Being a pioneer is risky, but sometimes you just have to air it out.

Such is the slogan hewn from a raw chunk of hubris to describe my new spectacles. I enjoy that I managed to pick this pair out of the whole shop, unaware that this would be the lifestyle that I will be representing when I put them on to read a book, check my email, or pioneer some other risky business. I have purchased the dream.

However, I have a suspicion that somewhere in the bowels of a marketing consultancy in California, there's an intern pumping out endless slogans which then get randomly assigned to products. The name of my spectacles is "Amelia" (that's the name written on them.. not my pet-name for them). Somehow "airing it out" and "Amelia" seem like an odd match. Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of Amelia airing it out as much as I enjoy that I managed to pick glasses with a girl's name out of a selection including "Tyson", "Chase", "Rhett", and "Braden".

So, what exactly is Rhett doing while Amelia is airing out some risky pioneer-business? I'll tell you. "Frankly, we don't give a damn, and neither should you. Round and retro is a prayer for squares who dare". I'll stick with Amelia.

...Tock

In March 2010, Lina, Paul, Kala, and myself climbed Mount Baker in a day. In 2014, Paul, Angie, Marc, Nikki, Guillaume, Chuck, Kala, and myself climbed Mount Baker in two days. This is conclusive proof that the law of entropy applies to not only the order of things, but also the size and duration of mountain climbing adventures. Ok, it doesn't really... but whatever.

What is conclusive is that climbing volcanoes is fun, lemon cake is tasty, MSR stoves need love too, and camping in the snow is great. Photographic evidence:

.

Something that came to light via the magic of Facebook is that the summit in 2010:

...was rather less hospitable than the summit in 2014 (thanks for the photos Paul):

Especially if you look at it from further away (thanks for the photo Nikki):

I'm done with skiing now, it's time to start riding bicycles. Or more precisely, increase the amount of bicycle riding within the system. We're all part of the system.