The longest 5 mile traverse

It started out mellow enough. DV8, the Redneck, and the DynamicDuo all met up at the caboose in Ned for a little java and map gawking. The plan was the Windy Ridge Traverse, north to south, because the forecast said it'd be less windy than the previous days. Um...yeah.
Note to self: I need to start listening to my gut more than the forecasts.
This was to be one of those days you remember for a long, long time. Not because the skiing was epic, but because the weather and snow conditions were imprinted (literally) onto your brain, forever.
The skin in was mellow. I had the Karhu Guides and was effortlessly rolling over the rolling trail without skins weighing me down. The others weren't so lucky, but it's a flat approach for the first 30minutes till we headed straight up Benji's Trough to the ridge. That's when I realized there wasn't as much snow here as I expected - it had all blown away in the last couple of days.
Note to self: wait until mid-January to ski here.

As you can see, it's windy here. REALLY windy. Actually, it's the windiest place on earth. I am not kidding. There was a steady 40mph wind with 60mph gusts that knocked me over more than a couple of times. I felt like a drunken ptarmagin up there trying to frogger from krumholtz to krumholtz. The temp was 20-ish or so but the windchill was somewhere around minus 20. No skin could be exposed in this crap. I usually love this stuff, but when my expectations for powder were so high this was a bit of a letdown. Plus, the DynamicDuo - relatively newly converted to the Temple of the Backcountry - were on board and I was hoping to show them a good time. Amazingly, they both commented on how "this is actually FUN!" I'm especially proud that these two - America's premiere MTB couple - could say that under these trying conditions! The Redneck commented something like "You've never skied with Meriwether before? This is NORMAL!" ...Well, what do you expect with a nickname like that?!
Note to self: just because I'm a masochist and like to get lost in the woods (I mean...slightly turned around) doesn't mean anybody else does! Let others play "Guide" more often.

Here's the "bowl" we were to ski. As you can see, there's hardly any snow up there. The lookers left line is where we usually ski and it was breakable crust, windslab with an inch on top, mediocre today...but any turns are good turns in my book. So, that became the goal: REDEMPTION. The lack of snow on our first proposed run, the 2 hour traverse in gale force winds just at treeline, DV8 hallucinated seeing a coyote out with us in that wind, well...we just HAD to get in at least 3 good turns at the final bowl, our destination. That was our new goal. Just THREE freaking turns! That's not too much to ask!? Is it?!

So alas, here's the Redneck grabbing a sweet tele turn - one of more than 3. Five or 6 i'd have to say actually. So redemption was had...and then we hightailed it the hell out of there before getting humiliated by Zephyr, God of the west wind, any longer.

Last note to self: I'm a pretty poor Guide. Guides usually check on conditions of an area before taking "clients" or friends there. Working full time kinda precludes that from happening for me...so I just take friends out and make them tour around (sometimes suffer) with me until (IF) we find some good turns. But there's always that possibility, that chance of finding that perfect snow - the perfect stash. There's just always more to explore and learn about "out there" that it never is a boring day in the backcountry.

Solo turns

Merry Holidays all! Hope everyone got what they wanted for Xmas?

To respond to the previous comment from Paul, yes, I love Jazz. I am pretty picky about music, but varied. To quote the Treepeople (...sang seething with sarcasm), "Let me tell you who my favorite band is so you know who I am." So, if you were to look at my ipod, it's a mix of early late 70's-80's - ? punk/alternative (NoMeansNo, Victims Family, DK, Circle Jerks, Dog Faced Hermans, Buzzcocks, Fugazi, Treepeople and BTS, Clash, Ramones, Minutemen, Minor Threat, Stiff Little Fingers, Mission of Burma, Leatherface, etc.), to rock (Rush, Van Halen, Iggy & the Stooges, Porcupine Tree), to surf-esque tunes (Mr. Dale, Ventures, Link Wray, Man or Astroman), to some more random stuff my Belgian friend Stefaan has sent me from Japan and other places over the pond (Deep Turtle, Korekyojin, Yoshida Tatsuya, Koenjiyakkei, Ruins, etc.), and new additions of "crescendo-core" that I've gotten into lately (Mogwai, Kinski, Tortoise, Explosion in the Sky, Mono, etc.), and finally lots of classic old jazz (Miles, Sonny Rollins, Brubeck, Duke, Coltrane, Ornette, Art Blakey, etc.), oh, and John Zorn who has a bit of everything above depending on the release. You'll notice some blatanly obvious exceptions: rap and hip hop and reggae. Enough said (sorry, I just don't like those genres). Electronic I can stand sometimes but don't have any. Ska is also missing but I actually like some ska (Operation Ivy's first was a nice punk/ska album). So there it is...there's who I am.

