What to Eat Geocaching
January 31, 2007 | 8:35 am
Far be it from me to resort to crass commercialism, in this blog or anywhere else, but I simply have to share my Find of the Week.
I’ve often carried Kellogg’s Nuri-Grain bars in my rucksack, and have just as often found that the cereal bars (including my favorite, the vanilla yogurt one) disintegrate over the course of the hike, so that one ends up eating crumbs out of the wrapper.
But now – ta-da! – Nutri-Grain has a new product: fruit and nut bars. Unlike too many other granola bars, these aren’t sharp and hard and tasting rather of cardboard; they are, rather, soft and chewy and delicious. And only 120 calories!
This weekend I’ll have to try them out on the trail. But I wanted to share the information right away. They’d be great for any of the active Open Your Heart activities – cycling, skiing, playing basketball or tennis. Try them out!
— Jeannette Cézanne
Posted by: — jcezanne
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On Top of the World
January 24, 2007 | 8:51 pm
Today, I hiked the bowl…
I am here in Aspen with a bunch of friends and fellow skiers attending the EpicSki.com Academy, four days of exceptional skiing with some of the best ski coaches on the planet. And today, my group hiked the bowl.
Highlands Bowl is a dominant fixture on the Aspen landscape. Visible from the Sundeck at the top of Aspen Mountain, it is reached by a hike from the top of the lifts at Aspen Highlands. Walking along a ridge with snow-covered slopes dropping away on both sides and views of the Maroon Bells and Pyramid Peak beckoning you on is an amazing experience. It was my first time.
After the hike, we were treated to 1400 vertical feet of steep, soft snow. Even though it hasn’t snowed for a few days, the snow was still very nice everywhere since it’s been cold. We learned to move into space. To experience a patience at the top of the turn. To allow gravity to help us.
Kinda like life, isn’t it? Allowing the happenings of life to help us instead of being obstacles. Experiences help us grow–if we let them.
Let’s go!
Posted by: — Stephen Hultquist
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Yeah, that would be my eye make-up…..
| 3:54 pm
One of these days I’m going to remember to log my caches and other activities on the geocaching site.
I’m notoriously bad at it. I enjoy the hike, I enjoy the search, I enjoy reading and writing in logbooks. But somehow I never quite manage that last step: logging my activity online once I’m back home again. Perhaps I’m lazy. Perhaps I don’t care enough about that part of the activity.
I’ve never logged a DNF (did not find), though a few weeks ago I could have done. Back home from a business trip, Paul and I decided to take advantage of the unseasonably warm weather the Northeast was experiencing during the first part of the winter. We headed out in the sunshine and started a hike.
By the time we got within 800 feet of ground zero, it had started to sprinkle. We were both wearing jeans and t-shirts (unbelievable as that seems), but we also figured that the trees would provide some protection. We also both wanted to find the cache.
Within minutes the rain was coming down in sheets, even in the woods. We started back, sans cache. It was a forty-five minute walk in; we made it out in half an hour.
I don’t log DNFs — they seem kind of pointless to me — but this one is worth noting because I learned that the baseball cap I keep in my rucksack really isn’t helpful in a real rainstorm. Paul’s Tilly hat, on the other hand, was better than good.
Yeah, Tilly hats aren’t cheap. But I’m buying one. Maybe then I’ll look a little less like a goth after a long Halloween night when I emerge from the woods next time!
Posted by: — jcezanne
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On Themes
January 16, 2007 | 12:52 pm
I love themed caches.
We have a friend, an ardent geocacher, who loves Shakespeare. Most of his caches have to do with The Bard in some form or another. My husband Paul does individually themed caches, or sometimes a themed series of caches. For our Bread & Roses events, for example, he’s done a series of caches named for different roses – eglantine rose, dog rose, etc.
Near us there’s a series named after a pirate, called Captain MacGregor; and all the caches follow the pirate motif. And in Massachusetts there’s a very famous (well, famous within the geocaching community!) series of caches called the Middlesex Canal caches.
Maybe it’s because I’m a wordsmith by profession and avocation, but these enterprises delight me. I love the clues that can be given within a theme – and, frankly, the education that can come from them as well. One doesn’t necessarily go geocaching to learn something; but one almost always does, one way or another.
