Haiku-a-Day Challenge: Week 33

[Insert hilarious comment here]

Caturday 2/18/2012
A short nature walk
gets me amped up for card games
Pogo: greatest cat

Sunday 2/19/2012
More cozy card games
and a jaunt up Mt. Philo
Ultra-relaxing

Monday 2/20/2012
Happy birthday Mom!
But I'm still up in Vermont
Trying all the jams

Tuesday 2/21/2012
Mardi Gras! Let's drink!
Underbones is a great spot
Marching band hijinks

Wednesday 2/22/2012
Nothing but thesis
Oh man, these days are the worst
I want to be done

Thursday 2/23/2012
Ran my third 5K
I should always drink beer first
It helps me do well

Friday 2/24/2012
Driving to Malvern
A weekend with my parents
and insane puppy

Haiku-a-Day Challenge: Week 32

It is SO EFFING COLD and this stupid cast prevents me from wearing actual winter coats or gloves and that makes me a very complainy individual.

Caturday 2/11/2012
Lazy day inside
Some movies and Game of Thrones
Casual car bombs

Sunday 2/12/2012
We tried our new beer
It's taste surpasses it's name!
"Imperial Shit"

Monday 2/13/2012
Hand stitches: you suck
But some of you were removed!
A slight improvement

Tuesday 2/14/2012
It's Valentine's Day
Steak tips, mango turnovers,
and some homemade beer

Wednesday 2/15/2012
Today I just ate
a whole box of Andes Mints.
The entire thing.

Thursday 2/16/2012
Delicious Zak-luck
Choice foods for the birthday boy
Ice cream cake?! Well done.

Friday 2/17/2012
Driving to Vermont
Magic Hat is excellent
Burlington is... small.

Haiku-a-Day Challenge: Week 31

Typing is not easy

Caturday 2/4/2012
Davis Square pub crawl
Dick Cat is drawn on my cast
Top hats class it up

Sunday 2/5/2012
Celebration food
Superbowl AND my birthday
X and I get cakes

Monday 2/6/2012
Boy I hate Mondays.
They make me so steamed. Weekends!
I prefer weekends!
*oh oh-oh oh-oh OH!
**That one's for you, Kyle/Rystot

Tuesday 2/7/2012
More thesis bullshit
I wish this model would work
Lord Hobo*, beer me!
*Lord Hobo is not actually a leader of drifters. It is a bar with an awesome beer selection.

Wednesday 2/8/2012
Surgery, thesis
I need to have travel times
Let's go buy some flights

Thursday 2/9/2012
"Things you love to eat"
Interesting potluck theme
Green bean casserole

Friday 2/10/2012
Game of Thrones BOARD GAME?!
This is quite complicated
But insanely fun

Haiku-a-Day Challenge: Week 30

I was recently informed that through amazon you can publish your own stuff. Interesting...

Caturday 1/28/2012
I broke my finger
Freak flag football accident
My tendon snapped off?

Sunday 1/29/2012
Fuck fingers; let's hike
Isolation: you long bitch
Snowshoeing till dusk

Monday 1/30/2012
Saw the hand doctor
Yep. Surgery tomorrow.
Time for a hoagie

Tuesday 1/31/2012
Hand surgery day
It's more waiting than cutting
They drilled through my nail

Post-surgery, semi-delirious picture. Nothing much to see... yet.

Wednesday 2/1/2012
And I'm back at Tufts
Typing is quite difficult
Cat pictures all day

Thursday 2/2/2012
Tendons are the worst
They just snap when grabbing things?
Nothing is easy

Friday 2/3/2012
Shit is getting cold
My new cast is way too big
Doesn't fit in coats

Broken finger? Who cares. Let's hike.

After a tendon-snapping injury to my finger in flag football Saturday, I was in no mood to sit around brooding all day. So Sarah and I drove up to NH to hike Mt. Isolation.

