Christmas break 2011

We are back, after a year or so experiment with assorted networking sites.

A change of email on which one of the sites was based rendered it inoperative, so here we are...

AND ... the photo upload is back to working ...

SO .... . We will just pick up with Christmas break 2011 as if nothing had happened

With some time off work, we decided to go play a bit. This coincided nicely with Gayle's birthday.

We went to St George, Utah to visit the building shown. We have screamed through St George for years without stopping. This year we stopped. ..... Nice holiday lights on the building...

Daylight ... and in the process we noticed that this building is styled a lot like Nauvoo -- being the first LDS temple built since the folks arrived in Utah (1877).

How did another winter mountain picture get in here?

Someone must have sneaked into the hills the day before Christmas.... All we got was his FOOT.

West Jordan 4th Quarter 2009

4th Quarter 2009 so far
Oct 03-04 - LDS church conference
Oct 09-10 - Mesa to visit West Jordan for various items of family business
Oct 23-26 - DDadson work weekend in Columbus, OH (yet again)
Nov 04-05 - DDadson to Chicago for mid-week business meetings.
Nov 13-16 - DDadson work weekend in Columbus, OH
Nov 26-27 - Thanksgiving Holiday
Dec 03-08 - Dad in office or at home due to assorted non-realised business travel (we hope)
Dec 08-11 - Vacation (Dad ended up with extra week this year - missed hike days, unfortunately)
Dec 14-18 - Vacation (what would usually be the week I save for end of year)
Dec 21-22 - Vacation (left over, added to front of Christmas break)
Dec 23-31 - (Official) Christmas Holiday

Wish List ....
If the schedule holds still during 08-22 Dec, who knows what we might come up with.
We now owe visits we have not gotten to earlier in the year, of course.
Livermore, Phoenix and LA are always on the short list.
Mom owes LA a visit and I owe Livermore a visit.
Everyone always owes Phoenix a visit but Phoenix often visits either West Jordan or Boise or both. Go figure.
No motivation likely on the loyalty program front this year: Miles are perched at 36456, some distance from 50K.
Also Dad is a bit tired of travel for work, which is what it would take.

Summary - 2009 Q3 at West Jordan

Jul 09-10 - Hikers visit Delano Peak and Mount Holly - Beaver, UT
Jul 16-20 - DDadson works weekend in Lincoln, NE - travels home on Birthday
Jul 24-27 - DDadson works weekend in Columbus, OH - visits Columbus LDS temple
Aug 06-07 - Family overnight outing in Big Cottonwood near SLC - with evening phone feed to Mesa
Subsequent return to SLC by some,
Visit of Jupiter Hill (nr Brighton) and cell phone scavenger hunt by Hikers.
Aug 13-17 - DDadson works weekend in Lincoln, NE - chats with home from Winter Quarters
Aug 26 - Parents begin weekly time at Oquirrh Mountain LDS temple
Sep 18-21 - DDadson works weekend in Columbus, OH - no faith-based activity whatever (blah)
Sep 25-26 - Hikers visit Mount Nebo (after overnight at Nephi)
- DDadson logs 20000 air miles so far - reaches Silver Medallion.
Plans for 4th quarter so far:

Oct 03-04 - LDS church conference
Oct 09-10 - Mesa to visit West Jordan for various items of family business
Oct 23-26 - DDadson work weekend in Columbus, OH (yet again)
Nov 13-16 - DDadson work weekend in Columbus, OH
Nov 26-27 - Thanksgiving Holiday
Dec 03-08 - DDadson returns to Lincoln, NE for finish up of project
Dec 17-31 - Christmas Holiday with early extension
Wish List - Maybe a trip to Livermore, maybe a trip to Mesa, who knows

Outdoor season close at West Jordan

We had some rain in the Salt Lake valley earlier in the week. As of 1 October 2009 I look at the mountains and I notice that they all have a dusting of fluffy white stuff which comes from the sky, down to the 9000' elevations.
I am not sure whether it will melt off before it is joined by other. So... fall has come to the frozen north.
Summer is therefore OVER, and with it the cavortings in the high country. In a recent conversation amongst
the proprietors at West Jordan, it has occurred to us that indeed the cavortings in the hills have the full and
enthusiastic support of all members of parentdom, even though some may not personally participate in all activities.
Nonetheless, Mitherson assures us that it is perfectly OK for DDadson to engage in this craziness. It is better in her view than a considerable number of other things which could be engaged in. Also, any talk of mountain excursions is just a report of interesting activities. We are, as I hope is generally known, actually not an intensely competitive lot. Competition per se being a city thing, we go to the mountains to avoid participating in city things, so why would we drag competition up there with us to get in the way. Participation by any and sundry has a standing invitation; we love to include folks in the merriment.

So, the season close outing has occurred. It was a somewhat hasty trip to Mount Nebo. As of the clearing of smoke at end of outing, the final scoring of summit visits vs attempts was:
Amanda with 1 for 1, James with 2 for 2, and Dad with 0 for 2. Most of the crew thereby has wherewith to be pleased, and James is accumulating a reputation as a mountain guide on this one. Our technical gear deployment was admirable: the radios worked flawlessly, the camera was light, agile, and transferred to Amanda for the summit dash.
There was a slight issue for DDadson, who though sponsoring the entire thing did not allow enough time for himself to get there and alas still has a vendetta peak on his list. Here is a summary of our observations, some actually encouraging for future attempts for those of me requiring such.
Psychology:
Based on the photodocumentation of the final section to the summit, I am pleased to report that when approaching to the final summit structure of the mountain, one ought not believe everything one seems to see, to wit. Looking from the knife-edge ridge just below the final huge expanse of rock, one is inclined to conclude that it is a monolith of solid rock. Wrong. It is in fact, like many massive Utah summits, a huge pile of loose rubble underlied no doubt by solid rock and punctuated by solid outcrops; Hence, lots of the surface actually presented to the hiker/climber is mostly TALUS or SCREE.
General route information and time prognosis:
We have always used the North ridge route, which is by far the very shortest and the only one we are willing to consider. Notwithstanding the shortest route, the entire trip itself is still extremely strenuous but completable in 1 day depending on ones level of energy and physical stamina. For time, vigorous speedy young humans should plan on 5 hours to the top and 4 hours back down, adding an extra 1-2 hours if the return is partially completed after dark.
This is therefore feasable for the young in late September when we have always done it.
But .... Add 2 hours to both directions for middle age physiology, which means do the trip in JULY and start as early in the day as may POSSIBLY be managed (0600-0700 should be about right)

This post was once much longer; decided not to bore everyone.
I have now sent the detail text to people who would likely be interested.

