2023.2.25. Pratt Mountain

2/25, Saturday. Weather forecast said that the precipitation would come after 4pm, calm wind, but cold (low 20&Fs). I hosted a short hike, to be finished by 4pm. First time I led a hike with this group, so picked something easy but not too easy. But this time I underestimated the difficulty, as we had to break the trail. 6 people came along. Only one I never met before, who's a recent (2023) transplant from Chicago. We all made to the summit. Calm and sunny, so we were able to really enjoyed the summit. (summit photo to the right, courtesy of K).

When we arrived at the TH parking lot (~7:45), there were a couple of cars already. No snowpak pass required at this TH. The new guy (J) is very slow getting ready, thankfully he's not slow on the trail. We donned micro-spikes right at the parking lot: patches of frozen snow, very slippery. The trail was very icy in the beginning. Spikes work well. The creeks are very pretty, ice on the surface, dark water running below. About 3 small creek crossing over ice and rock, still fairly easy. Higher, we were in snow. Trail is beaten all the way to the first junction to Olallie/Talapus.

From here on, we were breaking trails. R lead this part all the way over this one log bridge and up to the next trail juction, marked by pink ribbons.

Then the scramble begins. We started uphill. Below the snow, it was icy. My spikes don't bite enough. Had to use ice axe to pull me up. M put on snowshoes, and then he charged ahead. Most of us put on snowshoes, two put on crampons. Once we reached the ridge, the two on crampons also swapped to snowshoes.

Followed the ridge, we started to get views. The big boulder is always a problem. Today, more so. I cut lower (very steep slope) around the boulder. Thankfully the snow is thick and sticky. My group followed, and 2 more guys in crampons. Soon after, there's another boulder, smaller. I don't remember having two problematic boulders before. Well, today yes. This one is easier. See photo. The 2 guys in crampons walked up the boulder, and then back down to cirler on the right side. We followed the suite. After that a very narrow bridge, short, but yes, with exposure. The rest is fairly easy.

We reached the summit ~12:10, and left ~1pm. Much easier coming back, just following our own track. I packed away snowshoes. At the first big boulder, I walked to its top and crawled down there, just for an alternative. We made down quickly.

Since we have 2 people new to this trail, we went to Olallie Lake, before heading out. On the way, met more hikers, and a group of Mountaineers who went to West Granite.

J and I are quite lucky to catch a bus only a minute or 2 after returning. There, at the bus stop, was a young guy with ice axe and snowshoes. J hit up a conversation with him. He said anyone can just sign up their outings, if you've taken some of their classes. Otherwise, you'd need to apply some equivalency test.

Still day light when I got home. The rain never came. Over all, about 10 miles, 3300'. A good workout.
2 mistakes: forgot to bring hiking poles and a hat. My knees hurt, and my skin was peeling off.

2023.2.19. Jazz in the City at Frye Art Museum

2/19, Sunday, 2-4pm. Gail Pettis and her jazz trio: Tony Foster on piano, Jeff Johnson on base, D’Vonne Lewis on drums. The pianist is quite impressive. Gail talks between numbers. I like her voice, and her small talks. Overall, much better than I expected.

As for the art gallery, the "Third Meaning", a curated Frye collection by ESTAR(SER) group is interesting. I probably should take a guided tour.

The new exhibition Flying Woman by Katherine Bradford, is just terrible, well, at least in my untrained eyes. Worse than what a 10 year-old can do, only in large scale. Cannot understand how she has a long winded wiki page, and won all the awards listed on that page. Her brush stroke is coarse, color is bright yet dull, 2-dimensional. Ugly really, a waste of canvas and pigment.

After the concert, we were told there'd be a reception at the Murano Senior Living next door. It turns out that the concert was sponsored by Murano. I talked to 2 residents here, both are independent (the lowest care level at Murano). One single lady liked it so much that she convinced her brother to move in. Another lady (originally from Malaysia) is new here. She and her husband has a 2-bdrm flat on the 17th floor. The monthly cost is $16k! I don't think I can afford this. Let's say even half of it for a 1-bdrm flat. Both ladies praised the caring staff, 3 meals a day, lots of activities (drawing, dancing, board game, excercise, and shuttle bus to take them somewhere). Reality check for me. I thought I could retire, but definitely not at Murano.

2023.2.15. Desige in Motherhood at Gate's Discovery Center

2/15, Wednesday. Openning reception of Design in Motherhood at Gate's Discovery center. Music, food platters (a lot of food), drink (no alcohol). Quite a large turn-out. The actual "keynote" talks are not really worth listening to. However, the exhibition is worth a walk-through. This exhibit will be here till the end of this year before moving to another location.