Pretty good view of the Prezzies from Isolation

Kind of a late start, getting up to the trailhead at 9am. Oh well. But this was my first time driving something other than 93 to get to the Whites, so it was a grand adventure filled with new gas stations, and later at night, BBQ.

It was a damn fine day for snowshoein'. Damn fine. Well, we started in microspikes, but later switched because we were sinking into the snow. When we first got there, a huge group of people about to start the trail were like "we're not bringing snowshoes; everything is packed down." Ok. Big mistake. I'm glad we brought ours, because when we passed them on the way back down, they were attending strugglefest 2012. Except one guy in that group impressed the hell out of me. A blind guy, hiking up the mountain, being led by his seeing-eye dog and another dude leading him with a pole. THAT was a humbling experience. Way to go dude. So impressive. And to have friends with the patience to help lead him up. They weren't going so fast though; there's no way they got up and down before it got dark out. I felt bad for them. But damn is that impressive.

The hike was something like 14 miles round trip. Long, but relatively flat. The bad part about doing it in the winter: carrying so much gear got a little exhausting. The good part: all the river crossings were MUCH easier.

This is me hiking over a river. Normalsauce.

As my 25th 4000 footer peak thus far, it is currently competing with my least favorite hike along with Waumbek. Probably a combination of length, hurty ankle, and an torn hand tendon. But the view at the top makes it WAY better.

It is a pretty awesome feeling when you take a random picture and later realize you've hiked all the mountains in the background before

The most important part of this hike is the sheer intensity of pink shooting out of Sarah's gators and burning into my retinas

It felt like a BILLION MILES back to the car, but was probably only 7. Still, the Sun had already set and it was getting darker by the time we made it back, exhausted with achy knees. And ravenous. We had some fantastic BBQ at a place on Rt. 16. Best part of the day.

Haiku-a-Day Challenge: Week 29

I'm writing a haiku whenever I get bored while working on my thesis. There might be creativity issues with that strategy.

Caturday 1/21/2012
Need to be active
I think I'll try rock climbing
Plans tonight... wait no

Sunday 1/22/2012
Cross-country skiing
An interesting hobby
Today's football sucked

Monday 1/23/2012
Searched temperature
dependent material
properties today

Tuesday 1/24/2012
Making some more beer
Chocolate* hazelnut brown ale
Things are smelling good
I don't know if chocolate has 2 or 3 syllables, but I say it with only 2, so that's what we're going with. No need to bring science into it.

Wednesday 1/25/2012
At Tufts all day long
Then a break for some dodgeball
Back at Tufts all night

Thursday 1/26/2012
NATIONAL VEST DAY!!!
It has finally arrived!
vest vest vest vest vest

This might be one of the best pictures ever taken

9/3 created a vest-themed gang

Double Vesting: never a bad choice

Friday 1/27/2012
Go sake bombing
A choice that you shan't regret
Until the next day

Haiku-a-Day Chalenge: Week 28

There might be some mention of thesis from now on, as it will most likely take over my life.

Caturday 1/14/2012
First time snowshoeing
The Kinsmans were a bit steep
Running down snow hills

Sunday 1/15/2012
Negative fifteen
Skiing Cannon: very cold
Frozen goggles suck

Monday 1/16/2012
Snowshoeing up Hale
Met some great peeps: bushwacked down
Snow-venture success

Tuesday 1/17/2012
Tufts full time: day one
Got some shit done, decent start
It's a MathCAD day

Wednesday 1/18/2012
A long thesis day
Followed by superb dodgeball
We're not too shabby

Thursday 1/19/2012
Excruciating day
This mesh is pissing me off
At least potluck ruled

Friday 1/20/2012
Night of the Cool Cats
Start with pong, end with... something?
We had a few beers

Epic Loj Snow-venture

I wrote some journal-type stuff whilst away at the Tufts Loj in NH for the long weekend, so I shall transcribe it for the people of the interwebs (especially my loyal followers in China).

