JD

Winter! Picture of the Day

2012-03-19T20:28:00.000-06:00

With the idea of going long we squandered the best snow of the year on low angle terrain and race skis. I guess we're slow learners, still pretty good though. If I could call in sick tomorrow I would.

Jared somewhere between Millcreek and Big Cottonwood

Wasatch Powderkeg 2012

2012-03-17T13:24:00.001-06:00

The Wasatch Powderkeg is the best ski mountaineering race in the country. Over 150 people came out this last Saturday and we were all treated with sun, icy skinning, supportable crust, breakable crust, powder and an overall good time. Thanks Chad and Emily for all the work. I think they placed and picked up several thousand flags. Without their help this race would have died a long time ago.

Emily and Chad? marking the course (photo from http://wasatchpowderkeg.com/?page_id=242)

I had a good race and can think of many contributing factors but three stick out in my mind. The first was course recon. Jared and I went up the afternoon before and skinned/skied through the slushy moguls that were going to freeze ovrnight and turn into technical skinning the next day. Knowing this, I chose to use wall to wall skins and Jared used ski crampons. When everyone else was struggling, we both cruised and happended to top this part of the climb in 1st and 2nd. The right gear choice makes a difference. The second, real race boots. This was my first race in my Dynafit Evo's and I couldn't be more pleased. They're a pound and a half (per pair) lighter than my previous race boots (TLT 5's) and the lack of weight was noticable. Again, the right gear makes a difference. Third, work. Not working out, job work. This month my schedule has been pretty hectic so I haven't had a ton of time to get out. Although I'd rather do something big everyday, a forced rest was probably good for the race. More of Chad's photos and links to others can be found here, enjoy!

Happy to be close to the top of the last climb (photo from Aaron Smith's facebook album)

Also, congrats to the rest of the Wasatch. I'm no Powderkeg historian but this has to be the strongest Wasatch based contingent ever. Hopefully we can keep things rolling through the spring and summer!

Powderkeg Recon?

2012-03-05T14:57:00.007-07:00

Up orange, down green

Jared and I got out this morning with intentions of scouting the Powderkeg course (sign up HERE, more info HERE). Next thing we knew we were on top of Mt Millicent looking towards Wolverine Cirque talking about traversing ridges around and back towards the East end of Brighton. It was sunny, the ridges looked safe, and we both knew the PK course pretty well already so the off we went. Although the scary snowpack kept us off a lot of desirable terrain it certainly felt like a tour.

Stupid Chute, almost ready for the race

Wolverine Cirque with 1 set of tracks

Jared off the Mt. Wolverine shoulder heading for another climb up the ridge outlined with sun

Wasatch Citizen's Series - The Grand Finale

2012-03-02T06:30:00.005-07:00

We held the last Citizen's Series race last night at Brighton. Like the others, it was a success. Again big thanks to Brighton for allowing all of us to run around their resort. The CAT driver Greg was especially cool again changing up his entire route just to accommodate. The format was a two person team relay with each team member completing a total of 4 ups and downs. Just like last time, an attempt was made to divide teams fairly evenly.

Pre-race

After the customary fast start, burning lungs, and the Samurai pulling his usual time saving stunts (having a second set of skis at the transition skinned up and ready to go) it boiled down to a two man race. Jake vs. Blake. It was back and forth until Blake a massive skin failure on the final climb giving the win to the team of Jake and Andy.

Jake vs Blake

Winners

Although many were excited to be out getting a little exercise, others were anxious to get to Molly Green’s and find out who was going to win the Powderwhore swag and La Sportiva GTRs. Names were placed in a boot with the big win going to Tim!

All in all it was great start to the Citizen’s Series. I’m looking forward to see what the next year will bring. It seems like there has been a great response and hopefully the sport will continue to grow. For those of you who sat at home last night, SHAME!

Another winner

Between the Pfeif and Box Elder

2012-02-27T16:56:00.001-07:00

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!

2012-02-25T23:05:00.013-07:00

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!

<p>&amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Loading...&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt;</p>

Throwin' Buckets?

2012-02-23T16:01:00.002-07:00

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

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

2012-02-19T17:03:00.001-07:00

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

2012-02-17T17:56:00.003-07:00

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

2012-02-13T09:09:00.005-07:00

"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

2012-02-10T20:31:00.005-07:00

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?

2012-02-09T23:54:00.006-07:00

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.

Citizen's Series Sprint Relay

2012-02-03T16:21:00.000-07:00

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

2012-02-02T10:28:00.006-07:00

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

New Snow/Avy Danger

2012-01-24T18:54:00.003-07:00

Skied with Alexis, one of the Plum Binding pioneers, the other day. The skiing wasn't very interesting but it was good to be out of the resort meeting new people. The Avy carnage was impressive, multiple slides on short swing. If Mill D is sliding I can only imagine what's going on in the rest of the Wasatch. Once again, patience is the name of the game, be careful.

More evidence of a dangerous year found here.

Alexis, sunshine, untracked powder

One of many slides in the lowish angle trees

Race Skis...

2012-01-17T10:18:00.001-07:00

I did 2 x's Great Western hard this AM. Considering it was -14 mid mountain, I thought 28 mins each lap was a good effort. I was rewarded on the way back to my car with this...

I'm not exactly sure how it happend. But I do remember my other ski (undamaged) falling off and me landing on my back. Junkshow.

1-12-2012 Citizens Series Skimo

2012-01-13T13:10:00.002-07:00

The Wasatch is speeding up. Last night 40+ backcountry skiers gathered at Brighton to red line it for 60 mins. Andy set a course that was about 400 vertical feet and featured a 75 foot booter in the middle of it. The idea was to do as many laps as possible in the 60 min race. Afterward, we all gathered at Molly Greens for prizes, food and drinks. It's good to see people out moving fast and getting fit. Stay tuned to http://citizenseries.wasatchpowderkeg.com/ for updates. If you subscribe then you'll just get emails sent to you with any updates. A few pics from Chad.

The crew warming up

Teague winning the customary pie, 7 laps in 1 hour, nice work

Ethan winning the big pie for being the youngest participant

US Ski Mountaineering National Championships/Grand Targhee Classic

2012-01-09T22:36:00.001-07:00

1-7-2012 Jackson

With low snow conditions the SLC crew was expecting a challenging, moguled course. Jackson did not disappoint. The start for some reason had everyone sprinting. Once that settled Scott Simmons and Marshell Thompson were out and pushing hard. I slowed worked my way up and pulled even with Luke in 3rd, thinking the guys up front would come back over the next few hours. Right then I started having trouble skinning. This was likely due to my poor technique but since I waxed my skins that morning I couldn't help but blame them. After several switchbacks on the groomer and a lot of wasted time and energy I found myself changing skins mid climb. I had a pair of unwaxed full coverage BD mohairs complete with toe and tail clips which I used the rest of the day (I know Brian, shameful). This little mishap took me from 3rd to roughly 15th place and I completely lost contact with the lead. Feeling like I had ruined the race before it started I was stuck playing catch up the rest of the day. Slowly working my way up I eventually shared a few transitions with Marshell towards the end of the race. He got out a touch before me on the second to last descent and I lost sight of him. At the next transition he was no where to be seen. Apparently a wrong turn put Marshell in the middle of nowhere and out of the race. Unfortunate. The last up felt a lot longer than I would have hoped but was uneventful (as was the down) and positions stayed the same. Once again, the guys at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort put on a great event. Hopefully they're showered with snow storms for their efforts.

Results:

1. Luke Nelson 2:38:58

2. Scott Simmons 2:40:59

3 Jason Dorais 2:43:42

4. Brian Wichensauser 2:47:32

5 Ben Parsons 2:48:47

A brief video of the race:

Andy paying respect

1-8-2012 Targhee

Coming off the Jackson race I don't think anyone I talked to was too psyched to race again. At least this one was a little shorter. The first up I found myself slipping again. I topped out in 4th hearing Jared scream, "Junkshow Dorais." He was right. I was lucky enough to come out of the transition to climbing in 3rd and position stayed the same throughout the next up. The second descent was eventful. Ben Parsons and I followed Luke for the first half. We all pulled even when Luke and I began to struggle. At one point I found myself on my head looking at my skis and the sky. Apparently Luke found himself in a similar situation and was asking himself weather or not he was concussed. We both watched Ben rip the rest of the descent. I figured we just gave him the win. My transition before the last up was pretty quick and Ben only had 5 secs on me. Right after he started going, his skins popped off. His great DH was erased with a simple skin malfunction. Because of that I got out of the transition 1st with Luke about 80 feet back, Ben still struggling with skins. Feeling pretty blasted from the last days effort I was lucky to hold the other guys off for that last short climb. A long descent to the finish had us all laughing and feeling cold. Again big thanks to the Targhee guys especially Andy Williams for putting on a great race. It definitely had a good backcountry feel with the majority of the race off piste. A few pictures.

A painful start

Cold and glad to be done

The Samurai with a broken sword

Harassment

Frosted

Results:
1. Jason Dorais 1:41.11
2 Luke Nelson 1:42.26
3. Ben Parsons 1:43.59
4. Jared Inouye 1:45.40
5. Cary Smith 1:46.03

Holiday Ski Mo Racing and Brighton's New Uphill Traffic Policy

2011-12-28T17:27:00.002-07:00

Everyone's smiling!

