10 Years of Ultimate

The day after regionals... always a day for reflection.  Games won, games lost, fun had, opportunities seized or missed.  In my ultimate career I've had my season end at this tournament 8 times.  My emotions upon the end of that last game have ranged from happiness to relief to indifference to tears caused by the rush of too many feelings to the surface at once.  After a day of settling though, I find myself thinking the same thing I think after any tournament- "that was fun".

Pictured: Fun.  Photo credit Stephen So.

Last month marked the 10 year anniversary of the day I first showed up to Dartmouth Ultimate practice and picked up a disc.  That was honestly one of the best decisions I've ever made in my life.  I couldn't imagine my life without the experiences, travel, and friendships that ultimate has given me.  Because I'm huge nerd, I've actually kept track of all the tournaments and teams I've played for over the years.

In 10 years, I have attended 117 tournaments.  I've played in 106 of them, the others I was spectating or coaching.  The most tournaments I've attended in one year was 20, in 2008.  I have won a tournament 10 times.  I've lost in the finals another 9 times.  Those tournaments add up to 617 games with a wining percentage of 0.56.

I attended 26 of the tournaments with the Dartmouth Pain Train, 13 with the Pimpdags, 9 (and counting) with ASU B Pleasure Ultimate, and 8 (and counting) with Rubix.  I have played a tournament in 35 different states.  Counting tournaments, pick-up, spectating, and driving through in transit to a tournament, ultimate has taken me to 43 of the 50 states.

Putting all this on a map looks something like this:

Escape

Seasonal Depression is a serious thing.  I first heard about it at Dartmouth, when the long, cold, and cloudy winters often caused depression that resulted in not a small amount of transfers.  Of course, this confused me, because I loved winter.  The novelty of having snow consistently on the ground and face-biting cold never wore off in my 4 years there, or my next 2 winters in Madison.  While other Dartmouth students made every effort to avoid Hanover in the winter, I did the Hanover FSP my Junior winter, living on campus and working for a geology prof when I wasn't taking classes.

The solution to avoiding seasonal depression, I learned, was to embrace the season.  I was never effected because I went skiing at least twice a week and love the feeling of cold air in my lungs.  I thought Dartmouth looked beautiful in the winter and loved walking across campus.  It makes sense then that when I lived in Vail there was no issue with winter depression, everyone who was there was there by choice; they had all chosen to be ski bums and embrace the cold.

When I moved to Phoenix I discovered that seasonal depression isn't just about winter.  It can be about summer.  The consistent heat in Phoenix in oppressive.  It exhausts and dehydrates you.  I can't take a cold shower at my house because the pipes are too close to the surface and the water is hot.  Air conditioning is expensive, so home temperature is about finding the balance between cool enough to avoid going crazy while not going bankrupt.

Summer at New England, the perfect escape from summer at ASU

And for me at least, the bigger issue with summer oppression is that if you embrace it, you get heat stroke and die.  In the winter I can always put on a thicker coat and another fleece.  In the summer, once it's a sunny day above 110, there's not much you can do.  And while it's survivable to play ultimate or go running at dusk, the fact that it's still 105 out at 8 or 9pm can just get to you after a few weeks.

So that's why I addressed my problem by avoiding it all together.  I escape.  Between the end of ASU finals last May 1st and the beginning of class yesterday, there were 16 weeks.  I managed to get the hell out of Phoenix for 8 full weeks and 3 additional weekends:
  Nicaragua Volcano Tectonics Workshop - 2 weeks
  TA ASU Field Camp - 3 weeks
  Working Vacation to CO and OK - 2 weeks
  Vacation to New England - 1 week
  2 weekend ultimate tournaments and 1 hiking weekend in Flagstaff.

It's these trips that keep me happy and sane during the summer.  I can deal with pretty terrible heat as long as I know it's going away soon.  So while it may not get below 100 consistently until October, I could look forward to a trip to cooler climates coming in a week or two.  And if I'm looking forward to something, my motivation increases, and I still get a lot of work done, despite being out of town so much.  Or at least that's what I tell my parents and my advisor when they occasionally express concern.