1/14/12
Since I've decided to do the 48 4000 footers in the NH White Mountains, I've been making a lot of trips to the Tufts Loj. Also, my ankle injury last fall (where I tore most of the tendons in my left ankle playing... sports) has finally healed. In order to make up for lost time, I've been all about hiking in the past few months. This is my third weekend in a row up here hiking the 48. Sarah, Katie, and Michelle have been hiking a lot with me this winter. There have been microspike excitement-times, interesting people we've met, and great views.
Last night was the standard "get all the beers and have partytimes" night. Kings with snuggies was a natural product of such an evening.
Today, Katie "I already hiked all the mountains but whatevs, I'll do them all again" Rizzolo, Ryan "Weaksauce" Jacobs, and Sterling "I just met you but you're cool, sorry I can't remember your last name right now" Lastname (in the journal I call him "a new friend-gentleman named Sterling") hiked North and South Kinsman. Twas my first snowshoe hike, and it was damn fun. We started at maybe 8:30 after renting some snowshoes, starting from the Lafayette Campground parking lot. It was ass-freezingly cold though. Like, fuck. Three fucking degrees at the summit.

I am le tired

Snowshoeing ALL the mountains

But snowshoeing was fun. I got a huge bruise from the front of it slamming into my shin. No worries. The top of the mountains was a bit ping-pong ball-ish, so view was sporadic. But it was great when you could see. The whole hike obviously looked like Skyrim.

Am I doing it right?

Guest entry by Katherine D. Rizzolo:
Guest entry! Yeah! I suspect [Chris] is letting me write in this b/c he wants to analyze my handwriting for the raptor-postcard mystery. Anyway, addendums to the above: FUCK YEAH SNOWSHOES. . Also like, I love the Loj all the time but it's cozy as shit in the winter. Straight up adorbs. I'm super pumped/grateful that I have the ability to be here, and also that I've found peeps who love weird outdoor adventures like me. So that's cool. Also Chris, you're cool. kbai.

Awwwwwwwwwww. Anyway, it's now time to hang out, drink growlers, and get ready for the rest of the adventure: skiing tomorrow and hiking Monday. Heading to Woodstock Inn tonight to watch some playoff games and drink some beers. And then do some star-gazing, because those things are out of control tonight. Oh Loj. You cozy motherfucker.

Alissa, Rob, and random dude passed out in the middle of a noisy Loj, so we started stacking random items on them. Things to note: jenga stacked on Alissa's head, hammer, and guitar.

1/15/12
We just got back from skiing at Cannon. Negative 15 degrees at the summit. What. The. Fuck. So cold. But at least we were layered well and had the right gear(ish). My goggles were fogging up early, which led to IMMEDIATE freezing, so I was at a lack of vision for a lot of the runs. So I went to the lodge for some expensive-as-fuck fries and hot chocolate. Then I took the chair lifts all the way to the summit (alone, since my optics issues had me duck out early). I walked up to the lookout deck - great view, but that was the coldest, windiest piss I think I've ever taken. Worth it. By the time I walked back to the slopes, my goggles were once again entirely frozen over, resulting in nothing more than a useless, blinding weight in front of my eyes. This led to an interesting and nauseating ski to the lodge again (I had to go cross-eyed to see out of the only non-frozen portion of the goggles).
There, I met up with everyone again and had a great, full-vision rest of the day. It was a great day to go skiing; the extreme cold prevented a lot of people from showing up, so there were no lift lines. We had a few great runs, and a few great wipe-outs. Good times.
The only downsides were most of us getting early onset frostbite warnings on our faces. Oh also, the snow machines were running in the morning. Skiing through a cloud of man-made snow is absolutely terrifying. Think of your worst zombie nightmare. The levels of panic are similar. I couldn't even see the tips of my skis: the visibility was that bad. Alissa was 10 feet in front of me, but was only a silhouette. And I fell when I tried to ski over to her because I was lost in space and time and apparently was facing up the mountain somehow. I could have easily skied into a tree or over a cliff - it was awesome in theory, but kind of scary to experience. Thankfully, there were no zombies.
But most people are headed home tonight, just me and Michelle staying to continue our adventure hiking tomorrow. Time to chill the fuck out, eat some spicy soup, and read some Game of Thrones books.

