Kristin and I have settled into our new home in Leadville, Colorado.  She stays very busy spreading the light of education to Lake Counties 7th grade students, and I have been preparing for a busy winter.  I will be guiding snowmobile trips with White Mountain Tours on Fremont Pass between Leadville and Copper Mountain.  The office is currently accepting reservations for the winter season.  For more information please visit our website:

Here are a couple of examples of photos I have taken:



That one is of a friend on a recent ski tour in the Smokies of South Central Idaho.



Local artisans selling their wares on the Lares Trek, Sacred Valley, Peru.



Kristin Johnson, my wife, celebrating successfully navigating the class IV rapid, Upper Huacas on the Pacuare River, Costa Rica.

As we enter into the meat of winter I have tired valiantly to network with some other local backcountry skiers to get out and play. A few weeks back I met up with a few guys and a gal and we had a fun day poking around behind one of the local ski areas. The snow was pretty poor as has been the case around here for a while but we had a nice day and got some exercise. Well a few days ago I got the call that the posse was heading out for another adventure if I wanted to join. I was pretty stoked and after getting approval from the master of the house and confirmed that I would be on-board.

We met up around 7:30 AM at a local eatery and combined vehicles for a longish drive up towards the Sawtooth Mountains. We knew it was going to be a bit of a haul but considering the way the snow pack has been looking we weren't too concerned about making sure we got off the snow before it started warming up. We passed miles of nicely groomed cross country trails which made me very jealous and looking forward to living some where with snow on the ground for a lot of the year. It was a beautiful sunny day so the views were spectacular.

The hike in was through a little creek drainage that has some forest service roads weaving around it. The grind up the first pitch was pretty tough as the lower elevation was warm and a little sloppy. We fought with icing on our climbing skins for much of the day. I have been improvising with some older skins that don't fit my skis very well and need to break down and invest in a new pair. I'm not sure how long my new ski partners are going to keep waiting on me! We had about 4,000 vertical feet of an ascent in mind which took us about three hours. The climb followed a ridge line that split two big high alpine bowls, one a southeastern aspect and the other a northwestern. The northern aspect had built a pretty nice sized cornice indicative of the heavy winds that have been pounding the higher mountains. We took our skins off at the cornice line and strapped our skis onto our pack to finish the climb.

The push up the ridge got pretty steep in places and if I were to do this one again would certainly bring crampons and an ice axe. I'm a bit more of a wimp than my partners as they made fast time and didn't seem as concerned about the exposure. I also failed to eat enough on the first part of the climb and got some muscle cramping as we approached the top. Luckily a peanut butter and jelly sandwich quieted the cramps considerably, and I was able to enjoy the turns on the way down. We popped over an adjacent ridge on the summit platform and descended down the east face. The top was nice and soft and some of the route had been sheltered by a ridge that left powder conditions. We all had a lot of fun carving up the chutes below. A tricky cliff band forced us all to use some survival skiing techniques, but overall the route finding wasn't too difficult. A little creek lead us back to the road where I hitchhiked back up and got the car. All in all I think it took us between six and seven hours to complete the tour. It was an incredible day for me! I'm going to try and get my hands on some of the photos the other skiers took, and I'll post them if I do.

A topic I've been spinning my wheels about a lot lately and want to express my opinion about and hopefully get some feedback is big corporate buy-outs. Certainly many of us could brainstorm for hours about what is flawed in U.S. corporate structure and accountability, so much so that it's difficult to find a starting point. I'm very passionate about outdoor pursuits so I find that to be a great jumping off point, but it is not the only industry to be effected by corporate buy-outs or to have great implications for consumers. There has been a trend in the outdoor industry for big companies, many of which have roots in other consumer products, to buy a company largely for its name and then exploit that name until it no longer resonates with consumers. There are a myriad of reasons why the original owners sell; under capitalization of the company and large personal financial incentives probably are the two biggest reasons. So, to accurately draw the picture, we have a company that was started by a grassroots owner who was very hand's on and built products with great consumer appeal. Many of these owners have struggled constantly with raising capital to grow and then one day while seeking more investment capital a much bigger corporation (usually hundreds of times bigger) comes in and offers to buy them out with plenty of money going directly into their pockets and a lot of times they retain a silent share of ownership.

