Sunrise - Sunset

First 2 photos are sunrises over the Sandia Mountains.







Next 2 photos are sunsets over the Sandia Mountains. Sandia is Spanish for watermelon. The sunset photos show the pink color that is frequently seen at sunset on the mountains that gives them their name.

Frozen Moss

A patch of moss covered in water from a leaky faucet frozen by the night's cold temperatures.

Tree in Daylight

Memorial Day Weekend

With the great weather and long weekend lots of climbers have been summitting. We've had successful summits via the following routes: Kautz Glacier, Tahoma Glacier, Liberty Ridge, Fuhrer Finger, Ingraham Direct, Emmons Glacier, and Gibraltar Ledges. The daytime sunshine has also been turning icy glaciers into good corn snow for great riding/skiing. The snow in Paradise still reaches the parking lot making for fun descents.

Climbing ranger David Gottlieb has just returned to Mount Rainier after another successful first ascent in Nepal. He and former climbing ranger Joe Puryear climbed Jobo Rinjang (6,778 meters). Check out http://www.climbnepal.blogspot.com/ for more information and some rad photos.
The weather continues to look clear and sunny for later this week. Come on up and enjoy the routes while they're still in great condition.

Signs of spring

Jacob's Ladder Foliage (Polemonium reptans)


Virginia Bluebells Foliage (Mertensia virginica). Still weeks from blooming.


A little trillium coming up amid the cowcumber leaves.


Blue violet (Viola papilionacea) - the first flower we saw this spring. Some people consider this a weed!


Toothwort (Cardamine sp.) - the buds look purple, but the flower will be white.


Another toothwort with different shaped leaves. There are about 50 jillion types of toothwort I think. "Wort" is an old English word for "plant".


Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica) is small and can be easy to miss. Sometimes the flowers are more pink.


Hepatica - the foliage is not the light green blades, but the half-eaten brown leaf on the lower left. The flower blooms next to last year's leaves, then grows new leaves after the flower is gone. One of the common names is liverleaf. This is the sharp-lobed variety; there is also a round-lobed one. Sometimes the flowers are blue/purple, but I've only seen white ones in Alabama.


Jasmine stalks and kills the wild mustard.

I didn't get a photo of the least welcome sign of spring - some very annoying mosquitos.

Blue Ice?

Hard gear to get here in the US with import duties and shipping. But if you are in the EU or better yet Chamonix it is worth checking out all of the Blue Ice gear. Always a tool guy, I really like the new classic Bluebird ice axe. Their "model"helps me appreciate the classic lines of the newest piolet :)






Hélène is in love with the Blue Bird Ice Axe!





It should be available in the late Fall of .









The newest Blue Ice cataog:



http://www.blueice.com/site/download/blueice_catalog_.pdf

Geraniums

My geraniums are enjoying being outside after a long winter in doors. They are all starting to bloom better. They bloom in the winter but not as well as they do outside.