Life Update

Spring is here and all I want to do is clean. Seriously. Well, OK...and play outside. Part of spring cleaning is picking up all of the disparate pieces of my life and packaging them neatly into a nice, pocket-sized blog entry. I'm not really a "blogger," but this, I figure, is the easiest way to reach everyone at once.

First... I'm published! This winter, a colleague of mine, Wendy Wagner, and I published three articles in a fairly small, quarterly, backcountry skiing magazine called "Off-Piste." They have now been posted online in pdf format at http://www.offpistemag.com/themag/backissues.asp. The articles are "Demystifying ENSO" (Oct 2008 Issue), "An Idiot's Guide to Weather Station Data" (Dec 2008 Issue) and "Cloud Microphysics" (Jan 2009 Issue). We had to decline the 4th article since we were both swamped with work by springtime!

Which brings me to the next point... I just finished my Master's thesis!!! I'm turning it in Tuesday. The title is "Assessing the Sensitivity of Wasatch Snowfall to Temperature Variations." I present at a conference in Alberta next week, and my defense is the following week (29th). Mom, Dad, Nick and Elizabeth are coming out for it. Thanks so much, guys!

So...what happens next?? Ha. Good question. Short-term, I got a job fighting wildland fire for the summer. It's a Type II-Inital Attack handcrew based out of Salt Lake. Although it's a county crew, it's totally legit, and apparently is run more like a hotshot crew and has a really good reputation. So...I'm going to be digging fire line all summer :) from Arizona to Idaho and any other place that needs firefighters. I've already started beefing up my training for the crew. I'm the only female...! They keep a blog, so you can keep up with me and the guys this summer: www.ufawildland.blogspot.com. This is something I've always wanted to do, and what better time!

After that, I'll likely be working on a publication with my advisor and weighing the advantages and disadvantages of going on for a PhD or going into the working world...

Otherwise, the skiing and snowboarding ministry (SFC) that a couple friends and I run is going fabulously. We totally exploded this season and we have a really excited, dedicated and servant-hearted community of young adults.

I've got a random assortment of pictures at: http://picasaweb.google.com/LeighPender/. You'll notice that I have a few snowpack pictures, most of which you can ignore, unless you're a snow geek (like me). I got hired by the Utah Avalanche Center this year to be a backcountry observer (which is another fun update), and a picasa account is the easiest way to get pictures to them.

(As an aside: if you DO want to geek out on snow stuff, check out the "Monitor Avalanches" gallery where we intentionally set-off some slides. There's a couple of videos, too!--don't worry, Greg was attached to a rope when he was doing that. Mom and Dad, I PROMISE we're safe. This is an excellent and safe way to get a sense of what the snowpack is doing so that you don't get caught unawares and can send in some much needed info to the avalanche forecasters! :)

As always, my thoughts and prayers are with you all that are so dear to me but are so far away. Thanks for reading!

"Because it's there."

In Colorado with Jill's family for Thanksgiving.





Today, Jill and I battled a fierce, very cold wind to climb 3 14'ers--Mt. Bross (14,177 ft) to Mt. Lincoln (14,286 ft; 8th highest in Colorado, 11th in the contiguous US) to Mt. Cameron (14, 238 ft).

You can see all three in the second pic--I'm on the summit of Bross, with the summits of Cameron (left) and Lincoln (right) behind.








I believe it was George Leigh Mallory--the accomplished British mountaineer--who, in the 20s, when he was asked why he climbed Mt. Everest, responded "because it's there." In no way, shape, or form am I climbing the Everests of the world, but, ask me why I climb those I do, and my response may not be too different. How else may we so intimately experience God's Creation and celebrate the abilities that our bodies were given to take us places we never thought we could go?

SFC National Conference

Dillon, Colorado. Nov. 21-23, 2008.

Mill B South

Trip report post:

We're young and masochistic so we hiked up the dirt/death-ice/snow trail in Mill B South and skinned from Lake Blanche to the ridge at the top of the bowl just west of the ridge out to Sun Dial. Hoar frost down around the creek; rain crust, glaze crust everywhere; rime crust above about 10k ft. Never softened up there on the north and east facing stuff we were on--go figure. Ate it about every 6th turn--I don't mind admitting it.

Even if it was an all-day sufferfest, it was beautiful up there. Everything was glisten-y in the sun, lots of ice bulges, firnspiegel along the trail, and there was nary a soul above the lake. Shoot, i'll take less-than-stellar conditions if it means solitude

Grandview Peak: Bike/Hike/Ski

Today, Matt and I went on a little adventure… fully self-propelled ski tour ... a “triathalon” of sorts.

Segment #1: 12 miles of biking from Sugarhouse (met Matt at top of Avenues) to the top of City Creek w/ skis, ski boots and hiking boots on our backs. It hurt so so good.Segment #2: 4 miles of hiking and extreme bushwacking (with ski protrusions out the top--cleverly situated for that extra bit o' bushwacking challenge, of course), plus 1000 ft of booting. Lucky for me, Matt's well skilled in the art of bushwacking, having done this for years on past springtime Cascades trips.
Segment #3: From the saddle, ~1000 vert ft of sweet sweet skiin'. Actually, not bad: 'bout an inch of warm, post-corn-esque-softness on a slippery, consolidated base. Skied good 'n' fast. In all, fine turns, sans the killer quad-burn after a mighty uphill heave-ho.
The hike/bike down completed the route: 32 miles round trip, 4900 vert ft, 8.25 hrs. Yeehaw.
Orange=bike, purple=hike, red=sweet turns.