Cool

Collared wolf makes it to Colorado!
http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/a_1000_mile_journey_carries_montana_wolf_to_colorado/C41/L41/

...and even crazier

Mountain Belle Hut Trip

I'm back! Report to follow in the upcoming days but for now here's a photo album.
It was excellent...just excellent.

http://picasaweb.google.com/whitcj/MountainBelleHutTrip#

Happy belated Monk-a-versary!!

The Monkey and her chicken and rice and cheese burrito sushi

It was her anniversary on Saturday. Read the the link to smrp's site for the history of the Monkey but let me just say this is one amazing little girl. Happy 12th and I hope many more!!

Tourmania

I ski alone a lot. Too much probably. But finding frequent ski partners is difficult I've found. Everyone has their own schedules and responsibilities and we can't always be on the same page every weekend...weekend Warrior that I am. So both days this weekend, I skied alone. Saturday, I went out on the Hollemkollen's and skied the Quinn Mountain loop into the backside of the resort and sketched some turns down the grommet-filled groomers. Took 2 hrs and 15 and no skins were used! (This is more a "note to self" for future years looking back on my site, as I've always been curious how long this loop would take me.)

Then Sunday I headed to the same hill and glades that we visited on our Wednesday dawn patrol. It was SO good that day that with the recent new snow, I knew it would be amazing today. I was so excited that I rando'd it up to the top of the hill in and hour 20. That's one good part of going alone, you can only make yourself suffer...

...and it was excellent. I'd guess about 8" of new snow had fallen since Friday night up here...or 4" and 4" of windblown; 6" of new, 2" windblown...you get the idea. Either way, that on top of the 4-5" that fell at the start of the week, it was nearly knee deep turns in spots I had NO idea existed before today. The above little hidden nook that led me to "Bald Knob" (to the upper left behind the trees in this photo). Bald Knob is an inconspicuous little hill that holds an amazing amount of snow in the surrounding trees. The whole southeast-facing ridge seems to get an influx of snow blown in from the northwest winds. Good and bad - lots of snow but also windloaded. The conditions were damn solid today though. No new snow sluffs whatsoever like the little ones we had on Wednesday. CAIC said LOW below treeline! (That's rare.)

I'm trying to get better at not planning my route so much and just going with the flow - where my skis and snow take me. I did a good job today, not looking at a map or GPS for the entire day. I 'knew' where I was, mostly, that being helped by the fact it was a bluebird day, so I didn't worry about getting lost. I admit that it's nice to be free of those habits every once and awhile. Montezuma Joey always said I'd "get past" those things, but I'm not sure I believe him, even now. I'm just a techie at heart.

First run in the glades in the distance. My track is somewhere in there.

Bald Knob in the upper right, and my tracks leading back up to the top.

A group of Pilots leaves for Silverton Mountain Wednesday and then onto the Mountain Belle Hut on Red Mountain Pass for a long weekend. See you next week. Cheers!

PS- THANKS for the excellent cookies KB! Glad you like Spot! He's pretty cool, eh?!

Dawn Patrol!

Wednesday Dawn Patrols. My first one with the group. MK and Dubba have been heading out for the last few weeks and getting some excellent turns up at the tunnel. Leaving town at 5:20, skinning up by 6am in the dark. Luckily I get to wake up later as I'm only 15 minutes from the tunnel.

MK setting a mad pace on the approach. He's wearing Ski Trab FreeRando Lights with mohair skins, so they were basically like nordic skis compared to the rest of our setups! (But he also has sick fitness of course.)

MK starting the first run down the hill. 4-6" of new snow had blown in and there definitely was some soft snow sluffing, but all was bomber beneath so there were no worries.

I need nicknames for these two to protect the guilty.

H.bomb carving some pow pow!

Matt getting some deep knee bends in before work at the magazine. He had to be at a meeting midmorning, so we were on a schedule!

The skate out to the car. Up in and hour and a half, down in 20 minutes! It's an awesome to start the day this way.

Tour-delicious!

