Just the way it is

Lots of imaginable scenarios for that title including some cheesy pop lyrics. But today it's just a heading for the palette known as "Front Range skiing." It's not Jackson, it's not Little Cottonwood Canyon, it's not even Berthoud Pass, it's just the way it is. Either you learn how to love it, or you will certainly hate it, because it's the way it is and it could care less whether you find it's stashes.

It's a lot like singletrack in this area - you have to explore hours on end to find it, but when you do it's well worth the trouble. In fact, you learn that the exploring is most of the fun. The singletrack is broken up with lots of 'portages' where you may have to hike with and possibly shoulder your bike, or figure out the locals route obscurement and deal with (or be) Stickman (the one who doses out the slash). The rewards are endless though, especially for backcountry skiing where there is virtually no limit to the route you take.

A common day at the tunnel finds you skinning uphill for over 2 hours, getting generally "turned around" thinking you've been there before but more likely not, and getting about 10 good powder turns in (that is, if you don't head back up for another lap or two on that 300 ft vertical stash you just found). Ok, yes, there are places where that's not the average but for most of my days out there it is. So why do it? See the following pictures. These were taken a mere 30 minute non-traffic'd drive from my house. No I-70 traffic to deal with, and less driving is always a good thing for multiple reasons.

So today me and Hayride headed up above the tunnel and went searching for some new views to see and new slopes to ski. It did snow this week but only maybe an inch since I was here last Monday.

An unknown skier who stupidly followed our skin track (when will they ever learn)

Hayride pulling off some good looking survival turns on the wind slab up high.

Me on one of the three short lower runs with near perfect snow conditions

Hayride figure-8'ing my line

The last of the short runs and another great find for the day.

Me entering the White Room. Ok, the snow wasn't really that deep, but it sure does look like it from this angle.

Crisp Friday morning commute

The ride in today was just excellent. I get happy to just do the 'direct' route these days, especially when there's new snow on the ground. The air was crisp, the deep blue sky juxtaposed against the white snowcovered trees.

I think the pictures mostly describe the morning. Sunny and 5 degrees at the ranch, but it quickly warmed up as I went along the dirt road east...

...my shadow still showing some big wheels....

...I passed the same views seen so many times before but today they looked different, more beautiful and sharp...

...and an hour later i dropped into an inversion that burned off as soon as i got into the office in the plains.

Happy Friday all!

I turned 37 today...

...and I don't feel much different.

I had a very relaxing morning sipping coffee on the couch with the puppies and my girl. I got some funny presents - furry bear paw gloves that are HUGE and warm, and fuzzy Crocs which will be permanent residents on my feet.

Although Monday, I skipped work in lieu of hanging out at home and going into the backcountry. JHK picked me up at 10 and we left for a backcountry tour up at the Tunnel. The wind has been crazy, and I mean CRAZY, the last 24 hours. If stuff wasn't strapped or nailed down, it blew away. Big 100 gallon horse trough, gone. WTF?!

With the little bit of snow that actually hit the ground (1 - 6" reportedly but I'd say more like 1"), I was predicting some good stashes of wind-deposited powder in those sheltered leeward spots. I went up yesterday to the same area and found the new snow wasn't too bonded to the old snow surface. I easily kicked off a nice little (kinda medium to large, actually) soft snow sluff from the top of Quicky Couloir - on the second try. Today, we tried again to do the same thing after another 8" of wind-deposited snow filled in the gap I created, but to no avail.

Yeah, it was a bit windy in certain places, and at 18 degrees before calculating windchill, it was pretty terrible for exposed skin. This cornice was formed on FLAT ground on the east side of a small lake. Why? I don't really know.

JHK grabbing some good turns on the best snow of the day.

After going a bit too high up and right on the Rib and not finding the south-facing glade that I've been wanting to ski (for three years now), we ran away with our tails between our legs into the dense forest (yes, the wind). The next 'goal' was to find this little white area on the topo map - a opening in the trees that may provide us with some good sheltered turns in soft snow. After some sludging through the flats below the lake, it started to drop and we found a sweet cliffy steep open area with much more potential when there's more snow. We made the best of it though and spent some time navigating the rocks and steeper sections of the slope to get us safely down it but also get some turns between the islands of trees...just to make the 2+K of vertical (more) worth skinning up. We were awarded at the bottom when we looked at eachother and said "Dawn Patrol spot!" We "found" what we both knew was the closest open trees to the parking lot with good snow. He predicted a 35 minute skin up to the top of the run from the car, which would definitely get me to work on time.