Posted by: — jcezanne
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Balance–the Foundation
January 12, 2007 | 12:12 pm
As I sat down to write last night at one of my favorite restaurants while I am on a client visit in the midwest, I focused on the most fundamental element of skiing: balance. Skiing is a dynamic sport that has us moving in balance to balance, but in a way that may be uncomfortable for many. It’s a linked series of falls as we move in balance to balance.
We do this a lot in life, of course. Walking is a series of falls from which we catch ourselves. Running is a series of linked jumps. These are physical activities that reflect this, but what about our lives at a deeper level?
Life is a series of movements in balance to balance. Surprises, challenges, and obstacles all get in the way of our lives, but we move in balance to balance as we adjust, meet, and overcome them. The key is to be in balance.
Are you in balance? Are you moving to balance?
Let’s go!
Posted by: — Stephen Hultquist
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Time for my next geo-event!
January 10, 2007 | 3:18 pm
Just posted Bread & Roses 4 — the fourth time that my husband Paul and I will be hosting a geo-event at the Shaskeen Pub in Manchester, New Hampshire, on February 7th. If you’re in the area, come check it out!
Why not go check it out now on the geocaching site? Registration is quick and free, and you can read all about Bread & Roses — how it got its name, where to find it, what happens there! And maybe take a look at some of the other caches that the site has to offer!
Even if you decide to not try geocaching, it’s well worth a tour of the site anyway. And I’ll tell you more about the event as we draw closer to it!
Posted by: — jcezanne
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On living and dying
January 6, 2007 | 1:20 pm
Took me a while guys, to sit down and do this. Sorry, and I’m still
wondering what I will blog about. This blogging thing……
But I’m going to try - to blog that is.
I’ll start by introducing you to a wonderful question one of my
readers sent me recently. (Or did she really read the book?) She said:
And what is your view on the buisness of dying? You seem to know a lot
about the business of living, but what about dying? What do you know
about that?
So (thinking there’s nothing wrong with a bit of humor)- here are some
of my thoughts I shared with her: I told her we are all experts at
this and that we need no experience, coz its gonna happen whether you
like it or not.
But living is different: You need to know some Rules -
otherwise you get to warm the bench while the others score goals and win.
Living requires a lot of practice and you need to know how to focus,
but with dying….You don’t need any practice, no-one gets its wrong.
You can sort of do it with your eyes closed (seriously)And it is full
proof - which means you cannot fail. Which is why I wrote a book on
living, not dying. There are no rules for dying - the only one is that
you should have played the game fully while you were still on this
side. That helps to make the transition peaceful, you know? You’re not
so hard on yourself, if you catch my drift.
Once you’re fully immerged, you’ll find out you know how to do this -
no problem. Its a bit like giving birth - there’s no way out. You
can’t decide halfway through you don’t want to play anymore.(Right
ladies? But I confess - not that I didn’t seriously resent the lack of
that option while I was going through it.)
And I told her to relax, no-one gets alive out of this life anyway
(not my original thought) And so on…and to ease up on the anxiety
around something that is as natural as beign born.
I wondered what kind of response I’d get from sending her that. But
she surprised me and came back with another question:
Is your book a map that will lead me to heaven? she asked.
Huh? I was taken aback. She read through 214 pages of Sam discovering
himself and who he really is, which means she must have read Chapter
13: Footprints, fingerprints and clues. And then I get a question like
that? Man, I was floored!
My answer was short and sweet. Although she might not have agreed:
“Hell no.”
Posted by: — epretorius
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My Heroes
January 3, 2007 | 7:50 pm
I am blessed to ski with some of my heroes over the course of every ski season. Some are people you may know from their international fame, like Olympic Gold Medalist Deb Armstrong. Others, like Weems Westfeldt, you may know if you read a lot about skiing or ski instruction. But others are people you have probably never met: my friends and guests who are in the Copper Mountain Over the Hill Gang. The OHG is a group of very active adults who bomb around Copper four days a week throughout the season. Many of the members are inspirational.
