Keith Pearen Endorses Barack Obama for President

I went to see Barack Obama at his rally in University of Denver this morning. The place was packed! The official estimate was 14,000 - 18,000 with almost half in overflow auditoriums. I managed to get great seats in the main auditorium right behind all of the media. It was by far the rowdiest political rally I have been to and I was quite impressed by seeing Obama in person. Obama was introduced by none other than Caroline Kennedy who invoked the memory of her father as a unifier for the America. Obama's speech stayed pretty much along the lines I have come to expect from seeing him debate and stump on TV.

Change and unification continued to be the primary themes. There were a couple of things about today's speech that stood out to me. First, Edwards withdrew from the race today and Obama had nothing but praise for his former rival. He devoted a significant amount of time saying that he will carry out the primary foundation of the Edwards platform, including education and health care for poor working class Americans as well and getting corporate lobbyists out of Washington. This was a blatant attempt to lure former Edwards supporters and it was great to hear some of my favorite aspects of Edwards' platform included in Obama's.

Second, Obama clearly made two cases for his cause over Hillary's without mentioning her by name. His argument that we need a candidate that will not unify the Republican party against us particularly appealed to me. The Bush/Cheney administration has unified a majority of the country firmly against them and the next Democratic administration can learn from this mistake.

"That's how Democrats will win in November and build a majority in Congress," he said. "Not by nominating a candidate who will unite the other party against us, but choosing one who can unite this country around a movement for change."

Obama also came back to the fact that he was against the second Iraq war back in 2002 and outlined a plan to end the war. he was clearly referring to Hillary when he said, "It is time for new leadership that understands that the way to win a debate with John McCain, or any Republican who is nominated, is not by nominating someone who agreed with him on voting for the war in Iraq, who agreed with him in voting to give George Bush the benefit of the doubt on Iran,"

Obama finished by blasting the current administration for being, "Strong and Wrong" and pledged to be "Strong and Right." I am pretty excited that the Democratic National Convention will be held here this summer.

Next Sport

I know what sport Melvin is going to buy gear for next.

More Pics

Cota was acting a little cold so I threw him in my pack.


He really seemed to know that this arrangement was for the best.


Breakin' trail for the dog. I personally think this is a gear catalog worthy picture. Thanks to Ben Hayes for capturing all of these great images!

New Assignment

I got assigned to the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and LCROSS missions today. This image is taken from the NASA website. As you can see, we are going to crash a Centaur upper stage into the moon! How cool is that? The plume of polar moon material is expected to reach 30 miles in altitude. Check out more info here.

Weekend Fun

Cota gets a little chilly when we go skiing, so I have developed a number of methods to keep the little guy warm. On Saturday he was fine as long as we were moving, but when we stopped he started shivering, so he wore my jacket while I froze. We also did the backpack trick for a while, except this time I dropped him in while wearing the DAS parka. I think he really liked that.

I just completed one of my wonderful three day weekends. Dane was in Summit County staying at his parents place in Frisco while on break from teaching NOLS courses. The Sherstads were kind enough to share their beautiful home with me for the weekend. I headed up Thursday evening straight from work. In order to accomplish this I took Cota to work with me for the day on Thursday. He was a big hit at work and quite well behaved.

On Friday, Dane and I skied at A-Basin for the grand opening of their new Zuma chair. At 11 o'clock there was a line about 100 wide and five deep waiting to drop into the new lift-serviced bowl. When the patrol cut the rope, the ensuing Chinese downhill was quite entertaining. Picture hundreds of skiers varying in ability level trying to get to the powder first. I did fairly well and my prize was waist deep freshies in the trees near the bottom of the run. Everything was completely tracked out in about ten minutes. A-basin is by far the best ski area I have visited in Colorado, it has a nice gritty feel to it, slow lifts, good skiers, and solid terrain. I bought a ticket Friday, but since it never got scanned I have another day there at any point before the season ends.

Saturday, Josh and Ashley joined us for some backcountry skiing on Mt. Baldy. It was a really mellow area with deep powder and no risk of avalanche. After a couple of laps, we decided to build a kicker over a cabin. Initially Josh and Dane favored a minimal construction effort jump, but I set in motion my plans for a slightly more elaborate kicker. Once they saw the light in my visionary plan, a few minutes of work created the best jump I have ever had the pleasure of hitting.


On Saturday, we built a real nice booter over this cabin. Here I am mid-back-flip. The landing was a little on the flat side, but it didn't really matter because the snow was so deep.

Sunday Josh, Dane and I returned to Lincoln Falls for more ice climbing. We did the two pitch central gully. I lead the first pitch, my first ice lead, at a moderate WI3 and Dane did a great job leading the vertical upper pitch. later in the day, I made the mistake of leaving my wallet on the roof of the car when we drove away. Some other ice climbers found it and of all the ways they could have contacted me, they latched onto Boulder Rock Club membership card to track down my number. I had some cash in my wallet to cover postage and it should arrive in the mail tomorrow. I am really happy that there are still nice people in the world.

Ski Pics

For once I wasn't the one with the camera! Ben Hayes takes great photos and skied with the Dickman brotheres and myself on this pow day at Tumalo. Look how far apart those Oregon trees are!

2007 Wrap Up

Last year finished nicely with two weeks of not working. My company is kind enough to close it's doors and send everyone home for the holidays. I like my job for sure, but I enjoy not working way more. To celebrate, Mel and I drove out to Oregon.

The drive out was smooth and we arrived in Corvallis a full six days before Christmas with a majority of our holiday shopping completed. We filled this time eating to train for Christmas day and working out so we could eat more. We also had an EPIC ski day at Meadows with 13" of new, sunny skies and minimal wind. I had a new pair of fatties that absolutely rip although I don't recall making too many tele turns. Josh and I made liberal use of the kleenex trick and kept befriending the folks 3-5 spots up in line to keep the waits short. We finished a great day with a couple of pints and about 20 friends at the Laurelwood brewery in Portland.

Christmas was wonderful! I got a pair of beautiful bookshelves crafted by my parents. They look gorgeous in our bedroom and I am totally jazzed to have somewhere to put my books. The next day, Mel had to return to Boulder for work, so I picked up Phil and we went skiing. Another EPIC day, only 10" of new this time around, but it snowed another 8" or so while we were there and the ample wind insured that we got fresh tracks every run. We found a couple of great lines in the trees and made laps until we could take no more.

On my return trip to Colorado I stopped through Bend and visited with Josh and Cate. Their new house is spectacular and it was great to catch up. The brothers Dickman were also in town and we had a BC ski day on Tumalo and some midnight sledding to keep us entertained. I then began the long drive back to Boulder. The roads were pretty bad everywhere except Idaho and I saw a lot of vehicles in the ditch. I had the immense pleasure of driving I-80 east of Laramie in full conditions.

Just for the record I want to include the daily snowfall history for Meadows during the period I was in Oregon. It simply does not snow like this in Colorado. Thats 12 feet of new in 13 days. Snowfall is represented in inches.

17-Dec 14
18-Dec 15
19-Dec 9
20-Dec 20
21-Dec 7
22-Dec 4
23-Dec 4
24-Dec 13
25-Dec 11
26-Dec 14
27-Dec 6
28-Dec 10
29-Dec 18