Very assorted news from West Jordan

The latest news is that there actually would be lots of news if there has not been extensive fixation on a couple of the hobbies of the principal posting person. It could even look like SUMMER 2009 IN REVIEW, who knows?
A synopsis, then:
The brand new Oquirrh Mountain Utah (LDS) temple (as of 21 August 2009)
There have been the customary announcements and formalities and now the new Oquirrh Mountain Utah Temple, 130th operating temple, is finally in operation. Such announcements take on a distinctly personal touch for us here at West Jordan. As of the dedication date some of us (Mom and Dad) became members of the volunteer operations staff. Our weekly scheduled time to is 1600-2200(or close) each Wednesday. This is well on its way to becoming a very welcome peaceful time each week.
Before that....

Dad visits Winter Quarters Nebraska following collapse of a business trip
If anyone is in Omaha, Nebraska, particularly at the Omaha Airport, a very splendid side trip is available
for only a modest investment in time. The Winter Quarters (aka Florence NE) LDS church history complex, including the Winter Quarters Nebraska Temple is 5 miles north (a 15 minute drive depending on route) of Omaha Eppley airport, both on the west bank of the Missouri river, which is also the Nebraska-Iowa state line.
This information collected by Dad from a visit on 16 August 2009, following the collapse of one of the HK installs in Lincoln, NE. 16 Aug is a Sunday and a couple of very pleasant afternoon hours were spent there on the temple grounds while listening by - remote cell phone link - to Mom's notes from the just barely concluded 2nd worker training meeting at Oquirrh Mountain Utah temple in West Jordan 900 miles west that same afternoon. A splendid merger of long-distance activities. Florence/Winter Quarters is well known as the last civilised staging point at the eastern end of the Mormon Pioneer trail. For some of us who are aware of ancestral connections to 19th century migration participants, this is always very poignant genetic deja-vu. Mary Williamson and Mary Wickersham Woolley (to say nothing of soon to be born daughter Mary Louisa) send their regards from the eastern trailhead.
Before that ....
Family Summer Retreat 2009 did convene, though in much abbreviated form
Yes indeed, we did get together on 6 August 2009 at Redman campground in Big Cottonwood canyon
near West Jordan. We were able to set up a phone link to the Mesa folks for the evening campfire festivities,
such as we ever have them anyway. It actually worked out as well as can be expected from the hammering it took this year from the scheduling complexity of the gang. The camp site actually was pretty cool - a double size group spot that cost us about $40 and was well worth it. If we ever do a hastily contrived ad-hoc Salt Lake solution again, it definitely will be at Redman USFS CG, Site #36 (Jumbo Double campsite). Plenty of room and oodles of parking space.
Having overnighted, we were greeted the next morning with the grim news subsequently reported elsewhere:
Marilyn and Melissa departed to obtain ad-hoc medical follow-up, Marilyn's arrest of pregnancy being then in progress. Others remained to break camp and then everyone left for various return routes to the city.
One return route was by way of the Guardsman pass road - junction within 1/2 mile of Redman CG - and a walk over
to the last hitherto unvisited minor peaks withing easy reach of Guardsman Pass. This brought the peak visit
tally for Summer 2009 to 3: Jupiter Hill (9985 or something)
On the way down, Dad dropped his Tmobile cell phone in the meadow, and then rather than looking right where he
was when he dropped it (within 1/2 mile of the car), embarked on an extensive and time consuming 1/2 hour return back to the previously visited summit. So a couple of us summited a second time - for nothing. Happily, having 2 cell phones allows use of the one still on-hand to ring-locate the misplaced other one, assuming it is on. We did so, and there it was singing away happily in the trail-side grass less than 50 feet from where it was noticed missing. Mild groan.
Amongst all of that ....
How come only one or two more reports of outdoor adventures the whole summer?
The reason was that Dad was psychologically, even when not physically, gridlocked in small but very erratic
series of weekend trips away from home for occupational activities. One active project had him out one week
a month. A second project was intended to take only one weekend, but will ultimately require at least three.
Add in the planning uncertainty, and old Dad was in a complete quandary the whole time.
We were hoping to report the stunningly clever reconquest of Mount Nebo, but alas it may not be to be this season, unless miracles happen. Nevertheless, we did pack away 2 new Utah county highpoints which none of us had been to, one of them a vendetta. Amanda's rain check list grows ever longer, alas - Delano, Nebo, Timpanogos, Kings Peak, Mt Elbert, etc. A little more time in the city than we had hoped.

News from West Jordan -

This blog seems to be getting fixated on outdoor stuff and hiking.
Maybe this is OK and maybe it is not So, here is some other news. Whats new at....
Church .....
Let's see .... There will soon be a shiny new LDS temple (Oquirrh Mountain Utah) in operation in August.
The open house is in progress now and on 23 August it will be dedicated. We (Mom and Dad) have
been helping with the open house - Dad on parking and Mom inside with an ushering assignment.
We used to be on assignment at the Jordan River Temple until 10 June when our assignments there ended
in anticipation of our stake becoming a part of the temple district for the new temple.
Mom and I were recently contacted (July 1) and asked to serve as temple workers at the new Oquirrh Mountain temple following the dedication. Our assignment is once a week on Wednesday evening (4-10).
Until four years ago we both had always assumed that certain assigments were for retired people:
We never dreamed we would be asked to serve in the temple, let alone be asked to help operate
a brand new temple.

