I climbed within 20 vertical meters of the top of Lower Boob Mountain the other day.

If you look outside our window, you can see two mountains off over the M-Wave building. From this perspective and that from much of this part of the city, you would swear that they were meant to emulate a voluptuous relative of the Jolly Green Giant. Since I had no class until 3, I took it upon myself to do a little mountaineering up along the ridge line. Jennifer and I had attempted to summit Greater Boob this past summer on an incredibly hot and humid day, we were forced back by lack of supplies and also lack of will. I decided I wasn'a ganna stand fer it anna' moer!

My new boots proved to be adequate and the snowshoes that I purchased for the low low price of $50 last week were actually unnecessary, though I lugged them all the way up just in case. I could have used them at the top, where the snow was about a meter deep, but the terrain was so steep as to prevent their effectiveness. What I really could have used were some ice axes. You know, the kind that mountaineers always carry to help them through all kinds of snowy and icy terrain , and which also may be used as a crude hunting implement or means to defend against wildlife gone amok.

As we touch on the subject of wildlife gone amok, I ran into 3 examples of the unique and strangely zen Japanese Kamoshika. The animal is rather like a goat but when you bumble across one you are momentarily unsure what to think. Dawn, the Kiwi from Suzaka usuall describes them, "You know, Kamoshika, the pig-dog-goat-bear things." Fortunately for me, they are incredibly docile (often giving the impression of stupidity) and allowed me to take several choice pictures of them.

I finally reached the not-quite-summit and then, realizing the time, lept down the mountain in a quarter of the time that it took me to get to the top. That's the beauty of jumping into giant snowpatches, they don't hurt you, unless they're covering pits or logs.

Overall it was a successful expedition. Next, I will make an attempt at Greater Boob. My report will be featured exclusively on this website.