50 degrees with 30 mph winds on Mount Moosilauke.  Sometimes escaping the heat can go too far.

The College Schedule and Working Vacations

One of my favorite things about being a more or less permanent college student is the schedule.  While the rest of my 'real world' friends are counting vacation days and stuck in their offices on a rigid 8-5 schedule, I choose my work days and hours.  I go to work when I want, leave when I want, and if I want to, take a weekday off to do something fun.  I can go on vacation when I want for more or less as long as I feel like it.  It doesn't matter where or when I do my work, just that is gets done by the time it should be done.

Of course, the downside to this schedule is that while I have no set 'days on', I also don't have set 'days off'.  During Christmas break, every weekend, every evening, every vacation, it is necessary to continue making due progress on my research less I appear unproductive.  My laptop comes with me for on almost every trip I take, and I find time to squeeze is progress: a paper read on the airplane here, labs graded in the hotel there.  Just like you need to find the time to have fun, you have to find time to do work while you're having fun.

This can all get stressful, constantly trying to make progress, knowing that you could/should be working during every possible downtime.  I know grad students who work every weekend and every evening.  It makes it hard to relax sometimes knowing that I'm being outworked, knowing that it will still take those students 5 years to graduate, and wondering if that means it'll take me 6, or even 7.  Monotonous days can also get stressful and the Arizona summer heat doesn't help.  It's depressing, 95 degrees already biking in to work at 9am, still 105 out at 7pm biking home.

My office for a week

Hence, the glorious solution that is the working vacation.  I got the idea from my advisor, who peaces out to Italy for a couple months each summer to write grants and papers.
It sounds like a lot of work and she's incredibly busy when she's over there, but if it's work that has to be done, I'm sure I'd rather be in Tuscany than Phoenix too.  Again, for grad students and even professors in the summer, as long as the work gets finished, it doesn't matter where it's done.

So that reason is why a couple weeks ago I spent a week in Vail, Colorado.  While there I prepared two posters for a conference and advanced my research quite a bit.  In the afternoons I'd watch the daily thunderstorm roll through and then I'd go running in the 60 degree temps that followed.  Sure beat the hell out of Phoenix.  I think next summer I'm going back for multiple weeks.

Hike up to here in the morning, read some papers in the afternoon

ASU Field Camp

This will be the third summer in a row I have been a TA for ASU's summer geology field camp.  It's a great deal I've been able to get myself into, and provided the bear from last year doesn't come back, it looks to be a great 3 weeks of cool (ish) weather at 5500 feet, geologic mapping, and great camp food.  I always enjoy getting back to my roots, both camping and geologically, and it's a lot less stressful (though at least equally as much work) to be a TA than to be a student.  It's a good way to start the summer and get excited about geology.

Mapping Sector One viewed from Kush Mountain with ASU's Camp Tontozona in the foreground.

The Central American Volcanic Arc

I have seen both a continental volcanic arc (the Cascade Arc in Washington) and an island arc (the Caribbean Lesser Antilles) before, but the arc in Nicaragua is unique due to it's density. Standing on top of a volcano, you can see the arc stretching out in both directions to the horizon.

Rota, in foreground, with the actively degassing Telica and San Cristobal barely visible through the haze behind and to the left of Rota.  Photo taken from Cerro Negro looking northwest.

   

I've also seen and climbed restless volcanoes before: St. Helens, Vesuvius, and Yellowstone. But again, the density of active and potentially active volcanic centers in Nicaragua is impressive. Telica, San Cristobal, and Masaya all produce a continuous gas plume and Cerro Negro, last active in 1999, has consistently erupted every decade or two since it began in 1850. Apoyeque frequently has seismic swarms, Momotombo (my favorite volcano name in the country) erupted in 1905, and Concepcion erupted in 2009-2011.

 The consistency of activity and the relative safety of travel in the country makes me confident I will return to study the volcanoes there. It's a great place to do it, and a lot cheaper than traveling to Indonesia or Kamchatka, where the volcano density and activity is similar.

