Feats of Strength Photos!

Sorry for the wait! I had a great time at the comp, as I always do, win, lose, or inhale enough chalk to cough a cloud for the rest of the night. 

Click on the name next to the photo to see more of each person:

Jordan

                                                                     Logan

Meghan

                                                                   Kelly

Christian

                                                                    Alycia














Xavier

Coming Soon: Feats of Strength Photos

Just as soon as I* figure out how to put them up in a logical manner. In the meantime, ladies, this is Jordan, displaying his game face:

More to come, Tuesdayish.

*someone more tech savvy than I helps me to

Winter hiking: What a great Sabbaday!

Winter hiking is an entirely different beast than hiking during the remaining three seasons of the year. Yesterday's hike up the Sabbaday Brook trail to Middle Tripyramid is a fine example of the challenges hikers face in the New England winter. Here are just a few of those challenges...

1) Limited daylight means getting up before it's light out in order to take advantage of the short days in the northern hemisphere. It also means making a timeline, being flexible with plans, and having the ability to turn around or stop when time is running short. 

2) Finding the trailhead. This can be quite tricky when the snowbanks are taller than you are and the signposts come dangerously close to being buried. 

3) Maintaining just the right temperature while hiking...not too hot, not too cold. Despite the chilly temps, you tend to overdress, and within 10 minutes of starting up the trail it becomes necessary to undress and rearrange the 7,234 layers you put on when first stepping out of the sauna that was your car. The second half of this challenge is to avoid not getting cold while taking a break. For me, winter breaks tend to be no longer than 5 minutes. After about 5 minutes, the sweat starts to cool, and the chills start in. Keep moving!

4) Did I mention snow? New England has plenty of that white stuff, and it usually isn't very light and fluffy. Yesterday happened to be in the high 30s with plenty of sunshine to start us out with. The snow changed from a layer of crunchy ice with powder beneath to a heavy and somewhat slushy consistency as we tromped from the shade of the evergreens into clear sunny patches.

Headed back to the trailhead on the Sabbaday Brook trail.

5) Microspikes? Snowshoes? Bare boot? So many options, and all dependent on the snowpack for that day. Yesterday, we opted for snowshoes, which was the right choice. 

6) Breaking trail. It's hard work. Unbeknownst to us, there was a group ahead of us breaking trail for the first 2.5 miles, so we cruised through the early miles and caught up to them just as the trail started up. Then we got to break trail. My friend, Hannah, was in the front for the majority of the uphill. Fact: Breaking trail is exhausting, especially uphill and when the snowpack is a crusty top layer with about 8+ inches of fluffy white stuff beneath. Snowshoes don't grip in powder. Not one bit. We would take a step only to slide back down and try again; it was slow progress. We did make it to the top, but our legs were shaking and burning by the time we made the summit. Pure exhaustion. Borderline insanity. 

I know this all sounds a wee bit crazy, but winter hiking has it perks too. 

Winter Sunshine

  It rained yesterday. February rain is the greyest, dreariest rain you can experience. Snow banks sagged, roads flooded, and it looked like all the color had been washed away with the melting snow. It was one of those February days everyone dreads, and I went to bed early just to be done with it.

  And then today came along, and the sun was out in force as though to make up for yesterday's absence. Enough snow has survived to still cover the ground completely, and it turned to diamond in the sunlight. I drove to work with my windows down and music blaring, not even caring that I was at as stoplight and people were staring at me. I hope it gave them a good chuckle.

There is no drug quite so powerful as sunshine in February.

Or anytime, for that matter. The day reminded me of a hike MontAnia and I took last December up Jackson and Pierce in the White Mountains. We had woken up in North Conway in a fog bank as thick, as they say, as pea soup. We arrived at an equally foggy and dank trailhead, but in about twenty minutes we were immersed in sunshine--the fog, it turned out, was sitting low in the valley, and we were already above it. The rest of our day was spent hiking in the sun, so warm that we only needed jackets on the summits-and this was the White Mountains, in December. We didn't see a single other soul throughout the entire day, and I will always remember it as the best hike I have ever had. No masters required.

  That day the Mount Washington Observatory reported fifty mile views.

This is MontAnia not getting her Masters

Mount Washington seen from the summit of Pierce

Winter Wild...and a little bit crazy!

Woke up at 5am, drove to a ski mountain, and ran up and down it...twice. I got to watch the sunrise from the top of a mountain while those poor souls pursuing their master's are still in bed, catching up on sleep from the week. Just kidding. They're probably nursing a hangover...

Love is in the air. And snow, there's lots of snow!

Not getting your master's means you can spend your morning wandering through a winter wonderland. 

Snow Day

When you're not getting your masters, every day is a snow day.

7 Sisters: Captain Kelly

So far, I haven't stumbled upon a master's degree in posthole-ing and breaking trail. Weird.

Seven Sisters

A little back story of how this came about.

Ania and I really, really like hiking, among other outdoor activities. Whenever we can we escape to the mountains to clear our minds, take a deep breath of fresh air, and use our "outside voices." One February weekend we met at the Holyoke Range to take on the seven sisters, a seven-peaked hike along the Holyoke Ridge.

It was a clear day, and the views, snow, and trails were deeply satisfying. We marched along, happily settling into the calf-burning feel of the day. The Connecticut River below us mirrored the valley perfectly, and the week-old snow still looked like freshly fallen diamonds. We couldn't have asked for more...until we got to the top of Mount Holyoke.

We were admiring the Oxbow when a fellow hiker wheezed up the trail behind us. We politely said hello, exchanging pleasantries about the day.

"Do you girls go to college around here?" the old man asked.
"No, we graduated last year," I told him.
"Are you employed?" he asked us skeptically.

Now, I don't know about you, dear reader, but employment is not the subject of choice for most twenty-somthings these days. Finding a job is hard enough without the added pressure of "doing what you love" while also "making a contribution to society" and "making enough money to feed yourself."  The last thing we wanted on our day off was to be questioned about our employment. We both are employed, by the way, which we told the wheezened hiker.

"Are you employed in the field you majored in?" he further inquired. Woah, how exactly did we get here? Last I checked we were on top of a mountain, not a career services office.

"No," we hesitantly replied.

"Ah, well, of course not, you don't have your masters. You've really got to get your masters if you're going to do anything with your life," he said.

Well, we are not getting our masters, but we are doing something with our lives. After all, not all who wander are lost on their career paths and doomed to a lifetime of uncertainty.

This is Ania not getting her masters

All clear on the 7 Sisters

Kelly surveying the land to make sure there isn't a single master's degree in sight. 

Little Kelly and MontAnia

This is Kelly-

-and that's Ania.







And we are not getting our masters.









But that's ok, because there are plenty of other worthwhile things to do in this life, and this blog is a documentation of some of those things.

Enjoy!