Two Feet & A Heartbeat:

Sunday, May 15, 2022

4/30/22: I broke my leg

Brooks and I made a quick trip to Juneau to celebrate Brett’s 40th bday! He and Yvonne had an action-packed birthday weekend planned for anyone who wanted to come with. I wrote sub plans for Thursday & Friday and we took off early Thursday morning.

As soon as we landed, we grabbed Jared & Kelly’s car (thank you!) and hit Fred Meyer’s for lunch and groceries for Thursday night at Dan Moeller cabin & ski snacks. We ate lunch down by the whale as the weather was amazing!

The day skinning up to the cabin and then getting a few runs in before dinner was magical. We had been in Juneau to ski in December, but having bluebird weather to see forever was a nice welcome back to southeast. Brooks and Jordan decided to test slope stability and had an “exciting” run each while the rest of us skied some chunder. That was enough for one day. Being at Dan Moeller sure made me miss frizzle. The snow level was up to the balcony on the second floor! It was amazing!

Happy Birthday, Brett!

We skied again on Friday, and the snowboarders decided to take the long way out down Troy to Eaglecrest while Adrienne, Yvonne, and I skied out a ton of camp gear back to the cars and drove around the other side.

Yvonne and I went to the beach to kill time

Britta and Zane hosted dinner up at Crow’s Nest that night; what a stunning view they have! We were lucky enough to stay with them during the trip. Their home felt like a museum! I wanted to inspect each item and hear the story—next visit!

On the deck at the Crow's Nest

Saturday morning we arrived early at Northstar Helicopters for a quick ride to the top of Sheep Mountain and a ski all day! The ride up was gorgeous, but once both loads arrived, it was clear that the snowcrust was going to be an issue—about an inch thick and needed time to soften up. We decided to get off the summit and wait for softening just a bit lower.

Literally moments before I broke my leg

I went real slow, because the crust was nasty and I didn’t want to injure myself. Best laid plans. Next thing I knew, my right ski popped off and I felt incredible pain on the inner left knee and outside of left ankle. I knew something was wrong. Brooks also knew, I had just unclipped from my backpack and he was at my side. He helped me stand and try to clip back in. My right foot clipped in fine, but trying to slam my left heel in, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to ski out.

Slowly, I felt more and more pain in my ankle as I moved it and my toes. People around me started talking about calling back a helicopter. Brett, birthday boy, had the group BEAM me over to a flat spot where I waited for the heli to return. And though I tried to talk B into staying and skiing, knowing my gas foot still worked, he refused and declared “Ride together, die together, Baby!”

BEAM me over, Brett!

Brooks and I are in that heli... bye, bye, skiing.

The heli ride down was just as beautiful and honestly if I didn’t move anything, my pain was minimal—I fully enjoyed that heli ride out. :)

As we landed an attendant had a wheelchair ready and they took me to our car and we headed to Bartlett ER. They had me in a room before B had even parked the car. The removal of the boot was not nearly as painful as I had anticipated (not their first rodeo) and they brought in an X-ray machine right there in the room!

Broken Fibula.

Boot off and starting to swell

It was determined that I had broken my fibula and sprained my MCL. I was told to RICE, and not work for a while, and check in with Orthopedic Surgeon. Brooks nursed me for the next 24 hours on Jordan’s couch before we had to head home.

New boot on and ready to head home

This was my spot for 24 hours on Jordan's couch

I have a really good nursemaid.

The flight home, Alaska Air took amazing care of me, putting me in a row with an open seat so I could elevate and ice my leg and wheeling me everywhere!

Orange voile strap: CAUTION!
Blue voile strap: keeps ice on the break

Agh, skiing injuries.

Saturday, May 14, 2022

Patrol Race: March 2022

I first heard of the patrol race our first year in Seattle while researching backcountry skiing. Later that first winter, BCAG held a women’s ski night where professional women in the industry presented and did Q&A. That night, I met a woman who wasn’t a whole lot different from me—similar build and similar age—who said she was participating in the Patrol Race that winter. Immediately, I thought, “if she can, so can I!”