Mountain trips and other outdoor things -
Well, OK now a little tidbit on our latest trip to the mountains to hike. On July 10 we had a day of hiking in the Tushar mountain range just east of Beaver Utah.
There are some family history connections for Dad in this area - this is the home of the Barton ancestors,
including William and Mary Williamson Barton, his great-great grandparents. I have driven past Beaver
on my way to points south for years and have never noticed that there was some very nice high country
in the mountains east of town. The Tushar range is the 3rd highest mountain range in Utah, and its
highest peak - Delano Peak (12175') - is also the highest point in both Beaver and Piute counties.
So we just had to go explore. James and I both had vacation needing to be used and others had
other commitments, so just James and I went.
Beaver is far enough from Salt Lake that if the objective is a day in the high country, one pretty much
has to go in the night before and get an early start. So we went to Beaver on Thursday afternoon and stayed
over. We left lodgings at 0900 and got to the trailhead at 1000. We used State Highway 153, then Forest Service Road 123 to Big John Flat our trailhead was another 2 miles up the road from the top edge of Big John Flat,
between the Griffith creek and Poison Creek stream crossings.
The hike route was pretty direct and easy: 1.5 miles and 1600 feet gain. The route goes up a broad ridge with lots of reasonable terrain and great scenery. It also passes through some talus and other interesting features, but nothing too complicated. We arrived at the summit at 1300 and did the customary stuff we always do at the summit - snacks, pictures, etc. The summit register is in a mail box mounted on a post stuck in a rock cairn. It is pretty wierd seeing
what looks like someone's residential mailbox sitting way up there in the sticks.
After hanging around the Delano Peak summit for a little while. We decided to go get visit Mount Holly (11985) 1.5 miles away to the south on the ridge. We got there OK, but not before having to down-climb a steep inline to get down the south side of the Delano summit area. Other than that, it was just an up-and-down high tundra walk over to the
other place, but the continual loss-gain thing does get old.
After that we came back to Delano, up-climbed the steep bit, now rendered slightly less menacing by the nature of up-climbing, and a route up through the scree which we did not see coming down.
We got back down safe and sound with some pretty nice pictures. and headed down the canyon toward home.
Big John Flat is an area where there could be some camping, but it is a bit primitive for small children.

West Jordan 2009 Hike opening event

Looks like some folks at West Jordan continue to be fixated on hikes in general and peak-bagging specifically. We try to keep it within reason, I suppose, and boredom is still an option.
The news item for this post is that Willard Peak, incomplete from 22 September 2008, has been wrestled into submission as of 26 June 2009.
Where the heck is Willard Peak ? Next trip to Brigham City, UT via Ogden, UT on I-15, look up and
to the right (NorthEast) and there will be another section of the Wasatch. The high bump to the left of the group is Willard Peak. The bump to the right is Ben Lomond Peak. Ben Lomond is popular, Willard is higher, hence our target.
Here are the essentials
[Equipment]: We used a rented GMC Acadia to get to our improvised "trailhead"
[Hike start point] This route starts for us at a road turnout 6.5 miles up the Willard Peak road
which we shall call the "Perry Reservoir Monster Pumpkin Cracker Event Horizon". The road legend graphics actually do change at that point on the topo map. The road itself goes from
diminishing quality car/truck road to ATV playground.
The route is 3 miles longer each way because we never attempted to take a vehicle all the way to Willard Basin campground; We have seen vehicles that make it, but we do not own one such. Choices are: (1) ATV, (2) Monster high clearance pickup we do not mind scratching up.
[Hike elapsed times] Start 1245, End 2100, Time 8:15
[Road Segments] (1) Perry to Willard basin overlook - multiple switchback road, (2) Willard overlook to Willard basin campground - straight sloping segment down into the basin with a curve to the west at the end.
[Attempted Variations]
James looked at segment 2 and decided to try NOT losing and regaining altitude on the way to
the top (south end) of Willard Basin. He and Amanda tried a ridge route with limited success.
Others (Dad) just used the road... boring but less annoying complexity. The original intent was
try both and keep one for the return. The ridge showed some goofy side effects (traverse of 70 degree incline with snow on it, for example) and was eventually discarded. Got to use the radios, though. This only cost 30 minutes past Dad's slower time on the road.
[The Snow] We pre-inspected the summit conditions from the valley floor and everything looked clear and dry. North and East facing slopes are hidden from valley and this is quite a ways north....
So there actually a number of isolated patches of left over snow where we could not see:
On Willard Basin south end/campground area, on the road and on lots north and east facing slopes of Willard Peak northwest ridge(alias south basin headwall), notably including Amanda's fun chimney to northeast ridge from the time before.
[Other assorted method variations]
With all the snow there still was a completely workable modified route up the normally obvious and easy northwest ridge route to the north of the summit area. It did require us to flagrantly commit the
great unforgivable sin of all responsible hiking .... Shortcutting of switchbacks.
The subsequent route onto the summit outcrop was actually relatively obvious and easy.
Once on the summit outcrop the route turns slightly troublesome again.....
The summit itself is fractured and exposed in spots. Much rock hopping and exposure skirting engaged in. Dad was on his own, others having gone ahead.
[The summit ritual] Summit at 1715-1745 depending on who one was. Much high-fiving and group-hugging engaged in. Also many declarations of the one-time-ness of the route, with identification of the grungier elements of same.
[A thought provoking descent]
As soon as we were safely off the summit, a squall hit summit and ridge - horizontal sleet, etc.
Good thing we insisted that Amanda take an adequate shell. She used it this time.
Our photo footage shows indications of the squall rolling in.
[Down-hike death march] The road section just before Willard overlook was the death march we knew it would be. A one-timer within a one-timer, except that for one of us (ME) it was the 4th time. We congratulate ourselves after doing such things, which is the only consolation for how rotten we feel during them. Dreadfully anti-climactic after the psycho-high we get from pushing ourselves to the limit during the up-hike. No medal, just something dumb one has to do.
[Remaining get the heck out] What's to tell .... Just back to the car.... other than being asked by ATVers if we would be OK walking that far. One is tempted to point out that based on past experience, the seasoned pedestrians are not the ones in jeopardy.

So... Lot's of fun, but the group is glad to be done with it.

A few new items at West Jordan

It is quite some time from February until May. It must have gotten busy. It also may have something to do with issues uploading photographs, which kills enthusiasm to post somewhat.
Here are some highlights.....
March ..... We took one or two more showshoe trips and then got busy elsewhere.
April ..(14..)... Both of the ancient ones drove to Phoenix to see Joshua, Julie and the boys. G-Mom C. wanted to try out the Flagstaff route. Not too bad in spring, and shorter. The Phoenix folk mysteriously had pictures of G-Mom but GDadson actually was there briefly before heading back to SLC by air.

April ..(29)... there was a startling incident in downtown SLC in which the venerable Blue 96 GMC Safari van was suddenly rendered unusable. After 13 years of reliable transport, the owners were thrown abruptly into making other arrangements. Images of the crunched car would probably be too depressing, though I do have a profusion thereof, but I shall refrain for the time being.

