At the Bottom Again

Well, I find myself once again at the bottom of the World. It's been a fun little trip, but I'm looking forward to heading home next week.

Christy Shultz is the new NOAA Corp officer at the Atmospheric Research Observatory and I've been working with her this austral summer in preparation for her upcoming winter season.
We did a couple of balloon launches which are always a little fun and excitement.

Then, on Wednesday, a C-17 flew over the South Pole to do an air drop. Sadly, the ice crystals and clouds in the air made the view of the airplane less than spectacular, but the halo and sun dogs were amazing. Some of the best I've seen here...
The C-17 which dropped 16,000 pounds of food near the South Pole.

Phish - Broomfield, CO 10/11/2010

Phish came to the 1st Bank Center just down the street from Boulder for a three night stand and I was one of the lucky people to get tickets to one of those nights. It was a pretty amazing show, and Shondia and I got closer than I have ever been for them. Only a handful of people stood between us and the band for the second set.
It was amazing to be so close and actually be able to watch their hands picking and slapping individual strings.
Sadly, my iPhone is a pretty poor substitute for a camera and these are the only images I even tried to take. How I wish I could get a pass to take my 5D to a show and patrol the outskirts of the stage...

Set 1:

Runaway Jim

Foam

Back on the Train

Wolfman's Brother

Reba

Halley's Comet

Tweezer

What Things Seem

The Squirming Coil

Run Like an Antelope

Set 2:

Golden Age

Piper

Camel Walk

Alaska

Gotta Jibboo

Wading in the Velvet Sea

Twist

Fluffhead

Backwards Down the Number Line

Encore:

Sleeping Monkey

Tweezer Reprise

October Climbing

It's been a warm October in Boulder so far and I was excited to go climbing in the canyon this weekend. I went up with Eric and did my first multi-pitch routes. It was extremely good to get back on the rock after so long. Just to get away from the hustle of people is a blessing. Halfway up I realized I had forgot my iPhone in my back pocket, so I was able to get this picture at the top while anchored to the wall.

Mount Audubon

Before I got all distracted by a forest fire raging in the foothills of Boulder, I had gone on a wonderful sunrise hike up Mount Audubon with my Uncle and a couple of people from work. Leaving the house at 4am, we headed up to Brainard Lake and began the hike under clear skies and bright stars. I did not have my camera at the time, but I managed to get a few pictures on other cameras and transfer them to my computer.

Reaching the saddle along the approach to the summit, we paused to eat breakfast and watch the sun climb above the horizon to greet the day.
Me on the summit at 13,221 feet, bracing myself against the wind.
Mount Audubon is situated East of the continental divide, and inside Indian Peaks Wilderness. To the North, in the picture above, is Rocky Mountain National Park and Longs Peak.
At the summit, we hunkered down for a while in one of the wind shelters built from the rubble composed peak and ate handfuls of trail mix and a power bar or two. In the back are the rugged peaks of Indian Peaks Wilderness, and Caribou Lake, where Shondia and I had backpacked several weeks earlier.
Indian Peaks Wilderness from the summit of Mount Audobon.

Looking back up at the summit on the way down. Mount Audubon is a fairly easy hike and a good place to get a view of the land and plan future summits.

Fire Day 2

The Fourmile Canyon Fire is still going. They have estimated that it will take another ten days before they are able to contain the blaze. I was doing a balloon launch on Tuesday and had some time to take pictures of the helicopter flying back and forth to the foothills. I also got a couple of pictures from the parking lot at work which show just how close and visible the blaze is to town.

The helicopter which will use the hose to fill up at the reservoirs before flying over to fight the fire.
The view of the foothills from the parking lot at work. A few pockets made their way in to view and black clouds lifted to mingle with the general haze of the fire.

And then I just had a few other pictures from the first night: 9/6/2010

View from Space

A NASA image of the fire yesterday at the start of the blaze.

Four Mile Canyon Fire

The foothills of Boulder are on fire tonight. The blaze is pretty bad and heading towards a lot of people's houses. Thankfully the winds have finally died down. Hopefully we can get this thing contained, but I'm pretty sure it's going to be very bad. This morning, upon seeing the dark plume of smoke crossing the sky, I had the same feeling I had the day I heard about the oil rig sinking in the gulf. I hope this doesn't turn out the same way. It makes me sad though to see the forest going up in flames.
These pictures are from the Flagstaff Road Lookout. I am looking Northwest toward Boulder Canyon. Four Mile Canyon leads north from the canyon road.