2012. A New Year, Some New Blog Action

I've been really bad about blogging despite enjoying it quite a bit. So while I don't "do" New Years resolutions, I'm going to try to make a concerted effort to blog more by writing weekly recaps. I'm not sure anyone at all reads my blog but I'll enjoy capturing what I'm up to and I'm constantly inspired to blog more by blog-constant friends such as JV who's always on top of it. The year 2012 started off excellent by unwinding at home after a week in Las Vegas, NV visiting Allison's Mom and climbing with good friends at Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. Allison and I were both in bed by 11:30PM on New Year's Eve so we didn't see the new year come in. New Year's Day I got out on a "12 for 2012" run with many local friends in White Rock, NM followed by a great brunch. I ran approximately 1,250 miles in 2011 and it felt great to start 2012 off with a solid pace 12 miler. Later that day, Allison and I tried to do some cross-country skiing on the local nordic trail but found conditions too icy and sketchy for our liking so we punted after a short bit.

From Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, NV. December 2011.

Monday was the New Year's holiday so I got out into the New Mexico backcountry for some skiing with Andy, Bill and Steve in an area called Big Tesuque. Considering it had been sunny and dry in NM for over a week, the riding was quite good.

Andy skiing Big T

At work, we've been migrating user email accounts from the long-standing Cyrus email servers to the new Microsoft Exchange service using a product called Transend. I wasn't impressed with Transend initially but that once we got it figured out, we've been doing 200-300 user mailboxes per night without much issue. This means I worked a couple nights during the week but not too late so it's not a problem. I ran some more during the week managing a total of 23.5 miles, all pavement. I'm going up to Moab, UT for President's Day weekend in February to run the Moab Red Hot 55k trail race so I'm getting some minimal training in. Running roads should be good for that course, I think. Friday was my regular Friday off from work and I went out rock climbing with Daniel to a not-often visited nearby location called the Sewer Crag named for its proximity to the White Rock sewage treatment plant. The climbing is a lot of fun on great pocketed basalt that's common along the Rio Grande Gorge. We established and bolted a new 5.10+ route we called "100 Years of Solitude" that was fun to establish and climb. Despite the proximity to the sewage treatment plant the climbing and scenery is wonderful.

Daniel on the FA of "100 Years of Solitude"

Friday night I drove up to near the Great Sand Dunes, CO with Bill to meet up with our friend Jeff for a weekend of 14er climbing and camping. Saturday morning we drove up the Lake Como road to about 10,000 feet taking advantage of very little snow in CO this season. We then hiked up to setup a high camp above Lake Como that morning. From there we continued up basin to climb 14ers Ellingwood Point (14,042') and Blanca Peak (14,345') in some gnarly cold wind. We got descended back down to our high camp by 5:30pm to eat and settle in for the night. It was great fun to meet up with Jeff for this fun outing. I typically do one winter 14er trip per season but with the low snowpack in Colorado this season, I may be back up there again this winter.

From Ellingwood Point (14,042') and Blanca Peak (14,345'), CO. 2012-01-07

I bought a new album this week, Awolnation's Megalithic Symphony after listening to it repeatedly on Spotify. I highly recommend it. All in all, a great week! I hope the next 51 are just as entertaining.