Pre-race briefing by Brighton Patroller Dodge

We've gathered 3 times since Thanksgiving to tour with/race against each other. These "races" have covered roughly 5000' vertical feet and typically last 2-3 hours. There's been a pretty good turnout with a wide variety of racers ranging from the serious in full body spandex suits and carbon fiber boots to the recreational on big split borads and sledding pants. Regardless of race ambitions, everyone's had a good time and become a little fitter. Fitness is the goal after all, right? These types of efforts are great preparation for many longer days in the near future. Since there's been a good turn out, we're going to try and keep the low key races going for the rest of the winter. A twice monthly series is in the works. Be in touch if you want a text or email with details. Here's a short video Andy made from Matt Pittman's footage of the "Wasatch vert 120."

Everyone psyched for the "Skin the Turkey"

Also, big thanks to Brighton for being truly skier friendly and allowing us get in a little exercise at their resort. They have recently published their up hill skiing policy here. Thanks guys!

12-23-2011 Pre-race conditions

2011-12-23T16:29:00.001-07:00

We went out to scope a course for tomorrow's “race.” Our hopes of taking the race through parts of Wolverine Cirque were dashed when we found conditions to be less than ideal. Wind scoured and firm at the top of Huge Chute with a slabby apron down low.

Jared scoping the course

No matter, the chosen course will still be the best yet! All are welcome to come, meet at the base of the Milly lift tomorrow (12/24) at 7:30 sharp. Be there. Once again, Andy will provide pies to the winners! Leave me a message or leave Andy one here if you want more details.

12-22-2011 First day of winter, first bail of winter - Suicide Chute

2011-12-22T16:21:00.001-07:00

Andy and I decided to get out on this first day of winter. We figured Suicide Chute might be a reasonably safe place to be so we headed up to check it out. The apron, as expected, was still rocky. As we turned the corner and made it into the chute proper we were greeted with interesting conditions. It was cold, the winds were ripping, and the snow was varied. The snowpack was more or less as follows:

1. 3-5" of wind slab

2. 5-6" of new snow

3. 1-3" of hard slab

4. 4-5" of rotten sugar

5. Rocks, lots of them

We also noted minor cracking on these new isolated wind drifts. To quote this morning's avy report,

As always, avoid all slopes approaching 35 degrees or steeper with recent wind deposits. They will usually look smooth and rounded and they will crack or collapse under your weight. Many of these avalanches will gouge down to the ground so it will be a nasty, rocky ride. This bumps the consequences up far higher than you would expect with a similar sized avalanche with a deeper snowpack.

Not wanting to go for a "nasty rock ride" we bailed, only to find ourselves skinning for exercise in a ski resort again. Oh well, patience is the name of the game for now.

Andy entering Suicide Chute

Retreat

12-19-2011 South Summit, Mt Timpanogos - FRESH AIR!!!

2011-12-19T15:25:00.003-07:00

Aaron and Isaac Inouye heading up Primrose Cirque

While the valley floors were covered in pollution, Aaron, Isaac and I hiked to the South Summit of Timp in search of a little fresh air. Starting at Aspen Grove under clear starry skys we quickly made it up Primrose. Once it was light enough to turn headlamps off we noticed a hugely obvious inversion. It felt pretty good knowing we weren't down there breathing it all in. From there on it was one of the prettiest trips I've made up Timp. I'm not sure why, maybe it's because this year most my skiing has been "training (uphill laps at a resort)" and not "touring," maybe it was the inversion, maybe it was the fantastic morning light, maybe it was knowing how bad the air was down low. Whatever it was, this morning was spectacular. A few pictures to prove it...

Clear morning skys and the moon above Timp

Aaron and Isaac towards the top of the snowfield

The boys at the saddle

Once we hit the saddle it was obvious there wasn't going to be any skiing going on to the West. Since the South Summit is so close and Aaron already said "today feels like a summit day" we felt the need to go stand on it. Tiring loose rock led to more scenic views...

Just leaving the saddle

Inouyes summiting

From the summit we walked back down the loose rock and started skiing from the saddle. Conditions ranged from breakable to supportable to week old powder. Over all not too bad. There were, of course, a few lurking shark fins.

Aaron on top of the snowfield

Someone got caught by a shark

As everyone already knows, new snow will lead to dangerous conditions. I'm glad I got up the Utah County classic before things get worse. Maybe you should too.

12-5-2011 Roberts Horn Climb/Ski

2011-12-09T15:08:00.004-07:00

Sam's beta photo

Sam and Aaron have been scouting Roberts Horn recently and kept talking about some ice flow that appeared to be coming in. After hunting ice earlier this year I thought a big flow was unlikely, It wasn't until Sam's photo was passed around that I started to believe.

Jared on the approach

I picked Jared up at 6:15 and we reluctantly headed down to the County knowing that ridge tops would be hovering around 0 degrees. The idea was to climb the ice on the East Face Roberts Horn with skis on our packs and then ski off the shoulder down into Primrose. Parking at 7:30 we thought the cold would be the only hard part of the day. We geared up (Purposely leaving 2 headlamps in my car, no need right? We thought we'd be fast.) and skinned off to find the ice. A few wrong turns and a short bushwhack had us reaching the base of the climb just as the sun started hitting it. I won the draw of the first lead and was surprised with how much steeper the climbing felt than it looked. Placing screws proved to be challenging all day. I'm not sure if it was due to my lack of skill, my cold hands, or Jared's unfamiliar screws, probably just my punterness.

East Face of Roberts Horn, Photo by Jared Inouye

Pitch 1, Photo by Jared Inouye

Pitch 2 is described by Mountainproject as a very thin ice smear rated WI? or a rock face rated 5.8. We found nothing to match that, instead there was a slightly hollow flow that was vertical with a short band of thin ice on 75 degree rock. Lucky for me it was Jared's lead. I only heard a few curses as he unexpectedly came across the thinly covered rock section. It sounds like there was a bit of sketchiness/tools popping off as he pulled through the rock, good lead.

Jared sending pitch 2

Pitch 3 is described by MP as a low angle ice ramp. Once again we encountered something completely different. Pretty steep ice lead to a long snow ramp which led to another roped pitch (4) of vertical ice. Pitch 4 proved to be hard for our skimo trained arms. Both Jared and I were pumped out of our minds as we tried to protect it. I ended up shamefully hanging to placed a screw after trying to start it for 5 minutes. Oh the shame.

Pitch 3

After that, we figured the roped climbing was over and we'd just slog our way to the top. Once again we were wrong. Route finding was a little tricky as we had to snake around impassable (for us) features. We pitched out or simul-climbed multiple sections. Turns out this took a LONG time. Every rock band we pulled over was followed by more rock/thin ice/punchy slabby snow. Not knowing what was around every corner left us with doubt as to wether or not we'd be able to top out. Luckily we did, hours later, just as the sun was setting.

Thin ice over limestone slab, fun?

Sunset on Robert's Horn

Our fun ski out turned into a moonlit survival ski session. For some reason we found ourselves on top of several rather large cliffs when we tried to enter the top of Primrose. Two phone calls later we were in the right spot (thanks Sam). A few thousand feet of clickity clack and multiple core shots later we were at the car taking our first drinks of the day. Not exactly how I saw the day going but all in all it was a good time.

P.S. We're having a friendly little Skimo Race tomorrow (12/10) at Brighton, 9AM. It's going to be in the format of the Canadian Vert 180 race. I think we'll make it a Vert 120 though. See goldenskimo.wordpress.com for details. Be there.

West Slabs Attempt/Early Season Skiing

2011-11-15T03:34:00.005-07:00

The approach

Jared had another good idea today. He drove to work, looked up at the West Slabs on Olympus, and promptly texted saying he'd ditch work before it started if we could go climb. Even though I could only imagine crampons sparking as they skidded on slab, how could I say no? If nothing else this would be good training for bigger winter goals.

I'm not sure why we thought we'd feel comfortable simul-climbing but after a few feet we realized we better pitch it out. 70 mins later we were both at the first belay station looking at the clock. If I remember correctly, it's about an 8 pitch climb. 8x70 = a long time. Since I had to be at work in 2 1/2 hours it seemed unlikely. We bailed. At least we have a future project. I give it a 7 on the sketchy scale even though Jared seems to think it's less. Either way, it'll make for a good outing given the time.

Jared Inouye, pitch 1, West Slabs, Mt. Olympus

Timp, soon.

On another note, the skiing over the past few weeks has ranged from bad to excellent. It doesn't really matter, it just feels good to be outside. Unfortunately the snow is spare. Main Baldy remains the go to spot. A few pics...

The crew as the sun broke

Adam Okeefe, Main Baldy

Photo stolen from www.tetonsandwasatch.com

10-21-2011 Rim to Rim Speed Attempt, The Grand Canyon

2011-10-22T12:30:00.004-06:00

Exactly 18 days ago I said I would never go back to the Grand Canyon. If I would have stuck with it, I would have missed out on perhaps the most miserable few hours of my life. Jared and I ran Rim to Rim to Rim on the 3rd. I thought we did pretty well, especially making the half way point in 4:20 (9:45 total). I was content. A few days later Andy went down after working all night and went 3:43 Rim to Rim and finished in 9:12. He said his 3:43 was pretty casual. This made me reconsider.