Nicaragua

I just returned from a two-week long workshop in Leon, Nicaragua on the subject of Magma-Tectonic Interactions in the Americas.  It was an amazing experience that included field trips to Masaya, Cerro Negro, and San Cristobal volcanoes, which are all actively degassing.  The workshop included instruction on GPS, seismic, petrologic, geochemical, and Coulomb-stress methods of investigating tectonic and volcanic activity.  I learned a ton and also got to meet a bunch of other similarly interested graduate students, post-docs, and professors.  I also came away with a few new ideas for research to do this summer and some potential future collaborations.  I'm excited to get back to research this summer.

Me at Masaya Volcano

Rebranding

So it's been almost 2 years since my last post. As a general update, here's my current status:

 I am still a graduate student, though I'm now a Ph.D. candidate. I passed my quals last November. I just finished my 3rd year at ASU and am looking at 2, maybe 3 more before I get my degree. Research is going well. More on that later maybe. I spent the last 2 years as coach of the ASU mens ultimate B team. I love it and plan to continue coaching as long as I'm here. Despite living in the desert, I still have managed to ski ~15 days each of the past 3 winters. So I'm doing pretty well.

 I decided to attempt to keep up with the blog again in part because I have a pretty cool summer planned and this is a great way to keep in touch with people and also keep an archive of my activities. I also have a couple grad school survival-themed posts I'll dredge up when I get bored. Though I probably won't talk about research or school that much. Mainly I want to write about the awesome things I do to keep myself happy and sane while trying to avoid being weighed down by the stress of creating something novel that benefits humanity (i.e. doctoral research).

 So, without further ado, updated blog! Next post coming soon explaining why exactly I chose today to do this.

A couple months ago I shared Conan O'Brian's 2011 Dartmouth commencement speech on my Facebook page. I felt the need then to spread it around because I was impressed by not only its humor, which I expected, but by it's message, which was both profound and directly relevant to my life the past few years.

Conan said in his address "There are few things more liberating in this life than having your worst fear realized." I know this is true because this happened to me.

When I graduated Dartmouth in 2007 I thought I had the next phase of my life completely laid out in front of me. I was in a Ph.D. program in Madison, WI, and I had moved there with my girlfriend of the past two years. My worst fear was that I would somehow mess up this perfect plan.

To abbreviate a tragic story, I messed it up. My funding was cut and I was forced to graduate with my Masters degree in December 2008 after just 3 semesters. I had neglected my studies my first year, and in my rush to finish that last semester, was forced to neglect both my future and my friends.

To quote Conan quoting somebody else: "Nietzsche famously said "Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger." But what he failed to stress is that it almost kills you."

In January of 2009 I found myself unemployed in a staggeringly poor job market and living on my now ex-girlfriend's couch. I applied to probably 50 different jobs and internships at ski areas, the Student Conservation Association, the National Park Service, and a few other random places. For that month I heard nothing back and was left to wonder at night as I slept on that couch what had become of my life.

Then, good things started to happen. I got one offer, to work as a visitor services intern at Guadalupe Mountains Naitional Park from March through May, and then another, to work in Yellowstone National Park as in intern through the Geological Society of America's GeoCorps program during the summer.

Later that year my friend Sarah was able to help hook me up with a job and place to live for the winter in Vail, CO. While working in Vail I convinced my Yellowstone supervisor to rehire me to work there for another summer, and I also applied to grad school again and was accepted at Arizona State.

Conan, speaking of his own time in between leaving the Tonight Show and debuting on TBS but mirroring my feelings towards my time off from school, said "it was the most satisfying and fascinating year of my professional life. To this day I still don't understand exactly what happened, but I have never had more fun, been more challenged—and this is important—had more conviction about what I was doing."

This Thursday I will begin my second year as a Ph.D. student in Volcanology at ASU. Yellowstone and Vail, like Dartmouth and Oklahoma before them, are now places that I feel have become a part of me. Living in those two places directly changed my outlook on life and I would not be the person I am today without the influence of those experiences.

