Location: Nederland, CO - Mountain Research Station

Hey all! Sorry for the slow update to the blog - I've been doing a pretty crazy schedule over the past week. BUT, I have a few pictures to share!


Here is me (standing on the ground in blue) about to hop on the snowcat that is heading up the mountain with our gear. This was about a week ago.

That's me in front dragging a couple boxes up the hill with a sled. This work will definitely get you in good shape!




Here's Mike skiing down the trail in cross-country skis. I have the trip down to about 1 h 45 min going up, 45 min going down. It's about 3 miles and goes from an elevation of about 9500 feet to 11,000 feet. The ski down is great when there is fresh powder and kind of frightening when its packed snow (many trees to avoid!)

Mike, Mark, and Gene at the research site. The guy in the middle has wowed us all with his mountain-manness. He is a staff member at the field station and bikes uphill every day to work, in snow. Then, he skis 3 miles up the mountain just to "say hi". Meanwhile, the members of our group have developed many strategies to making it up the mountain, including counting steps (Casey counted up to 5200!), counting songs on your mp3 player (that's one of my strategies), or finding landmarks to time out your trek.

The group at dinner. From L to R: Gene (Georgia Tech), Erika (UW-Madison), Martin (UW-Madison), Jack (UNH), me, and Casey (UNH). We have impressed a local Italian place with how much we can eat - the waitress remarked "No one EVER finishes their meal here!" 3+ hours of hiking up/down a mountain will help you consume a calzone pretty darn quick.


Mike on a hike with Gene up the ridge...because apparently the 2 hour hike up to the station wasn't enough to tire them out!

Finally, me hiking up the trail with my skis in my backpack. I had a "skin malfunction" this day...skins are sort of like velcro that you stick to the bottom of your skis to walk up steep slopes. When one of mine fell off, I decided to try to hike up the rest of the way...and soon found myself crawling/belly-sliding to get through the very very deep snow. I've found the solution to my "skin" problem...duct tape! I'm now trekking up each day with the skis on the whole way. Whew!

Well, that's it for now! A good story to pass on to you all that I've been giggling about for a few days - one of the three grad students here (Casey) snowshoes up the trail and then sleds down on your old-style family sled. Once in awhile we convince him to take a load down on his sled for us. The other day he was sledding down and carrying a big cooler full of sample bottles between his legs...and as the trail flattened out he had to push himself along with his hands...and then he encountered some folks on a nice backcountry snowshoe hike. He was too embarrassed to stop and explain so he just keep pushing himself down the path. Now, what would you think of a random guy sledding down the mountain with a huge cooler? Hee hee hee....

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