The Rim to Rim fastest known time is 3:06.10 by Jared Scott. That seemed fast but within reason. For the last 10 days or so I couldn't get that time out of my head. I constantly thought of splits and how to make 3:06 happen. The plan was to run hard through Phantom Ranch and then use poles and try to finish at about the same speed we did on the 3rd. This what followed:

Splits
Cottonwood Campground 45 mins (6.8 miles)
Phantom Ranch 1:31 (13.7 miles)
3.5 Miles to go sign 2:20 (17.4 miles)
South Rim 3:19

North Kaibab as my sun disappeared

The first 15-16 miles were on pace, maybe a bit ahead. I ran out of drink and felt the first tired twinges about 2 hours in and from there slowly fell off pace. There's a fair amount of flat runnable trail up the South Kaibab. Each time there was flat trail I would run but a few steps later would start cramping, not good. I was stuck moving slow as the watch kept ticking. I repeatedly tried to speed up but the cramps in my legs just wouldn't let it happen. 3:19, not even close.

Thoughts
1. In retrospect I went out too hard. That was the plan though. I figured it was better to set myself up to run fast with the risk of dying then play it conservative and never be close. I died. A little pace specific training would have gone a long way.
2. Walking behind a donkey train for 8 mins didn't help. This probably only cost me 4 mins since I was walking the whole time but it's still a little annoying walking through fresh logs and puddles.
3. 1.5 liters of water just isn't enough in the desert when the high's 85. I had electrolyte tabs and gu to spare but with no water they did me no good. I guess there's always next time...

Blisters?

After topping on the South Rim I realized I could barely walk. I had some gnarly blisters on my feet, no food, no headlamp, no jacket, had to work the next day, and for some reason had no ride back to the North Rim. That left me with 21 miles back to my car. Since I was cramping while sitting, I wasn't sure how the rest of the day would go. Thinking I might end up spending most of the night out suffering while trying to get back, I took the shuttle to the Village to "prepare." I ate, bought a jacket, and got excited. As expected, it was horrible. 85 degree temps were nauseating, the sun gave me a headache, trying to run induced cramps, my blisters ached. Knowing that if I couldn't run the misery would last a very long time was the worst part. All I could do was laugh, walk, and enjoy the discomfort. Mind numbing. I had a phone with music but I kept it off, I figured I would need the battery life since it was my only light source. I did. Too bad the cop who pulled me over didn't see me shuffling up the North Rim 45 minutes earlier, in the dark, with my phone light guding the way. If he had, maybe he wouldn't have given me a ticket.

10-15-2011 Main Baldy Chute again

2011-10-15T22:27:00.003-06:00

We went up to Baldy yesterday, it was so good we figured we had to go back. Today, not as good. Still beautiful though. A few pictures.

The drive up

Andy high on Baldy Shoulder

Alissa Tolley Bushnell also on the shoulder

Side slipping the ice

Tanner Bushnell skiing between the ice

10-7-2011 Main Baldy Chute

2011-10-07T17:07:00.001-06:00

First ski day today. It was great, loads of rocks, horrible skiing, great.

Jared Inouye on day 1

Our skinner in Main Baldy

Andy had to work until 10 this morning so he missed out on the AM ski. I thought he was going to cry so we went back up for round #2. Equally bad skiing but it still felt great to get out. A few pics.

Andy about to ski the "clicketty clack"

Andy, more "clicketty clack"

The drive out was beautiful, yellow leaves and snow.

10-3-2011 Rim to Rim to Rim, The Grand Canyon

2011-10-04T13:43:00.004-06:00

Since running the Trans Zion earlier this year we've been talking about the rim to rim to rim. Schedules didn't work out for everyone but luckily Jared had Sunday afternoon and Monday off so we headed down for a quick trip. We worked out splits to make the round trip in under 10 hours. Our North to South goal was 4:20. After starting just after 7 AM we quickly ditched our jackets as the sun was getting hot, fast. The first section is a 5 mile down hill off the North Rim and down to the "caretaker cabin." We were expecting to move a bit quicker on this section but the trail was pretty steep in places and the footing not always very secure.

Jared off the N. Rim

More Jared

From the "cabin" it's a pretty nice low angle down for 8 miles to Phantom Ranch. We got back on schedule here but we both noticed that our legs felt fatigued. All the down was a little harder than expected.

Heading to Phantom Ranch, main branch of the GC in the distance

From Phantom Ranch we crossed the Colorado and had a 7 mile up hill to the South Rim. We thought we were ahead of schedule until we saw a sign that noted 3.5 mile to go, demoralizing. This was 3:30 into the day and were we slowing a bit. I looked at my watch and for a second it read a 25 min mile. If we kept that pace we'd top out at 5 hours and our hopes for a sub 10 hours trip would be over. It was warm and we were a bit tired but we both decided to go harder than comfortable in order to have a chance. Running past hordes of hikers we hit the rim at 4:20.50.

Up the S. Kaibab

View from close to the top

A quick water break at the top and we were back running. Jared's GI problems for the day started after eating wasabi/soy sauce almonds on the S. Rim. In retrospect, maybe not the best warm weather food... Back down to Phantom Ranch he was fighting dry heaves and over heating. Passing the trains of mules was ridiculous. We had to wait until they could pull off the trail and then slowly walk behind them hoping we didn't get kicked.

"Scariest part of the day."

S. Kaibab

Once down to the Colorado, we lounged in the water for a few minutes before starting the 8 mile low angle up hill to the "caretaker cabin." This is were the GI distress worsened. The 7 miles of dry heaves down to Phantom Ranch left Jared a little behind on nutrition, not a good place to be with 13 miles of up hill to go. We walked/shuffled the next 6 miles glad for the overcast skies and rain, the whole time hoping Jared's GI would settle and that he'd be able to put down some food and come back to life. With 7-8 miles to go it looked like we'd have to walk it out since Jared couldn't hold down food. He insisted I run it out and try to hit our goal. Feeling bad for leaving my partner (not bad enough to stay) but motivated to break 10, it was a very uncomfortable/hard effort for the next 2 hours. To make matters worse my watch died 8:10 into the day. I had the last big climb to do without knowing how close I was to the 10 hours mark. Knowing we started at 7:04AM I kept asking hikers for the time and going as hard as I could. 4:47PM once I hit the trailhead made the total time right around 9:45. Turns out after I left Jared he tried to drink a little Coke, 10 minutes later it came right back out. He had a rough last few hours but topped out just under 11 hours.

Afternoon rain on the N. Rim. Notice the bridge down low.

We left the N. Rim around 6 PM and then had a long drive home. Jared only vomited once in the car on the drive back, he managed to keep it in his mouth and get his window down only to spit it out all over the door, gross.

Stats:

Total elevation gain: 10,710

Total milage: 41.8 miles

Total time: 9:45 (give or take a few mins)

Food: 20 gu's, 1 probar, 1 oz beef jerky, 1 Phantom Ranch lemonade

Total SLC to SLC time: 32 hours

9-28-2011 Grandeur Peak TT

2011-10-04T10:05:00.000-06:00

The SHTC was 5 deep for a TT of the west ridge of Grandeur Peak, steep. 23 mins to the junction, 44 to the top. All 5 of us were under 60 mins. Even though everyone whined about it being hiking club instead of track club, being on the Grandeur summit in golden hour was worth it.

9-22-2011 Timp, Lone, Nebo Failure

2011-09-23T21:58:00.001-06:00

We've been talking about skiing Timp, Lone and Nebo in a day all winter. It even had a name, The Car Traverse. Since I had the day off I figured I better give the summer Car Traverse a go. Logistics are pretty easy, eat and drink whatever sounds good as you drive to the next trailhead.

I had partners, Andy and Matt, for the first leg up Timp but that was it. The day started really well. Weather was perfect, cool and sunny. We leisurely jogged up Timp laughing most of the way and continually commenting on how nice the morning was.

Andy and Matt heading up

After hitting the saddle we ran into an annoyed little goat. He stared us down for a few minutes before we decided to sneak past. A little scary.

Matt and our friend

The run down was great, casual, almost even peaceful. After a little over 3 hours we were down and Andy and Matt had get back up to SLC. This left me with two more peaks and a lot of alone time to go. I was feeling so good I didn't want to ruin it by talking to myself and suffering all day. Actually, heading back to SLC and eating lunch with the guys just sounded like a lot more fun. I guess I'm a ______. We'll be back and make it a group effort.

More Andy and Matt

9-17-2011 Center Thumb, Lone Peak

2011-09-18T17:36:00.001-06:00

I was on Lone Peak last week and saw a few parties on Center Thumb, since then I've been thinking about getting back. Jared had most of the day free and was psyched on doing a little climbing so after the saturday morning soccer games we were off. Our 11:15 start had us looking at nothing but clouds. When we finally got a view of the cirque we saw snow! Although the first snow of the season is exciting, snowy ledges/wet rock don't help climbing. To make matters worse clouds started to build and snow started falling the second we entered the cirque. We sat, shivered, and ate while trying to decide what to do. It came down to the good ole, "We might as well take a look."

