Le Fin de Mes Etudes

The weather this winter in the Cascades has been rather bipolar. For a long time there was an atypically dry spell, which was a boon for climbing, but made for mediocre skiing. A few weeks ago the weather finally shifted to the normal Cascades winter: non-stop dumps of lots of snow. No good for alpine climbing, but the skiing recently has been amazing.

As for me, I've been too busy with schoolwork to play in the hills much, but I did get several dry, sunny days cragging at Index in February (a real rarity for wintertime). Also during the dry period, Dylan and I made a brief attempt on the McNerthney-Klewin on the Middle Peak of Mt. Index, but turned around after only a few pitches due to thin ice that was rapidly turning to slush in the sun.
Dylan busting out the rope:


In the past couple weeks I was very busy wrapping up the quarter at school, but able to sneak out of town for a few days of skiing, which were all awesome, deep days. And yesterday was, thank dog, the last day of my undergraduate education - a day that I've been looking forward to since enrolling in the fall of 2003. As a personal celebration I have lined up an action-packed spring, and I'm taking off for Chamonix in just a couple hours!