Made it!

Well, I made it. There are so many people it's incredible!

Were moving

Here we go

The gates have opened!

The gates have opened but no one in my c

Waiting for gates to open

Let the waiting commence. There are so many people, I don't see how it
is possible to pull this off without incident. Everybody is in good
spirits despite the frigid temperatures.

Up and at 'em

Up and out the door before 5:00. There is already a flurry of activity
in the hotel. Welcome ti THE day. This is going to be big.

Obamas at the Blair House

On our way to see the White House after lunch, we were stopped by our
curiosity about a small gathering of onlookers and the street closure
they were gathered around. As we idled about, Mom recognized one of
the buildings across the street as the Blair House, where the Obamas
are currently staying. Shortly after, Obama's motorcade drove by to
the sounds of a cheering crowd. They drove around the block to the
front of the building which was in clear sight. Then, he got out of
the limo and waved!

Capital on inauguration eve

Were here and seeing the sights before everything is closed off.

Made it!

Made it to Atlanta! The flight was pretty much packet with people
going to The inauguration. 25 EMTs from Portland were picking up
ambulances in Atlanta and driving to D.C. It's going to be tight
getting on this next flight - I'm 8 of 8 on standby. Fingers are
crossed.

PDX sucks DX

Well, passed the security guards I strolled, and that was as far as I was to get today. No going to Atlanta for me tonight. Given that I didn't know whether or not I was going to get on the plane until 10:15 pm, I decided against calling Darrin or Mike and asking them to pick me up tonight, then drop me off at 5:00 am tomorrow. I looks like yet another night in an airport. I hope one day I'm rich enough and smart enough to figure out how not to do this.

Inauguration Trip: Start

The view from the train

I write this while on a train bound for Portland, while on the other side of our magnificently flawed nation, Barak Obama and Joe Biden are themselves on a train, reconstructing the journey Abraham Lincoln took to the White House. Where my trip is the start of exciting travels to participate in the exciting, historical events in Washington DC, their journey is a lead-in to the arduous adventure of a first term presidency. There are many unknowns for us personally and collectively as a nation in the near future. Will the new administration and their policies be capable of subverting economic disaster? Will we reach a tangible tipping point of our short-sighted approach to global climate change? Will I make it onto a flight from Atlanta to Baltimore in time to pick up my ticket to the inauguration?

Paradox v2.0

The second pair of skis, the paradox v2.0 came out of the press Thursday morning. It took most of the day to remove the flashing, bevel the sidewalls, and sand and varnish the top sheet. I was attempting to get them finished and mounted to deliver them to Joe before he left on Friday for the Fairy Meadows hut, it was not to be. Instead I gave him the v1.0 to demo and hopefully get some good pictures. The v2.0 sticks were cleaned, waxed and mounted by 1:00am Saturday morning. Justin, Karl, Amy, Dan, Rachel, and myself had made plans, given the horribly warm and wet forecast for Saturday, to head up to Hyak and do some transceiver training. It was certainly good to get outside and get reacquainted with avy rescue again. There wasn't an opportunity to get a good test of the v2.0 but they are significantly softer than the v1.0. I think they could be super fun in deep soft snow but they could very well be too soft for anything but the deepest, softest conditions. In the meantime here are a few pics from the trimming and finishing process.

The first ever Vital user test

With enormous quantities of snow accumulating at Crystal Mt, a closed road, and a forecast calling for even more ice crystals to fall from the heavens, Tim and I decided to make Friday January 2nd, 2009, a day at the mountain. The road opened and we were there. Then... the road closed again, leaving us with a group of lucky individuals ready to ski our buns off. The snow was about as deep as it gets at Crystal with a fairly stiff base that concealed the rocks and branches that were still making themselves known on my last day at Crystal. The patrol had difficulty opening the mountain on time due to an accident involving a tree and a patroller's car. Apparently a tree fell directly on the patroller's windshield, cutting up the guy's face. A branch also went through the car, between the legs of the women passenger in the vehicle. It took an hour to clear the road but everyone was okay. They opened a scary chair 6, with sluffs going off with every line being skied. It was intense. A guy skiing behind Tim lost both his skis and got washing-machined. He was so freaked out he made no attempt to find his skis but just started walking out in waist deep slide debris. Then, at 2:00 Northway opened up fresh tracks for the rest of the day. Another great day.