Baldy

No, not me...Mount Baldy, or to be accurate, Mount San Antonio. My off-season goals were to do more SAR-related activities. So when the opportunity to climb Baldy with Matt Sparks came up, I jumped.

Baldy rises 10,064 feet above sea level, so we drove up Saturday and hiked up the Sierra Club Ski Hut (8,300') to acclimate. The ski hut has been around since 1930 and is a great day hike. The hut sits below Baldy Bowl, a great place for backcountry skiers.

After practicing glissading and arresting, we retired to the hut for a nice evening of food and music from our new Sierra Club friends. Great company and vibe. Thank you Matt for supplying the "official" pre-climb beverage!

We got a reasonable start Sunday up the bowl and practiced anchors and belays on 35-40 degree snow slopes. We then topped out of the bowl through one of the steeper chutes and progressed to the summit and tea. Thanks again Matt!

Back to the car by 4:30 p.m and then to Matt and Marie's home for a great meal. Thanks guys!

Well, its almost Spring and I have no events on my calendar...gotta get moving on that!

Tour of California

About 8 of us TCSD'ers went to the final stage of Amgen Tour of California...very cool...lots of interesting "bike people"...stage winner George Hincapie was more popular than GC winner Levi Leipheimer.

Hung out in Old Town Pasadena before the race...great city to finish at.

Drooled over the Felt DA

Rain held off until the riders reached the Rose Bowl...then it poured!

This is a great event...would love to take a week off next year and follow it. Just need to add a San Diego stage!

http://www.amgentourofcalifornia.com

Cowles Mountain

No it's not Blair Witch...it's just Michael, Anais and I at Cowles Mountain for a night hike to Jim McCann's memorial geocache. We thought it would be cool to go up at night and see if we could find it. We used Michael's Garmin 305 which was surprisingly accurate (within 4 feet).

We had the mountain to ourselves tonight...except for the coyotes. It was very cool, we hiked to the summit then started to follow the GPS to the cache. Took about 15 minutes while we figured out how the GPS features work.

Easy trip down...fun night with friends!

Xterra Crystal Cove

Another fun event put on by Trailrace.com...hard but beautiful course in the OC...Heather Fuhr showed up and had the third fastest time of all competitors...our own Beth Gerdes was second overall female...me, well this was a "character builder"...not a lot of miles going in plus a pre-race evening at the Belly Up made for dead legs today...still finished at 1:24 which is my PR for 15k (this being the first 15k I've done...LOL)!

Really well-supported event...kinda like a Tri Club race!

Now, no running for 3 weeks...yoga, pilates, healing...then 2008!

Mark

Iron mountain run

The view from the top of Iron Mountain

Mike and Zarah Lawson and I did Iron Mountain tonight. Perfect weather and view at the top. We're going to try to do this once or twice a month during the winter. Great training for Xterra!

Du Time

The club duathlons have started...the first was at Calaveras Hills in Carlsbad...I finished 5th! These are great fun and great winter training...

Ramona Ramble II

Ramona Ramble II went off today with a challenging ride from Poway, a run up Iron Mountain and a ride up to Dos Picos Park in Ramona for lunch...the ramble is a non-competitive event that gets you out to the country and on the trail for a day...the transition area at Iron Mountain is pictured.