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Betty Bear 2006 - Julie and I and 12 others spent the weekend of February 4, 2006 at the Betty Bear hut in the Sawatch Range between Aspen and Leadville. The weekend didn't get off to a very good start. I was a bit sick the last few days of the week. Then late Friday night the phone rang, and I learned that a good friend of mine from high school, Lance, (though I hadn't seen him much since high school) was admitted to the hospital (and straight into ICU) that morning in San Clemente, CA. Lance was dying of organ failure due to alcoholism.
The next morning my sister, Megan, was waiting for us at the trailhead. In Basalt she realized that she would arrive quite early at the trailhead so she stopped at a coffee shop, picked up a newspaper, and read: Peace Corps worker killed by shark in Tonga. It was Tessa, a ski patrol colleague of hers at the Santa Fe Ski Basin. In the summer they worked as guides for rival rafting companies on the Rio Grande and Chama. It was the 3rd ever recorded fatal shark attack in Tonga. She was swimming with a local in a place where locals regularly swim.
The ~7-mile ski to the hut was uneventful though I was brooding over Lance. Our group consisted of some people I knew: Megan, Krista, Kurt, Coy, Dan, Richard, Mike; some people I didn't know: Wendy, Bob, Sue, Bruce; and one person who Julie and I had probably met before: Peter. During the weekend we never could figure out how we know Peter. The best guess was that we met in Tibet or Nepal in late 1994 since we were all there at the same time. However, we don't remember a specific meeting.
I felt crappy at the hut. It wasn't surprising given my sickness, the altitude (11,100'), lack of sleep the night before, and emotional distress. I spent Sunday resting, thinking of Lance, and reading Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being, the book I happened to choose a couple days earlier when I packed for the trip. Most people spent Sunday skiing the fresh powder and making some good turns.
Early Monday evening Julie and I weren't home 10 minutes before the phone rang with news of Lance. He was still alive, but the prognosis was grim. The liver and kidney still weren't functioning. Dialysis worked Saturday but not Monday. Lance died the following morning. He was 37.

Tags:   id_node_id_52036 id_perms_bryan_public id_album_52035

© All Rights Reserved

This photo appeared in the following ideotrope albums:

Betty Bear 2006 - Julie and I and 12 others spent the weekend of February 4, 2006 at the Betty Bear hut in the Sawatch Range between Aspen and Leadville. The weekend didn't get off to a very good start. I was a bit sick the last few days of the week. Then late Friday night the phone rang, and I learned that a good friend of mine from high school, Lance, (though I hadn't seen him much since high school) was admitted to the hospital (and straight into ICU) that morning in San Clemente, CA. Lance was dying of organ failure due to alcoholism.
The next morning my sister, Megan, was waiting for us at the trailhead. In Basalt she realized that she would arrive quite early at the trailhead so she stopped at a coffee shop, picked up a newspaper, and read: Peace Corps worker killed by shark in Tonga. It was Tessa, a ski patrol colleague of hers at the Santa Fe Ski Basin. In the summer they worked as guides for rival rafting companies on the Rio Grande and Chama. It was the 3rd ever recorded fatal shark attack in Tonga. She was swimming with a local in a place where locals regularly swim.
The ~7-mile ski to the hut was uneventful though I was brooding over Lance. Our group consisted of some people I knew: Megan, Krista, Kurt, Coy, Dan, Richard, Mike; some people I didn't know: Wendy, Bob, Sue, Bruce; and one person who Julie and I had probably met before: Peter. During the weekend we never could figure out how we know Peter. The best guess was that we met in Tibet or Nepal in late 1994 since we were all there at the same time. However, we don't remember a specific meeting.
I felt crappy at the hut. It wasn't surprising given my sickness, the altitude (11,100'), lack of sleep the night before, and emotional distress. I spent Sunday resting, thinking of Lance, and reading Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being, the book I happened to choose a couple days earlier when I packed for the trip. Most people spent Sunday skiing the fresh powder and making some good turns.
Early Monday evening Julie and I weren't home 10 minutes before the phone rang with news of Lance. He was still alive, but the prognosis was grim. The liver and kidney still weren't functioning. Dialysis worked Saturday but not Monday. Lance died the following morning. He was 37.

Tags:   id_node_id_52037 id_perms_bryan_public id_album_52035

© All Rights Reserved

This photo appeared in the following ideotrope albums:

Betty Bear 2006 - Julie and I and 12 others spent the weekend of February 4, 2006 at the Betty Bear hut in the Sawatch Range between Aspen and Leadville. The weekend didn't get off to a very good start. I was a bit sick the last few days of the week. Then late Friday night the phone rang, and I learned that a good friend of mine from high school, Lance, (though I hadn't seen him much since high school) was admitted to the hospital (and straight into ICU) that morning in San Clemente, CA. Lance was dying of organ failure due to alcoholism.
The next morning my sister, Megan, was waiting for us at the trailhead. In Basalt she realized that she would arrive quite early at the trailhead so she stopped at a coffee shop, picked up a newspaper, and read: Peace Corps worker killed by shark in Tonga. It was Tessa, a ski patrol colleague of hers at the Santa Fe Ski Basin. In the summer they worked as guides for rival rafting companies on the Rio Grande and Chama. It was the 3rd ever recorded fatal shark attack in Tonga. She was swimming with a local in a place where locals regularly swim.
The ~7-mile ski to the hut was uneventful though I was brooding over Lance. Our group consisted of some people I knew: Megan, Krista, Kurt, Coy, Dan, Richard, Mike; some people I didn't know: Wendy, Bob, Sue, Bruce; and one person who Julie and I had probably met before: Peter. During the weekend we never could figure out how we know Peter. The best guess was that we met in Tibet or Nepal in late 1994 since we were all there at the same time. However, we don't remember a specific meeting.
I felt crappy at the hut. It wasn't surprising given my sickness, the altitude (11,100'), lack of sleep the night before, and emotional distress. I spent Sunday resting, thinking of Lance, and reading Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being, the book I happened to choose a couple days earlier when I packed for the trip. Most people spent Sunday skiing the fresh powder and making some good turns.
Early Monday evening Julie and I weren't home 10 minutes before the phone rang with news of Lance. He was still alive, but the prognosis was grim. The liver and kidney still weren't functioning. Dialysis worked Saturday but not Monday. Lance died the following morning. He was 37.