May ...(3)... A suitable substitute was located at an interesting registered vendor near downtown SLC -- yet another instance of like model, so we are contentedly situated once again in a 2000 GMC Safari for the time being. I would post images of the new bird, but I am being lazy.
The seller is a sibling business of one of the local Airport shuttle franchises and they have operated the Astro/Safari platform for several years. It was interesting to deal with a fellow fleet operator - we just never thought of ourselves as "Fleet operators". Hmmm.

Official Vehicle Fleet color update: The official Clark fleet exterior color seems to have shifted from BLUE to SILVER ... and taken several other vehicles with it... to wit...
Melissa replaced her Blue 96 Tracker with a Silver (2005?)Tracker, following her recent total loss collision.
Only the 2002 Venture (LA family maintenance vehicle) remains Blue.

May ... (19) ... MomBeing recently brokered yet another arrangement for an updated (2003) Ford Windstar and it was, by coincidence also ..... Silver (or variant called Pewter)

May ...(18-22)... Dadson visited HK Systems Milwaukee WI office to get some pertinent technical info in preparation for an upcoming refit project at the brewery of yore at Columbus, OH, whence he is also headed on 18-22 June.

That's all for now unless I think of something else

West Jordan plays in snow at Brighton - Milly section

This will not have pictures. It was to have been short as well. So much for short.
More snow hiking since the last post and probably more after this one as we continue to rope people in by making foot equipment appear at the correct times. All the trips so far have been at Brighton Ski Resort, Big Cottonwood Canyon, east of Sandy, UT. That is all we dare to do right now - I am not sure what we would be into risk-wise right now if we went off into remote territory, and concern about risk tends to diminish the fun. Maybe someday. This really is all about how not to be CRABBY about everything but a little slice of summer. By doing outdoor stuff during more of the year, we reduce the likelihood that Dadson will be quite so crabby about other activities in the summer. The only time that is not really usable for outdoor now is the spring when the snow is horribly inconsistent and therefore totally in the way of non-snow foot travel.
I will now stop right here and make a couple of correlations of Summer vs Winter place names... Ready? OK

• There are actually two sections at Brighton: Millicent and Majestic
• Majestic section is the big main area served by the Majestic, Crest, Explorer Lift system
• Majestic section adjoins the Lake Mary/Martha/Catherine basin and also SnakeCreek and Clayton
• Mt Majestic in Winter is Clayton Peak in Summer
• The unsused Lift equipment above the Lake Mary Trail in Summer belongs to the Crest Lift and run system
• The Crest Lift area is what we now call the Freeway.
• There actually is a traverse run called Lower Mary. I think that is the one we use to get to Dog lake.
• The Crest Lift goes to the Snake Creek Pass area except that the skiers do not call it that.
• The whole SHE-BANG is lighted at night and much used
• The Millicent section is the side area adjacent to the NorthWest of the parking lot, aka the Twin Lake basin
• Mt Millicent and Mt Evergreen are the same in Summer and Winter
• Since Twin Lakes is covered in snow it is out of area boundary and not identified to skiers
• The Twin Lakes trail is the main Millicent ski run system, covered with 6-8 feet of snow
• The Area is NOT lighted at night and so closes at dusk for skiing.

Now for our outing narrative ----
We have now found out by trial and error what all the skiers probably know already - that the runs served by the Majestic (Quad), Crest, and Explorer Lifts are lighted at night. So by extension, the resort does not care that they have various people running around in those areas event until evening, and there are a lot of people so they cannot possibly keep track of them all and therefore, one is left alone to wander.
We say this because we had different results when we tried the Millicent area on this last trip. See above note regarding lack of lighting, hence no Night Skiing at Milly. Since there is no night skiing they close the mountain at 1700. By extension they appear to want to kick everyone off the mountain; We were not all that sure about the actual possibility of this close the mountain thing -- How does one do that? It is big, it is out of doors. it is on Forest Service territory, which is Public land ... It is .. well, A mountain, sort of. Apparently this kicking users off is meant to pass for this close the mountain thing , I surmise..... Also, staff at Millicent Base Lift station are what James describes as TERRITORIAL. So, in a word, we were nibbled to death by resort personnel at various intervals:
At the lift boarding area by lift operations people,
Near the top of the hill by ski patrol, and
by the hinting presence of a SnowCat with engine running further up.
We did get to Twin Lake dam. Mt Evergreen would have been too much risky snow due to slope or we would have done it.
The route was straight up the hill at a high angle and we toe kicked a whole lot. The cleats (actually called crampons by the MSR folks) were indispensable and imperative on this trip. It was a massive workout - it got James tired and that is saying something. It was nevertheless still very COOL in my view. By the time we got to the top, James was tired and weary of the nibbling (comments like "you have to go way over there on the unsafe snow away from our ski run", and "when I ski down there will be no one above me or you and you will be on your own" ("We hang round up here profusely in Summer, know our way round and are profusely equipped" says James), and finally "Rumble, rumble, rumble, putt, putt, humm, whirr - approximately the sound made by the SnowCat as its driver says nothing directly but hints by its presence for the walkers to GO AWAY so that the SnowCat can do whatever it is up there to do - we never found out - perhaps the run needed grooming.
So we touched the Dam, took a few camera shots (which we for some reason cannot upload, sorry) and got the heck down.
I originally projected that this post would be short in addition to not having pictures. Apparently I cannot write anything short, I guess. There nevertheless are no pictures.
And there it is... The endeavor convenes on the next Saturday with good weather....

West Jordan hikes in Snow - more

The latest development on the Snow hikes is that now a bunch - well 2 - more people were in on it ... Comprising all of our fair and capable siblings this time. This was a well received excursion from what we hear. We are much pleased with the killer low cost entailed in bringing it about. So ... on to some narrative.
Being slightly more limited on time we did not go all the way to our furthest point of prior exploration, but it was still pretty cool and afforded some time to experiment with the shoes. People like experimenting with the shoes. We went to (Brighton) Dog Lake, which is the next thing below Lake Mary.
Now for the pictures and explanatory text.
This is the crew at the aforementioned Dog Lake basin - soubriquet "Dog" - with the basin rim in the backgound. The way down out of here is immediately behind the folks through yonder low spot between the trees.

Thinking that a view of Dog basin and the bowl rim behind it might be of interest I turned 180 and shot the following...
Sorry if this looks cold, but it actually was a very pleasant day. We never go when it is bad weather anyway. And finally ..... Another shot of us - Melissa on camera in order to show DDadson ... I think we giggle about our moist noses (a euphemism as you suspect).

