Between the Pfeif and Box Elder

Red up, Green down

Andy and I started a bit late this morning with hopes of catching up with John, Jason B, and Adam somewhere in the vicinity of Box Elder.  We all figured there would be plenty of mellow terrain/ridges to play around on, there were.

 The long approach from the Dry Creek Trailhead in Alpine was surprisingly filled in and we were able to skin all but the first 1/4 mile.  The early crew put the skinner in all the way until we caught them topping out some no name bump on the ridge just to the NE of Box Elder. After skiing a forgettable crusty shot off the bump, a the ridge heading up towards White Baldy caught our eye.  We traversed over and did a little scrambling until time commitments had us heading back.  It was kind of a gloomy day but once again, Utah County did not disappoint! 

John low on the ridge

John, JB, Adam

Andy on his way to work, note the 145 cm nordic poles 

JB, also on his way to work, Box Elder in the background

Citizen's Series/La Sportiva ski raffle UPDATE!

The second to last Citizen's race was another success with about 40 showing up.  More on the race can be found from Andy and Adam so here's  just a short clip of the race's winner on the final booter of the day.  I was battling the Samurai most of the night until he nabbed the lead with a flawless transition.  I stood in the transition zone fumbling as Jared ran away with the win.  Andy and his discussion is as follows...

Breaking people, being broken, both are part of what makes racing fun.  Good job Jared, you have the upper hand, for now. Don't forget to show up next Thursday and try to break your friends for the last time before the Powderkeg. As extra incentive La Sportiva will be raffling off a pair of skis.  Fill out the from below or HERE to enter the free raffle.  Pretty good odds of winning, be there!

CORRECTION:  The ski drawing will be for not-yet available GTR skis, a new ski in Sportiva's 2012-13 lineup!!

The 9th and final Wasatch Citizens Skimo Race will be held on Thursday, March 1, 2012 at 7:00 pm at Brighton, Utah.

We will conclude the inaugural series by giving away a pair of Sportiva GTS skis.

Here are the rules:

1. To be eligible for the drawing, you must have participated in at least one WCS Race.

2. To enter the drawing, you must fill out the form below, or at http://citizenseries.wasatchpowderkeg.com/

3. Procedure for drawing: (a) based on form  submissions (paragraph 2), a list of all entries will be compiled; (b) each entrant will get 1 entry for each race in which he or she has been a participant; (C) a randomly numbered list of all entries will be compiled; (D) each entry will be assigned a number between 1 and the total number of entries; (E) a randomly selected person at Molly Greens will select a number between 1 and the total number of entries; (F) the selected number wins the GTS skis!

4. You must be present to win.

Thanks and Good Luck!

Throwin' Buckets?

The boys heading up

Warren came to visit from California and we were treated with not only good company but also some new surfer lingo - Taking a trip to the Green Shack, throwing buckets...  Apparently carving on a wave and throwing up a spray is referred to as "throwing buckets."  We figured we'd venture out and a throw some buckets of our own.  This was to be Warren's first trip into the backcountry and we had big plans. Like so many other times this year avy danger was high and our terrain was limited.  An unimaginative trip to Short Swing still made for a good outing.

Andy rocking the skinny skis

More

Warren, 1st day out, throwin'

Also, second to last Citizen's Skimo Race tonight at Brighton, 7PM.  Meet at the base of the Great Western lift.  Come, get faster, have fun, try to win a pie.

2-18-2011 Alta to Millcreek

Friday Andy and I went north to south from Millcreek to American Fork.  As we were shuttling back to SLC a brief conversation with Jared had me convinced to leave my car in Millcreek for the night so on Saturday we could tour back over from Alta.  He promised a powder filled tour and his and Chad's good company, how could I say no? 

Catching the 6:11 bus (6200 south) had us skinning to Cardiff Pass as the sun started coming up.  Chilly with clear still skies, beautiful.  We didn't have a specific route drawn for the traverse and the North Face of Superior had been skied since I last saw it Friday morning. It said, "ski me." No joke, we all heard it.  