1/16/12
Michelle and I snowshoe/hiked Hale today. INTERESTING SHIT HAPPENED. The access road was closed, so we snowshoed 2.5 miles to the trailhead. It was only 2.2 miles to the summit, but a continuous uphill with no breaks.

I know that you are probably thinking this is a screenshot of me playing Skyrim, but I can assure you that this is planet Earth

Some great views of the Prezzies along the way. The summit was pretty cool: some decent views and not too cold. No wind, thankfully.

Hale was my 24th 4000 footer! Halfway there.

We met a retired couple at the top, Bill and Diane. We made fast friends and they told us a way down with better views and a nicer hike, so we took that opportunity, chatting it up the entire way. It's amazing the caliber of people you meet while hiking: everyone is so ridiculously friendly, and it is very doubtful that they are insane murderers. So they took us down their trail, which is mostly bushwacking to another, shorter, less steep trail in a clear birch forest with an incredible view of Washington.

Washington is probably a bit harder to hike now that it is entirely covered in ice

Bill was telling us how he had a snow sliding accident in which he smashed his ankle into a tree and shattered it. We also discussed turtles.
Those people are nuts about White Mountain hiking; they've done the 48 a ton of times, and are currently working on their "grid." A Grid is where you do each of the 48 inside a MONTH. And you do this for EVERY MONTH OF THE CALENDAR YEAR. And I thought inside a year was badass. Fuck. I can't wait for retirement...
They drove us back to our car from the shortcut trailhead. Such a great turn of events. I love opportunities to learn new hiking tricks. Definitely a good end to an amazing weekend.

Haiku-a-Day Challenge: Week 27

Well well well, looks like I'm over halfway done this little challenge. I should probably throw a "haiku party" once I finish.

Caturday 1/7/2012
Hiking two mountains
I will be sore tomorrow
But awesome today

Sunday 1/8/2012
Shipyard Applehead
Thanks for the birthday, Andrew
Now I'll laze all day

Monday 1/9/2012
Time to step it up
It's nearly thesis o'clock
Getting some work done

Tuesday 1/10/2012
Fun thesis meeting
My temperatures are right?
If so, that's bad news

Wednesday 1/11/2012
Thesis forever
At least tonight is dodgeball
We're tie-dye ninjas

Thursday 1/12/2012
Saw Kyle and Ryan
Rocked out to some Econ-Folk
And then vodka shots

Some yidel-didel from Rystot and Kylie Bear

Friday 1/13/2012
Snowy Lojventure
Woodstock Inn growlers and Kings
to start the weekend

Don't ask me what's happening because I can't help you there

Two More Mountains... On Opposite Sides of the State (well kinda)

UPDATE: super secret hiking pictures are here.

A gorgeous 50-degree day in Boston. In the middle of January. Probably just the Earth making a statement to anti-global-warming people: "are you guys fucking serious?" Anyway, Sarah and I decided to make the most of the weather, so we hiked a couple of mountains on Saturday.

It was a pretty tame night at the Tufts Loj; just played a couple two-person drinking games. Then we woke up bright and early and drove to almost-Vermont to hike two mountains: Starr King and Waumbek (only Waumbek counts as a White Mountains 4000 footer).

This is called "snow." It is something most Bostonians haven't seen for a long, long time.

Only 6.4ish miles round trip (out and back), but it looked like Skyrim the entire way. Starr King had a "kinda-view" of a snow-capped mountain range farther off, so I'll take it. Also, it had a fireplace and chimney of sorts? I assume to light one of the beacons to warn Rohan or Gondor of an impending attack. We continued another mile to summit Waumbek: completely viewless, but it was a fun hike.