January and February of 2009 were the most depressing weeks of my life and marked the end of a dream I had been following for many years. I was forced to follow a new dream, one I was creating and shaping as I went along, not always with a clear idea of where it would lead me. In the end I did return to graduate school, but in a program better suited to me and with the experience and drive necessary to succeed.

I would not be where I am today, or who I am today, without having lived the through the disappointment that consumed my last months in Madison. Knowing now the path I followed after I left Wisconsin and where it led me, if given the chance to relive my time there, I would gladly let disaster befall me again, just to be able to experience the three years since.

To end his commencement remarks Conan said "Work hard, be kind, and amazing things will happen." I couldn't agree more.

Road Trip 2011: By the Numbers

I got to Tempe on Saturday from my latest epic summer road trip. I really am fortunate to be able to have so many amazing trips like this, props to grad school and the nomadic periods of my life I guess. Instead of writing a boring trip report though, I think a simple list of intriguing numbers, a la Sports Illustrated, will be an entertaining way to recap my journey:

4700: Miles driven
109: Highest Temperature recorded while I was in OK
106: High Temperature the day I returned to Tempe
-57: Net Indian Casino winnings
32: Lowest temperature experienced (there was ice on the picnic tables in camp one morning)
32: Total Days
11: Days doing field work
4: Days playing ultimate
4: Days hiking
8: Days on the road
31: Total Nights
14: in a tent
2: in my car
4: on the floor
2: on a sleeper sofa
5: in a hotel bed
4: in my own bed
29.4: Average mpg for the whole trip
19: Total number of 14ers I've climbed, after climbing Bierstadt and Evans on this trip
13: Games of ultimate played
10: States visited (AZ, UT, ID, WY, MT, CO, KS, OK, TX, NM, in that order)
6: National Park Service Units Visited (Cedar Breaks, Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Fossil Butte, Rocky Mountain, Petrified Forest)
2.3: days/shower ratio
8: days/shower ratio while in Yellowstone
3: Bear sightings
2: Wolf sightings
1: Pairs of boxers worn for the 2 weeks in Yellowstone

ASU Field Camp

Tomorrow I leave for my next adventure: TAing ASU's field camp in Payson, AZ. Should be a great opportunity to refresh my field mapping skills as well as get out of the Phoenix heat for a few weeks. I'll be back in mid-June, hopefully with some good stories to share.

M.U.T. Ultimate: A 3 Part Series

III. M.U.T. @ PADA MOSH

PADA MOSH this past November marked the 7th time Mike's Ultimate Team, a.k.a. M.U.T., has gathered to play ultimate together. While I have only been back to Dartmouth once since graduating, these yearly gatherings have turned into my de facto mini college reunions, and also a chance to play great ultimate. M.U.T. entered this weekend on a 3 tournament and 20 game winning streak. And you could consider it a 4 tournament winning streak since M.U.T. was the only team to show up to the cancelled Frozen Disc of Death in 2007. It's really amazing to consider how far we've all come as ultimate players from when we first got together. None of us were the players we are now when Mike first pulled us together, we were just friends who loved ultimate. But now members of M.U.T. include all-region players, club and college nationals qualifiers, and multiple team captains, presidents, and coaches. It's amazing not only how much we have each improved over the years, but also that nearly all of us continue to play at the highest levels that we can.

In addition to PADA MOSH serving as a mini college reunion at Mike's place in Philly, we were putting our winning streak on the line against the toughest competition M.U.T. had ever faced. Saturday was cool and slightly windy, and we breezed through our first two games, and comfortably beat a talented Swarthmore alum team that would go on to win the B bracket. After playing primarily with the Pimpdags and random pick up mixed teams in Colorado and Montana the past couple of years, I was again amazed at the ease with which we play good ultimate together. There was no real strategy or focus on the game, we'd just go out, play hard, then return to the sidelines and continue joking around and catching up with each other. Eventually we'd find ourselves at the soft cap up a few breaks. It was effortless.

Sunday was different, it was colder and much windier, and our usual underseeding by the T.D. had us playing our first game against tourney favorites Horned Melons, who had their own stock of nationals players. M.U.T. would be subbing competitively and thinking strategically this game, and though I was less than thrilled with my play so far that weekend, I was excited to reprise my Dartmouth role of zone offense hammer catcher.

