Location: Mountain Research Station, Nederland, Colorado

Hi friends and family!

I am about as physically wiped out as I've been in a loooong time. Today was our 2nd big set-up day up on the mountain, which includes getting gear/people up by snowcat (or foot for some of the people), then mounting gear on sleds to drag up the final 300 m to its final destination at the research station on top of Niowatt Ridge.

A couple "thoughts/things to share" from today:

• This is boot camp for graduate students.
• Why on earth did I volunteer to hike up the mountain to reduce the weight on the snowcat? And with my advisor who's legs are twice as long as mine? Picture me trotting up, him strolling. :)
• Screwdrivers + pump fans are bad news. Gayle's fluke accident (hopefully the only one) demolished the cooling system for a pump...that pump will now be designated to sit in the snow to stay cold enough (they automatically shut down when the overheat).
• Great folks here - everyone's helping each other out and is fun hang out with. My ski buddy and roomate is Erika from U-Wisconsin (its 2 gals, 5 guys currently). Jack from UNH and I played backgammon last night...though we weren't totally sure of the rules.
• A Nepalese restaurant exists in Nederland, CO, a town of 1300. Go figure!
• My tailbone is doing better today then yesterday...yay! For anyone confused, I busted it going snowboarding last week and have been pretty wimpy since then.
• This is WAY harder than doing work up at Greenland! (with the exception of the fact that we can run to Home Depot in an emergency here)
• I'm going to bed early tonight!

Cheers!

~ tuckered out Gayle

MONA LISA EVERYWHERE!!!!!

On our day trip to Venice, Tim and I found a mona lisa exhibit that was a little strange, but cool. It was a cylinder of mona lisa panels with different colors reflecting off of each other.















Tim Honsby's good side















The canals are everywhere in Venice!



















And lots of cool statues

Jill left a post remembering when I had shaved my head. This was the photo Ian took for the Technique our junior year in college about two weeks after being sheared by Gayle.

Tim and I went to Venice yesterday and got properly lost for five hours. It was awesome. We both took a lot of pictures, and unfortunately left the camera back at the hotel as I'm writing this from an internet cafe. We kept finding interesting side streets to wander down, and refusing to buy a map, found our way to the opposite side of the city, then hopped on a water taxi as we ran late and the storms threatened. more pictures soon.

Katie and the rest of the team showed up today. They look exhausted. They made it through dinner, then went to bed before falling asleep at the table.

Cheers!
Ty

Ciao from Venezia!

It's been a while since I last updated the weblog. Since then, I've been to the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista for two weeks for the loading part of training before Worlds. What "loading" actually means is getting your blistered kayak butt kicked up and down the race course two times a day seasoned with weight and running sessions. We had selection races the first week to figure out who of the five guys selected for K-4 will be racing the three distances: 1000m, 500m, 200m. I'll be racing 1000 and 500. In order to qualify for The Home Depot's Olympic Job Opportunities Program, we will need to come in top 12 at the World Championships. I think our 500m K-4 has the best shot of doing that.

After way too breif of a break seeing Gayle in Atlanta, we've jetsetted over to Venice, Italy where we are hosted by the great Daniella Scarpa, Gold and Silver medallist from the 1996 Olympic Games. Today we were trying to get in to a weight room at a local resort. Two different resort employees stopped us and asked for passes. When our attempts at explanation failed, my coach, Guy simply dialed Daniella's number on the cell and handed it to the staffer. After a few minutes everything was understood, and we went on our way. We apparently have a very good friend in Italy. The picture above shows Daniella in a 6 person outrigger showing some young'uns the finer points of putting a paddle in the water.

Morgan House, K-4 teammate and 5th fastest Junior in the World as of a week ago won't be here until Monday. So, Susannah graciously hopped in the K-4 with us for a gruelling session in the canal. Also pictured are teammates Danny and Tim. Here you see us pulling out of the dock:


We leave for Croatia on Sunday, August 21st, then will start races on that Thursday! Since I'll have more exciting paddling events to report than "today we trained really hard, again" I'll try to update the blog more often.

All the best,
Ty

Location: Atlanta, GA
Writing: Gayle

Hey everyone! I'm back in sunny sunny, hot hot hot Atlanta, sporting a tan like none seen around here...hooray for the face tan with pale white ears. :)

I ended up leaving Summit on Thursday and spent 2 days in Kangerlussuaq, where I tried in vain to look for souvenirs that would be allowed into the USA. Apparently seal skins, whale bones, and antlers are out of the questions (and waaaay expensive). I settled on some decks of cards and a bottle of GammelDansk (vicious local brew) for Dave. For myself, I found a mug at a local grocery store that says "I love Kangerlussuaq"...which made everyone there laugh because there is not too much going on at Kanger...

Though there are some beautiful hikes...here's a shot from hiking with Meredith (University of Washington). The white you see in the grass is "arctic cotton", which has also been dubbed "Einstein flowers" in the close relation to his poofy hair.

And we found an exciting see-saw...

And then headed home on the C130...we were joined with researchers who were traveling home from other research stations in Greenland (Thule and Raven) and packed into the mesh seats again for the long ride to New York.


Now I am back in Atlanta for awhile, preparing for a busy year ahead, with 2 or 3 more field campaigns coming up in the near future! I'll try to keep this site going about once a week or so. Ty and I have a week now together until he is off to Italy and then Croatia for his kayaking competitions...keep tuned for some paddling pictures over the next few weeks!

~ Gayle