It's hard to fault these owners. They've worked hard and often times been responsible for a lot of innovation in the field and they have a chance to finally make a lot of money. But, the problem for me lies in the fact that often the new "parent" company changes every element of the company that the small owner took pride in and used to market his or her company. The new owners utilize the name brand that has a lot of market potential to then push inferior products with much greater margins until the consumer is "wise" to the fact that the products are not at all what they previously had been. A few great examples of this are Gary Fisher and Richey in the bike industry and Chaco footwear.

My question to consumers is whether this is a fair practice and just part of a "capitalist system" or is it deceitful and a kind of after the fact violation of truth in advertising?

Let's use Chaco as our primary example. Chaco innovated a new sandal design that utilises one strap weaving in and out of the foot bed to make a very customizable fit. Their foot beds also fit wider feet which made me a big fan as previously the only option for a sport sandal was Teva which never fit me very well. So, I bought a pair, wore them, and liked them very much. I then realized at the end of the life of my first pair that the company was headquartered in Paonia, Colorado and tried to use sustainable practices to make their sandals. They had a standing offer that for a nominal fee they would replace straps in existing sandals and resole them if necessary which solved two of the most likely failures that one could experience with their product. I started working for a rafting company that was also a dealer of Chaco sandals and proudly wore their shoes gladly fitting customers who wanted a pair for themselves.

Several years ago my wife had a pair of Chacos that the glue failed on the soles. No biggie everyone creates a "dud" every once in a while, right?

Well, then the replacements failed in the same way. We were living in Costa Rica and it was difficult and expensive to keep switching the sandals out. We began to dig deeper and realized that it was "a bad batch of glue." Which was in fact true, it was a bad batch of glue in their new factory in China. They had been bought out and canned all their employees in Paonia and moved to China.

So, should a company that marketing themselves as proudly being made in the U.S.A. be allowed to move their production facilities without notifying customers or the general public? Should their be a statue of limitations on advertising? Perhaps a standard to retain a certain number of characteristics of the original company to continue using the name?

These are not questions I have answers to, but ones I think we as consumers should be thinking about.

For a little fun, especially for you other outdoor enthusiasts here is a list of popular brands and there real corporate owners:

Marmot, Volkl, K2, Marker, and Coleman - Jarden Corporation who also own brand names such as Sunbeam, Mr. Coffee, and Bicycle playing cards.

The North Face, Reef, Vans, Eagle Creek, JanSport - VF Corporation who also owns Lee jeans and Wrangler.

Atomic skis, Arc'teryx, Salomon, Suunto, Volant - originally part of the same corporate structure as Phillip Morris Cigarettes, and the distributor of Toyota automobiles, Amer Sports was renamed in 2005 and also owns Wilson raquet sports as the largest single seller of sporting goods.

Calisle, Old Town, Extrasport, Necky Kayaks, Eureka tents - Johnson Outdoors - part of the S.C. Johnson Wax empire

I didn't do a ton of intense research to come up with these and an entirely different story could be written about Patagonia, Burton, or Mountain Hardware and the responsibility a private company has to consumers. There are certainly success stories of companies that stay true to their roots, too!

I'd like to hear from any of you that have any feedback...

Thanks, - Matt

I had been coveting some new kicker skins to enhance my vertically challenged local hill and so when I saw the TT's thread about waxing it occured to me. I got into kick waxing some old telemark skis years ago before I bought a pair of waxless skis. I still have the blue, green, and violet Swix kick wax as well as a tube of universal klister. I stumbled across the whole kit the other day looking for a gummi stone. Like electricity and a light bulb the idea was united with the materials. Now I just needed a little more knowledge about how to administer the wax so I brushed up on my kick wax knowledge searching a few websites.