Not 5 minutes after returning home, a group of 30 elk started browsing in the back yard. A nice birthday surprise since we've never seen them in this area during the daytime.

To end the day, a walk around the property with my girl and the Gang of Four (the Guppies, and Rikki and Basie shown above). Basie always loves to stop at overlooks and check out his surroundings, so I joined him. I don't enough slow down and stop and make an effort to take it all in. This year I plan to be more like Basie.

Fowler/Hilliard Yurt Trip, 2010

View down to the yurt and "Buzzards" - the open trees across the way.

Ptarmigan is the bald peak just behind the tree'd ridge.

The yearly Frozelap hut trip was last weekend at the newly made Fowler/Hilliard Yurt. It used to be a big hut, but lightning or something else burnt it down to the ground this summer - only the detached outhouse was left standing and in fine condition. The 10th Mountain and a group of volunteers quickly replaced the hut with a big 30 foot diameter yurt with a venting skylight, wood stove, kitchen with 6 propane burners, and bunk beds to sleep 14 people. Two beds doubled as window seats adjacent to the wood stove made it able to fit 16 but that would be a bit tight honestly.

View from the yurt window - Resolution Peak.

I've been lucky enough to be invited on the Frozelap's hut trips for the last three years and the first trip I did was to this place when it was a hut and we were having a better snow year. But any hut trip is better than no hut trip and any day in the backcountry is simply a great day. The crew was all there again. I get to see most of these people only once year, sad as that may sound, and it's on this annual hut trip. The Champ's dad, The Bobber, bailed out when he heard it was a yurt but that's cool cause he's 30ish years our senior and is one of the most hardcore old dudes I know. (He was one of the first to bike the Colorado Trail among many other things.) So we missed him but had a great time nonetheless. The days were filled with skiing and searching for turns, the nights were filled with a lot of laughter. I have video of the round of jokes from the second night, but I think I may have to get written permission to post that video...it's hilariously crass.

The meals - pasta and mexican; the drinks - cans of Ska's Modus Hoperandi, Dales Pale and Ten Fidy, and various other liquids that were in small metal flasks (gotta stay light when you carry it in!); and of course good coffee filled our cups and the air each morning while we looked out at Resolution Peak from the seat by the wood stove. There's not much more peaceful than the feeling of waking up at a hut or yurt, boiling your snowmelt for coffee, and sipping it out on the deck or in front of the wood stove while watching the sun rise over the snowcapped mountains that surround you in every direction. The morning light alone is worth the trip.

Me skinning up the easiest part of the hard way out of the Poop Chutes (thanks to Frozley for doing most of the trail breaking)

This area was rumored to not have received any new snow in 20 days, so it was somewhat hard to find great skiing. But we ended up finding some good turns behind the hut in the north-facing Poop Chutes (behind the outhouses) and on a partially sun-crusted SE facing slope just outside the front door. Buzzards was crusty but still fun and we didn't even try the bowl right out the front door because the sun had wreaked havoc on the shallow snowpack making a pretty hard suncrust on anything facing remotely south (except for some shaded pockets). Once again, I probably annoyed some by my choice of skin track but hey, what d'ya expect?! I know where I'm going, just not always the best (easiest) way to get there! So yes, bushwhacking and post-holing were involved.

I get a bit solemn every time I leave a hut. I try to cram all those sensations into the last hours and minutes of being up there:

Deep breaths of the cold mountain air,

The pure silence of the morning and afternoons,

Looking 360 degrees around you and seeing only peaks and glades yet explored and skied,

The knowing smile from friends that are enjoying the same things and thinking the same thing -

Let's go ski them thar hills, brother.

More pictures and narrative found HERE.

Talk about the weather

This year is a light El Nino year, or so I've heard. I remember an El Nino year several years back that had a split jet stream across the western US, where north and south of Colorado got great snowfall and we got nothing. This year, it appears that only the west coast (Tahoe) and the southwest (north to Crested Butte) are having a good winter. Actually, they're getting hammered (6 feet of snow for Tahoe in the last few days and 50" so far at Silverton and more on the way for both). We have received less than an inch on the Divide in the last 3 weeks. Yep, for the northern and central mountains of Colorado, and Utah I hear too, El Nino is giving us snake eyes. Nada. Shite. The upside is there is very little wind this year compared to last winter where it was driving us batty. It was truly unbelievable how windy it was. This year, it's nearly still, it's WEIRD.