The summit is around here somewhere. Now where did I put that damn summit...

The entire trail was a constant, easy-moderate uphill, so it only took us maybe 4 hours total. We started out pretty early, but started seeing more and more people on the trail as we continued down, including a few dogs wearing snow-booties. Probably not as effective as our microspikes, but WAY more adorbs.

I think the mountain range behind us is the "Misty Mountains," known for their vast number of goblin inhabitants

It was only 11:30 and we figured we had time for another mountain, so we drove over to Tecumseh. This is a 5-mile round trip out and back hike. It's basically a straight shot to the summit with a small loop at the top. It's so close to Waterville Valley that you could probably spit on the skiers there (I recommend not doing this). It was a constant, moderate uphill the entire way. We were able to beast it up thanks to the microspikes (seriously, I friggn love those things), see a little bit of a view at the top, and then literally run down the mountain in 2 hours and 15 minutes.

Tecumseh has a view! In THAT direction!

Sarah attempts to slide down the mountain on her jacket. Maybe next time...

Haiku-a-Day Challenge: Week 26

Mo years mo problems

Caturday 12/31/2011
New Years Eve party
Kylie-bear comes to Boston
Had Schnapps at Sarah's

Sunday 1/1/2012
My head's exploding
Ball Square Cafe is the cure
Let's go to the Loj!

Monday 1/2/2012
Hiking four mountains
Microspikes: you are the best
Now I run on ice

Tuesday 1/3/2012
Transient model
A bit of work in two weeks
Time to get moving

Wednesday 1/4/2012
Delicious bacon
Cajun taste helps dodgeball skillz
Nine out of ten wins

Thursday 1/5/2012
Potluck experiments
Crazy potato wedges
Inspired cuisine

Friday 1/6/2012
Loj times going down
Some snow hiking tomorrow
Better get cozy!

Haiku-a-Day Challenge: Week 25

I found that the first thing I do when reading other peoples' haikus is to count syllables.

Caturday 12/24/2011
Christmas Eve party
Buff chick dip and alcohol
The Christmas spirit

Sunday 12/25/2011
Why, it's Christmas Day!
A new backpack! Thanks Santa!
Christmas night bar run

Monday 12/26/2011
Relaxing, reading
Is this what "free time" feels like?
Not bad once a year

Tuesday 12/27/2011
Movie with mother
Last night out in West Chester
Severe hangover

Wednesday 12/28/2011
Drive back to Boston
Of course: stopping at Wawa
Sushi with Sarah

Thursday 12/29/2011
Back to work today
New calendar from Deright
Year of the dragon!

Friday 12/30/2011
Working half a day
Harpoon tour the other half
Beer crawl adventure

Microspikes: you have saved my life

This hike would not have been possible without microspikes. I owe the inventor of this fantastic hiking apparatus a sack full of gold. I'm not sure where I'm going to obtain this sack of gold, but it's happening.
Update: I have put pictures here and they will KNOCK YOUR FUCKING SOCKS OFF.

I think it's safe to say that this adventure started the morning of New Years day. My head was teaching me a very harsh lesson about the dangers of consuming alcohol, but after a hearty brunch at 3pm, I was ready for something awesome. A bunch of people had off work the following day, so I suggested we go up to the Tufts Loj that night and then hike. It turns out that Katie Rizzolo simultaneously had the exact same idea, and Michelle merrily joined our rag-tag group of immortals for the first Loj adventure of 2012. There were a few others staying at the Loj that night with the intentions of "skiing" the next day. I'm not sure how much snow there was for them to ski on, but I'll be damned if they didn't try.
The hike we decided on was a 10 mile trek traversing 4 mountains: Tom, Willey, Field, and Avalon (which isn't one of the 48 4000-footers, but it had the best viewing point of all the mountains). The first 1.5 miles (and incidentally the last 1.5, since we retrace the same part of the hike back to the parking lot) was just a solid brick of ice. I guess it had been slushy and then froze overnight to the point in which it was a slippery death-trap. Fortunately, all three of us had microspikes, which saved the day. Holy crap, they were awesome: you can RUN on the ice. We actually hiked faster than if there were no snow/ice at all. I felt like I could walk up a vertical wall of ice with these things. And I certainly intend to try.
The hike was a lot of fun, especially with all the snow. Everything looked like Skyrim.