Yesterday I was on volunteer ski patrol duty at my local ski hill. It was a pretty good day and a couple of old salts showed me some new stashes I enjoyed immensely. We all debated whether or not to give it an early start today but everyone else bailed. I had a leisurely coffee this morning and decided I'd give the kick wax idea a try, my research had actually led me to decide that the universal klister would be the way to go for the very warm snow we got yesterday. Under the pretty ideal conditions at my bench the klister went on pretty easily, maybe too easily. I was even a bit smug that I didn't get the snot textured syrup all over myself, the top sheet, or the bench.

I arrived at the hill and was ready for the miracle that would be like skins on the way up and a race tuned glide waxed sksi on the way down. I plowed up the first pitch and was at first pretty impressed with the traction. The first hint of what was to come was that when the traction failed it really failed. Like I just stepped on a banana peel type fail. I started zigging and zagging sticking with the original plan of giving the klister a go. Eventually it was just too steep and I was slipping too much. No biggie I had my skins. The first pitch I skied the glide wasn't too bad. I think it was steep and deep enough that the snow freezing onto the klister didn't slow me down too terribly bad. I ripped the skins and headed over to the lift for my second run of the day pretty excited to see how the skis were going to perform up a little higher on the hill.

While skating across a cat track the first serious sign of something awry popped up. I turned the corner to enter the maze and noticed that each foot was heaped in icy patches on top of the klister. I beat them hard against a well frozen bit of corduroy and they disappeared. I ignored this first sign much to my chagrin down the road.

I topped out on the lift and immediately plowed over this short powder climb that leads to a traverse above a cornice. The skis were climbing okay again, not great, but with some route selection and switch backs it was doable. I popped out on top of the ridge to skate down to the safer part of the pitch and noticed I wasn't gliding at all. In fact it felt a little like snowshoeing. Finally it was starting to register that making turns was going to be difficult to say the least.

The first really poor omen had to have been when my hat got picked up off my head and blown down the slope. Chase wasn't even a consideration on my 180 cm snowshoes. I stripped off my skis and scraped them hard with the edge of the other hoping to rid them of ice and hopefully a little of the klister as well. It was a foolish wish as the evil side of the klister began to shine. Before this little mission was over that shit was everywhere - my ski pants, shirt, gloves, backpack, the top sheet, the edges were caked up - it wouldn't surprise me if I had some in my ass crack. I felt like it was multiplying in volume beneath my weary gaze. Immediately after popping back into the bindings the skis were snow balls. It was easy to recover my cap as I walked right out into the middle of the pitch I had planned to ski.

I trooped over to some trees to reevaluate and scrape the skis again. This time one of the g3 targa heel throws disintegrated. Fortunately, maybe for the first time ever, I actually had a repair kit in my pack. I went to pull my shovel hoping the edge of the shovel blade would make a better scraper and flustered my hand slipped, and I dropped it down the entire face of the pitch. Sweet. Another try at scraping the ski with the other ski and off the face I went. In this circumstance the klister did actually perform just like skins. Of course I couldn't get them off, but it was just like skiing in skins. It was a long slog out of course. Destined not to let the day be a total loss I rode the lift a few more times hoping that the groomed would take some of the klister off. It was a little like skiing drunk. I never knew if I was going to slide or stick unless I got way back on the tails then I flew. Literally I flew onto my ass. I should be pouring some booze into myself right now to ease my bumps and bruises and that's just my ego - some ice and ibuprofin should take care of my ass.

Lately I've posted a couple of pictures of the top of a cup of coffee like this...



and I'm sure some people are curious why?