I made the most of it too. I sat out the first couple points, letting our better players try to get us an early lead with an upwind break, but it didn't happen. We went down 3-0 and then had an O point going downwind. If we let the melons get another upwind break we'd essentially be out of the game. So I self-called myself and stepped onto the field, telling myself it was time I made a play and stopped sitting around letting our nationals players try to win the game for us. M.U.T. wins because every single one of us is good, not just because we have a couple all-region players on our roster.

Sometimes life gives you opportunity to immediately back up your own bravado, and this was one of those fortuitous moments. The Melons came zone to prevent a good downwind punt, and Crew quickly found himself trapped on the sideline as I found myself with about half the field to myself playing the cross-field wing. Crew wound up and threw the most incredible blading hammer I've ever seen in my direction. The wind was pushing against the flight of the hammer and as the disc flattened out it was pushed back to midfield. I took off sprinting to intercept it's path and I remember thinking it resembled a jet skimming the ground as it flew downfield. The disc was moving too fast for me to run down, so my only hope was to cut its path at the perfect point. As the disc crossed in front of me I bid as high and as far as I could, and with a loud 'thunk' it stuck in my hand. Being fully aware of conservation of greatness, I quickly dumped the disc to Mackey and a couple throws later Mike hit me with a scoober for our first point of the game.

I immediately took a sub and received just as many 'sick catch' comments from the Melons as from my own team. Some older guy came up to me and said "I've been watching ultimate for years and that's the best catch I've ever seen". The game was even from there on out, we scored all of our downwind points and our upwind line was able to get a couple goals to tie the game at 10s with hard cap looming. However, with their back to the wall, the nationals-caliber players on the Melons did what they do best and scored an up wind O point to go up 11-10. Hard cap came on during the next point, but we weren't able to score our upwind O point and M.U.T. finally lost, 12-10.

The winning streak ended at 23 games spanning 5 tournaments. The Horned Melons would go on to win the semis by 6 and the finals by 4. We would win our consolation game and get 5th place by forfeit. We knew though that our quarters game was the game of the tournament, and had been played at a different level than any of the other games that day, and that was something to be proud of.

I can't wait to do it all again.

M.U.T. Ultimate: A 3 Part Series

Part II: Hey, just so you're not surprised, we're really good.

The next time M.U.T. got together was in November of 2006 to once again play in Dartmouth's Frozen Disc of Death. To the crew that played at Ow My Knee in 05 we added Socks, Mackey, some more Wellesley women, and of course Colin Mahoney. This tournament is still one of the absolute best I've ever played in, which means a lot to me since I was the TD. All of M.U.T. was crammed into 17 school, pasta jamming and watching 'Stick It', the party had a bonfire and good beer, I had hot chocolate and gummy bears at tourney central, and the weather was awesome.

M.U.T., made an appearance at M.i.U.T., Mike's injured ultimate team, as many of us were dealing with some rather big injuries. Ralph had some wrist thing wasn't supposed to throw, Seth had some shoulder thing and wasn't supposed to huck, Fishie also had a shoulder thing, Jersey and Socks had knee things, and Tyke had torn her ACL a few weeks prior and couldn't play at all. That didn't keep us from continuing to have fun though. I donned the penguin suit for the first time and time outs involved various forms of cuddling or games of chicken.

Oh yeah, and we won the tournament going away. I had seeded us 4th out of 16, behind the Dartmouth Alums and Dartmouth 07/08 teams that I thought would be our biggest competition. Unfortunately we didn't get to play either of them as they lost in bracket play, giving us a tough game against Enough Monkeys and their zone that we barely pulled out thanks to the handling skills of Mike and Socks. We went up big on UMass in the finals and spent our last few points trying to get the huck connection from Colin to Snitch completed, which we finally did, giving us M.U.T.'s first tournament win.