Scattered damp holds and full on wet cracks made the first few pitches a bit more insecure than I would have liked. Luckily the sun came out and things seemed to dry out by the time we made it higher on the thumb. Turned out to be almost perfect climbing weather.

September snow clouds?

"My feet hurt." No, this face was not posed. Notice the snow.

Jared cruising the crux pitch

The late start had us summiting right when Jared had to be home. We skipped any further climbing plans for the day and had a quick jog out, GC training. Golden hour wasn't too shabby.

Jared and the County

2010-2011 My Favorite Pictures

2011-09-15T00:50:00.004-06:00

After loving Adam's picture review, I figured I'd go through some old pictures and gather my favorites from the past year. I was going to limit it to 10 but I just kept adding on ones I liked, now it's out of control, oh well.

Andy on Box Elder

Andy Split Couloir, Split Mountain

Sam in the "Front Porch Couloir," Mt. Timpanogos

Skiing in front of Keeler Needle, Mt Whitney, photo by Andy

Adam Okeefe in the Y Couloir

Jim Knight high on the snowfield, Mt. Timpanogos

Nate Brown on Skillet Glacier, Mt. Moran

CJ Whitaker in the NW Couloir, Pfiefferhorn

Jared and me off the summit of the Grand, photo by Andy

Brian Harder in the Chevy, The Grand Teton

Chad Ambrose and Andy on the Timp Traverse

Lars in the Great Chimney, Mt. Olympus, photo by Andy

Brian Harder in the SW Couloir, Middle Teton

Drake Kroger somewhere on The Nose, El Capitain

Skiing high on Mt. Timpanogos, photo by Adam Okeefe

Bart G. on Box Elder

Andy in Terminal Cancer, Ruby Mountains

John Swain at home in powder, Big Cottonwood

Andy in Lone Peak Cirque

Andy on The Mountaineer's Route, Mt. Whitney

After the Trans Zion with Warren D.

Fromke on Taste the Rainbow, Red River Gorge

Dr. Jimmy on The Gold Face, The Grand Teton

Andy and Jared at the start of the Hulk Hogum

9-10-2011 Mid Mountain Marathon

2011-09-12T23:34:00.001-06:00

Victory Pie

The Sugar House Track Club ran in spikes on the track last Tuesday, that may have been a mistake. Four days later my calves were still a little sore. The start of the MMM went out in a fairly conservative fashion, a group of five or six of us chatted as we ran the first paved loop and hit the trail. After about a mile I figured I better go for it a little and see if anyone would follow. Unfortunately no one did and I ran the next 25 alone wondering if my calves would hold on.

Over the past few months we've been hiking various peaks as fast as we can and then running back down. I've been able to run down pretty well regardless of how tired I've been after reaching the top. Since the last six miles of the MMM are mostly down I figured all I had to do was run the first 20 hard and, just like all summer, I'd be able to cruise the down the last six no matter how tired I was. That was close to being another mistake.

The first 20 miles went well, I pushed the downs figuring no one else would want to run 5:45-6:00 miles on the down and then ran the ups as relaxed as possible. Turns out running hard down hill on rocky terrain with sore calves adds up after two hours. On the last climb heading towards the six mile down hill finish my calves started cramping. I slowed to a shuffle and every mini up hill from there on out forced me to either walk or cramp. Lets just say I looked back more than once during those last couple miles fully expecting someone to blow my doors off as I crawled up the few short hills. Coming down the last hill and onto the pavement (last 400 meters) it took all I had to keep my claves from locking. Luckily they held out and I didn't have to walk it in.

Cramping seems to be a recurring theme these days. I guess going out hard and trying to hold it for longer then I'm prepared for has also been a theme. Maybe the two are related.

9-4-2011 White Pine to Lone Peak

2011-09-06T00:00:00.002-06:00

Went out for a little WURL recon. Up White Pine to the Pfeiff, out the ridge to S. Thunder, Big Horn, Lone Peak, down to the "notch" and then out Bells.

A dry NW couloir of the Pfeifferhorn

Getting to South Thunder took a bit longer than expected. It was a little over an hour from the top of the Pfeiff. From there it's relatively easy to get up Bighorn. Finding the way off Bighorn and onto Lone was a bit of a search. There are two carains marking a gully that heads SW off the summit ridge of Bighorn. I heard that was the easiest way off the peak, definitely isn't. After a bit of down climbing I felt it was a little above my on-sight, down-climb solo comfort level. I turned around at a sand covered slab right above a pretty good drop off. I'm guessing it could be down climbed but it looked less than ideal. After that detour, I headed back to the ridge with hopes of following it out towards Lone. That's the way to do it. All you have to do is bounce back and forth from the south side of the ridge to the north side following the path of least resistance, backtracking when needed. No moves were harder than 4th or very easy 5th class.

A few moves before I aborted the gully

Once onto the shoulder of Lone it's not hard to find the way up. The summit ridge that leads down to the "notch" was easier than expected as was entering the notch. The gully down into Bells was loose but easy with a fair amount of hard snow in it. The Bells exit was overgrown, not too bad though. 6:56 total time was a steady pace but not fast. The WURL is BIG.

Climbers on the Center Thumb, look hard

Question Mark Wall

8-31-2011 The Pfeifferhorn Speed Record

2011-09-02T00:44:00.004-06:00

Winter!

The Pfeifferhorn is one of my favorite places in the Wasatch. Every time I've been up there it's been good. Last week Jared and I ran pretty casually to the top in 1:22, I heard the fastest known ascent time was 1:10 and figured that shouldn't be out of reach. I still haven't heard a cat to car time. Wednesday evening Jake, Josh and I all decided to give the Pfeiff a time trial effort and see how fast we could get up and down it. From the White Pine parking lot I ended up going 8 minutes to the first bridge, 25 to the second, 55 to the ridge and 67 to the top. New record? I guess my hopes of a sub 60 minute ascent were a little ambitious for the day. After I topped the ridge out I had bilateral calf cramps that slowed me up a bit. It was 95 degrees in the Valley when we started, I think that may have contributed the cramping, the steep trail and fast pace didn't help either.

As I summited, I was pretty tired. So tired that I debated the idea of hanging out and forgetting the round trip time. This seemed lame though since I had already made my mind up that I wanted a car to car time. I sat down until my watch read 1:08 and then slowly started making my way down. Being tired, I took it easy until the trail mellowed out on the ridge. From there it was a pretty good run out ending at the parking lot in 1:54.13. Jake and Josh a few mins back. Not bad. Besides the obvious fitness, I think easy gains could be made with cooler weather and a little more familiarity with the trail. I think we should all meet and make a race of it. Andy? Jared? Lane? Bart? Swain? Okeefe? Keith? Derkas? Say yes.

Andy and Brian gave the WURL a go today. Here there are looking fresh about 7 and a half hours into it.

8-24-2011 Running the Pfeifferhorn

2011-08-25T17:02:00.002-06:00

Pretty good crew at "track practice" today. We had a group of six leave together to run/hike the Pfeifferhorn followed by three others an hour later. Weather wasn't too warm, the company was good, lighting was golden, what else could we ask for? Jared and I were 1:22 to the top which felt nice and steady. We might have to give a time trail effort once my work schedule relaxes... A couple newcomers came which was good! A few pictures.

Jimmy leading the first wave

Jared, flowers, Red Pine Lake

Jared on the Ridge

Nick and Jared on top

Shaneen and Mike, first time on the Pfeiff!

8-21-2011 Running the Owen Spalding, The Grand Teton

2011-08-22T11:16:00.005-06:00

Recent speedy ascents of the Grand by Brian Harder and Brandon French got me excited to get up to Jackson again and give it a go. Andy and I both had Sunday free so off we went. We started the day staring at lightning and rainbows as we drove to Lupine Meadows. The mix of sun and rain almost had us bailing and taking pictures of rainbows all day. Instead, we decided to have a go up to the Lower Saddle and turn around if we saw more storm clouds.

The run to the meadows went quickly, 47 min. We backed it off a bit from there and hiked most of the way to the Lower Saddle, jogging whatever flat we found, 1:40. Looking west off the Lower Saddle I think we were both hoping for storms so we could end the suffering a bit early, all we saw was sun. At that point Andy was feeling pretty blown but our only option was to finish. Route finding to the upper saddle was a bit tricky, not hard to find but I'm not sure we took the fastest way. We ended up scrambling a good portion of it instead of running. Entering the Owen Spalding we decided to climb slow since we were tired and I hadn't been there before. It was straight forward although we did take one wrong turn at the top that cost us a few minutes. Summit 2:35. We ate a gu and turned back without even looking around.

DOWN

Down climbing the OS went smoother that I expected and before I knew it we were trying to find the fastest way to the Lower Saddle again. I think we took a pretty good line but probably could have been better. From there we pussy footed around on the snow for a while before committing to running down the lower angle portion just off the head wall, another few minutes wasted. Heading toward the headwall above the meadows my adductors cramped like crazy, I think it was from all the down climbing. I had to sit there and stretch for a few minutes before it let up, I thought I might be done for the day. Luckily I could run fine, it would only cramp if I squatted down while jumping from boulder to boulder. Meanwhile, Andy kept running and twisted his ankle for the first and second time of the day. I caught up around the meadows and we ran together from there on out, Andy only rolled his ankle one more time for a total of 3 on the day.