So while Frank and T are shoveling themselves out of house and home down south in D-town, I'm considering taking the studs off Tank and starting to wonder if the trails may be rideable on the Hunter. The prediction from the weather-folk is that El Nino brings less frequent storms to this area, but more intense and productive storms when they come. I can't say I've noticed that yet but I'm keeping my fingers crossed! Margy's hut trip outside of Aspen in T-minus 18 days. With less than 24" of base at the Fowler/Hilliard Yurt last weekend...i hope it can only get better! (Post to come on the yurt trip soon.)

Freddy

Sophie and Freddy on a hike in summer, 2008

I'm having trouble writing about anything. So much has happened but I just don't have the will to write right now. We lost Freddy, our rottie/pit mix. We put him to sleep a week ago Monday. And even though it happened at the right time for him and it was as good as it could've been, I am still extremely sad to have lost one of my best friends. It never gets easier, even when you plan it perfectly. Here's my girl smrp's ode to Fred; I really can't say it better than she did, but I will try to get back to writing this weekend.

Poem for the year

Got this sent my way by Heyride. I think this is a fitting poem for a few Pilots this year including Heyride himself, Brother Wolfe, NPD, and myself.

Two Tramps in Mud Time (Robert Frost, 1934).

Out of the mud two strangers came And caught me splitting wood in the yard, And one of them put me off my aim By hailing cheerily “Hit them hard!” I knew pretty well why he dropped behind And let the other go on a way. I knew pretty well what he had in mind: He wanted to take my job for pay. Good blocks of beech it was I split, As large around as the chopping block; And every piece I squarely hit Fell splinterless as a cloven rock. The blows that a life of self-control Spares to strike for the common good That day, giving a loose to my soul, I spent on the unimportant wood. The sun was warm but the wind was chill. You know how it is with an April day When the sun is out and the wind is still, You’re one month on in the middle of May. But if you so much as dare to speak, A cloud comes over the sunlit arch, A wind comes off a frozen peak, And you’re two months back in the middle of March. A bluebird comes tenderly up to alight And fronts the wind to unruffle a plume His song so pitched as not to excite A single flower as yet to bloom. It is snowing a flake: and he half knew Winter was only playing possum. Except in color he isn’t blue, But he wouldn’t advise a thing to blossom. The water for which we may have to look In summertime with a witching wand, In every wheel rut’s now a brook, In every print of a hoof a pond. Be glad of water, but don’t forget The lurking frost in the earth beneath That will steal forth after the sun is set And show on the water its crystal teeth. The time when most I loved my task These two must make me love it more By coming with what they came to ask. You’d think I never had felt before The weight of an axhead poised aloft, The grip on earth of outspread feet. The life of muscles rocking soft And smooth and moist in vernal heat. Out of the woods two hulking tramps (From sleeping God knows where last night, But not long since in the lumber camps.) They thought all chopping was theirs of right. Men of the woods and lumberjacks, They judged me by their appropriate tool. Except as a fellow handled an ax, They had no way of knowing a fool. Nothing on either side was said. They knew they had but to stay their stay And all their logic would fill my head: As that I had no right to play With what was another man’s work for gain. My right might be love but theirs was need. And where the two exist in twain Theirs was the better right — agreed. But yield who will to their separation, My object in living is to unite My avocation and my vocation As my two eyes make one in sight. Only where love and need are one, And the work is play for mortal stakes, Is the deed ever really done For heaven and the future’s sakes.

Bamboo Bikes

I'm a DIY kinda guy so this is a cool story to read.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121628758&sc=nl&cc=es-20091227

Someday soon, i plan to make my own frame. Likely steel though as it's always been a dream of mine. But a mostly biodegradable bike out of bamboo? That is pretty cool.