Months passed and most of us graduated and moved on, in my case I moved to Wisconsin. That didn't stop Tyke and I from flying out to meet up with Socks, Mike, Seth, Min, Ralph, and Fishie to play at Wildwood in July of 2007. This tournament saw the first ever M.U.T. jerseys and frequent trips to swim in the ocean between games. And of course we won again. Sort of. We went 6-0 and were about to play the finals when some people had to leave to catch flights, so those of us that remained finagled our way into a tie for first which involved Seth and a guy from the other team co-carrying the trophy and yelling in celebration. I think we got to keep that trophy though. Anyone know where it is? Do you have it Mike? You should. Our winning streak was again almost halted in the semis of Wildwood when we found ourselves down 2 with the hard cap on. Thankfully Wildwood has 2 point goals, so after the pull we worked the disc backwards into our end zone and Mike hit Seth for the 2 pointer to tie and force universe. Of course we scored on universe.

The bond of M.U.T. was so strong in the summer of 2008 that M.U.T. returned to play at Ow My Knee despite the fact that the team's namesake was unable to attend. Joining us this time were Min, Cabo, and Kell. The later two who showed up 2 hours late Saturday to much rejoicing as it upped our male roster from 6 to 8. Due to confusion with a Canadian mixed team called MUTT in the score reporter, M.U.T. came into the tournament seeded 25th of 32 teams. We tried to talk our way into a higher seed from the TD, but he wouldn't budge, leading to Mackey's phrase directed at the TD and any team we played that weekend "Just so you're not surprised... We're really good". Those were indeed prophetic words, as aside from another tight game with Enough Monkeys, we rolled our way into the semis, winning every game 13-5 or thereabouts. Unfortunately for me I hurt my knee in the first game on Saturday (oh the irony) and didn't play much. After a decently close game in the semis, we were playing 7 Express in finals and the game went to universe point with M.U.T. receiving. 7 Express was so concerned with Ralph cutting deep that two girls followed her under, leaving Fishie wide open to catch a huck from Seth and win the tournament on a 3 throw point. Celebration obviously consisted of a giant cuddle puddle.

M.U.T. Ultimate: A Three Part Series

Part 1: Origins

This series of posts concerns the creation, by one Mike Zargham, my roommate for 3 years at Dartmouth who not only is one of my best friends but also introduced me to a number of my other close friends, of Mike's Ultimate Team. During freshman and sophomore years at Dartmouth, while most of our Dartmouth teammates were getting to know each other, Mike was taking full advantage of the awesome ultimate social scene to get to know people on other college teams at hat tournaments, leagues, and tournament parties. Mike did such a great job of this that by sophomore summer he could assemble enough friends to form a team to attend a mixed tournament near his home town of Troy, NY, and thus was born M.U.T. in June of 2005 at Ow My Knee in Albany, NY.

The first incarnation of M.U.T. included representatives from Dartmouth, Cornell, Wellesley, Vermont, Chicago, and Amherst. Most of us were rising juniors, though some were rising sophomores or seniors. If memory serves me correctly we stumbled in our first game to a very beatable team, then lost to a good team, and then discovered we all knew how to run a sick 1-3-3 zone and hosed our next two opponents by at least 10 points each. Our first game Sunday was a similar romp, and then we lost by a respectable score in the quarters to eventual tourney champ and rising mixed power house Slow White. Equally important as our early success was the attitude we carried into our games. Everyone wore a skirt on Sunday. We played Twister during timeouts. We challenged our opponents to swords fights for the pull. We had hula hoops and a big stuffed dragon. It was more about fun than ultimate, we just happened to be good at ultimate too.

Members of that original M.U.T. team that were in attendance this past weekend at PADA MOSH include myself, Mike, Seth, Ralph, Tyke, and Fishie.

We had so much fun together that M.U.T. reconvened again that fall to play in Dartmouth's Frozen Disc of Death. I was at Geology Field Camp somewhere out west at the time so I wasn't there, but I believe results were similar with much fun being had and a similar .500 record.