Over 200 objects related to birthing, mothering, menstration, baby care products, maternity clothing. Some interesting old gadgets. I cannot understand how this heavy breast pump of 1957 would work. This panel diagram lists the maternity leave (in weeks) in various countries. Washington state isn't too bad.

2023.2.11. Chutla Peak

A rare sunny Feb weekend. Warm and no wind!

2/11, Saturday, 9 of us met at South Renton P&R at 6am for a snow scramble to Chutla Peak. The event organizer M.J. picked me up from downtown at 5:30am. One gal (Do) is 10 min late, saying that her defrost was frozen...(?) As we were loading the cars, Br said he forgot his snowshoes. So he went home and would meet us at Longmire. This is not a large group, but still a lot of waiting around. Br actually arrived at Longmire while we were putting on boots.

Water level is very low. Only saw snow just a few minutes before the park gate.

First, we tried to drive to the TH, but there were red cones at the end of the government housing. So we drove back to Longmire's main parking lot, and walked to TH. More and more cars arrived at Longmire, waiting for the gate to open at 9am. At this bridge, Do realized that she forgot her snowshoes in the car. Getting cold waiting for her in the shade. At least the view on the bridge isn't too bad. Finally we got going, already past 9am! I left home at 5:10am!

The Eagle Peak trail zigzags up a steep forested slope. The trail is gentle. Not much snow below 4000'. At some point, I put on micro-spikes. Tried to cut the zigzag a couple of times in snow. Not a good idea: sinking...

El, Qi, Re, and I were more or less hiking together. El is very fast (climbed Glacier Peak in 1 day in October), he talked about his recent trip to Hawaii (Napali coast hike on Kauai and lava flow on Big Island) and showed me photos, and tips (need camping permit even for a day hike, don't hike when wet: slippery clay). That slowed him down so I could keep up. The rest of the group is quite slow and we don't even hear them.

There were 2 groups of hikers ahead of us. So the trail is visible, and easy to follow. The zigzag reaches an opening around 5000' (near the junction to Wahpenayo Peak). We put on snowshoes. Here, met an old guy chatting with a young couple. The binding of his new snowshoes' binding is too small for his boots. So, he called it quit. Good view of our objective.

I headed up, still following the track made by the others. Into the woods again. Met an older couple, the guy was about to give up. Out into a very flat open area. Talked to 2 guys waiting for their friends. The young couple headed up towards the saddle between Eagle and Chutla, as is on the map. I waited for my group. Ate half of my lunch.

When El arrived, he showed me a track different from the GPS map I downloaded. According to last Nov's trip report, too much snow on the jagged edge, making the traverse from the saddle dangerous. When Qi and Re arrived, we discussed what to do next. See the track we used in the end.
Traversing the slope is a pain. The snow is deep and not smooth. Qi took over to break the trail. Then we headed up. Still in snowshoes. The gully was getting too steep for me to feel comfortable on snowshoes, so I took them off. Put spikes on. A few meters up, saw Qi standing behind a tree changing to crampons. The gully was in the shade, and it was getting quite icy. At some point, I had to use the axe' pick to pull myself. Found a tree and swapped into crampons. That took me a long time, as I was standing on a small delicate perch. Re went past me, and joking at my stupidity of using spikes here. In fact, above my tree, it was no longer icy. More and more snow, and we sank. Re was sinking so much, that I passed him again. Now, I heard El was talking to someone below. I guess my group had finally arrived.

Reached a small saddle, flat enough to rest, swapping into snowshoes and waited. But only El and Re came up, both were hyper-ventilating and worrying about going down. Qi continued to the summit, and I followed. No longer steep, but with steep drop on one side, and cornice on the other.

Here's Qi at the summit. The photo on the right is the view to SE. We could see Adams, Hood and Helens. Rainier to the north. No wind, amazing! The summit is not large enough for all of us. After some photos, Qi and I headed back, so Re and El could walked the narrow ridge. We waited for them at the saddle to go down together, because two of them were freaking out a bit.

All is good. We down climbed the icy part. Once at the traverse, we put snowshoes back on. The other 5 of the group were waiting. They practiced snow climb while waiting. On the way out, I took snowshoes off, tried to glissade. But the snow was too soft, and couldn't get it going. The rest of the trail is uneventful and boring. Back to the car at 5pm.

Off to a restaurant. I don't eat indoors, especially when the restaurant is busy. In this place, the 9 of us sat at two different places. The waitress is nice, but clumsy. First brought wrong orders, and then, dropped some fries onto Am.

Our car made a bathroom stop for Do. She was complaining about a coworker who went to Mailbox with her but ran up the hill without her, so she ended up hiking alone. Surprising that I didn't fall asleep. M.J. dropped me off downtown, then I walked home.

Total, maybe 7.5 miles, 3300'.