Yesterday, as I caught my breath after another top-to-bottom bump run from the summit of the Storm King lift to the bottom of the Resolution chair, I rode up with a member who is 70 years old and has been skiing for decades. When you see him and this group drop into the steeps of Cornice Chute to the bumps of Sawtooth or Cabin Chute, you’d have no idea of their age. They are timeless. And they are my heroes.
There is no better way to stay fully alive than to stay active, healthy, and outdoors. Skiing is a wonderful way to do that. Where else do you have the opportunity to breath the crisp alpine air midwinter? I think it cleans out the cobwebs, both physical and spiritual. How about you?
Let’s go!
Posted by: — Stephen Hultquist
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How Extreme is Extreme Geocaching?
| 9:54 am
In my book, Open Your Heart with Geocaching, I talk a lot about the kinds of caches I have found, as well as those I could potentially find.
And then there are those for the more extreme-minded among us.
I just have to share news of a relatively recent cache that definitely falls into the extreme category: Ethiopia’s first geocache, located… in a volcano!
From the description on the geocaching.com site:
Inside the Danakil desert, the 600-meter shield volcano Erta Ale has a crater with a lava lake. In December 2002, the VEI Expedition reached the place and stayed for five days.
Erta Ale volcano geocache is Ethiopia’s first geocache! Not made for the comfort-seeking tourist, you need to get into the world’s hottest desert, travel among armed Afar nomad people who are at gunpoint with the Ethiopian army and master volcanic territory.
Erta Ale (the Fuming or Devil’s Mountain) lies in the north-east end of The Rift Valley segment that runs across Ethiopia and Djibouti to the Red Sea. The summit lava lake sits at an elevation of about 500 m, while the base of the volcano rests 75 m below sea level. Erta Ale and its neighbours have grown from the most low lying part of the Great Rift Valley on land.
One hundred kilometres away the rift has been flooded to create the Red Sea. After rifting has started 20 million years ago, the crust of the continent eventually split between modern Ethiopia and Arabia, allowing a new crust to from upwelling lava. What is happening now at the Red Sea is possibly what happened between the American and Afro-European continents when the Atlantic first developed 2000 million years ago.
Erta Ale is a shield volcano, part of the East African rift system. In its vast summit caldera there are two pit craters. The smaller crater (140m dia and 60-90m deep) now has an active lava lake. Even now, after the end of the war, the Erta Ale range remains one of the most inaccessible places on earth. There are no roads and temperatures are extremely high. The tribe living there, the Afar people, are proud and strong warriors, often hostile to foreigners.
Getting to Erta Ale is not easy — just to reach the volcano is a test of endurance. The volcano is situated at the bottom of the Danakil Depression, generally considered to be one of the most inhospitable regions on earth, a valley floor 130 m below sea level. The climatic conditions are terrible, with record temperatures 56°C in the shade, but with no shade to be found there.
The lava lake is permanently stirred by fountains of lava and the skin that covers it in some cooler spots makes it seem alive. The lava of Erta Ale is basaltic, which remains molten at 1100°C. The lava lake has a surface area of 4 000 sq m, so the thermal radiation is intense. To lean over the crater without protection is out of the question. Just to have a quick look, one must position gloved hands in front of the face. Aluminium, fire-proof clothing Nomex is a must. To protect the eyes, a sheet of polished gold must be used; it is only few microns thick and so see-through.
With this armour one can at last approach the edge and take some time to admire the view. The surface of the lake is covered in a layer of cooler lava, floating on the molten core like the skin on milk. The lake is moving - a current ripples the lava and makes the skin undulate. This current originates in a fountain spraying molten lava brewed by the high temperature gas that it emits. The skin is black in the shade, and as brilliant as silver in the sun. The fountain is scarlet, becoming orange as its temperature rises. The flow of the lava tears the skin into a huge panels separated by fissures through which lava shows red. Bubbles of gas regularly break the surface of the lake, popping the elastic skin with spurts and incandescent jets. A real volcanologic adventure!
So there you are. If you really want adventure, head for Africa. And don’t forget to tell me about it when you get back!
Posted by: — jcezanne
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