However, after ski huts and COVID no longer interferes with scheduling, I threw my name in the hat for the race, a team race, along with Brooks and neighbor Genevieve. Like many things in lower 48s, because there is so much interest, there is a lottery, and it must have been, as Brooks declares, Lindsey Luck at work because we pulled it!

Once I informed Brooks we were in, he officially started doing his homework. I showed him the map and the routes, and so we set out to attempt the first half and get a sense of the course. But by mile 6, Brooks had officially declared that a ski race with little downhill was non-ideal for his split board setup. He put himself down as “support squad” and the search was on for a replacement team member. Genevieve and I didn’t have to look far: friend Colin was game!

We met the Tuesday night prior to the race and reviewed the course once more, defined roles for QR code scanner and navigator, & discussed gear and meeting time. We were set!

Friday night, Genevieve stayed in the camper with myself and Brooks as we camped up by Hyak for our early 6am start! The 5am alarm clock came too soon. After a quick brekkie and dressing, we navigated ourselves to Snoqualmie Summit to meet up with Colin who drove up that night. Brooks waved us off, planning to meet us at the end as we ascended the ski hill, headlamps fully illuminated.

As we entered the woods, we quickly learned that this was going to be a huge race in parts! We were sliding and falling in parts, but the trail was easy to see and navigation was not nearly the bear Brooks and I had experienced months prior.

At mile 4, I had my first gear issue: my rear skin clip had ripped out of my skin! I had this issue months earlier and purchased a kit to grommet in a new clip—it was this new grommeted clip that tore out! And not only that, but this skin was so wet from the snow, it was acting like a limp noodle. It took some surgical slits, duct tape, and three well-placed voile straps to keep my skin on, and from that point on, my right foot would not do much gliding. Instead, it was glide, step, glide, step, etc.

At mile 10, my second skin’s adherence failed! These were Contour skins! Highly rated and expensive and less than two years old! I’d NEVER had an issue until today…

We had to make it to the final checkpoint by 3pm and it was 2:55! All my downhill skin skiing was slowed tremendously by my skin issues, so Genevieve suggested we rip skins to make it! We flew down the hillside and into the checkpoint just in time! I also realized in that downhill, that my binding had loosened and my ski wouldn’t lock in! It was insane how many gear issues I was having!

We had a few more miles of skiing left and really our 2nd or 3rd decent downhill in all of 20 miles, down into meany lodge run by the Mountaineers. Brooks was there to greet us, share a warm meal, get the snow-machine-tow to the truck, and drive us back to Snoqualmie. He was also the ONLY spectator at the finish! What a guy.

In reflection, this was my longest mileage ever: 20 miles; I had done an 18-mile day on a hunting trip carrying out camp previous to this. This was hard for so many reasons, but also totally doable! Am I glad I did it: Yea! Would I do it again: I’d want a 20-mile route with more downhill. :)

(Full transparency; B just posted his Patrol Race blog post so I figured it was time to take this one out of Draft form, finish, and publish.

Sunday, June 14, 2020

Black Lives Matter

I’m trying to understand and I’m starting to put in the work to understand

I’ve transferred my money away from Wells Fargo
I donated to Standing Rock
I’m reading “Black Faces, White Spaces” for an online book group of women hunters
I’m reading “The New Jim Crow” for my in-town bookclub
Billings is buying us two books for a school-based bookclub
I marched in Seattle during the silent protest on Friday, June12th.
I’m joining groups to discuss anti-racism, I’m following Black leaders, I’m on listservs of multiple Black-led groups.
Like I said, I’m putting in the work to understand how to be an ally.

Monday, April 6, 2020

Quarantine Korean Cooking

One of the last days we were able to checkout brooks from Seattle Public Libraries, Brooks and I visited and I went immediately to the cookbook aisle. I grabbed two books on Korean cooking, one I'd read before ("Koreatown") and one new one, "Seoul Food".

I checked out "Koreatown" from Juneau Public Library before we sold the house and moved into 1-bedroom rental

While Brooks was out of town skiing at Crystal, I stayed home and reviewed the cookbook while chowing down on bbqd raddicio, something I knew Brooks wouldn't love as much as I would:

New recipe to eat while I search for new recipes to cook... and a little NPR spotify playlist

Once Brooks returned, the Korean cooking commenced! A lot of these recipes call for 1 day for marinade flavors to meld and then two days with the meat in the marinade. We also had to take a trip to Uwajimaya for some traditional flavors! I went in with gloves and face mask and when I returned, Brooks met me with hand-sani and Clorox wipes to wipe it all down with. (Those of you feminist friends out there, before you get irritated that I went in and Brooks didn't go with me, let me just remind you how much LESS you purchase when you don't have your man tossing bags of candy in the cart AND how much faster shopping is...)