Early morning light heading to the Black Knob

???

In the name of safety and sticking to the conservative theme of the year, we skied off the Black Knob instead. Jared even offered to drop a little rock band to "bomb it" for us (not that conservative for Jared but he did it for team safety).  The slope passed our bomb test and we were rewarded with the best run of the year.  


During the flat runout Chad found a patch of hidden rocks, with his head.  Luckily he had on his helmet (hat) and nothing worse than a little blood and a headache came of it.  As we skied out Cardiff we kept looking back wondering why we were leaving the best snow of the year.  It came down to two reasons.  1, and most importantly, we took the bus up and our cars were either at the park and ride or in Millcreek. 2, laps can get boring.  Doesn't matter how good.  

Jared

Happy Chad

Bloody Chad

From there the tour ended up better than expected.  The ski cross race out of Cardiff was a blast, Jared easily took the win, and the skin up Mill D was pleasant (sunny, good skinner) if not a little uncomfortable (fast).  We decided to hit Reynold's Peak which found us sitting above a north facing powder shot.  Once again fantastic skiing.

Since we'd found good snow the whole day it seemed like heading up Wilson and getting one more shot was in order.  A quick hike up the shoulder had us looked at the Wilson Chutes.  Just like Superior, they had a set of tracks in them.  They also said "ski me."  Tempting.

Even with the tracks we figured we better not so we skied back to the saddle just east of the chutes.   This led to a long untouched tree run down to the road.  I would have stopped and grabbed a few pictures but I didn't want to get left behind, these guys don't need breaks.  A long skate/ski out and we were back at the car heading home for breakfast.  Jared's promise of powder and good company was fulfilled, not a bad way to spend a morning.

Heading towards Reynolds

MIllcreek to American Fork Canyon

We're still a little scared of the snowpack this year so we decided  to go for a safe tour.  The idea was to start at the winter gate in Millcreek Canyon and end at Tibble Fork Lake in American Fork Canyon, purposely avoiding any high risk avy terrain.  Avoiding avy terrain detracts a little from the tour but what can you do?  Once we're more comfortable with the snow, adding classic shots off of Raymond, Kessler, Superior, The Pfeiffhorn, Box Elder, etc will make this tour a classic!

Since Andy had to work at 5 we set a strict finish time of 2:30.  If it looked like we weren't going to finish in time then we'd pull the plug wherever we were and try to hitch a ride back to the car.  Andy also worked until 1 AM last night so we (he) didn't want to start too early.  This left us with a leisurely 8 AM (exactly) start and a race pace effort all day to try and squeeze it in.

Climb 1, Millcreek winter gate to Dog Lake.  This was a pretty upbeat effort and set the tone for the rest of the day.  I think we both felt sluggish right out of the car but a little high cadence skinning let us find a good rhythm.  Thanks to whoever put the skinner in from the summer parking lot to the lake, 1:42 (total time).

5 miles of road to start

Descent 1, Dog Lake to Cardiff Fork.  Most of this was a bobsled track out Mill D.  We were fortunate enough to catch a little breakable crust heading to the BCC road.  It's great, all day we skinned up the powder and skied the breakable,  2:12.

Climb 2, Cardiff Fork to Little Superior.  Once again we found a nice skinner leading up Cardiff, under Toledo peak, and up to the ridge just east of Little Superior.  Since we were racing the 2:30 deadline, we kept gunning for this whole section, 3:25.

Decent 2, Little Superior to Snowbird.  This was fun. Breakable crust the whole way down.  What more can I say, 3:48.

Climb 3, Hidden Peak.  After a going hard all morning we both started to feel a little heavy.  We figured if we could top out around 1 PM then we'd look at the map and make the call.  Once in the warming hut the Snowbird Ski Patrollers were kind enough to offer up a little help.  They recommended descending Mineral Basin, heading out of the lower backcountry gate, and then following a snow mobile trail out to Tibble Fork.  Since it was just before 1:00 and we had good beta it seemed like a good idea to push on. Of note, we both looked like clowns heading up Snowbird in full Lycra.  Our favorite heckle came from  a "rad" skier.  He skied by and just yelled, "LAAAME!"  Given what we looked like I can't really blame him for stating the obvious, 4:50.

