pick me up at the airport despite a unexpected flight delay and drive me five more hours clear up to Traverse City.  Pulled into T.C. at 7PM Thursday, August 29th, after twenty-four hours of non-stop travel.  Only a few schmucks are worth this.  Nick Brown is one of 'em.

The boys were out on a sailboat in Grand Traverse Bay, off Power Island, already getting their sea legs.  Aunt Ann passed me off to Ian's dad, who drove me out to Mission Peninsula.  Ran out on a dock, and the fellas threw me in a dinghy and motored me to the boat!  Felt like the John Candy movie, Planes Trains and Automobiles.

Happy to be back and stationary (besides the rocking of the boat).  I hadn't seem my buddy Tony in six years or so.  We had some catching up to do, and so we went into the wee hours of the night doing so.  There may or may not have been skinny-dipping.  Buncha dudes... that's weird.

Hard to tell in the morning how 'overboard' one was the night before when you're on a boat.  Everything is listing and rocking.  Sometimes it cancels itself out, like negative interference of wave anti-nodes, but other times...

Peeled ourselves out of our berths and on deck under cloudy skies spitting a touch of rain.  Within an hour the clouds had vanished leaving sunny skies and a fabulous northern Michigan summer day.

Spent the next day doing all the pre-wedding festivites.  Got to see a lot of old friends, Nick and Ian's families, whom I haven't seen in years.  Got to wear blue shirts with my buddies.  I don't know how we got so lucky to randomly have been put together in dorms all those years ago.  These are among the best friends and people I know.  Just don't tell them that.  It'll go to their heads.  Jerks.

On game day a trolley drove us all over Traverse City taking shots.  We had a ball.  Can't beat getting dressed up with all your buddies and being driven around town with a stocked cooler.

More photos, fun, and time to catch up.  Shot photos all over.  Parks, waterfront, abandoned buildings, and forests. 

Well done Mr. and Mrs. Brown.  Look at those beautiful children!  Sorry about the middle one though.  Your daughters make up for his oddity.

After a beautiful ceremony we ate, drank, and danced through the night. 

The SO's, Breanna and Jesse were also in good form and tearing up the dance floor.

And a good time was had by all.  The next morning I caught a ride back down to Detroit and flew back south!  Round Trip Travel Time:  96 hrs.  Total Time in T.C:  96 hrs.  Time well spent.

Ski Season!

Location: Valle Nevado and La Parva

Rundown:  Several great days of snow in the Andes both on piste and off!
 

Every Saturday during ski season we chaperones drag our carcasses out of bed and BACK to school where we deal with MORE students who've misplaced yet MORE things.  Yes, it's Ski Club!  Once you're rolling up to the mountain, it's so worth it though.

And on those days we're not chaperones, we ski for free!  Pack shovel, beacon, and probe when heading off piste, just in case...  Attacked the ridge between Falsa and La Parva a couple of times.  Did the chutes A, B, and C, below. 

                        A                  B                                                          C




Took the lift to the top of Andes lift then skinned over to La Parva.  It looks like easy going, but this took an hour and a half to reach the ridge.

The majesty of the mountains... spoiled by Graether poking people in the butt.  I suppose it means the Andes bring out the little kid in all of us.  At least he skis well.

The going is fairly flat at first and you cover a lot of ground.  The peaks seem to be in your grasp.

And then it gets steeper.  The heel-lifts come up with the incline and the huffing and puffing starts.

The pause on a rocky outcropping to chow, hydrate, and load our skis onto our packs for the last, and steepest slog up to the ridge.

Once on the ridge, the going flattens out again.  We breathe more easily.  But not that much more.

We hike to just above our targeted gullies and rig our skis for the drop.  Spirits high are high despite feeling a little less than altitude acclimatized.



We take turns dropping in.  Sergio spots from the peak of a towering pillar, cut by the chute.

Jhan contemplating gully B before kitting up and dropping in.  What a beautiful place!

And there's the drop.  It doesn't look so bad from down here, but it's steep and not super soft.

Coming out from between the huge pillars of rock in gully B.  Note the cornice shadow on the ridge we hucked from.  Pretty steep.  Pretty fun.

A couple pre-drop shots before trying out chute B.  Spring snow evident here with all the melting.
 

... made for good turns once the sun had been out for a bit.  You could tell the difference on the cloudy days.  Rougher going.

Gully C is the narrowest, with a huge snow bowl you have to drop into before cutting through the tight, but not too tight chute.  Here Sergio makes a few wide turns in the good snow before tightening up to make it through. 

The pillars are like sentinels, huge edifices through which you must thread your skis.  There's just enough room for comfort.  In icy conditions it would be pretty ugly.

Fantastic days playing in the mountains with friends.  We were like kids in a candy store.

So much to explore.  So little time!  What a fantastic playground to have in our backyard!