Hull House Project: Phase 2 foundation and framing

The final plat has been signed, the building permit issued and progress is being made quickly.  


There are still lots of decisions that need to be made, but they are fun the think about:  exterior paint color, flooring, kitchen layout.


Next week the roof goes up, the windows have been ordered.  It will be a simple small house.

Hull House Project: phase 1

June 14 2012 - that is the day my land use permit expires to divide my property.  Six years ago I divided my property into 4 lots, I completed phase one and then the economy fell apart.  In uncertain times it seems like a good idea to sit tight.  This year as June approached I had to decide if I wanted to finish the project.  Weighing the options was complicated; interest rates are low, housing prices are still low, building costs are down.... it is a risk.  I wasn't sure I wanted to invite that risk and stress into my life.  Completing the project involved tearing down a 1904 house that straddled the proposed property line - not trivial.  The beginning of April I decided to go ahead with the project - what's a little extra stress for a defined amount of time!  


Once the ball got rolling it all went pretty fast and relatively smoothly, at least from the outside perspective and thanks to supportive friends.  The house had to come down for the City to sign off on the partition.  A week before my deadline the house came down, the surveyor finished the final plat, after some back and forth with the County Surveyor he signed the final plat, the city signed the plat and today (11 June 2012) the plat was recorded with the county.  Another lot added to the tax rolls for Hood River all within the deadline - whew!  Next week the foundation goes in.......

Salvage windows - unfortunately there wasn't much else to salvage

Fire Department training night - they were excited to have a house to tear up with chain saws.

First thing Monday morning the equipment showed up and the excavators went to work - lucky for me it was a rainy day to keep the dust down.

Day 1: house down and getting hauled away to be burned and to the landfill.

Day 2: house hauled away and the prep for the foundation done.

the haute route - ski traverse from Chamonix to Zermatt or Arolla in my case

Packing:

Even though my pack was pretty light there were a lot of little details to take care of and one big one: my boots.  On a previous 4 day back country trip my ski boots had given me bad blisters.  I did exactly what everyone tells you not to do - I bought new boots and didn't really have time to truly test them out before the trip, but I was lucky it turned out to be fine.

I brought all the the regular stuff on the check list provided by the guides - what I wish I had was my own crocs for the huts, a magazine and not the book I brought and more energy bars.  I had brought 1 per day + fruit leather, next time I will bring 2 per day.

Day 1:  ski the Mer de Glace

Beautiful sunny day, this was a day for the guides to see our skiing abilities and for the group to ski together.

Day 2: begin the traverse - night in the Trient Hut

This was the longest day and a day that we used all our equipment; skins, boot crampons, ski crampons, ice axe, and harness for descending 220 feet.  The weather was all over the place; cloudy, sunny then cloudy again.




Hut etiquette: 

• leave your skis outside or in the ski room if there is one
• leave all your sharp objects in a basket in the entry, usually with your ski boots; crampons, ice axe, probe and shovel
• grab a pair of hut slippers; usually crocs
• backpacks in your room or hall, not in the main dining area
• the groups have assigned tables for eating and are served at the table
• the dorm rooms varied from your own bunks to a platform of beds; the pillow and comforter were provided



Trient hut

 Day 3: ski from Trient Hut to Champex - bus, train, multiple trams and skied to Mont Fort hut


Woke to mixed weather conditions; whiteout, clearing.  This was a mixed transportation day; ski, climb, then ski into a resort, catch a bus, catch a train, than tram it up and ski down to the Mont Fort hut which is actually in the Verbier ski resort.




Day 4: ski from Mont Fort hut to Prafleuri hut - summit Rosa Blanche


Mont Fort hut

 

 Skinned out of the resort in overcast weather, over the col out of the ski report.  The sun broke through for great summit views on Rosa Blanche.  Skied down to the hut for the night.

Day 5: ski from Prafleuri hut to Dix hut - afternoon tour



Prafleuri hut



Cold and clear for our early start to the Dix hut, a very long traverse along Dix lake.  Afternoon touring around the Dix hut in the sun.



Day 6: ski from Dix hut to Vignettes hut

Again mixed weather day; whiteouts and clearing. Lots of climbing and then ski down to the spectacularly located Vignettes hut, perched on a rock face.



Dix Hut



Day 7: ski from Vignettes hut to Zermatt or Arolla in my case



This was going to be one of our longest days - "A full map day" as the guides referred to it.  But we woke to complete white out, howling winds and falling snow.  All the groups in the hut waited as long as we could for the weather to clear and in defeat we slowly snowplowed our way down the mountain into the town of Arolla, where we caught a taxi with another America group for Zermatt.



Vignettes hut







Guide:

NW Mountain School

Post trip beer in Zermatt

Books:

The Haute Route Chamonix - Zermatt: A guide for skiers and mountain walkers by Peter Cliff

Chamonix to Zermatt:  the classic Walker's Haute Route By Kev Reynolds



 More photos of the trip:





BIG SHEEP BASIN, WALLOWA SKI TRIP

Kitchen/Guide Tent

camp

morning beacon check before heading out for the day

Low avalanche danger determine - we proceed down one at a time 

looking back at our lap tracks  

At the end of March I am heading to France to do the famous ski traverse; the haute route, more on that later.    While I have put in a lot of ski days this winter, I have not put in any multi days of climbing and skiing and I was starting to get nervous about my upcoming adventure.  I called CB at Wallowa Alpine Huts who was happy to help me out with a few options.  I signed up for a 6-person exploration trip.  Turns out that CB/Wallowa Alpine Huts is in the process of buying Wing Ridge Ski Tours and they are exploring the areas that are new for them to be guiding in.  The purchase of Wing Ridge Ski Tours gives CB a monopoly on the huts in the Wallowas.The trip began Thursday morning with a huge breakfast at Chandler’s Inn in Joseph, OR.  After filling ourselves up with food and caffeine, we got our stuff together, checked beacon batteries, then loaded into our cars for a 30-minute drive to the parking lot where we would begin out skin up from.  The weather was beautiful – cold and sunny.

A beacon park was recently built near the parking lot and warming hut;we were able to test our beacons out before we set off over Wing Ridge.  We skinned up over Wing Ridge and did a few laps on a south facing ridge that we could ski right to the tents from.  The tent camp consisted of 4 tents; an A-frame wood shed; two guest tents that slept 5 + people, a cooking/guide tent and a sauna tent.

We quickly settled in; got a fire going to dry our clothes, then met up in the cooking tent to exchange adventures and to get to know each other.   This group was primarily from Seattle; 4 lawyers, 1 doctor, 1 chemist and me, a land use planner.  I did a lot of listening.  The group from Seattle was a close knit activity group - they did many b/c ski trips, and skied at Alpental every Wednesday night.  This was their annual guy trip, but they were very accommodating to have me crash their trip.  We all settled easily into the routine of camp; 7:00 am coffee, 7:30 breakfast, out of camp with lunches packed by 8:30, skin, ski repeat for the day, return for happy hour around 5:00 pm, dinner around 7:00, early to bed repeat, repeat.  Good living!

This trip was an excellent preparation trip for my upcoming adventure – I left with having to figure out my boot situation and blisters that need to heal.  

Luckily I have enough time for both.

RESOURCES:
Big Sheep huts
Wallowa Alpine Huts
Northwest Weather and Avalanche Center