Lame, full lycra at the Bird

Turn around?

Descent 3, Hidden Peak to Tibble Fork. This descent went exactly as the patrollers said it would.  A lot of low angle skating.  Turns out it's a LONG way down from the Peak to Tibble Fork, 5:52.

Lucky for us little sister Aimee agreed to pick up her two dirty brothers and shuttle us back up to SLC.  Sorry about the foul smelling boots.

 Even though we only toured on mellow terrain, it was still good to get out and cover some ground.  I'm not sure how many people have done this little tour but I think more should.  It's safe, you see a ton and it's good exercise.  Do it.

Glad to be done

Official Clock

Stats: (both millage and elevation are estimates, lost my Garmin)

Millage - 25-30 miles
Elevation - 7-8000'
Time - 5:52
Food- 2 Gu's, 1 bagel, 1 fruition bar, 2 32 oz Gatorades

MIddle Teton Speed Ascent - From snowshoes to race gear

"Neener Neener!"

Last week after getting out late from work I was dreading a cold run in the dark when I got a picture text from Nate and Brian that read “Neener Neener.”  They had just skied the Middle Teton in 4 hours and 38 minutes. Button pushers.  Every time I've been in the South West Couloir on the Middle it's been a good time so I was psyched to give it a try.

 My first run in with the SW was a handful of years ago when Andy and I were still using snowshoes for winter travel (horrible idea).  We left Indiana at noon, drove 24 hours through the night and found ourselves at the Bradley Taggart trailhead bleary eyed and ready to start making our way towards the Ford-Stettner.  Since we were starting in the afternoon we planned to bivy in the meadows.  After about 8 hours of snowshoeing in waist deep powder we were only 1000 feet off the valley floor, not even close to the meadows,  exhausted, and angry for having lost an ice tool and a down jacket (dropped them off a cliff in the dark).  Punters.  We bivied frustrated.  The next day we, miraculously, were able to recover our lost gear and then decided to bail on our Ford-Stettner plans and head towards the easier SW on the Middle.  Although the effort was there, we turned around well before the summit with massive cramps and hurt egos. Chalk that one up as a learning experience.

Fast forward a few years and we decided to head back. This time armed with better tools.  We had AT gear! I was on Fritchi Freerides, BD Killowatts and some 1980’s Dynafit boots.  Tanner had his classic rear entries, Fritchis and some equally heavy skis.  Andy was pushing the light end of the spectrum with Scarpa NTN boots, Killowatts and FT 12’s.  We had a true alpine start and summited many hours later under perfect blue skies. The descent was icy, kind of scary, amazing.  Although speed was nowhere in the equation this little adventure was a blast.  It was the first peak any of us had skied in the Park and thepossibilities seemed endless. Sticky mashed potato snow and poor skiing led to a great series of shots coming out of South Fork.

Nate starting the day

Last Thursday I was able to get back on the Middle again, luckily Nate could come too.  This time we were both in race boots/skis/bindings and the ever fashionable lycra.  The idea was to go fast, under 4 hours.  35 minutes into the morning we were skinning by Andy’s and my bivy site from years before.  35 mins!  It took us 8 exhausting hours the first time, the right tools make a   difference.

Despite an icy skinner we kept rolling pretty well to the meadows and hit Lunch Table Rock in 1:14.  From here the going started getting slower.  The few inches of new snow had drifted forcing us to break relatively deep trail most of the way up into South Fork.  Once in South Fork, “cold and windy (30-40mph temps in the teens)” was the name of the game and we were both glad we brought hand warmers along.  Firm snow broken up with talus led us to the base of the SW which was BONEY. We ended up booting the top 300 feet or so as it was small patches of snow interrupted with easy rock steps.  We fell short of the 3 hour summit goal by 5 minutes but still were hopeful for a sub 4 hours car to car effort so we turned it around in a hurry.