Notice the gloved hand--needed Brooks' approval before purchasing his rice topping

Brooks loves his Tamaki Gold rice and because rice is flying off the shelves lately, all they had was a 50# bag... check out our pantry!

That's what a 50# bag of rice looks like, friends, just like a bag 50# bag of dog food...

We started with tried-and-true Bulgogi. We made this before in Juneau when I checked out this book. This time we used an elk flank (pretty sure we used Elk brisket in Juneau because I remember not liking the chewiness of it... yes, I'm particular).

We're out of bbq gas, so we used the inside grill-mark pan and sauteed some bok choy
Brooks is the grillmaster!

Dinner!

Koreatown recipe for Bulgogi

Hank Shaw's Buck, Buck, Moose also has a Bulgogi recipe that's delish as well as a Korean BBQ sauce on his website. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention him as his cookbook really opened the world of cooking red meat for me.

Then we moved on to Kalbi. First, we made the marinade. Then we did the meatball recipe as it took fewer days to marinate.

Koreatown Recipe for Kalbi meatballs. Unfortunately, we did not get photos of our plates or the cooking process... like I said, only my selfie camera is working so I'm relying lately on Brooks for all my photos.

Then we moved on to Kalbi meat. Now, this is usually served with ribs, but we don't do ribs, ask Brooks why--funny story, well, several of them. So, we again used flank. Much sweeter marinade (lots of fruit: Pineapple, pears, and apples, oh my!) than bulgogi.

Koreatown's Kalbi recipe

Kalbi! Yum! We did lettuce wraps for everything!

It's been a fun adventure! Last night we did two recipes from Cook's Illustrated from the magazine that came in the mail. Brooks came in as sous chef just at the crux! We made Salade Lyonnaise and Banh Xeo, aka Sizzling Vietnamese Crepes. No portk or shrimp in our crepes; I substituted mushrooms we had in the fridge that needed to be eaten. Not quite Korean, but Italian & Vietnamese so we're still traveling with our culinary destinations.

What have you been cooking?

Friday, March 6, 2020

Valkyr Week! February 2020

Heli into Valkyr Lodge, photo by Jacob

Brooks organized a week at Valkyr Lodge with 10 friends from Juneau this past February and we had an amazing time! Last year, friends Meredith & Jason organized a week at Meadow Lodge, which wetted our interest in these activities. Last year we had a great time with each couple serving a dinner and a breakfast to the group, a wet sauna, and a maintenance man to keep it all going in the dry cabin sans electricity.

Some ladies stuff bras with TP, I stuff my jacket with skins. Photo by Yvonne

THIS YEAR, we got spoiled. First, we had a cook who catered all our meals and our group's many dietary restrictions: Rory. She was a 50+ blue-collar spitfire! On day 1 she gave us our two touring group radio handles: Twat Waddles & the Douche Canoes. Amazing. She cooked up storms of food every breakfast, apre ski, dinners, and desserts every night! We packed cold lunches, but she put out an amazing spread, including the best brownies on the planet. Best. Brownies. They were so rich, one brownie would last you all day. She even gave me the recipe because I continually complimented her on her brownies!

The cabin, photo by Kevin

The sunset sauna, photo by Brooks

In addition to a cook, we had another great maintenance man: Reagan. A very nice young man. We also had ELECTRICITY and RUNNING WATER! That meant we had showers, sinks, and toilets! No pee hole in the snow for us this year (which translated into no pee birds... sorry trade-off). Our sauna was a dry sauna, unfortunately, but it was still incredible to get hot, hot, hot! Yvonne even talked me into jumping in the snow once we got overly hot. Yvonne is a lot of fun.

The weather was amazing! It snowed enough on days 1 & 2 that it filled in previous group's tracks and then we had bluebird skies up until we left!