I had a picture posted here this was written, but it got deleted and I have not been able to get it back yet....

For now we have been going to Brighton - a ski area - which means we share our venue with the downhill folks - skiers and boarders - and have to be alert to the downhill traffic. We generally work our way up through the ski area to our target area just outside the main area but still in moderate avalanche control from the resort. We travel along the side of the main ski runs, which we now call "the freeway" and cross quickly as necessary. So our route to Mary is ..
Up the freeway for several intersections to the Dog turnoff. Hang a right up the wall to Dog (the toe cleats on the shoes are a big help). At Dog there is generally a whole bunch of yummy soft powder in the basin. Continue across Dog to the west, then up another wall to the top of the Mary hill. As an alternate, one can go a little further to the right after leaving Dog and go up the draw over to the Lake Mary Dam. That would be the route used by Joshua and friends back in the day. Owing to a minor issue with gear rentals, one of us was using the original homebrew shoes of yore. Worked pretty good until the Dog wall when I decided to remove them to avoid slipping back down hill. Of course, the Phoenix folk - Joshua anyway - have been there, done that and we hope it triggers a memory or two. Now the rest are all caught up on the fun... sort of.

West Jordan hikes in Snow - first cut

So ... Snow specifically, and the colder northern areas generally, have not been getting great reviews lately ....
Which is fine ... cold weather is not for everyone ...
Actually, our temperatures are more or less OK for this time of year and our roads are mostly clear...
Enough for us still to get up to see some pretty countryside with snow on it....
We have discovered that with a couple of key modifications to clothing, it actually is possible to ...
HIKE (using snowshoes) in the winter. We shall now show some recent shots of some of us trying this idea out....
These are all at Brighton Ski Resort. We have been up on 2 excursions so far (01/10 and 01/17) and there may be others - We can only HOPE. So, getting to the pictures....
First, we have to show the obligatory scene of the cars in the Lodge parking lot so here is a ....
Typical view of Brighton Lodge parking lot on a Saturday (2009.01.10) during ski season

We need to show something a little jazzier than cars though, so we now provide a preview of what it looked like from way up in the boonies on the 2nd and more extensive excursion; We had fun getting to where this was taken....
This (below) is the Brighton bowl, with Clayton Peak at the right, as viewed from the hill overlooking Lake Mary (9709')
Next we show some actual outing participants, with the lovely majestic snow country as a backdrop...
This one is Amanda with Lake Mary behind her - her typical pleased self in winter wear and correspondingly shod.

Having shown a participant at all the summit that was safe to visit (9709), it is time to put all this dignity in perspective.... To get where she is shown above, it becomes necessary to look as she is shown (below) one or more times ....... Amanda is shown here during the first trip - really our practice trip - somewhat less composed but still quite cheerful... (sort of like exercise barbie in re the mildly undignified pose but with way more clothing than just designer leg warmers and without the silly painted-on-plastic smirk) . Face-plants such as these result from crossing snowshoe tips or tails, having snow collapse under only one foot or from otherwise losing balance. But the snow is so soft and cuddly that she does not really mind all that much (check out the genuine smile of delight). This face-plant was actually deliberate for demonstration purposes, but there were others. You are all and severally more than welcome to try this yourselves on an occasion in the near future. But it is still a little tricky for you to try this at home ... not near enough snow is why.....So now an answer to the obvious question ..... What is this all about, anyway?? 'Tis a similar re-living of that first renowned trip in days of yore starring Joshua and the Varsity guys ..... 'Tis then further combined with the present day mantra "Dad wants to get some exercise and also be someplace interesting".... Hence, DDadson thought it would be a nice idea to go back up to the old haunt, but with new eager participants and with some variations of equipment which answered questions left hanging from earlier adventures. So, this time it was .... Amanda (the new people) and rented snowshoes with traction devices (the equipment) ...... We like the results so far, and it is still a farily cheap thrill. It also - in view of our typical reserve and temperament - beats screaming down hills out of control, possibly even maiming the self. You might be a Clark if ....... So, chalk this up as yet another way to ENJOY (rather than be bummed at) the frozen north country .... OK, so ... Snowshoe hiking is an acquired taste, and it took us all of 2 hours to acquire the taste. All this for a mere 3 hours of time on the hill plus some gear set up and take down. We like it.

OK, so .... BORING is just fine with us.

After all that talk of boredom, we should have known that life would get other than boring.
We believe we will go back to boring. It went like this.....
We were thinking seriously of sending Dad to Phoenix, a likely recent candidate being 5-8 December, but we just could not settle on the bookings. Now we know why it would not have worked all that well .....
On Friday morning West Jordan was informed of a vehicular traffic incident in Utah County.
The Geo Tracker did not do well against another large and sturdy GM product.
The Tracker is no longer operable and Melissa will eventually be in search of a replacement.
Melissa is OK on the whole (ambulatory), but is working through an eye injury sustained - ironically - from the safety features. For now, she is trying to rest quietly in West Jordan.
If one is inclined to make petitions to higher powers, now would be a good spot to join us in them.

Mostly Boring status update and no Pictures

If this post is boring - and it is - it is because a lot of otherwise noteworthy stuff has come and gone without our having any comments. This is especially true of the "outside" stuff - U.S. Elections, Financial crises, etc.
Not much to say, did not impact us much, much discussion still ongoing, and nothing to be gained by rehash here.
Family stuff - Now, there is something of interest, but oddly enough, they have gotten covered over to some degree by the externals.
So we probably should make a few comments just to keep current. Let's see now.
17 October 2008 -
Parent Unit wedding anniversary - 33 years. Celebrated quietly at a local restauant. Nothing on the camera
22 October 2008 -
Amanda's birthday, the actual day of which she spent at work and we partied on the adjacent Weekend. I think we sat around and surveyed more Bollywood with her and sponsored her constructive kitchen ramblings then ate them.
Sometime during all of this we had some baklava sitting round in the refrigerator for a while, and I think she made some Moussaka a couple of times and we devoured it. Nothing on camera on this either.
25 October 2008 -
There was something on the camera, but it is really obscure. We had church music festival at the Stake building
for our area. Probably no one in the frames any of us recognizes, and no pictures of us.
04 November 2008 -
Election Day: no comment and glad all the suspense is over, sort of.
Financial Markets: They continue to be all over the place, but mostly in the tank;
Much doom and gloom predicted by everyone.
Definitely no camera footage of this. What would you even find to photograph?
22 November 2008 -
Our Cousin/Neice person Trisha Gates Winslow got remarried and will be moving to Texas in Jan 2009.
We went to the Wedding over at the Hillsdale building. A couple of pictures snapped at random.
27 November 2008 -
Thanksgiving Day ... Melissa and Amanda had the day off, and convened at West Jordan. The official dinner was just the 4 of us (Mom/Dad/Ladies). We had turkey.
We thought fondly of absentees and invoked good graces of the powers that be.
Contact with others of the family following the eating, namely:
(1) James and Marilyn stopped by later and hung out for a while.
(2) Joshua and Julie stayed in Mesa and called on the phone and we chatted a bit.
No pictures and now everyone has left and the food is nearly gone.