THOUGHTS

It will go faster. I've heard people doubt the speed record of 3:06 but I think it's reasonable. REALLY fast but I have no reason to think it's impossible. We ran for a total of 4:11 with 38 minutes of non-moving/climbing time, making a total of 3:33 actual running time. The non-running time was drinking, eating, climbing, cramping and rolling ankles. I think we could cut that by 10 mins or so if we were a little more efficient, climbed faster and a bit luckier (more coordinated, ankles). We could be fitter. I think we're in pretty good running shape but aren't really used to running up hill. A little more specific training would go a long way. This was a fun game in the winter, turns out it's fun in the summer as well. Round 2, soon... Click the view details tab for splits and what not.

Happy?

Lunch brought to us by Amanda and Jessie and cold lake water afterwards was GREAT!!!

8-13-2011 Gold Face, The Grand Teton

2011-08-14T12:26:00.004-06:00

Jimmy and I both had the weekend off and we thought a little run up to the Tetons was needed. Neither of us had been on the Lower Exum so we decided to have a look and climb a variation called the Gold Face. We think we climbed it but there's no way to be sure, our topo was pretty crappy. Whatever we did was pretty steep and on mostly gold rock, I'm going to call it the Gold Face. The approach went smoothly and we were sitting at the Lower saddle in just over 3 hours. From there it's a short scramble to the base of the Lower Exum. We took the first 2 pitches of the LE and then traversed into the Gold Face variation.

Jimmy scrambling toward the base of the Lower Exum

After the fun first 2 pitches of the LE, route finding was a little questionable. We had the topo form the Ortenburger/Jackson guidebook and think we were pretty much on but there were a lot different options and we couldn't tell which one was correct. I know we hit certain key features of the route like the "steep black roof" but linking the features was a choose your own adventure type of climb with multiple options, pretty fun. What really threw us off was hitting the Golden Staircase a pitch earlier then expected. Not sure how that happend but we must have belayed in the middle of a few pitches, oh well. I think after every pitch one of us said something like, "wow, that was pretty good." The rest of the shots are of Jimmy.

Jimmy's butt, Pitch 4, more Gold Face above

Route finding

Gold Face

The Gold Face puts you out right at the base of the Upper Exum. A quick run up that had us eating and napping on the summit under a sunny windless sky. We had plans for another day in the park but we were pretty tired and my feet were pretty blistered, a lot of Diet Mountain Dew and long drive home in the middle of the night sounded better.

Golden Staircase

V-pitch

Summit naps!

8-6-2011 Jupiter Steeplechase

2011-08-09T13:36:00.002-06:00

David, Andy and I all went into this race with pretty high expectations. Andy ran well last weekend, David was 2nd at this race last year, I felt like I was in pretty good form. Ideally we would have had a Sugar House sweep! We knew that wouldn't happen the second we got to registration and saw the rest of the field, stacked (well, as stacked as a small local trail run can be). This was the last event of the La Sportiva Mountain Cup and the OR show was in town which contributed to the quality of the field.

The Up
The race is an out and back. Up for the first 8 miles (3000 feet) and then back. The up was more exciting then I could have hoped for. Running felt pretty flat (me, not the course) from the start. David got out quick and I decided to hang back a bit. I ran a few hundred meters behind him for the first couple miles and once that got boring I bridged the gap so we could run together. Turns out I ran a little too hard to catch him and felt pretty awful as I pulled up. I said hi and immediately slowed to try and recover a bit, I felt lame. A mile or two later Luke Nelson passed me. Shortly after he went around a turn I saw him sprinting back down the road yelling "MOOSE! Turn around, a mother moose is charging me!" Glad to have an excuse to turn around and run down hill I did. Bernie was behind me and I yelled at him to turn around too. He didn't. He kept running up and once the moose charged around the corner Bernie bent over and picked a few rocks up. The moose stopped and ran away. At least someone in the group wasn't scared. The rest of the up was slow and hard. I topped out with Jason right behind Bernie and Luke. David a few hundred meters ahead.

The Down
The down also had moments of excitement. Not sure if I've ever taken a fall while running but I've made fun of my friends who have. Now they can make fun of me. For some reason I didn't see a switch back until I was right on it and I kind of ran off the trail and fell to my hands. Once again, lame. To make matters even worse Luke and Bernie beat me to the top and were running the down a lot harder than I wanted to. Meaning, they left me. A few miles from the finish I passed David just standing in the middle of the trail. Apparently he just fell for the second time and was trying to make sure everything worked. From there out the running was uneventful.

Thoughts
I was 5th in 1:57 or 1:58, David 6th a few minutes back, and Andy was another few back. I can't speak for the others but I didn't compete very well. A race never feels that good when you let the competition beat you and you don't even respond. When Luke passed me I didn't even try to go. I just wanted to play it conservatively. When the moose incident happend and I found myself 25 meters down trail from Luke and Bernie, I didn't really push to catch up and run with them, I just stayed back, conservative. On the down I didn't try to bridge the small gap and go with Luke and Bernie. One fun thing about races is competing with others. Oh well, next time. Milliseconds.com did a great job with results (sarcasm). They only missed 20% (myself and David included) of all the guys' times.

Paddle boarding at Deer Creek afterwards found David and I falling some more... Also, don't swim with a phone in your pocket.

Derkas goes down for the 3rd time

Gate Boulders, Sugar House Track Club, Demolition Derby

2011-08-03T23:49:00.002-06:00

Neil of 5.14 Cherry Red fame is in town from Indiana to go to the OR show and represent Hoosier Heights and Evolv. We got out for a bit at the Gate Boulders, turns out bouldering's hard on the fingers/skin. Chris Sharma happend to be at the Gate Boulders too, kind of cool. No pics, felt lame to ask...

SHTC is going strong, daily runs. Today we were 6 deep running repeats (4x5min) at the park. Props to Matt and Jared for racing to the park directly from work and still going hard.

Demolition Derby= ridiculous.

Neil warming up on Standard Overhang

Heber's finest in action

7-17-2011 The Skillet, Mt. Moran

2011-07-18T16:41:00.001-06:00

I thought I was done skiing for the year but after chatting with Lars Kjerengtroen, Brian Harder, and Nate Brown, the plan came together to take Nate's boat across Jackson Lake, ski the Skillet, and then wake surf/board our way back. It sounded too fun to say no.

Packing the boat we could all tell this trip was going to be unusual, skis on the wake board rack, whippets and poles by the surf board, boots next to the wet suit... The walk into Mt. Moran is nice, on a flat well groomed path. But the boat ride across to Moran is amazing! After spotting a place to unload at the base of the Skillet, we boated to the north side of Moran and scoped a few lines that are now high on the list for next year, fun.

Brain's thrashed legs

At about 8 PM, just in time for the mosquitos, captain Nate skillfully beached/anchored the boat, we unloaded, caked on bug spray, and started bushwhacking our way up. The bush whack's not bad, a little thick in spots but pants made it tolerable. Brian (poor sucker) decided to leave his pants in his pack. Nothing like an hour and a half of thick brush in short running shorts.

We camped about 1000 feet up from the lake. A near full moon and still wind made for a great evening. The next morning was just as good, sunny but not too hot on the up.

Brian reaching the snow in morning light

Lars and Nate, still in golden hour

About half way up there's a rather large bergschrund opening up and it seems like crossing it will be getting A LOT harder in a few days. Luckily we could still snake our way through. Once past the schrund, the snow stayed surprisingly smooth. There was a pretty deep runnel right down the middle but other than that conditions were pretty good. Fast, firm summer snow on the way up that softened nicely for the down.

Crossing the 'schrund

Aproxx 4 feet deep

Nate Facebooking mid climb on a BEAUTIFUL day

Lars topping out the Skillet

Leisure time on the summit

The ski down was much better than expected. The snow corned up perfectly and stayed pretty clean and free of debris until the very bottom. 4800 feet of continuous snow in the middle of July!

Nate off the summit ridge

Brian in the "handle" of the Skillet

Lars in the "handle"

Brian crossing the schrund

Once down, a quick bushwhack out and we were back on the water. Nate put on a wake surf clinic.

Clinic! Nate Brown

6-28-2011 Speed attempt of the Ford/Stettner, The Grand Teton

2011-06-29T15:12:00.005-06:00

Jared's been talking about this one for a while now. I was always on board but wasn't super psyched until Brian, Sam, Jared and I climbed the Grand en route to the Trifecta a few weeks ago. That day Jared had to be in Salt Lake early so he skied out after summiting the Grand. His car to car time was 7:21. Pretty quick but to me, it seemed like we wasted at least an hour taking pictures, getting lost, slowly transitioning, hiking at a casual pace, sitting on the summit... Since then I've thought A LOT about how to get up there and give it a go. Andy and I were planning on trying later this week when we got a picture text from Nate Brown with his watch reading 7:15 and the caption of GFT! His psych is pretty contagious.