Tags:   Dan Peter Mike Kurt Krista Bob Sue id_node_id_52038 id_perms_bryan_public id_album_52035

© All Rights Reserved

This photo appeared in the following ideotrope albums:

Betty Bear 2006 - Julie and I and 12 others spent the weekend of February 4, 2006 at the Betty Bear hut in the Sawatch Range between Aspen and Leadville. The weekend didn't get off to a very good start. I was a bit sick the last few days of the week. Then late Friday night the phone rang, and I learned that a good friend of mine from high school, Lance, (though I hadn't seen him much since high school) was admitted to the hospital (and straight into ICU) that morning in San Clemente, CA. Lance was dying of organ failure due to alcoholism.
The next morning my sister, Megan, was waiting for us at the trailhead. In Basalt she realized that she would arrive quite early at the trailhead so she stopped at a coffee shop, picked up a newspaper, and read: Peace Corps worker killed by shark in Tonga. It was Tessa, a ski patrol colleague of hers at the Santa Fe Ski Basin. In the summer they worked as guides for rival rafting companies on the Rio Grande and Chama. It was the 3rd ever recorded fatal shark attack in Tonga. She was swimming with a local in a place where locals regularly swim.
The ~7-mile ski to the hut was uneventful though I was brooding over Lance. Our group consisted of some people I knew: Megan, Krista, Kurt, Coy, Dan, Richard, Mike; some people I didn't know: Wendy, Bob, Sue, Bruce; and one person who Julie and I had probably met before: Peter. During the weekend we never could figure out how we know Peter. The best guess was that we met in Tibet or Nepal in late 1994 since we were all there at the same time. However, we don't remember a specific meeting.
I felt crappy at the hut. It wasn't surprising given my sickness, the altitude (11,100'), lack of sleep the night before, and emotional distress. I spent Sunday resting, thinking of Lance, and reading Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being, the book I happened to choose a couple days earlier when I packed for the trip. Most people spent Sunday skiing the fresh powder and making some good turns.
Early Monday evening Julie and I weren't home 10 minutes before the phone rang with news of Lance. He was still alive, but the prognosis was grim. The liver and kidney still weren't functioning. Dialysis worked Saturday but not Monday. Lance died the following morning. He was 37.

Tags:   Dan Richard Bruce Megan and Julie id_node_id_52039 id_perms_bryan_public id_album_52035

© All Rights Reserved

This photo appeared in the following ideotrope albums:

Betty Bear 2006 - Julie and I and 12 others spent the weekend of February 4, 2006 at the Betty Bear hut in the Sawatch Range between Aspen and Leadville. The weekend didn't get off to a very good start. I was a bit sick the last few days of the week. Then late Friday night the phone rang, and I learned that a good friend of mine from high school, Lance, (though I hadn't seen him much since high school) was admitted to the hospital (and straight into ICU) that morning in San Clemente, CA. Lance was dying of organ failure due to alcoholism.
The next morning my sister, Megan, was waiting for us at the trailhead. In Basalt she realized that she would arrive quite early at the trailhead so she stopped at a coffee shop, picked up a newspaper, and read: Peace Corps worker killed by shark in Tonga. It was Tessa, a ski patrol colleague of hers at the Santa Fe Ski Basin. In the summer they worked as guides for rival rafting companies on the Rio Grande and Chama. It was the 3rd ever recorded fatal shark attack in Tonga. She was swimming with a local in a place where locals regularly swim.
The ~7-mile ski to the hut was uneventful though I was brooding over Lance. Our group consisted of some people I knew: Megan, Krista, Kurt, Coy, Dan, Richard, Mike; some people I didn't know: Wendy, Bob, Sue, Bruce; and one person who Julie and I had probably met before: Peter. During the weekend we never could figure out how we know Peter. The best guess was that we met in Tibet or Nepal in late 1994 since we were all there at the same time. However, we don't remember a specific meeting.
I felt crappy at the hut. It wasn't surprising given my sickness, the altitude (11,100'), lack of sleep the night before, and emotional distress. I spent Sunday resting, thinking of Lance, and reading Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being, the book I happened to choose a couple days earlier when I packed for the trip. Most people spent Sunday skiing the fresh powder and making some good turns.
Early Monday evening Julie and I weren't home 10 minutes before the phone rang with news of Lance. He was still alive, but the prognosis was grim. The liver and kidney still weren't functioning. Dialysis worked Saturday but not Monday. Lance died the following morning. He was 37.

Tags:   Julie id_node_id_52040 id_perms_bryan_public id_album_52035

© All Rights Reserved