28-29 November 2008 -
Still days off for some/most, back to work for Dr Clark.
This turned out to be a good chance to get something done around the place.
Check this out for the most boring thing you have ever heard:
We (Dad) finished work on replacement of a section of half high fence on the north property line in front yard.
We (Dad) have become tired of wooden posts rotting off and falling over, so am trying a Steel post/wood rail/wood slat approach, using 5 foot X 2-3/8" dia steel corner posts. The idea is to have the fence stay up longer.
I took no pictures but I could. If I did and posted them they would probably be .... Boring
30 November 2008 -
Phone contacts with extended family - the CA chapters....
Livermore CA Uncle/Brother unit - called to report Venison eaten in place of Turkey, and also some other stuff about the Family History tech support call center volunteer thing he is now doing. After 3 weeks they asked him to coach others.
Altadena CA Uncle/Brother unit - called to chat. Still talking about his discouraging experience this summer. Talks with fondness about the trip to Hawaii in Feb 2008.

West Jordan latest music/film discoveries - text by Mom

Amanda decided to explore some of the international DVDs available at the B.Y.U. library for checkout, and brought home several from India (otherwise known as "Bollywood" productions). Many of them have been interesting and most have been enjoyable, and several have been good enough that we ordered copies of them from the internet for our home library. You might be interested in renting them (if they are still available); Nick had seen "Lagaan" by renting it from Blockbuster.
In particular, we have really fallen for the music of A. R. Rachman, who uses a fusion of classical methods and orchestration with the native Indian instrumentation and rhythms. Perhaps CD Universe or YouTube would provide an opportunity for a listen should you care to check out the music for "Lagaan" or "Swades". It is an energetic, upbeat, layered kind of sound which we find hard to resist. Or, of course, you can always check it out when you come here, if you like. Much love, Mom.

West Jordan latest film discoveries - text by Dad

The following text was originally a fill-in for the immediately later post, which was originally written by Mom but then partially lost in a posting malfunction. Knowing that she wanted to talk about the Bollywood stuff, we then created this post. Having posted this, we then dug round and ran across the remains of her original post, so she re-entered the missing stuff and we posted it. We got very enthused about writing this post and did not feel like thowing it away, so we spammed the date a bit so that it would appear down the page from Mom's post.
As is typical for Dad's posts, you may well die from the detail.
Confused now? Oh well. Read on.
___________________________________________________________________
West Jordan, always sparse and library oriented in fillm viewing patterns to start with, has gotten into some different and slightly more promising material of late. This started with one of Amanda's recent explorations of the foreign film section at BYU Library, and the result was a stack of films from India, of all places. She says this is because she was becoming weary of the unpleasant aspects of American film and - being a prominent family try-er -wanted to ..... try something else.
Imagine what one might end up with by combining a fully developed film industry with a culture outside the US, say India, complete with stylistic nuances. There is in fact such a thing, and several of us have actually run into it.
The industry is based in Mumbai (formerly Bombay) and is colloquially known by its sobriquet of "Bollywood".
We have found several of the films to be well suited to some of our tastes and now have a small collection of our own.
___________________________________________________________________
The current library consists of some films:
"Lagaan"(2001) - English:"Tax") - Theme: India under British Raj 1893 - Cast: Aamir Khan/Gracy Singh - Music: A.R. Rahman
"Swades"(2007) - English:"Homeland" - Theme: Expatriate Indians and "homeland" - Cast: Shahrukh Khan/Gayatri Joshi - Music: A.R. Rahman
"Veer-Zaara"(2006) - Names, untranslated - Theme: India-Pakistan relations issues framed behind ... the customary love story - Cast: Shahrukh Khan/Preity Zinta/Rani Mukerji/Amitabh Bachchan/Anupam Kehr
"Vivah"(2005) - English "Marriage" - Theme: Arranged marriage traditions in India - Cast: Shahid Kapoor/Amrita Rau/Anupam Kehr
___________________________________________________________________
Common stylistic attributes throughout, of which we are now mildly fond - they grow on one:
- Lots of singing and dancing - the folk kind - 6 ten minute all-out onate production numbers per film
- BIG FAT HINDUSTANI Weddings! - minimum 1 per film either conducted on set, profusely alluded to or hoped for
- Lengthy-ness compared to american films - as in 2 hours minimum - see above singing, dancing and weddings
- None or little of the following on set: SHAGGING, PDA, KISSING, WARDROBE ACCIDENTS
- Language - it is all in Hindi with occasional endearing lapses into popular english such as "No problem" & "Shut Up" - always turn on the subtitles and enjoy the lovely poetic renderings from Hindi by Hindustanis
- Offensive language: No films in our library do this
- Films we did not buy: A very occasional lapse into English for cussing, otherwise all buried in lovely poetic Hindi.
- Sappy idealism: To an extent such as to make US critics cringe and totally trash the film - we therefore like it!
- Happy upbeat soppiness: Universes full - remember this is India where conditions are frequently depressing.
- Same 2-3 playback vocalists per gender for ENTIRE industry output to date, actors ALWAYS voice over singing.
- Slimmer inventory of actors compared to Hollywood, extensive reuse of talent - Think Mollywood
- Pakistani national dress allows females to cover up in stunningly graceful outfits and without wearing burkas
- Hindi national dress does have a midriff gap problem, but draped with a sari and no muffin tops ever.
- What can we say - the men are uniformly modest and studly
- Singing: All men use same style - studly baritone, All women use same style - the little girl sound.
- When they do thoughtful/issue pieces, one can stand the result. Our entire collection is issue pieces.
___________________________________________________________________
And now a crash course in who's who in Bollywood (the good stuff we like):
Actors/Producers: ShahRukh Khan (SRK), Aamir Khan, Shahid Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan
Actresses: Preity Zinta, Amrita Rao, Aishwarya Rai, Gracy Singh, Gayatri Joshi, Rani Mukerji
Singers: Udit Narayan, Shankar Mahadevan, A.R. Rahman (composer doing own stuff)
Singesses: Lata Mangeshkar, Alka Yaganik, Shreya Ghoshal
Composers: the one we like is A.R. Rahman - we are face first down and in a heap over this guy's work.
___________________________________________________________________
Things to google to sample music from the movies:
Lagaan: 'Mitwah', 'Chale Chalo', 'O Palaan Haare'
Swades: 'Yun Hi Chala', 'Ye Tara Woh Tara', 'Ye Jo Des He Tera'
___________________________________________________________________
This post is exactly why we got into buying off-shore DVDs, hence the recent post regarding DVD playback

West Jordan takes a crash course in DVD playback subtleties.....