2023.2.9. Giselle at PNB

2/9, Thursday, 7:30. A long line at the box office to take advantage of the special price today.

The story is very simple and almost stupid. Fine music and performance. I like the costume too. Very nice stage set. This is the first time I watch Giselle.

A good turn out. 2 hours + 1 intermission. Most people don't wear face mask. I heard at least 2 people coughing.

Raining when I left McCaw Hall.

2023.2.9. TechStars demo day at MOPOP

2/9, Thursday, 6:30-9. Tech Stars hosts a demo day at Museum of Pop Culture. A large turn-out (free event, but sold-out).

After I bought the ballet ticket, I went to MOPOP. The exhibition is closed off, leaving only the main hall for the event.

Food: sliders (2 kinds: beef and falafel) on the table, servers carrying trays of little bites walking among the crowds. I like the mini salmon cones and the zuchini friter the most. In the left photo, there is the salmon cone, fried chicken and waffle (first time I ever ate this, too sweet), sweet potato on bagette. Even thought a lot of people came, I could still find empty spots to eat. I wasn't the only one who wore face mask here, but definitely very few.

Drink: 2 wines of Washington Hills, 4 beers, 1 cider, ice water dispenser. I had the salted caramel porter from Cascade Lakes (Oregon) and the pilsner from Two Beers.

About a dozen early stage start-up founders showcased their prototypes. I visited every booth. With time constraint, I only talked to one young presenter, the CEO of Gather that provides an online shopping platform between flower growers and end cosumers. They aim to local growers, so no shipping involved. Brief conversation with Indoor Collective, but didn't try their VR glasses nor the rower -- reminiscent of Nintendo Wii (except the larger and more expensive equipment here), with VR glasses (unnecessary extra cost in my opinion). One on legal search is interesting. They must have subscribed to some legal database that's not available to Google, or is it? Some inventory management software. Don't remember much else.

Set my alarm at 7:20pm, so I could run off to McCaw Hall in time for the ballet. It was still in full swing when I left, people were still filing in. Thank God that the ballet has an intermission, so I can relieve the beer that I consumed here.

I had no idea that venture capital and tech startups are still in the boom in Seattle.

2023.2.8. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

Very fun. I really enjoy these more classical plays with nice stage set and a concrete story.

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is the first stage adaptation (by local playwright Danielle Mohlman) of the Agatha Christie's novel. A complicated story distilled into a 2 hours stage, with humor and personalities. Well done.

In this production, 7 actors play 13 charaters:

• Hercule Poirot is played by a thin black actor with a fake French accent.
• Roger Ackroyd is played by an actress.
• Doctor Sheppard is the most important charactor. These 3 are played by a dedicated actor.
• The secretary, the niece, the American stranger are all played by one male actor.
• Captain Ralph Paton (the stepson, who's engaged to the niece) and Major Hector Blunt (a house friend who's enamored with the niece) are played by the same actor (this is the only one that got me confused).
• The male butler and a young maid are played by the same actress.
• The sister-in-law, inspector Raglan, and the older maid are played by the same actress.

They did a fabulous job.

I also like how it is directed. The "re-enact" scenes are cleverly done.

Today is the first preview. Only one glitch. The performance didn't start until 7:42pm. I wasn't late. 2.5 hours with an intermission. Everyone (the audience) wore a face mask.

2022.2.7. A new co-working space in downtown.

An open house by Orchard Workspace, owned by the commercial property company JLL. It's on top of West Lake center. 9th and 10th floor. Right now, mostly empty. So I came to work for a change for the day. Free food today.

Their day pass is $25, and monthly membership is only $89. I may consider.
However, this lowest membership only gives you a random desk in an open space (noisy). But offers an address for package delivery, and 24 hr access, secured entrance, a lady at the front desk. Yes, free water and coffee all day, and credit to book the meeting rooms (different sizes with different fees). A fixed desk will be $359, and an office (size of my small closet) is $419. All of these are glass walls, so no privacy.

So many of these co-working places right now, other than WeWork.

2023.2.2. Rick Steves speaks on "Travel as a political act"

Seattle's World Affairs hosts Rick Steves on Travel as a Political Act. An almost full house, well, not a large venue. He also answered questions on traveling in general, travel after Covid, and young people don't read guide books. Very candid and humorous. I really enjoyed it, and totally agree with Rick. Will definitely watch his other videos on similar topics. I might have heard it wrong. I thought he mentioned six 1-hr videos, but I only found these on this website that's related to this concept:

• Iran: Yesterday and Today (2009)
• The Holy Land: Israelis and Palestinians Today (2014)
• The Story of Fascism in Europe (2018)
• Hunger and Hope": Lessons from Ethiopia and Guatemala (2020)