A solo Sunday tour up to the Chutes and Ladders. To the top of the run, with only minor route finding, in an hour and a half! Partially due to the lack of fresh snow and the rock solid trail on the way up. I used kicker skins most the approach. We need snow badly.

Here's the left (southern) most "chute" with three more to the right. They're pretty short runs - 400 vertical at most - but you can whip them all out in an hour if you so wish. Not the greatest conditions, as the last time it snowed more than a trace was almost two weeks ago when I was on the Hut trip. But any turns are good turns, right?! However, when it's over 40 degrees at 11,000ft in February...well that's just messed up! I can't remember the last time I put on Globstopper on my skins in February!

The Jackal Hut movie:
http://www.dropshots.com/meriwether#date/2009-02-01/19:20:36

I rode my bike today

I haven't been riding my bike to work much at all lately. Instead I just go to work, walking the dogs in the early AM or heading up to the hill to get some Nordic in before or after work. Being a 9-5er kinda sucks up the entire day so most of my exercise is in the dark these days.
Noticeably lighter today at 6:30am, I got up to 18 degrees outside in Cold Valley Ranch. After lolly gagging around, getting the dogs out to the potty yard, I rode up to the dirt road I ride into town and it was at least 15 degrees warmer up there - maybe 200ft higher than our house. Then i get to Boulder, 20 miles and 3000 vertical feet later and lower and it's over 50 degrees at 9am. Yes, it's Feb 4th and the high today was over 65 degrees. Tomorrow's high is supposed to be 69 degrees. Yes, that's what I just wrote. WTF?!?! I'm all for riding my bike in nice weather and all but when I can ride trails at the beginning of February and have only knee warmers on on my ride home from the bus at 6pm, well that's just F-ed up. An old timer here, 65 years in Redneckville nearby, said this is the windiest winter he can recall. If this is a La Nina year, i officially proclaim that La Nina's suck. They're apparently characterized by dry weather, lots of wind, and above average temperatures. The snow that does fall gets blown away and makes for some pretty sucky skiing and severe avalanche danger in the Backcountry.

Yep, where's my pacifier?! I moved to the high country of Colorado for SNOW! At least we timed the Hut trip nicely! (Blind luck) It was a great birthday present for me - getting 14" of new snow the night before we get to the hut so I can get powder turns on my 36th year. Very nice.

On my Sunday tour up around Kansas Knoll, it was the worst snow conditions I've experienced in February - EVER. Breakable crust is an understatement! My Grand Traverse setup was way undergunned. I hiked at least 2 miles on a road that is usually snow covered...it is currently stripped to the bare soil. Breaking through on each step of the approach I finally turned a corner and survived my way down to Wooly Gulch. The one plus was that I found "Limberpine Glades" - a 28 degree open glade with 600ft vertical to ski when there is actually good snow. On the way back, I was trying to bypass the dirt road approach and hit the train tracks back to the car so I wouldn't have to take my skis off again. (Foreshadowing: I should've gone back to the dirt road.)

I found some poor sap's skin track up from a previous day and followed it down into the gulch. What an idiot. (Me and him.) I figured, "he MUST know where he's going!" How many times have i said that to myself? That's like someone following my track and thinking that exact same thing. I pity the fool who follows my skin track. (Sorry to anyone who has tried that before!)
This skin track was so convoluted and just overall messed up that I had a hallucination that maybe it was my skin track from a few days ago and I had actually fallen asleep in the backcountry, woken up and forgotten I had laid this thing down.
Bushwhacking through north facing doghair lodgepole and willow along partially flowing creeks that you couldn't cross or risk falling into the running water (yes, it's Feb and there's flowing water!). After a couple of hours going downhill (yes, DOWNhill) I ended up at the train tracks. And of course, a train comes by so i have to skin back up away from the tracks. Didn't matter, as there wasn't enough snow along the sides of the tracks to ski back the car anyways. I think this is one of the only tours I've actually WANTED to end.

Finally back at the car over 4 and a half hours later and only a total of 6 miles covered...well, let's just say it was funner in hindsight.