So onto something completely different...SNOW. Ski season is here, the cross bike has been hung up for the year, the Hunter single is now the 1x8 fender'd mountain commuter, and the 69er sits in the corner waiting for next spring. All but the Hunter gets a rest this time of year. The futzing has switched from the bikes to waxing and scraping skis. Lately it's been green, Start Green wax, to be exact...which means it's freakin COLD. Squeaky loud snow. The skateskis are quick enough, but the downhill skis aren't in these temps.

Blisters are mostly healed up from last weekend's tour so I headed out to the Backdoor Spring for the first time of this year to check on coverage and condition of the snowpack. 2 below at the "Trailhead" and some serious wind were the weather conditions. But that's why i went here - below treeline with lots of trees for shelter and high potential for wind deposited snow! There's enough snow to ski in the northeast trees, but it's punching to the ground with only a little bit of consolidation in the middle. At least 4" of facets on the ground layer with a pretty poorly consolidated 2-3 feet above. It's just been too cold and not enough snow to get a lower TG here. So what you may be asking?! I say they were two runs of pretty good turns on the AT skis with breakable crust in opportune (random) places. I'm glad i had 'em as i would've been going over the bars on the teles today. Tomorrow is another day out in the BC hopefully with a good crew. Cheers, as winter is finally here!

No Picture

I find it difficult to write when I have taken no pictures of the day. My Canon Elph died a few months ago, but I've since gotten an iPhone which has taken most of the photos displayed since then on this site. The iPhone's camera quality is relatively poor especially in darker conditions (like Winter here). So when I took my first tour in the new AT setup up at Windy Tunnel last Saturday I just had my phone. Trouble was, the 1 degree temps and high winds killed the battery in not only my phone, but my GPS so I couldn't photograph or mark (again) the location of "secret trees." Sad, as every damn time I head up there I can't find this sweet stash right away (they're hidden after all) and this time I couldn't even document my first alpine BC turns ever. They weren't the most pretty lines I've drawn but they were drawn on a pretty beautiful canvas that I wished I could've captured. No matter, there will be more as although I admit to liking (loving) tele more, AT has its place in my quiver of activities for the things I can't do very well (safely) on teles: steeps, tight trees, and variable condition days in the back country. Plus, the bindings release which is always a plus.

Tune of the day:
This will be random seeming, but "Cottontail" by Duke Ellington - specifically the version on Duke's Big 4. I think this is one of the greatest jazz tunes (and albums) of all time. It's strange to think the album was created 17 days before I was born in 1973.

Snow update:
I've already lost track.
Friday 12/19 = 2" or 3"...i don't remember.
Last night 12/23 = 1" at most. It was forecasted to snow more but the mountains west of the divide got almost a foot. But I hear we got over 6" around WindyTunnel.
Total Snowfall Estimate at DVR: 25"

Arctic Cold

It cold.

We woke up to -11 at the ranch today, and it was lower down in the eastern plains (inversion).
At least it came with snow on Saturday night and Sunday - 5" total and more on the way tonight. We're finally getting some snow after a super dry fall and early winter. The local resort had snow on the runs and then just dirt right off them, until now. It seems like it'll be awhile before the east side of the divide's backcountry opens up. BadCop had some good turns just on the other side of the divide so maybe we go there this weekend.

I tried alpine skiing for the first time in 22 years. It was weird to have the heels locked down to say the least. But, I have to say that it was fun! I can see that tree skiing will be more like snowboarding - easier than tele (slight movements to turn instead of tele where i was hoping every tree wouldn't take me out), and carving is really easy. The style of alpine has changed a lot since I was a tot. The upright-stance-with-skis-close-together form is now uncool and not seen much versus the race-ready-wide-stance-carving "stacked" stance of the new school. I tend to like the aethetics of the former mixed in with a bit of long carving turns. Not monoboard or racing gates style turns, but fluid long GS turns...or something like that. Tele is so much more beautiful, but still second to snowboarding.

SO, I'm going to TRY and keep a running total of the snowfall since I always wonder "what did it do last year this time?"
Here's what I find in my blog and memory:
Oct. 11th = 3"
Oct 23rd = 1" (ish)
Nov. 14th = 1"
Nov. 26th = 1"
Nov. 29th = 4"
Nov 30th = 2" (ish)
Dec 3rd = 5"
Dec 13th = 5"
So, as of today, we're at about 22" for this season...or thereabouts.

Colorado State Championships

Me, post-double heel-click reverse
(photo courtesy of NinjaPonyMom)

Today was the last race of the cross season for me - State Championships. Next weekend is Nationals in KC, but I won't be going this year.

After last weekend's snowfest and "true" cross weather, it was looking good for a muddy race at Arapahoe Ridge High School in East Boulder. Some guys rode the course last night and spoke of mud and muck...then today when we woke up it was bone dry, almost dusty in places!? What happened?! It was the Chinooks - the winds that whip off the Divide and dry out Boulder in the winter. BH said it was 60 degrees and howling wind in town last night...so what was muddy became dry in the matter of an overnight. Crazy.

