2011.1.28. St Edward Park at night

A meetup hike at St Edward park. ~4 miles linking different trails. Not flat. Quite muddy at places, made it slippery on an incline. Rain had just stopped, overcast. Too dark to really see anything, except at the lake front. Seems to be a nice place for the local for daily exercise. Right now, must looked rather strange, especially with a long line of people having their headlamps on. ~24 showed up. Ended with baked salmon and various food/drink people brought to the organizer's house in Kenmore. A couple of girls were quite drunk in the end. In order to hitch a ride back to downtown with them, I had to drive.

2011.1.27. Eric Larsen at REI

Larson's recent polar expedition: South Pole (47 days, Nov 2009 - Jan 2010), North Pole (51 days, Mar - Apr 2010), Everest (Sept 2010) in one year. According to him, North Pole is most difficult due to the constant shift of the ice sheet they were walking on. He talks a lot. Certainly does a good job promoting his sponsors and tries to tie in his "climate change" thesis, albeit sometimes the analogy is a bit forced. Pretty good camera work, given that he himself shot most of the footage.

2011.1.21. The Barber of Seville

Seattle Opera presents Barber of Seville. A wonderful production. Excellent acting, beautiful melody. Great (retouched old) stage set, creative lighting design (the storm scene is hilarious).
I arrived at the box office 1 minute before the show time, with 2 people ahead of me! The opera started later. As always, the after show Q&A is interesting. According to Speight Jenkins, Lawrence Brownlee (the count) of the other cast sings an extra 8 minute aria, which only ~3 tenors in the world do.

Rosina:            Kate Lindsey
Count Almaviva:    Nicholas Phan
Figaro:            David Adam Moore
Dr. Bartolo:       Patrick Carfizzi
Don Basilio:       Burak Bilgili
Conductor:         Dean Williamson
Stage Director:    Peter Kazaras
Set Designer:      John Stoddart
Costume Designer:  John Ponelle
Lighting Designer: Duane Schuler
Sets:              Canadian Opera Company 

2011.1.1-2. Mt Rainier snowshoe

Start the new year on Mt Rainier. Surprising number of people in Paradise sliding area. Beautiful stars at night.

Christine Falls and Narada Falls are still running, but mostly icicles. Different and pretty. Reflection Lake (less than 2 miles away from Narada Falls) is completely iced over with maybe 1/2 foot snow on top. Can safely walk on the lake. Lots of birds, stealing my lunch. Mazama Ridge gets higher than Paradise, great views. Possible to loop with Paradise Valley route (~6 miles) or Skyline route (>3 miles more). Trails and snow camping info in Paradise area (~5400') are found here.

Longmire (2757') area has a number of trails, but mostly woods. The shortest: Trail of the Shadow is quite interesting. Panels present the history of James Longmire. In the snowy landscape, thermal springs are apparent. Did Rampart Ridge - Wonderland trail loop (~4.3 miles). View is limited.