This is actually the first of 3 posts regarding our latest discoveries in film literature.
_________________________________________________________________
Here is a tidbit we came across recently regarding playing of off-shore origin DVDs on US domestic equipment....
Television broadcast/display encoding standards:
All TV equipment uses one of several format standards for decoding/displaying video information on TV monitors. There are 3 major standard categories worldwide: NTSC (National Television System Committee), PAL (Phase Alternating Line), and SECAM (SEquential Color And Memory).
The coverage areas for each of these 3 standards worldwide are:
NTSC: North/South America (except Brazil,Argentina, Uruguay), and Phillipines, SouthKorea, Taiwan, Japan.
PAL: Brazil,Argentina,Uruguay, Europe (except France), Asia except SECAM/NTSC areas, Africa except SECAM areas, Austrialia & Pacific
SECAM: France, former Soviet Union areas, Africa except PAL areas
Most TV equipment, unless the manufacturer offers multi-standard equipment option, uses a single standard.
In the US, most equipment is NTSC only, with some exceptions.
DVD Region Codes:
The DVD zone code is a copy protection method, which uses a single digit number 0-8 and ALL. All DVD playback equipment is set for the single Zone in which it is principally used, with some exceptions. Computer DVD drives use a single Zone number at a time but limited number of changes of Zone.
DVD media is set either to a single zone, or more recently, enabled for ALL zones. The zones are:
0: None, or informally implied "worldwide"
1: US,Canada, US Territories, Bermuda
2: West/Central Europe, West Asia, Egypt, Japan, SouthAfrica, Swaziland, British overseas territories, French overseas territories.
3: SouthEast Asia, South Korea, China(Non-PRC)
4: Oceania, Central/South America, Carribean, Mexico
5: Ukraine, Belarus, Russion, Africa, Central/South Asia, Mongolia, NorthKorea.
6: China(PRC), HongKong
7: Reserved for future or other use
8: International venues (aircraft, cruise ships, etc)
ALL: All codes set, playable on any venue or equipment
Why all this?
We have all hitherto been oblivious to this, because US media is all Broadcast std NTSC and DVD Region 1,
hence this designation is considered uniformly implicit in the US, hence there are no markings whatever of this kind on US domestic media. One only cares when purchasing exterior origin media productions, in which case one must look carefully for correct markings to assure playability.
We have recently purchased a number of international film items, and all of them were MARKED as to Playback standard and DVD region. All but one were marked NTSC/ALL and all of those played. We did not make any note of this until one was marked PAL/ALL and did not play on our home TV system player. The culprit in that case, was the TV broadcast standard PAL, which caused our PHD domestic appliance player not to be able to even read the Region code to determine that it was ALL. The DVD did play on all of our laptops, which are apparently smart enough to recognize and adapt to the PAL/NTSC issue. Now it is known why on some occasions we have recently been seen mysteriously gathered round a laptop to view a DVD.

So now you know and are proactively informed of this fascinating bit of trivia.

Other reunion activity in September 2008

The Joshua R Clark family history conference was held on 25 September 2008 @ 1900-2100.
DDadson is on the planning committee, and also gave a presentation on the Wales quaker roots of Edwin D Woolley.
Various of you may have heard of this collection of stories and tidbits. A few of us have actually been to Wales. We are reluctant to beat it to death, however.
There will soon be a JoshuaRClarkFamily organization web site:
The URL is http://www.jrclarkfamily.org/
Another Clark family person - Stephen Clark in Livermore CA - is now the webmaster.
Check it out.

Nerdy trivia on 2008 hiking season

Most of this post is "read at the risk of your own boredom".....
The opera singing may be about to conclude on the 2008 outdoor crazy season....
OK - Make that Concluded. Fall has fell, White stuff litters the high country, and other activities approach...
See you all next year ... presuming there is one....
The counties of Utah summit exploration pastime included some revisits and some new items....

Summit	Alt/County	What/When	Who
Fish Lake High Top	11633 / Sevier	First / 2008.07.25	Dad/James
Blue Bell Knoll	11322 / Wayne	Redo / 2008.07.26	Dad/James/Marilyn
Pink Cliffs (Line)	10080 / Kane	First / 2008.08.22	Dad/James
Andy Nelson peak	10028 / Kane	Redo / 2008.08.23	Dad/James/Melissa/Joshua/Amanda/German
Willard Peak	09763 / Weber	Technicality/ 2008.09.20	Amanda (official summit mark not contacted)

Some annoying tallies so far:

	Counties	Summits/Highpoints
Confirmed Visits by one or more of us:	16	15
Unconfirmed Visits by one or more of us :	1	1
Remaining to Visit:	12	10
Total for Utah:	29	26

What happens when we get there ... the summit rituals .....
The summit rituals (in whatever order we deem applicable at the time) consist of:
(0) Arrive at the identifiable summit mark device - choices are Benchmark/Cairn/Register - or verify with GPS.
(1) Engage in jubilation - high-fives, group hugs, or other self-congratulatory expressions - as appropriate.
(2) Using water bottle, pour water on summit cairn or bench mark. Origin uncertain, but nevertheless customry.
(3) Using GPS, store exact Lat/Long or UTM coordinates of actual summit; record GPS altitude reading.
(4) Using camera, photodocument the visit as follows:
(--.1) The summit cairn/register/benchmark
(--.2) The summit team at the summit marker(s) - Permutations of summit team, taken by one member not shown
or entire team with self-timer of camera when possible.
(--.3) Horizon panoramae from summit.
(5) Eat lunch or other traditional/experimental foodstuffs (granny smith, bagels, dried cranberry), Chat, rest, extend jubilation as needed.
(6) engage in Optional extensions as desired
(7) Keep eye on weather and daylight and get-the-heck off as appropriate.
Optional Extensions:
(6.1) Welcome of slower stragglers to summit location using step (1) as necessary.
(6.2) Metaphysical conversations re grandeur of terrain, goodness of life, joy of discovery
(6.3) Discussion of descent routes.