These decorations are the result of three very important elements.  First, the espresso must be prepared correctly.  The brown in the image is crema, a mix of gases, oils, and coffee particles.  Crema is a great sign that a shot of espresso was extracted properly.  It is very delicate and can be difficult to produce depending on the equipment.  All espresso drinks with crema don't necessarily taste great, but a cup without is almost guaranteed to taste poorly.  The white is obviously the steamed milk but in this context it is more specifically the correctly textured microfoam steamed milk.  Once again it can be difficult to stretch and whirlpool the milk to the right consistency to hold up on top of the liquid coffee and mix correctly with the crema.  Coffee geeks have written volumes about microfoam steamed milk.  It has a certain texture and flavor that is satisfying.  In essence the art is created by the third element, the barista, Italian for barkeep, as proof that these two key elements have been performed correctly.  The beans may be bitter, the steam may be scorched, but at least the first sign to the consumer is in order.  Advocates of latte art feel that it's an easy thing to do once a barista is properly trained and that perhaps a customer may remember it and choose their cafe over a competitor.

A little tip... I often prefer a Cappuccino to a Latte, but in a public cafe I now order the latte.  The reason is fairly simple.  Mostly because I got a lot of disappointing caps and switched to find that the lattes were generally better.  A cappuccino should be one third espresso, one third steamed milk, and one third a light and airy foam in these proportions regardless of the size.  A latte is a third espresso and two thirds steamed milk or microfoam.  I think the specialty coffee industry has placed so much emphasis on the latte and latte art that the average barista is almost always going to have much more practice with making one.

My two obsessions as of late have been skiing and coffee which actually compliment each other pretty well.  So when I'm not looking for a job, substitute teaching, shopping for groceries or running other errands I get all hopped up on coffee and go skiing.  My coffee has really come a long way.  From when I bought my La Pavoni Europiccola lever espresso machine it has been a long tough road.  The biggest recent improvements were due to a couple of modifications.  I know it is not generally encouraged to take apart home appliances but that is exactly what was necessary to improve my morning ritual.  First, I had always been convinced that my machine did not get hot enough.  About a month ago I took the sight glass that shows you how much water is inside the machine so you don't over fill it apart and rigged a pressure gauge onto the top of it.  This helped me figure out exactly when the heating element was cycling on and off.  These machines used to have a brass sleeve inside the group head that was prone to over heating so I think the pressurestats that control the heating element were set too low at the factory.  So after taking the base off and pulling the pressurestat out I was able to crank it down to get more pressure and more heat out of the little machine.  Yay.  Finally it is getting hot enough to make a good espresso.  Next I took the grinder apart and shimmed the top burr to get a fine enough grind to choke the machine.  After that I took a home popcorn popper, the West Bend Poppery II, apart and removed the thermostat so I can roast green beans in it.  After modifying all these little machines and ordering some green beans from Sweet Maria's I'm now getting excellent coffee out of my machine.  I would compare it favorably to just about any latte or cappuccino I've ever had at a cafe.  Unfortunately I'm going to have to go to caffeine rehab.

I've come to realize that the South Hills as they are called locally are going to be my only option to get out skiing very often around here.  The Wood River Valley and Soldier Mountain are simply too far away.  I feel bad enough driving 40 minutes to ski, much less an hour and a half or two hours.  Not to mention when the skiing is good the driving isn't so being nearer is always better as I have long argued.  The South Hills are nice.  They don't see a lot of use so there is a chance for solitary recreation which Kristin and I have found very peaceful.  My biggest enjoyment this season has come from experimenting with my ski gear.  I have used a few combination of light equipment that I hadn't previously tried and truly enjoyed it.  An experiment in route finding on a small circuit that had yet to be skied in very well led to some nice low angle turns and some bush wacking as well (sorry K!).

Here's some photos: first the new gauge on the espresso machine then a nice sunrise on the way up to the South Hills then of me and Deacon in the parking lot... as you can see we were the only ones around!

So, after about a year hiatus from self publishing I am back.  If you stumbled across this and are wondering "who's back?" then a short introduction may help you.

I am a mid-thirties male currently living in South Central Idaho.  It's very much like South Central Los Angeles other than instead of urban scenery we have cows.  Lots of cows.

My biggest passions right now and most likely the subject of most of the posts that follow are my family, snow skiing, whitewater, literature, coffee, and whatever else strikes me.

