Mount Dana

Felt that I should mention what a great ski season it was in the Sierra. We hit all sorts of nice spots, some new and some now our yearly staples.

This is a spring shot of the Middle Palisadas. Not a human track in sight.

The highlight might've been our last run of the season on the last weekend of June. If you had told this Virginian that you can ski in June, I might've looked sideways and wished you luck on that patch of ice in the shade. However, the Sierras make all things possible. With a great group of friends, we traveled 9 or 10 miles over scree and talus in ski boots to find snow half way up Mount Dana. At 13,000 Mount Dana is the second highest peak in the Yosemite high country. We reached the summit and skied off of a cornice on the backside, which was sort of thrilling for me - the first time I've jumped off of a cornice - no matter that it was pretty small. We skied the Dana Coulior, which is one of the nicest shoots I've come across. Blisters and dehydration aside, it was a hard trek to beat. 

The History of the OC: All that I never thought I would need to learn

One of my maps was converted to a wallpaper vinyl.

I like a little research with my art.

So, thanks to this latest installment, I got my fill of Orange County culture and history. Let's see what I have learned.

Some details:

• The last Californian grizzly bear was hunted down and killed in the Santa Ana Mountains in 1908. The rancher/beekeeper responsible was nicknamed Holy Jim because he had a way with curse words. Now there's a hiking trail named after him.  

• With my in-house surfing aficionado, I have all of the surf spots along the south coast.

• Mission San Juan Capistrano has some pretty beautiful ruins. There's an annual migration of swallows that come from Argentina to nest at and near the mission. Supposedly because the friar invited them after a local store owner was swatted the birds away.

• I have no stats, but I really wonder how many car accidents the nightly fireworks at Disney cause on the 5 freeway.

• The Santa Ana Zoo has have at least 50 monkeys or they lose their funding. 
• There's a huge wooden blimp hangar from WW2, one of the largest wooden structures in the world in Tustin. No one can access it, and it's not in use because the US Marine Corp has it tied up in a bureaucratic dead end.
•  Similarly, the OC has one of the largest helium balloons in the world, also tied up in bureaucratic controversy. The former Marine base was slated to be a huge community development including multiple stadiums, 5k of housing, museums, even a man-made canyon and wildlife corridor, but claims of embezzling, cronyism, and mismanagement of public dollars has left the whole project at a dead end.

New Map Up - With a Print!

Some new map work. This UK map got me in the mood to travel through England, Scotland, and Ireland to draw castles. This print is in my shop if you like.

It was a nautical theme, so I started with these seemingly disgruntled .. or smug whales.

John O'Donohue is one of my favorite poets. This passage is for crossing new thresholds in life.

You can buy a print of this map in the STORE.

Frustration is wanting a different outcome without putting any more or any different kind of effort into the objective.

~ Arno Ilgner | The Rock Warrior's Way

 

I think about this quote all the time, whenever I get frustrated and annoyed. I always ask myself if I'm willing to do anything different and usually the answer is no. So this definition for frustration is spot on.