Somehow Jared, Andy, and I were all free on Tuesday so off we went. The first two people we talked to in Jackson added fuel to the fire. #1, the cop who pulled Jared over for speeding. After lawyering his way out of ticket Jared was asked what our plans were. He said to attempt a speed ascent of the Grand. The cop laughed, said yeah right, and walked away. #2, some guide we met at the trailhead. The first thing he said in a condescending tone was, "you're too late." The next thing was, "two tools, two whippets? That's 4 tools! What?!" The next I heard as (not even close to a direct quote), "nice tights, you guys are idiots, I'm a guide, I know a lot." With that fresh in our minds we started jogging the flats and fast hiking any ups on the way to the meadows. We planned on dividing the day into 3 parts; 1:20 to the meadows, 1:20 to Glencoe, 1:20 to the summit.

1:16 at the meadows had us skinning on variable snow up to Glencoe. After swapping leads about half way up the Tepee, we decided to start taking the booting the 5 people who left before us had kindly put in, thanks! We decided not to take it lower down since we normally prefer to skin but the warm temps and the morning sun had done some damage to the Tepee.

The boys heading to Glencoe Col

We arrived at Glencoe at 2:38, transitioned and left for the summit at 2:45. Hard snow made for fast travel, no need to put a booter in, we just front pointed all the way to the summit (3:27). On the summit we regrouped for a few minutes, laughed a lot while yelling at Andy, and were off.

Andy looking fresh

Jared "skiing" off the summit

Skiing off the summit. Photo by Andy

The skiing down through the Ford was pretty great, hard pack but very skiable. After transitioning right at the base of the Petzoldt ridge we down climbed through the ice which seemed easier than a few weeks ago since the ice was pretty beat out. Moving quick yet cautiously on exposed terrain with a few friends is pretty amazing.

Andy and Jared in the Chevy

All we had left was sloppy corn down to our shoes and a quick run to the car. I don't care what Andy or Jared say, the run out was great. A few falls and not cutting any switchbacks (erosion=bad) cost us a bit of time but we didn't care. I couldn't help but laugh/smile the whole way.

Sweaty, in tights, and content

6/17-27/2011 Miscellaneous

2011-06-27T12:33:00.002-06:00

Residency started this past week. It was great to meet all my new co-interns, learn a bit and also run/ski a bit. A few pics...

Jessie (black shorts, not the lycra) during The Wasatch Back. See Andy's post for more details.

Andy in Main Baldy Chute

The work crew heading to Mt Ogden

Sarah in one of the Race Chutes

Angus in Ogden Chute

Andy in Ogden Chute

Amanda running/creek crossing

6-11,12,13-2011, The Nose, El Cap

2011-06-15T16:55:00.001-06:00

Pre-climb meal, actually pretty good.

I gave Drake a call a few weeks ago on the off chance that he would have a week free to go climb. He said he had class/work on the 8th and then a final in the morning of the 15th but as long as we could get him back to Denver in time to take his test he would go. Ha ha, I love it. He was so psyched that he was willing to risk missing a final in Pediatric Nursing to give the Nose a go. He and Graham (Indiana friend who wanted to go find a partner in the Valley and get on whatever he could, also psyched!) pulled into SLC late Wed night slept for a few hours and we headed out early Thurs with the plan packing the bag that night, fixing to Sickle ledge on Fri, and giving it a go starting Sat. I was sure Drake was in great climbing shape but was a little worried about how well we would work together never having climbed a wall together. In fact, we had only climbed together once (outside of Climb Time Towers) prior to this trip.

Drake heading over to start fixing lines.

Pitch 3

Fixing to Sickle went as smoothly as I could have hoped and I remembered why I liked climbing with Drake so much last year; he's always ready and trying to be efficient. Exactly what we needed on a long climb. From there it was pretty casual making our pre-planned bivy spots. On the first full day of climbing we hit El Cap Tower before 5 PM. Having of extra free time was pretty great, we ate a ton and then decided to fix the next pitch, the Texas Flake, just to get a head start on the next day.

Drake after penduluming, heading toward the Stovelegs

Drake after penduluming once again on pitch 12 off of Dolt Tower.

Breakfast on El Cap Tower.

Day 2 was better than the first. There was a little to think about (always fun) as far as logistics go. The King Swing, hauling through the traversing Grey Bands pitches, and Drake leading his first full aid pitch of the trip (The Great Roof) were the highlights. As lame as it sounds, it felt pretty good to hit the King Swing and hear cheers from the bridge down low.

About to start the King Swing

Drake on the classic Great Roof

Drake jugging the upper part of Pancake Flake

Day 3 was a short one, 6 and half pitches and we were off.

A wet Changing Corners

Drake on the last STEEP bolt ladder

A view down the most of the route from the "wild stance"

Drake topping out El Cap

Finding the East Ledge decent added a little adventure to the day. Luckily it was easy to find, had fixed lines and was a MUCH quicker than the Yosemite falls exit.

Drake scrambling with the Haul bag.

Immediately after getting down we took showers and headed out as quickly as possible. We figured if we drove all night, Drake could get home to study a bit and sleep the night before his test. It felt like a long drive to SLC, I'm sure adding the 7 hours to Denver felt longer. Hope he did fine. After unpacking I realized we left in such a hurry that we forgot to take one of the lines we left at the base of the route. Hopefully the party that we shared fixed lines with noticed we forgot it and gets some good use out of it, I doubt they will...

6-8-11 West Slabs to Apollo, Mt. Olympus

2011-06-12T10:30:00.000-06:00

I got to run/scramble/climb/glissade all on the same outing this morning. Tom, Jared, Jon and I headed up the West Slabs on Mt. Olympus and then down the Apollo. It's always good to get out and try to move quick with these guys. A few pics...

Jared and Tom

More West Slabs

Pack strap anchored for saftey!

Jon in tennis shoes

Sliding out

6-4-2011 Grand, Middle, and South Tetons

2011-06-06T14:03:00.005-06:00

We've been talking about this one for a while now, The Trifecta. Myself and brothers Sam and Jared Inouye met Jackson local Brian Harder with plans of skiing the Grand, moving on the the Middle to check conditions on the North Ridge, and hopefully continuing on to the South. A 2:30 start had us skinning in the dark on firm snow. Other than getting lost once, the approach went pretty smoothly.

Brian heading to Tepee Col

We (except Brian, poor guy, his bindings didn't have the attachment mounted yet) stayed in ski crampons until just before Tepee Col and then booted the rest of the way.

Jared above close to Glencoe Col, Tepee Pilar in the Background

The Stettner, Chevy and Ford were filled in and unfortunately had very little ice. This made for a pretty causal group solo to the upper snowfield.

Brian and Sam in the Stettner

Jared below a filled in Chevy

Brian coming up the Chevy

We ended up finding winter snow all the way up the Ford to the summit. It made for a little bit slower travel but the skiing was fantastic!

Jared Inouye skiing off the summit of the Grand

Brian skiing pretty quick on the upper snowfield

Sam on the upper snowfield

Group Ski!

Brian and Jared in the Ford, more group skiing!

Brian down climbing the Chevy

Jared said he was going to keep his race skis on and try to side step the Chevy and the Stettner. In retrospect it was probably a good idea he didn't, especially since I would have HAD to follow suit. After a fun group down climb and it was time to split up. Jared had to be in SLC around 3PM later that day so he headed home hopeful to make the car to car trip in under 7 hours. With out all the wrong turns he probably would have made it, still, 7:21 isn't too slow. The rest of us headed to the lower saddle and on over the the N. Ridge of the Middle.

Brian and Sam coming up the N. Ridge

We took a long while wandering around trying to find the way over into the couloir that leads to the summit of the Middle. Maybe a little too long, Sam's woman was waiting down in Jackson and being the gentleman that he is, he decided to go keep her company. As we kept going, the climbing was pretty exciting, a little (a lot) exposed.

Brian

Down climbing

Traversing a little snow ramp over a lot of air

After a little under 2 hours we were in the couloir with a clear shot to the summit.

Brian

Brian on the summit ridge

Once we were on top of the Middle we thought all the hard parts of the day were done. We sat and watched a party we bumped into earlier summit the Grand, pretty good view.

On top of Middle Teton

The SW off the Middle was ridiculous, it was filled in, fast, and soft.

Brian in the SW couloir of Middle Teton

Once off the Middle we skinned to the NW couloir of the South, headed up, and ate celebratory gu on the summit.

Brian towards the top of the NW

Turns out skiing the NW on the South was the sketchiest skiing of the day. It was steep, slightly runnelled and narrow but once through the choke, we found dry soft winter snow all the way out of the South Fork. We entertained thoughts of added a bit more on for the day but decided to head home happy with The Trifecta, next time...

Stats:

Summits: Grand, Middle, South

Total Elevation Gain: 10,138? (my watch stopped working, I think that's what Brian had)

Time: 11:57

Ropes carried: 2

Ropes used: 0

Food: 12 Gu's, 2 Probars, 1 bag Juicy Oozers

5-28-2011 Champagne Couloir, Mt Nebo

2011-05-28T22:32:00.001-06:00

A 3:45 wake up turned into a 4:25 call from Sam wondering where I was. I suck. Luckily the guys waited for me. The plan was to head up Nebo and ski the NW and the Champagne couloirs with Sam, Isaac, and Uncle Roman. I couldn't have asked for a better morning. The approach was beautiful, uneventful, and went pretty quick.

