Here at WildSnow Word Headquarters, I’ve been busy as a coyote in a mouse nest. Details details. We’ve got test boots dropping like bombs from the UPS truck, a blog design and software upgrade on the way. Son heading off to college. A new smartphone to learn. Hold on!
Yep, along with running the latest version of our blogging software (WordPress, for those who care), we’re working on a mobile version of Wildsnow for those of you who like to web browse on tiny screens. Ditto for our RSS, which we’ll be tweaking eventually when all else is ready.
I’m not finding web surfing all that great on a 2 1/2 inch wide screen, but am looking forward to managing and posting blog comments from almost any location. No more running out of the gasthaus just to handle some minor website issue. Instead, fire up the PDA and order up another hefe, but don’t spill it!
A few weeks ago Jordan White got his own WordPress blog up and running. Jordan gets around. He’s a big strong climber who makes you wonder if he’ll simply tear a few hundred feet off the top of any mountain that gives him trouble. I’m looking forward to his trip reports, and he’ll be filing some guest blogs here as well, as our resident “big guy” ready for abusive gear testing. Check out Jordan’s recent trip to Russia.
A bit of sad news from Colorado. The annual “Avalanche Jam” CAIC avy center fundraiser was supposed to go off last week. Instead the event was canceled at the last minute due to a permitting problem. Wow! That’s pretty major as the “Jam” was a good funding shot, and now it’s been shot down.
More from this part of the world. Land use issues have come to a head near Aspen, with the Forest Service on the side of their special use permit holders. In this case, Aspen Skiing Company runs snowcat powder skiing on a mix of private and public land behind Aspen Mountain ski area. Snowmobilers and sled skiers want to use the land as well, mostly because a system of roads maintained by the ‘cats make snowmobile access a breeze. Weekends up there have become a scene — simply too many people in one place. So the USFS has ruled they’ll keep the public sledders away from the commercial snowcat skiing operation — and even have a USFS enforcement person up there on a regular basis.
As always, my view: We’ve got plenty of room, our only problem is people tend to concentrate in certain areas because of access issues. If the USFS and citizen groups placed more emphasis on opening up more areas for use, rather then restricting access, this whole issue could be flipped. But no. Can we ever change that trend? I continue to hope…
I’ll close with a fitness tip. As one who’s paid attention to leg alignment issues for years, I’ve always wondered if having your feet in bicycle toe clips might be something that one should forgo periodically to allow your joints some freedom from repetitive motion along one tight plane of movement. Interesting article about that.
We’ll do more on our upgrades this evening and tomorrow. We’re still planning our sixth and final “Name that Mug” contest tomorrow, but if we’re still involved in the site upgrade we’ll move the contest to Monday.
WildSnow.com publisher emeritus and founder Lou (Louis Dawson) has a 50+ years career in climbing, backcountry skiing and ski mountaineering. He was the first person in history to ski down all 54 Colorado 14,000-foot peaks, has authored numerous books about about backcountry skiing, and has skied from the summit of Denali in Alaska, North America’s highest mountain.
