20120206Monday Feb 6 At Edwards preparing for Vance Cabin 3 day trip

Today Steve and I had planned to buy a lift ticket at Beaver Creek and spend the day skiing the downhill slopes. But that did not happen. I woke up fighting fit and completely over jet-lag. The previous day's climb had only invigorated me. But Steve woke up in a mess. His eyes were swollen and his head and nose not working at all. Julz had serious "new boots" problems and need to get them adjusted and tested before our nest hut trip.

I decided that I really should finalise having my stitches removed from my mole wound. I needed to get this done before our next hut trip to prove there were no infection problems. So Julz took Steve and I to the local medical centre and we booked in there for treatment.  I was pleasantly (very!) surprised to find out that this practice did stitches removal for FREE. I asked no questions and accepted the free treatment thankfully (This is the USA - free medical!!).  Steve paid $75 (~$AUD72) which isn't much different to OZ. He was also given free sample packs of anti-histamines and he has slept for the day.

Julz has us booked into a wine tasting tonight and we sampled some very nice wines from Oregon. Again we met the locals and discussed important topics like bike riding.

My main concern was resolved today and Julz got her boots adjusted correctly today in time for our big 3 day trip to Vance Cabin tomorrow. We spent the remainder of the night packing for the trip and organising food.  We will be out of contact for 3 days.

There is new snow supposed to fall today and the avalanche report is not good. The route to the Cabin is on the SW slopes of the range above Tennessee pass and these slopes should be least prone to avalanche dangers.

We tested all our safety beacons tonight and I was very impressed with the performance of my beacon. I will be easily able to find the others!!! Don't worry their beacons are excellent but mine is better - I should give mine to someone else :)