Sam and Uncle Roman, the valley was spotted with sun all morning, nice.

Uncle Roman gaining the final ridge

Transitioning

Sam on the summit ridge

Uncle Roman on the final headwall

Once we summited, clouds rolled in. Still pretty nice though. The short steep section entering into the Champagne was a little icy but other than than conditions were spectacular. Soft in the upper 1/2 led to a firm, smooth, carvable lower section. It's SO good to be back! Not everyone was feeling super today so we decided to call it a day before heading back up the NW. Next time I guess. Sam and I also spotted a few other lines that need to be investigated...

Summit Cokes. Real ones, not diet, weird.

Sam

Uncle Roman

Sam

5-21-2011 Trans Zion, Zion National Park

2011-05-24T16:41:00.003-06:00

We had big plans for a couple different ski link-ups this weekend but the weather/conditions weren't looking too favorable. Not sure why giving the Trans Zion a go sounded appealing but it did. After talking with a dozen different people Amanda and Warren were the only ones cool enough to drop plans and head to southern Utah. Warren gets extra respect for driving through the night to arrive at our campsite only 30 mins before we woke him up to start shuttling cars. A 48 mile day with 10,000 feet of vertical gain off of 30 mins of sleep isn't too shabby, I don't think we heard one complaint about it either. Here's a video Andy made:

Untitled from andy dorais on Vimeo.

The East Rim part of the trail was pretty spectacular.

Cool, sunny weather for the start. Photo by Warren

Heading towards Weeping Rock. Photo by Warren

Towards the end of the East Rim trail. Photo by Andy

Once we hit the Grotto we filled up with water, chatted a bit and then headed towards the Angel's Landing shoulder. The long up turned into a hike as opposed to a run. We figured it was better to be a bit conservative at the beginning seeing as this would be 22 miles farther than Warren and my longest run ever and 17 miles longer than Andy's. Also, all of us had run less than 10 times since January with only one of those being longer than 10 miles. I figured at least one if not all of us would be blowing up at some point during the run. Surprisingly everyone kept it together.

Amanda with the heavy pack. Photo by Warren

Looking back towards Angel's Landing

I think we all agreed that the West Rim was probably the most scenic portion of the run. As we randomly came across trail signs we somehow miscalculated our distance and figured we had run 6 miles less than what we actually had. This was a little (a lot) disheartening...

Towards the start of the West Rim. Photo by Andy

View from the West Rim

The Ski Gorilla runs too. Photo by Warren

Warren and Andy on the West Rim

Once we got off the West Rim our we realized we were 31 miles in instead of 25, nice. That helped the group's moral (at least mine) quite a bit. From there on out the trail was less muddy so we could run more consistently, also nice.

On the Connector. Photo by Andy

View from the Connector. Photo by Andy

While on the Connector (20 miles from the end) Warren ran out of water and Andy and I were both lower than we would have liked. Lucky for us, a few hikers told us they just stashed a gallon that they didn't want at the next trailhead. Another moral booster. After the water we felt pretty good and rallied through Hop Valley, crossed a few rivers, started feeling crappy again, and finished with a 15 min hard effort to reach Lee's Pass in just under 12 hours. Pretty fun to feel beat up every once in a while.

Warren in Hop Valley. Photo by Andy

Crossing the River in La Verkin. Photo by Andy

Right before the Lee's Pass TH

Done!

The next day we got to do a little sport climbing at Chuckwala Wall in St George. Climbing, sitting in the shade, drinking Diet Mountain Dew and chatting was pretty relaxing. Andy was grumpy though, the following picture proves it.

Amanda killing it, Andy being hungry

Talking about the run after the fact, Andy figured he didn't eat enough and was wishing he had packed a few more gels. As we unpacked he found a little surprise in his fancy Nathan pack, HA!

6 gels and some gummy stuff

This is what I ate.

5-13, 14, 15-2011 Red River Gorge

2011-05-18T14:06:00.002-06:00

I had a good/great weekend in the RRG (last one as a local) even though the weather was pretty bad. We had quite the international crew, Amanda came in from Utah, Thierry from France, Nuria from Spain, Fromke from Lexington and Topher, Nicole, April and Chris from Indy, nice! I'm actually going to miss these guys (plus a few others) and climbing in the Red, weird. To make things even better, we had access to a cabin all weekend so we didn't have to camp in the rain. April and Chris found a new dry area called Shawnee Shelter which was good since it was POURING.

Chris at the crux of Noo-tha

Amanda, Noo-tha

Next up, Great Arch area. We must have met the ONLY cool people from Colorado, that was a surprise.

April "on-sighting" at Great Arch. Photo by Amanda

The next day we decided to see if the Kia could make it down into a muddy Southern Region and get us to Shady Grove. Luckily the Koreans make a pretty sweet car. Chris was the MVP of the day for on-sighting Far From God (12b). Topher was close to getting the on-sight too, I don't think he milked the lower rest enough... We found another amazing line that I'm sad I won't be able to get back on. I guess Taste the Rainbow will have to wait.

My French daddy

Taste the Rainbow. Photo by Nicole

Topher resting on Far From God with Niki K belaying

Fromke 2/3 of the way up Taste the Rainbow

5-7-2011 Red River Gorge

2011-05-09T22:27:00.000-06:00

Meaghan, not happy

Frenchman

It's fun to be back in the Midwest, I got the go to the Red with some good friends (Eric, Thierry, Sarah, Dave, Meagan) for the weekend. Turns out skiing isn't the best training for long, endurance-heavy sport climbing. Grades weren't the hardest but it was still fun to try hard and pull a few climbs off that didn't seem likely after the first couple goes.

Eric underneath Superfly at the Solar Collector (rope still hanging, pretty steep!)

After the first day at the Solar Collector, Sarah was nice enough to invite us over to the cabin where we found a pretty amazing spaghetti and homemade meatball feast hot and ready the second we walked in the door. Maybe one of the best post-climbing meals ever! The next day I finally made it to the Chocolate Factory. For the past year whenever I heard the name I pictured these guys, dancing by the rock. They weren't there, disappointing.

Sarah, 7th day in a row!

Fromke on the group's high point for the day of Cat's Demise

Thierry

About to fall. Photo by Thierry

Pretty fun, "It's cool, I love it." -TM

5-3-2011 Pete's Staircase & W couloir, Lone Peak

2011-05-05T16:51:00.001-06:00

Andy and I went back to Lone Peak take a look at a few descents/ascents that we'd been eyeing for a little while. The first was the ramp that leads to Pete's staircase.

Andy on top of Question Mark Wall

Andy most of the way down the ramp (look close)

Not having been on top of Pete's staircase in the winter I was hopeful that it would be filled in and possibly skiable. I was very wrong.

Andy rapping Pete's (clearly not skiable)

From there we headed over to a west facing shot just north of the main summit. Steep snow took us most of the way up until we hit a bit of rock. Initially it looked like it would be easily climbable. Once again, I was wrong. A few poorly protected slab moves would have lead to a mini chimney formed by a chalk stone. Turns out slab is scary in ski boots and crampons especially when it's followed by a few chimney moves that I would have had to do with skis on my back. Since it was getting late we decided to ski out before trying other options, next time...

Starting to question the next moves

Andy high in the chute

Lower

The Cirque with lines marked

5-2-2011 Ancient Art

2011-05-04T11:07:00.001-06:00

I got to go to Moab with the birthday girls for a little climbing day trip. An early start from the PG Macy's had us at a full Fisher Towers trailhead around 9. The approach is quick and we were waiting in a four party line at the base of Ancient Art in no time. Even though we were close to CO, everyone we met was surprisingly cool. The route was good, weather was great, the birthday girls were ready to climb!

Niki freeing the lower crux

Amanda doing the same

For the record, no draws were pulled on during the lower/harder crux!

Amanda, on the chimney pitch

Once we made it to the "sidewalk," we met back up with Cresta and Larry from Moab. This is what followed.

Kind of creepy watching from that close. The rest of the climb went smoothly.

Amanda towards the top

Niki

Everyone was psyched!

7:30 birthday dinner meant we had to run home. With all the skiing going on lately, a little desert time was pretty good contrast, would have liked to stay.

The girls, hurrying. Asian Art in the background.

4-28-2011 South Faces, Bighorn and Lone Peak

2011-04-29T19:27:00.000-06:00

Andy and I talked a Zak and Adam into joining us for a huge day(didn't really have to talk them into anything, they're normally down). Unfortunately, the warm weather scared us out of giving it a go. Instead, we decided to head up a line we've talked about quite often but never skied on the south side of Lone Peak. Snow was firm and fast and before we knew it we decided to detour up to the top of Bighorn. The skiing off the summit was breakable crust, fun. It makes me laugh.

Andy and Zak (lower right) off of Bighorn

From there we headed over to LP. There was a lot of debate over a few different ski lines. We ended up playing around on Question Mark Wall and then headed out the way we came. It was too hard to pass up a few thousand feet of fun corn/slush skiing.