Comments in re the above:
Item (0) is the essential pre-requisite item for being able to claim a summit visit, according to many, including us.
It is hence included in our rituals.
The technicality issue we currently have with Willard Peak is that item (0) verification could not be completed for safety reasons - no official summit verifier contacted.
We only got items 1, 4.3 and 7 completed prior to the noted T-Storm near-miss.

Finally, some really annoying lists ..... Only a hike fanatic could survive this next part - read at your own risk...

Annoying specifics on where we have been so far:

Summit	Alt	County	Notes
AmericanForkTwinPk	11489	Salt Lake	19xx-BC/J2/JG/AC
KingsPk	13528	Duchesne	19xx-BC/JG/J2
NaomiPk	09979	Cache	2001-BC/J2/AC
BridgerPk	09255	Rich	2001-BC/J2/AC
ThurstonPk	09706	Davis/Morgan	200x-BC/J2
Deseret Pk	11031	Tooele	200x-BC/J2
Cardwell(&Liner)	10743/10840	Wasatch	200x-BC/J2
Monument Pk	10452	Carbon	2005-BC/GC/J2/JGJ
EastMountain	10743	Emery	2005-BC/J2
AndyNelson(+Liner)	10028/10080	Kane	2005-BC/J2/MH/JG/AC
Brian Head Pk	11307	Iron	2005-BC/J2/MN/AC
Mt Nebo	11928	Utah	2006-J2
SouthTentMtn	11285	Sanpete	2007-BC/J2/AC
BlueBell Knoll	11328	Wayne	2007-BC/GCJ2/MN
FishLakeHighTop	11633	Sevier	2008-BC/J2
*Willard Pk	9764	Weber	2008-AC

What is left to do in Utah (rough order of difficulty/probability):

Summit	Alt	County	Notes
Willard Peak	9763	Weber	Prime candidate for May-June 2009 for confirm of official summit - DayHike
Delano Peak	12173	Beaver/Piute	Tushar Range nr Beaver - moderate - Car camp overnight at 10K
Mount Peale	12721	SanJuan	La Sal range nr Moab - moderate (LaSal Pass) - overnight @ Moab
Bull Mtn	09920	Boxelder	Raft River range NW Utah - huge 4WD trip - easy walk - no overnight
Signal Peak	10365	Washington	Pine Valley range nr St George - long hike - Ovrenight car camp - Reunion possibility
Mine Camp Peak	10222	Millard	nr Fillmore/Richfield - Huge 4WD trip - short hike - Overnight in Richfield
Benchmark Eccentric	12276	Uintah/Daggett	Uinta range nr Spirit Lake - moderate if we do Spirit Lake again
Gilbert Peak	13442	Summit	Henrys Fork nr Kings Peak - anyone for a 4 day 26 mile pack trip?
Mount Waas	12331	Grand	nr Moab - LaSal range - still trying to research the access route
Mount Ellen	11522	Garfield	Henry range nr Canyonlands ... extreme middle of nowhere - long hike
Ibapah Peak	12087	Juab	nr Nevada border .... absolute middle of nowhere - huge hike

Other unresolved issues:
Box Elder Peak - 11101' - Dad/James/Amanda
Mount Nebo - 11928' - Dad

Thats all, folks....

West Jordan recons Willard Peak

Willard Peak is the top of that ugly looking group of foothills we pass on I-15 between North Ogden and Brigham City, typically on the way to Logan. The easiest way to get withing walking distance of it is a road that goes south out of Mantua - the little town by the lake that we also pass on the way to Logan. So we keep going up there because it is pretty and we are very curious. Here is our most recent trip. We are not entirely sure what we are showing here, because the weather was marginal and we had to leave to minimize some risks. Amanda was the point person and hence the only one this high on the peak. She took the pictures and she was fortunate to get even these. We think this spot is definitely part of the formation containing the summit of Willard Peak (9763'); Amanda did not have time to verify the location of the official summit (cairn / benchmark); Neither was visible from where she is standing. The following 4 images are a panorama series from Amanda's point of highest ascent.
Pictures follow (below) captions.
(1) Looking south, including Ben Lomond peak in the distance. The outcrop in the mid foreground might actually be a bit higher and maybe contain the benchmark. Note the heavens gathering blackness.
(2) Looking southwest and what would be a spectacular view of the Wasatch Front valleys... Except for the dark clouds which are why our explorer vacated this location soon after these were taken. This is as close to a T-storm incident as she ever plans to get.
(3) Looking Northwest, and showing the easier of the two ridge routes. Amanda came up from the northeast using a more exposed route she did not like after using it. (4) Looking north into Willard Basin. The brown ribbon on the hillside at right is the dirt road used to get here. This is the end of the high panorama.
And finally, Amanda, in subdued pose, immediately following descent from the top, taken from DDadson point of highest excursion. The weather was too cruddy for much jubilation, even though she got her mountain fix, such as it was.
So.... We think we will take what we got and be appreciative.... We have now thoroughly scouted this route, and picked up on the missed items from last exploration. We now have all the route info we need to return for a more formal putting away of this one .... Also, it was a lovely 10 miler overall during which Dad ditched some pounds and we both looked at pretty fall leaves..... But Dad did not hit the official top - further ascent above this 9640' point was discontinued in the interest of T-storm safety - so alas HE has to come back, and it will probably be mildly irksome for the time being until this yet other score is settled. There are ironies here: The place Amanda got to (~9760) is probably good enough for her (she got there), but not for DDadson, the closure freak (mainly because he did not get there). We just may be Clarks .....This area is becoming very familiar indeed to DDadson and is even a serious candidate for a further solo trip, assuming it just has to be that way owing to scheduling of others .... The weather and schedules are getting complicated, so much as some of us would like to have it over with, it just may have to wait until the next consistent good weather in snow free high elevation, maybe meaning next season. I hope that's not what this means, but I am afraid it is. Dang. (I hiked my head off, I lost a water bottle, the weather yelled at me....).