With me back on campus in the winter of 2006 and dating a fellow member of M.U.T. (one of at least 7 current or former couples to be a part of M.U.T.), we pulled together a small crew to play in the indoor 4 Corners tournament in Burlington. I had completely forgotten about this until pulling my thoughts together to write on this subject, as my only memory of playing in this tournament was not doing well and getting really angry at myself for doing something stupid. But this event is important as it included an epic snowstorm drive to get to and from and marked both the first time Socks and Mackey played with M.U.T. and also the last time M.U.T. would lose a game until this past weekend in Philadelphia. Coincidence? Mackey will tell you it's not.

Lab

So I am a TA this semester, and I'm teaching intro to geology lab, i.e. Rocks for Jocks. I don't actually have any jocks in any of my 4 sections, but this did happen:

I was walking to lunch a week ago when I passed a booth set up outside an off campus bookstore/general store. There were a couple girls sitting behind a table and a few guys surrounding them and talking to them. Then I heard a girl's voice say, "hey, that's my lab instructor!"

I turned around and took off my sunglasses to look at the girl sitting at the table who had just spoken and I recognized her.
"Oh, yeah, I am your lab instructor," I said, walking up to the booth. "How's it going?"

"Good," she replied. It was at this time that the awkward outside of classroom student-teacher interaction feeling became overwhelming.

"So," I started to say, "what's with the-" I was going to say 'booth', but it was mid-sentence that I noticed the sign I was standing next to. It read

"Playboy Girls of the Pac-10 magazine signing. Meet the ASU playgirls!"

I looked at the sign. Then back at my student, sitting behind the table, pen in hand, with a guy waiting next to her holding the girls of the Pac-10 Playboy issue. I looked back at the sign. Then I looked back my student (or lab-ling, as I have taken to referring them).

"Oh," was all I managed to say.

She smiled, then asked "So, can I get an 'A' now?" A long awkward silence followed as I stood mouth slightly agape in awe of the awkwardness. Everyone in the area was starting at me, both girls, the guys waiting for autographs, and the girls' handlers/bodyguards.

"Uhhhhhhh, no comment," I said, and quickly walked away.

So yeah, I don't have any ASU athletes in my classes, but I do have a Playboy model. I think I win.

Road Trip Notes

I made it to Tempe last Sunday and am in the midst now of new graduate student orientation, unpacking, and climate shock. I knew it was going to be hot here, but I've dealt with hot before. I think it was the summer of 1998 in Oklahoma where we had 30 days in a row of 100 degree weather. But that doesn't even compare with the consistent heat of Tempe, and as always, it's the little things that get to you. Like the fact the cold tap water here is scalding. Makes sense when you think about it, but boy is it an inconvenience. If I want to drink cool water I have to make sure to keep water in the fridge, and to take a shower that's not hot, I have to wait 10 minutes for the water cool off. I still haven't touched the hot water knob on the shower.

The drive out here was nice. I stopped by the Guadalupe Mountains to say hi, and also stopped by Saguaro National Park to get the most out of the last month of my National Parks Pass. The visit to Saguaro led to one of the funnier conversations I've had with my parents recently:

Me: I'm probably going to stop by Saguaro National Park tomorrow
My Dad: Where's that?
Me: Near Tucson
My Dad: It is? I'm not seeing it on the map.
Me: Yeah, it's right in Tucson.
My Dad: That's odd, all I'm seeing is something called Sa-gu-ro.
Me: That's it Dad, it's pronounced "Sawaro".

Sigh.

I spent at least half my drive making it through Texas, which allowed me to observe the three annoying habits of Texas drivers:
1) Texas drivers rarely drive slow, but when they do, they make sure to do it in the farthest left lane available to them.
2) When you attempt to pass a Texas driver, it reminds them that no one is allowed to drive faster than they are, and they speed up to make sure you don't pass and then proceed to return to their preferred speed
3) The preferred vehicle for a Texas driver is a Dodge, Chevy, or Ford truck large enough to steamroll a Prius. The preferred passing location of a Texas driver in this type of
vehicle is a double yellow on an uphill.

Electric Peak

Finally finished the video about the 4th of July backpacking/skiing trip I went on.

