Packing for Nepal

Today I finally had motivation to jam everything in my pack for Nepal. Before doing so, I took a picture of all the stuff I'm dragging to the other side of the world!

Lots of layers! I had a bit of a hard time packing since the temperatures in Nepal vary quite a bit in the winter. Here's a description of the weather we're expecting: "The weather is cool and the sky is clear with occasional snowfalls at higher elevations. This season is good for trekking in lower elevations. The morning and night is cold and the days are warm when sunny." Temperatures range from lows in the 20s to highs in the 70s (F). That's a pretty huge range!

3 days until Belgium and 13 days before I arrive in Kathmandu!

XC Skiing at Bear Swamp

Snow is hard to find around Ithaca this year, so a bunch of us decided to go searching for some powder elsewhere! We had a lovely day of cross country skiing at Bear Swamp State Forest, just southwest of Skaneateles Lake. Here's a map of the trails! The crew included Rob, Ben, Sarah, Emily, Rick (Emily's dad), and me. We departed from COE a little after 10am (after waiting for Ben to polish his rental skis...). The drive from Ithaca was approximately an hour.

About 5 minutes into the trip it was clear that I am by far the slowest XC skier ever. It probably didn't help that I went with a bunch of experts... The moments between falling on my face were quite enjoyable!

Most of the trails were really nice and fluffy with snow, but towards the end the trail followed a creek which was not frozen. This resulted in some very ice-laden skis which made it feel like we were snow-shoeing instead of skiing.

On the ride home we chatted and munched on some chocolate bars that Rob brought - yum! Also, this was my last day of adventures with Emily before she graduates and moves back to Colorado! I'm gonna miss this girl! Hopefully I'll have some Colorado posts in the near future...