The course was a bit like the South Boulder Rec Center (Harlow Platts) race with lots of grass, twisty turny offcamber S-turns, a long sand section that very few could ride, a long road section, and very little room for recovery.

So it was.

The 35Plus race went off at noon. I got the best call-up of the year (5th i think?) and was in the front row on the start. This was NOT my kind of start - a LONG road slight uphill that hairpinned into a long downhill on the bumpy grass, then back UP that same long road to depart on the regular course in a right turn. A good start (I thought) as I got to WB's wheel and thought that was it..we were in the lead...but then a series of huge sprints by some others including the one and only DrCross (Mr.Keller) left us in the dust. DrCross went SO fast by us that I thought it was his day to take the V. I really wish I could've witnessed that, but today was not the day. After the half a lap, things settled down a bit and JJ of Spike, JC of the Moots tribe were looking strong - by the end of Lap 1 they had already made a gap in the rest of us. I was trying to get my heartrate down from that cardiac arrest start and catch up to WB who was dangling off the back of the JJ/JC duo. For this group of 4, the race didn't change much from here on out. JJ and JC duked it out at the front - taking turns working eachother over - I was impressed at how JC was staying with JJ on this type of course (JJ's type). Me and WB were duking it out ourselves staying from 10-15 seconds back from the top 2. WB was strong today and I thought he was going to gap me for good when I tried (for the 2nd and last time) to ride the sand on the outside as he went inside and ran the inside route. It took me a half lap to catch back up with him and when I did I sat in for the rest of that lap just to recover. As I sat on WB's wheel I noticed 5th place - some dude I don't know - was gaining on us. WB was slowing a little and this guy was gaining. So there it was, it was time to try to go gain some time on JJ and JC. There were 3 laps to go. JJ had just dropped JC and looked like there was no catching JJ. So I passed WB and mumbled something to the effect of "blahblah...LETSGOGET THEM...mumblemumble" and I tried to increase the pace a bit. In doing so I guess I gapped him and realized I actually felt pretty OK - I had finally recovered from that start! With 1 lap to go I had a gap and could I was slowly gaining a tiny bit on JC, but I knew it would take more than I had today to catch him, in time and ability....so that was the race. JJ in first, JC in 2nd, and I got the last podium spot. A 6er of Hazed and Infused, $25, and a bronze medal marked the end of my cross season.

Reflecting back, I am really happy I decided to race. It was a difficult summer of moving and getting the ranch set up doing more manual labor than I've done in a long long time. Lots of things have changed in the cross world since I "retired" in 2000: the most noticeable on the surface is that almost everyone has much lighter bikes - carbon everything is the new trend and only a few dinosaurs like myself have steel frames. But other than the obvious technological differences, the cross culture remains the same. A great degree of camaraderie on all levels for participating in a sport that to me defines racing. It is good to be back, and I plan on returning next year with a better base of fitness to give the Open category a run for the money.

The Open race was really fun to watch with Dubba, JW of Mafia and Paco duking it out for a sprint finish. Dubba came back after having to top and hammer his seat back into position after the nose of it dove down to the top tube on a remount. Not only did he catch back up, but he motored to the front and did his best to drop the other two for 3 laps. They got him in the end: Paco 1st, JW 2nd, Dubba 3rd, but he gets the most aggressive rider award in my book.

Until next year. Now let ski season BEGIN!!

Yesterday was one of those days where you wonder why you woke
up...should've stayed in bed. I got up at 6 to plow the new snow and
fed the horses in the dark. Problem was I gave them each a large flake
of alfalfa hay instead of grass hay. (Yes, I'm a novice.) I understand
this is only a little less than like giving chocolate to dogs...a
dumbass maneuver. If they were adapted to alfalfa, well it'd be
better, but they're certainly NOT! Then, at 8, Bear had another
seizure...a bit different this time at the end. So I stayed home from
work to help monitor the group. Luckily none of the horses foundered
(yet) and Bear didn't have another seizure...but it felt like we were
ducking from some monkey in the sky throwing crap at us all day.

Today was better. Went for a great snowpacked dirt road ride on the
Hunter and had two fun hikes with the Count Muppies. Tomorrow is CO
State CX championships. Wish me luck!

A sweet ride on the newly converted Hunter to the bus today on some
snow-covered trails and then to the office from downtown on the
perfectly plowed bike paths. The roads seem to get plowed 2nd in
Boulder. It was cold @ 7 degrees when I left the ranch but I never
got cold having brought the right gear today...unlike yesterday at the
Wednesday morning cross "worlds" where the 20-ish degrees froze my
hands worse than they'd froze in some time. It's funny (in a not so
funny way sometimes) how the body feels like 20/50 weight oil was put
in at the last tuneup instead of 5/30. I'll never get the ups and
downs of phisiology!