There are HERDS of Moose in that field of snow-covered trees. Somewhere...

Tom was the first mountain. You leave the main trail for about half a mile in order to summit, and then back down. An adorbs wild bird PERCHED ON MY FUCKING HAND. This mountain is almost too magical to handle.
The next was Willey. It had a great view of the Washington Hotel and surrounding area.

Everything the light touches is yours. ESPECIALLY the Washington Hotel.

This mountain also had a bonus feature: AWESOME DOGS. So that was great. But we had to keep moving because shit was getting cold and we had moar mountains to conquer. We summited Field next - another great view of the Presidential Ridge. I didn't remember it looking so Skyrim-y before, but it definitely does now.

I kept drinking water the entire time: not because I was thirsty, but to prevent the camelback hose from freezing

Lastly, we went back a different route to go over Avalon Mountain. It was way smaller than the other three, but had the best view by far. I guess the only thing left for me to do was claim my territory:

Literally the only time I write in cursive

Recap: snow hiking is fun, microspikes are God's greatest gift to Mankind, peeing is funny

Haiku-a-Day Challenge: Week 24

The heat in my office is not turned on for whatever reason and I'm typing this while wearing gloves. This is normal.

Caturday 12/17/2011
Biodome! Monkeys!
No more poutine: it kills me
Long pub-crawling day

Sunday 12/18/2011
McDonald's last night?
Bad post-drinking decisions
Bye-bye Montreal

Monday 12/19/2011
Kate Cilke potluck
So many good foods to eat
Bangers in the mouth

Tuesday 12/20/2011
Researching thesis
Material properties
Great chinese food night

Wednesday 12/21/2011
Last work day this week
Then it's rage time in Central
P.R. darts and beer

Thursday 12/22/2011

I'm back in the 'vern
Sang Total Eclipse with Geoff
Bar shuffleboard: win

Friday 12/23/2011
West Chester bar time
Birthday for Tassi Sat Ba (sp?)
First trip to Wawa

I hiked some mountains and my ankle didn't snap in half

Before I start hurling awesome adventurefest memories at you and pummeling you with superlatives, let me first make a few comments. That's actually less of a request and more of a "hey, shut up for a second because I'm going to say some semi-related stuffs."

After tearing nearly every ligament in my ankle, I spent a few months stomping around in a horrific-smelling boot and working through PT and can now say that my ankle is doing ok. I can at least hike and play flag football, so: good enough for now. But sitting on the sidelines for over two months was enough to make me want to increase my adventure rate 300%. It was kind of like one of those near-death experiences where people go out and live life to the fullest after almost dying. Except for my foot. The week after I was cleared in PT (actually, it was a week before, but whatever, everything worked out), I hiked 3 days within an 8-day time period. It was great and my ankle didn't explode, so good news there.

Finally, I'm physically capable of returning to my "I want to go do ALL the things" mentality, and as such became more interested in completing the White Mountain 4000 foot challenge. This is where you hike all 48 mountains above 4000 ft in the White Mountain range in NH. My friend Katie aggressively accomplished this feat within a year (and I helped!). You should probably check out her blag, because it highlights the highs and lows of her adventures, and does a good job explaining how crittering around the northeast can be a mind-blowingly awesome challenge. The 4000 footer challenge has both positive and negative aspects though. On the plus side, it is a great impetus to get out and go hike some friggn amazing mountains and try things you normally wouldn't seek out. It also provides a safe outlet for those of us who need to hardcore adventure at least once every seven days or else we'd destroy entire cities with our pent-up rage. On the down-side, it seems fairly easy to get wrapped up in the whole "check this mountain off the list" mentality. If you are going through life saying "I'd need to complete my little list of hikes and will only go if it's on the list and if I haven't done it yet" then you, sir or madam, are losing the game. SHIT we all just lost the game... But anyway, I see it as a driver to hike more instead of "knocking out another mountain on the list," so I'm not too worried about falling into that trap. In fact, I'm starting to plan a 3-day backpacking trip sometime in June, hiking around something like 12 mountains. It's going to be epic; let me know if you want to join.