Andy about to ski off QMW (Got a couple but missed the best shot on the way down, lame.)

Andy

Adam, Bighorn in the background

4-27-2011 NW, Pfeif, no rope!

2011-04-28T19:22:00.001-06:00

CJ, Has and I got a nice 9:00 start in sunny weather. The plan was to leave the ropes and harnesses in the van and head for the rarely filled in NW couloir of the Pfeifferhorn, We had the privilege of breaking trail most of the way and right around Red Pine Lake we were caught by A Okeefe. He wanted in on the ropeless descent and the breaking, who were we to say no?

The boys on the ridge

Weather stayed pretty amazing throughout the day, mostly sunny, still.

The upper section was a bit icy but throughout the majority of the chute we found nice heavy powder. I haven't skied with many tele skiers but Has and CJ skied! REAL tele turns throughout the entire NW, even through the steep icy choke that's normally rappelled. Almost made me want to buy a pair of those heavy awkward boots and bindings, almost.

Has rallying

CJ towards the choke

Adam skiing the rappel

The lower apron was ridiculous. Deep, fun. Overall, an amazing day.

4-26-2011 John Swain Powder

2011-04-28T15:19:00.000-06:00

I haven't skied with John for probably a month, I'm glad he came today. I didn't have car that would make it up the canyon, John did. I didn't have tip attachments on my skins, John had one extra and some duct tape. I didn't have mittens, John did. Andy claims he's my daddy but today John was. The skiing was pretty amazing, powder is fun!

Swain

Photo by John Swain

This good day ended with Barbacoa and some blueberry pie!

4-24-2011 The Great Chimney

2011-04-25T17:22:00.000-06:00

Today turned out to be a spicy little Easter. Having been recently turned back from the Great Chimney we figured we better go give it another go. If we would have known how steep and icy the "skiing" was, maybe we wouldn't have gone. The climb up was pretty fantastic though, I wasn't expecting to climb any real ice since the weather has been warm but...

ICE!

Photo by Andy

Looking down after the steepness eased a bit

After getting through the ice bulge/chimney we turned right and headed up an icy chute. Andy measured this at anywhere between 58 and 62 degrees. Turns out that is STEEP, especially when it is NOT soft.

Andy and Lars, hard to tell but this is 60+ degrees

We were a little scared to ski this icy death trap (happened to have a double fall line too) so we built a mini anchor and skied the top part belayed. Once off belay we made approximately zero turns until we rappelled past the ice bulge. From there the high 40 degree to low 50 degree slopes felt tame.

Knifeblade anchor

Lars, 60+ degrees

Lars, no rope, a bit of fear(Andy's photo)

Andy

Lars past the ice, still steep but less icy and much less scary

Down by noon with enough time to enjoy Easter! Once again, Lars earned an A for climbing.

4-23-2011 N. Ridge, Pfeifferhorn

2011-04-25T13:00:00.002-06:00

photo by Jared
Annotated by Andy

Lars was in town, what a treat. We decided to head up the N ridge of the Pfeif and then down one of the unnamed chutes to the NW. Our idea of hitting a few other lines in the area changed once weather rolled in. At least part one went as planned.

Lars gaining the ridge

The start of the roped climbing

Lars nearing the crux

Andy's leg, our line below him, and a bit of air

Andy pulling past the last of the difficulties

Andy and Lars close to the summit

Once on top we chatted with few guys from the county, ate some food, and got psyched to pick our way down terrain that was unknown to us. A little bit of gear and two 60 meter ropes led us to a nice NW facing shot that provided a mostly clear exit. An icy choke with rocks down the middle of it was the only interruption. It led to a little bit of "freeride" practice.

Lars

Andy about to jump off a rock, guess how that ended...

Lars heading home

For some reason grades were given out today. Lars gets an A- for his climbing and an A for his "freeride"skills. Not bad.

4-22-2011 Great Chimney Attempt #1

2011-04-25T13:00:00.000-06:00

Not much to say about today. We started in the dark, got lost, ended up geting bagels at 8:00AM.

The Boys happy to be separated from the base of the Great Chimney by a rather large cliff band

4-21-2011 Most of Suicide, Homicide

2011-04-21T22:25:00.000-06:00

I little morning ski with Adam was just what I wanted today. I made it about 3/4 the way up Suicide chute when I realized I didn't have my beacon, stupid. After a quick ski down I rejoined Adam as we wallowed through the last few hundred feet.

Adam, thigh deep. It got deeper.

Getting around the cornice turned out to be a little harder/sketchier than expected. We finally decided to "chimney" up with some rock on the right and icy cornice on the left. I was pretty steep and the whole time we were blasted in the face with spin drift. I got pretty nauseous from the cold, I guess I'm not used to high wind and spindrift to the face.

photo from www.tetonsandwasatch.com by A. Okeefe

Adam, laughing?

The ski down Homicide was great for the upper 2/3 and then turned into debris.

Adam

More of the same

Another by Adam

Another good day!

4-20-2011 Twins Fail, again

2011-04-20T13:46:00.001-06:00

We both knew there was a good chance we'd be bailing on the day. I thought it would be more of a weather issue, I was wrong. After ideal skiining conditions we were at the base of Bonkers and decided to dig a bit. We dug an isolated column, an extended column and a Rutschblock and didn't really like the results. Not wanting to quit skiing at 7:00 AM we decided to head up a "safer" route and reevaluate once we were a little higher. Once again we performed 3 tests and once again didn't like the results so we left. Oh well. Too cautious?

Jared digging through the weak layer consisting of a few inches of slush

The results of the 2nd Rutschblock...

Debris

On the way out this moose walked with in a hundred feet of us. I thought we were going to get trampled.

Moose

4-16-2011 The Y (Coalpit/Needle fail)

2011-04-16T19:13:00.002-06:00

For the second time this week I found myself eating and sleeping instead of finishing plans. Tanner, Zak and I followed an amazing preset booter all the way up the Y this morning. The top was as filled in as I've see it all year, absolutely no rocks showing.

Tanner gaining the ridge

Once we looked south towards the Coalpit headwall we saw this.

White

After sitting around for a little while the could cover just got thicker. We all remembered reading about a small storm coming and weren't too psyched about skiing in a white out so we decided to turn around and ski out the Y.

Zak Foy

An hour later we were at Five Guys eating cajun fries and burgers while watching the clouds clear. Lame.

4-15-2011 Freeride on Timp

2011-04-15T16:07:00.003-06:00

Andy's calling this the Bart Couloir

We were going to ski on Cascade today but Andy looked at the south end of Timp on the drive down and became fixated on one of the west facing lines. This may be the first time I'm glad he was looking at the mountains while driving. We bush whacked for a bit, changed plans to a more shaded chute after rocks came whizzing by every few minutes and eventually found some high quality corn to ski. On the way down, Andy saw a little wind lip and suggested we take a few pictures in honor of Bart G. We miss our freeriding friend. A little skiing followed by a pizza buffet = perfect.

Thick! Photo by Andy

Andy

Photo by Andy

Andy on corn down to the County

4-14-2011 Twins attempt

2011-04-15T15:54:00.001-06:00

We took the stupidest way to try an get up Broad Fork Twins. A little bit of down climbing and questionable snow stability lead us to Paradise Bakery at 8:00 AM. Next time...

Andy

4-13-2011 NW couloir, Timp 2nd Summit

2011-04-14T21:57:00.002-06:00

A good look at part of today's objective

I got to ski with A. Okeefe on Timp again. As always, the County didn't disappoint. Last week while on Timp we scoped a line off of the ridge that heads east from the South summit. Yesterday J. Knight gave us a little more info so we thought today would be a good day to give it a go. The skin up was quick and uneventful.

Adam in an field of wet debris

After reaching the base of the chute we were glad to find a few small rock bands to mess around on.

Adam topping the chute

Once out of the chute we hit the ridge and traversed west to Timp's 2nd summit.

View to the east from the South summit, Adam at the end of the ridge

A quick ski back lead to a down climb through the rocks and then we skied powdery snow for a few thousand feet, nice.

Adam above the rock band

Stolen from tetonsandwasatch.com by Adam Okeefe

Adam with our line behind him

Another by Adam Okeefe

A Okeefe after the chute opens up

Snow turned to slushy garbage lower down but we didn't care, it was a good day. Later that night I went to Alta with Pop, Ky, Andy and Keith. Keith cried at the beginning, Kyler cried at the end. Fun/funny.

Keith crying

Kyler crying

4-11-2011 West Face, Timp 2nd summit

2011-04-11T18:46:00.000-06:00

I got to ski in the County today with Matt, Jim and Adam. Good day. We made pretty quick work of Primrose Cirque and headed up to Timp's 2nd (south) summit.

Adam in the morning light

Jim reaching the saddle

After hanging out in a t shirt on a windless, sunny summit we debated skiing back out primrose or the west face out Dry Creek. I called Aimee and she was willing to shuttle 4 stinky guys back to the mouth of Provo canyon, so we decided on the west face. The snow was pretty good, ice covered with soft up top, creamy through the middle, slush down low.

Jim starting us off

Turley rallying the lower section

Adam practicing ballet, 2nd summit in the background

The slide path took us most of the way down making the walk in boots about 0.5 miles, nice!