Made a cake for the yearly cheese fondue party 🙂
Base: Genoise & Caramel Syrup
Filing: Swiss Butter Cream mixed with Nutella
Frosting: Dark Chocolate Ganache
Decoration: Nougatine
Mount Bierstadt, Colorado
After hiking up Bear Peak, Boulder last Saturday and Morrison Peak last Sunday I thought I’d climb my first 14er of 2019
Guanella Pass being closed I had to start at Naylor Lake Trailhead so it took a little bit longer than usual; 7:30 hour total for a 10.5 miles RT
Cold & windy. About 0 degree Fahrenheit with a windchill at -17F at the summit. Deep snow in the plain. I was sinking 2ft into the snow even with snowshoes on.
Wheat Bread with Seeds
New bread. This time with 25% wheat flour, 80% bread flour + sunflower, chia, sesame, and flax seeds + some organic bulgur wheat
Super Blood Wolf Full Moon
- Hike along th South Mesa Trail near Boulder, Colorado
- Photos of the Full Moon from last night
- Also, trying out my new bread machine (Zojirushi Home Bakery Virtuoso) with this recipe
Flour         447g Bob’s Red Mill Artisan Bread
Water        260ml
Heavy Cream 40ml Horizon Organic
Salt            10g Morton Sea Salt
Yeast           9g SAF Red Instant Yeast
Salted Butter 45g European Style Salted Butter
Diastatic Malt Powder 10g King Arthur
Indian Peaks Wilderness
Dec 25th / Dec 26th
16 miles RT of snowshoeing along the Cascade Trail towards Crater Lake. The goal was to get a winter photo of Lone Eagle Peak but the weather turned badly yesterday so I couldn’t see any of the peaks. I’ll try again soon…
Note: I’ve never seen that much snow in Colorado.
Small bridge with snow.
Along Cascade Trail.
Mountain tops in the clouds.
Digging 2 or 3 feet of snow to setup camp.
Melting snow for my morning coffee 🙂
Leaving my Christmas campsite behind…
St Mary’s Glacier / James Peak
I’ve been meaning to hike St Mary’s Glacier all the way to the summit of James Peak for a while…
Fairly slow hike – about seven hours and a half – 8.3 miles with 3281ft elevation gain. Very windy.
Early morning light
Wind blowing up snow on the glacier
View of James Peak in the distance
James Peak – Summit View
Very Nice clouds
Moment of calm getting ready to hike down St Mary’s Glacier
French Protests and Riots
Even in France, some pundits seem to be surprised by the fact that even though France is a welfare state, it is described as a social nightmare. I’m sorry but how is this surprising? A welfare state is only valuable to those who need one. The reality of our society is that a very small minority of individuals benefit from it and that’s almost never the one paying the bill. Yes, in the short term it is really easy for Socialism to high-jack a Democracy by promising plenty to the majority of voters but soon enough the main mechanical flaw of that system reveals itself; the majority simply doesn’t benefit from it on a daily basis. Ask yourself this simple question; would you buy insurance for absolutely everything in your life? That’s what a welfare state is. Yes, France is a great country if absolutely everything that could possibly go wrong in someone’s life actually goes wrong. What is the probability of that actually happening? None. The yellow vest movement is the product of a simple realization; life in France is a daily struggle of hellish proportion for the majority of those paying for the welfare state. Getting ten cents on the dollar in the oft chance that they might need help at some point in their lives is simply not good enough.
St Mary’s Glacier
AÂ short hike up St Mary’s Glacier, Colorado
Low snowy cloud and lots of wind.
Not the greatest setup for a hike but very good for my training 🙂
House remodel
Part of the basement remodel involves digging down to get more ceiling height. After cutting the concrete slab with a concrete saw I rented a jackhammer and broke down the entire slab. Now I just have to get rid of all that concrete and start digging…
Square Top Mountain
Square Top Mountain is not quite a 14er at 13900ft but great 7.5 mile hike nonetheless. It was actually more difficult than Mount Bierstadt for some reason. Fantastic views of Grays & Torreys from the summit.
Sunrise over Mount Bierstadt
View of Square Top Mountain in the distance from below the lake
Summit View
Argentine Peak in the foreground. Grays and Torreys Peak in the background.
Mount Bierstadt, Sawtooth path and Mount Evans on the other side of Guanella Pass.