So anyway, at this point I've done 16 peaks. Calm down, 8 of them were on one trip. We hiked 21 miles from sunrise to sunset, I think we battled a dragon, all-in-all it was pretty baller. I also already wrote about it and have no intention of repeating myself.

I had also done two peaks, the Osceolas, back in June. It was a lot of fun, had a bunch of great views, but was infested with skin-nomming bugs that were particularly interested in Michelle's neck. It was a great hike for beginners; I would definitely recommend it. Oh and I did Moosilauki sometime in August. THAT was an awesome hike. A lot of really cool waterfalls and really steep rock scrambles. The fog was pretty heavy at the top. Definitely the view from inside a pingpong ball. Oh well, it was a really fun hike. And nobody died, so that's always a plus.

Then, a couple weeks ago, when I was like "meh, my ankle is good enough. Let's go hiking," Katie, Michelle, Rob and I hiked up Garfield. It was a pretty easy hike, which was helpful when you're going from "no hiking for two months with a broken limb" to "climbing up mountains before you're technically allowed to?" But it was still somewhat warm IN DECEMBER, so that helped.

It was basically Skyrim

And by the time we got to the top, my ankle was only minimally throbbing and BEST VIEW EVER.

There were even some questionable Titanic-esque poses, but we're going to keep this PG. If you want to see them, they are here, but be careful because they might cause a violent digestive reaction.

The next morning Sarah and I decided to go hike the two Hancock peaks. The next morning. My foot was still balloon-sized from the previous day, and all my muscles were like "you bitch. We haven't done shit for two months and then you go and play football and hike a goddamn mountain? Fuck you." The... conditions in which we decided to hike this particular morning were... hilarious. However, that story is not for prying internet eyes. But yes, we drove up to New Hampshire, spur of the moment, and hiked two mountains. It was a really flat, easy hike up until you get to the Hancock loop. Then it is a vertical climb to the top of the mountain. That is a small exaggeration, but we definitely got quite a workout. Again, another clear, warm day in December. What the fuck is going on New England?

The headband is less for ear warmth and more about making a fashion statement

Then last weekend, Sarah, Katie and I hiked the two Tripyramid peaks (well there are three, but only two are on the 4000 footer list). It was a little bit colder than the preceding weekend and there was a deal more snow on the ground, but for December it was a really nice, clear day. Finding our way to the parking area was a bit confusing, but after getting there it was a fairly easy hike. We didn't need microspikes or snowshoes or anything. River crossings were a bit icy and precarious, but nobody went swimming this time. We scrambled up the south rockslide, with one of the best, Skyrimiest views I had yet seen in the White Mountains.

I own this land

Trudging through the snow was a lot of fun, and actually made the loose pebbly rocks stick together, so it wasn't as difficult as it could have been. Katie and I took a few shocker pictures, made some snow angels, the usual.

Katie's snow angels are often mistaken for those of children

Gloves and a hat were a good idea. Also, Katie's camelback tube froze, so I might want to consider getting some kind of thermal insulator. Or not, because I rarely get around to things like that. But it's a good idea.

It was SO CLEAR out I could just DIE

We opted NOT to go down the north rockslide, but instead took a longer, less steep option. Katie had PTSD from her first time sliding down the rocks when it WASN'T icy out, so I was glad we had an alternate path. We finished around 2:30, which is great because the Sun was still up, which isn't always the case in December, when it's dark out for like 43 hours a day.