Mostly I want to begin creating an online diary of my home roasted coffee and ski days to have a record to review this spring, so let's dive right in...

Today was my fourth ski day.  The first was at Sun Valley's Baldy mountain.  My wife and took the bus over from the lodge for the third day of their season.  We arrived too early... for anyone skiing at S.V. please remember that the lifts don't start running for the public until 9 AM.  It wasn't too much as a problem because their large beautiful lodge was a comfortable place to wait.  Unfortunately my passion for coffee collided with the skiing and made nearly made a huge mess when I realized they serve Starbucks coffee.  I guess you can chalk it up to big corporate brotherly solidarity as S.V. is a division of Sinclair Oil.  The barista who in her defense is simply trying to "live the dream" was nice but obviously not very well trained.  I guess there's not point in investing in training if you're going to use shit beans from $tarbucks.  If anyone wants to engage in a Starbucks discussion leave a comment as I'd be happy to go there at another time.  I do actually have some respect for the way they treat their employees although that doesn't change the fact that their coffee sux.

So, while sipping bad coffee I had a chance to observe the lodge environment and wait for the lifts to open.  There was a large group of ski instructors congregated around a table merrily anticipating the third day of the season.  Outwardly they were generally what you would expect from a big corporate oil company owned ski mountain, white, male, clean cut, and OLD.  Last year we observed the same phenomenon in Breckenridge.  Ski instructors have aged.  The only logical conclusion I can reach as to why they are all so old is that they are retirees that already live in the community.  That makes them attractive to the resort because they don't complain if the season is slow because there rent is already in their retirement accounts.  So teaching skiing is a hobby.  That's fine for the majority of their clientele who are also, yes you guessed it, OLD.  The old people chum around the mountain skipping lift lines and chatting about whatever it is that old people talk about.  I truly don't want to offend anybody, but it does disturb me in that if I were ever to be able to afford a private lesson (after I hit the powerball) then would I have to have one of these old guys?  It would be okay because all I would be paying for is to cut the lift lines, but I don't think many of them would be able to keep up.  Please don't take this as me being too confident in my skiing ability.  I'm not the best skier you will ever ski with, but these guys are really that OLD.  Rant over.

The skiing was great!  Sun Valley is steep and has lots of vertical.  They have to blow a lot of snow because they only get about 250 inches of real snow a year.  The fake snow and the real snow don't ever bond that well so they do get a bit of the White Ribbon of Death (WROD) syndrome.  We were able to get off piste a little and enjoy some awesome turns.  Day one was a total success even though we only went up twice.  My boots were hurting (don't worry I figured out why and fixed it) and Kristin, my wife, and I both learned long ago that it's not worth risking getting hurt skiing tired on opening day.

On to day two.  I promise not every day will include a rant.

Day two was a ski tour day during which I skinned up the local mountain outside of Twin Falls, Magic Mountain, and skied down the main pitch of the ski resort.  It was about 700 vertical feet and so I made two passes.  I took my four year old Rottweiller, Deacon, who struggled a bit in all the untracked snow.  He got dropped off in the car in between laps.  The conditions were awesome and I was glad to realize that I can push my old K2 Work Stinx skis with my new light weight plastic Garmont Excursion boots.  It was my first day in this particular pairing although I've used both pieces of equipment extensively, and I was well pleased.

Day three: Volunteer Ski Patrol at Magic Mountain.

Lots of fun with a great bunch of people.  Everyone was stoked to be out for opening day.

Day four: Another touring day on some back woods trails in my leathers and one lap up the ski area.  My greatest observation today was that the old "low" turning tele style is very effective on leather boots in steeper terrain.  It's kinda the cool kid thing to stand up tall and tele these days, but it is essential to stay low on those old soft boots.  If you're curious why a guy would hike up a mountain that he could ride a lift up the answer is because he's stoopid.  And wants to get in shape to go on a radical tour in the Tetons or Wasatch or both

Anybody who finds me here please leave a little feedback even if it's negative although I might erase it if it's too negative.  It's nice to know you're not alone!

Cheers.

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