My next 10 Days

Moving from Yellowstone to Arizona in a hurry, but making sure I use my National Parks pass in the process. New student orientation starts August 9th.

Monitor Peak

Monitor Peak is in Montana, a few miles north of Gardiner. It's prominently visible from Mammoth but is less noticeable than it's taller neighbor to the southwest, Sheep Mountain. I saw Monitor Peak every day pretty much the last two summers, but never really was aware of it until I realized there was a trail going all the way around it. In an 18 mile day I could hike up the southwest valley, around the north side of the peak, then down the eastern valley. It would be a short off trail tundra walk to the summit from a saddle to get amazing 360 views of the Absaroka Mountains.

Or so I thought. This isn't a common hike at all, so there's very little information about the mountain. So boy was I surprised when I got up to the tundra and saw that the very top of the peak looked like this:



I've never been so close to the top of the mountain only to turn back. I investigated the base of the summit block and found a way to start up.

Then I saw this:

and my ascent was over. I could probably have climbed up that, but I didn't like my odds of getting down. Definitely class 4, maybe 5.0, and I don't do that solo when the consequence of a fall is 40 feet of air to jagged rocks on the side of a mountain 8 miles from the nearest trailhead. I could've thrown a rock onto the summit from where I turned back.

Still, if the summit had been more accessible and I had made it to the top, this hike would've been much less of an adventure. It's one thing to go hiking and find great views and solitude, it is another to push yourself to a point where you find your limit, and return safely knowing you made the right decision. I enjoy mountains that I can climb, I respect mountains that I can't.

Wildlife

So Yellowstone is known as THE place in the country to see wildlife in its natural habitat, and last year I thought I was pretty lucky in terms of seeing stuff. Multiple grizzlies, a wolf pack, moose, etc.

Aside from the wolves, this summer summer has completely eclipsed last summer in terms of animals. The bears are especially out in force this year. I've seen multiple bears all four weekends I've been in the park so far, though luckily I've been able to continue my streak of never having seen a bear while on foot. A coyote while biking to Lone Star Geyser last summer is the only predator I've seen outside of my car.

I saw 3 grizzlies in one afternoon without even trying. On the day I went skiing in the Beartooths (i.e. not trying to see wildlife, just driving across the park) I saw elk, bull elk, bison, bighorn sheep, coyote, pronghorn, deer, marmot, pika, moose, 3 different black bears, and a grizzly bear. I even saw the grizzly chase one of the black bears.

My parents managed to see multiple bears both days they were in the park last week, again without really trying to see wildlife. They were either just driving to Mammoth or driving to the trailheads for our hikes. I've been taking advantage of finally having a camera with a working zoom lens. It even takes HD video, a feature I will be showing off in future posts with a couple ski videos I made.

In other news my job here continues to go well, and I am finally going to get paid tomorrow. The delay is because it took forever for my background check to go through. Actually, I still doubt it has, I only got cleared because I cleared the FBI criminal record check. So if you still have a form from the government asking about me, please say nice things and return it promptly.

Also went on a hike to Pine Creek Lake near Livingston this past weekend. One of my top five glacial valleys ever. The other four would probably be Zermatt, Cascade Canyon/Solitude Lake in the Tetons, Grinnell Glacier in Glacier National Park, and Cascade Lake in the Indian Peaks Wilderness near Boulder, CO.

Speaking of Top 5's, Electric Peak two weekends ago is probably in my top 5 favorite mountain climbs ever. Other 4 would be Longs Peak, Crestone Needle, Schwarzhorn near Grindelwald, Switzerland, and der Shlern in the Italian Dolomites.

I Must Be Crazy

To avoid the 4th of July crowds this weekend in Yellowstone I'm going on a backpacking trip with some co-workers to climb Electric Peak.

That's not the crazy part.

The crazy part is that while looking at the peak a few days ago I saw a large snowfield on the north face near the summit. I'm going to bring my skis and try to ski that thing. Meaning I'm hauling my gear 10 miles and 4,000 vertical to get there. That's the crazy part. We'll see how it goes. Best case scenario I get 1,000 vert of skiing in on the 4th of July.