Heading towards South Fork

Nate on the summit ridge

Obligatory summit shot

Defective DyNA Evos

The first few turns felt squirrelly in my brand new, never used Dynafit DyNA EVOs but it wasn’t until I was out of the SW that problems started.  I felt my right boot pop and all of a sudden I was lurching forward out of control.  Any forward pressure and the lock mechanism would come undone.  Thinking we could fix the problem Nate and I took a bit of time to have a look.  No ice in the mechanism, no snow in the boot cuff, everything looked good so we kept going.  The problem continued.  There was nothing to be done but keep falling back to the car.  What would have been an enjoyable ski out turning into a frustrating series of falls. I went from saying, “I love these boots!” to “These pieces of shit!” all in a matter of a few minutes. Turns out the boot came missing an important piece (more here).

Once down to the Lake the skate/skin out was tiring but uneventful.  Nate stopped the watch at 4:14.  Not quite what we wanted but we were both tired and happy with the effort.  It always feels good to have gunned it for that long.  The time will certainly go faster given quicker travel conditions and functioning boots. Maybe close to 3 hours? 



iPhone video by Nate


Three different trips up the SW of the Middle in three very different styles.  All memorable, all enjoyable.  I've heard people say a "race" effort in the mountains takes the fun out of it.  I would have to disagree and argue that there's something to be said about efficiency.  It's certainly more fun than snowshoeing.

Citizen's Series Great Western Time Trial

Robby Babbit about to work hard, trying not to get chased down

The Citizen Series roles on.  Last night there was a time trial to the top of the Great Western lift.  Everyone started 30 seconds apart and raced the clock to the top.  I was driving back from Jackson and made it just in time to take a few pictures.  Come next time! Visit http://citizenseries.wasatchpowderkeg.com/ for more details.

Train of lights

Andy and ?

Tom Goth, Men's Winner

Dynafit DyNA Evo, factory defect? UPDATE

1lb 8 oz

I wore my Evo's for the first time today.  The goal was to climb and ski the Middle Teton via the SW couloir as fast as possible (more to come on this). The boots climbed as well as expected (very well).  Only problem was the down, the right boot kept unlocking.  If you've ever skied a boot like this than you know it's very difficult to ski when in walk mode.  I fell my way down the whole mountain.  Luckily I didn't fall into Idaho and only have a sore wrist and ribs.  After looking at the boot it appears Dynafit forgot to add a vital piece of metal that keeps the boot in ski mode.  This leaves me with two thoughts.  First, if the day's objective is important stick with gear you've used and trust.  Second, WTF? They forgot to finish making their boots?  They retail for the price of a cheap car, you'd think they could get it right.

***After a quick email exchange with Dynafit they agreed to send me a replacement spoiler (red piece).  It was a relatively easy switch and now the boot functions as expected.  As I said here, I think these were a contributing factor for the Powderkeg win!  Minus the rocky start, I'm loving the boots!***

Citizen's Series Sprint Relay

Another great turn out for the Citizen's series, about 50.  The format was similar to the Sprint Race recently seen at the North American Championships except we made it a 2 man team relay and had each team member go twice.  Teams were divided up as evenly as possible with each team consisting of one member on race gear and the other member on anything else.  From the gun it was a fast start thanks to Tom Goth, he made everyone feel like vomiting.  Apart from the nausea, the race was great.  I think everyone realized that fast transitions are key in a short event like this. Special thanks to Brighton for helping the Wasatch get fitter (the CAT  driver was especially cool as he waited to groom the course just to let us race).

The first leg of the relay, blurry pain

Layne Caldwell mid booter

 As always we met at Molly Green's for awards (pies, thanks to Andy for buying), drinks and food.  Although we may have looked weird, a good time was had by all.  Jared and Morgan made up the winning team.  For some reason I think the team made up of a USA skimo team member and an olympic nordic skier may have had the advantage...

Next race is scheduled for 7 PM next Thursday.  Tell your friends.

Winners

Ninjas?

North American Ski Mountaineering Championships

The 2 day North American Championships added the "mountaineering" part of the equation back into Skimo.  There may be a few bugs to work out but the course was amazing.

Day one consisted of a 2 lap sprint course.  The first lap was an uninterrupted skin track and the second was a skinner with a boot pack in the middle.  At about 200 feet per lap this race was over quick.  Everyone was seeded, the fastest seed started first with the next fastest starting in 30 second intervals.

I started right in front of Andy and had a good first up.  The next 2 transitions were a fumbling mess which cost me some time and had Andy right on my heels.  I started the next lap moving well only to find one of my skis falling off and Andy gapping me.  Turns out the lock mechanism on my toe piece broke during warm up and I tried to "fix" it with duct tape before the race.  I guess my fix didn't work.

After I grabbed my ski and put it back on I was able to catch back up before the transition to the boot pack.  Once again junkshow Dorais showed up and I fumbled with my pack trying to put my skis on, Andy got on the booter quickly and was gone for the rest of the race.  On top of the boot pack there was an short 50 meter skin to the last transition.  Right after putting my skis on one of them fell back off costing me more time. At this point Reiner, who started 90 secs behind me, was catching up.  Knowing my race was pretty bad, I transitioned fairly well and finished with frozen hands (the car read -18 driving in) in 20th place.

Sprint results:

1  Reichegger Manfred      0:04:48
2  Thoni Reiner                 0:05:09
3  Holzknecht Lorenzo      0:05:10
4  McNab Andrew             0:05:19
5  Koles Jan                       0:05:24
6  Scheefer Travis              0:05:27
7  Dorais Andy                  0:05:36
8  Thomson Marshall         0:05:39
9  Inouye Jared                   0:05:44
10  Brown Jon                    0:05:53

Day two was the traditional race.  From the get go the Italians were out in front and it stayed that way to the end.  Pretty impressive.  The first climb started with low angle skinning up to multiple switch backs leading to Guide's Ridge.  The technical switch backs caused a small traffic jam.  Going hard enough to get in front of the traffic turned out to be a good move.  Being able to move through the switch backs quickly allowed me to gain the ridge in good position, right behind Luke.  We pretty much climbed to entire ridge unimpeded.  Apparently there was another traffic jam behind us on the ridge.  Two traffic jams avoided!  After summiting, Luke put in a great move coming off the peak.  By the time I got off the fixed line he had already run down a few hundred feet, put his skis on, and was skinning away from me.

Climbing Guide's Ridge (photo from http://gooneyriders.typepad.com/) 

Picture stolen from the http://goldenskimo.wordpress.com

 I was hoping to bridge the gap but over the next two 1000' foot laps I couldn't really get going.  I think trying to race above 10,000' made everyone feel a little sluggish and positions stayed the same from there on.  I was especially lucky to hold my position after getting lost and finding myself on the wrong side of the mountain.  Since the Italians aren't North American they let us little people stand on the podium.







Great pictures can be found at:
http://crestedbuttephotography.smugmug.com/Livelihood/Randonee-Racing/2012-ISMF-Crested-Butte/21256478_mk8LWm#!i=1692302214&k=hH3TxqM

Final Two Day Results:

1  Reichegge Manfred          Italy                          1:58:35 2:03:23
2  Holzknecht Lorenzo         Italy                          2:02:06 2:07:16
3  Thoni Reiner                    Canada                      2:07:38 2:12:47
4  Nelson Luke                    United States              2:13:32 2:20:11
5  Dorais Jason                    United States              2:18:20 2:24:58
6  Thomson Marshall           United States              2:21:04 2:26:43
7  Inouye Jared                    United States              2:23:53 2:29:37
8  McNab Andrew               Canada                      2:26:55 2:32:14
9  Scheefer Travis                United States              2:29:45 2:35:12
10 Dorais Andy                    United States              2:28:54 2:35:30
11  Brown Jon                       United States              2:30:47 2:36:40