This is a quandary for me in most things I do - what is the least impactful way to go? Obviously, using less stuff is a good start, but when you do buy a bike, what is the most environmentally sound material? If I knew my steel or aluminum bike was going to be recycled into another one, like the biodegrading bamboo getting composted into soil to grow more bamboo, then I'd be a happier cyclist. I don't think I'm alone on that because many cyclists care about the air they breathe and the resources they use. It's worth some research into the tubing manufacturers to see where they get their materials and if any of it could be considered recycled and if so how much? NPD commented earlier here that steel is one of the more recycled materials around. I wonder if it's known at what % - in that I mean could a bicycle frame be said to be 0.01% or 5% or 50% recycled steel? Oskar Blues has many claims about Aluminum being a superior material for beer distribution as well as it's environmental benefits over other materials. Does anybody know if such tubing manufacturers as Reynolds, True Temper, Columbus use any recycled products? A quick Google search returned nothing. I'm going to dig in and look.

Inversion

Wednesday morning ride in. 29 degrees at the house, 17 in Boulder. A rare occurrence when it's that much colder down there, but pretty common in the winter to get inversions where the it's clear up high and clouds can be seen flowing up the canyons before the snow starts later in the morning. I got in that window where it was clear in the 'middle zone' and the snow hadn't started down below yet. Almost immediately when I got into work though, the snow started dumping and by quitting time there was a good 2 inches on the ground. The bike paths into town were in excellent shape not having been plowed, however, i didn't get 1st tracks as there were at least three or so other riders that got fresh tracks before me. There's something about riding the snowy bike paths into town. It may sound odd but to get off the congested roads and onto the quiet snow-covered paths; to not have to stop the entire 6 miles; to be meandering alongside the creek, sheltered by the cottonwoods and seeing coyote and fox tracks cross the path...well it's just warming to the heart. Met Heyride at the beer store downtown for a much appreciated lift home and headed up the canyon. Talk of skiing continued, of avalanche accidents in other states, of upcoming hut trips and powder days. Upon getting back home, it was hovering just above zero degrees and is forecasted to get even colder. But the snow is stacking up on the railing as i sit in front of the fire thinking of dawn patrol on Friday morning...mmm....cozy.

Indirect snowfall...or when 5" is really 10"

I'm not one to exaggerate so believe me when I tell you we had knee deep pow pow on our Sunday tour up to the Cirque de Ski. I'm not sure what to call this place anymore as it's probably pretty obvious from any nickname I produce that is somewhat of a description, so I'm just going to call the general area "Cirque de Ski" cause it's a circus of people, a massive cirque of sorts many embedded in a larger one, and it's the best place to ski within a half hour of my house. Doesn't make sense? Yeah, me neither, I just kinda like how it sounds.

Anyways, a group of four headed high into the alpine Sunday morning after sympathetic snowfall dropped 5 more inches than fell at the local ski area and 8 more inches than they predicted to fall on the NOAA forecast. How's this possible you may ask? Well it's because the freaking wind we get on the Front Range is intense. Most cyclists (and the general population except for windsurfers) hate the wind but Front Range skiers have a a bit of a love/hate relationship with the wind. If we didn't have wind here on the Front Range, we wouldn't get 'blow-over' from Winter Park. In the winter, it typically snows more just over the Divide than on the Front Range...a lot more. In the springtime it reverses with upslopes produced by SW flow from the Gulf. But anyways, places just east of the Divide, such as Cirque de Ski, can sometimes get much more snow than predicted because of the high winds that whip across the Divide. This, in addition to the wind whipping any snow off the west-facing slopes and depositing it onto the NE-SE facing leeward slopes, is why 5" can become 10" in a matter of hours. And if you know where these pockets of 'catch' are, you will find powder runs almost any day of the week. So on Sunday, I had a feeling about a certain area up high where we might find a bunch of catch snow.

The crew today was made up of two Pilots that will go unnamed to protect their careers (backcountry skiing with me may be in their contracts as a boo boo) and Pilot Hayride who has been on a skiing frenzy this winter I might add.

Lots of whoomphing again today, with probably the loudest single collapse that I've ever heard. I actually felt it in my eardrums from the release of pressure - a high avy danger day for sure. What is important to realize here for me and some others is that you can still find excellent turns no matter what the danger - as long as you choose your route well and ski slopes less than 30 degrees that are not adjacent to or below steeper slopes. So that's just what we did.

Another long tour up high, 3000ft of vertical to get to what I used to call Chutes and Ladders but now the young(er) Pilot came up with a better name - Prospector Gullys. There's a mini lake (that his girl dipped a boot into unintentionally while trying to take off her skins) at the bottom of 4 or so lower angle gullys that can be prospected all day....hence the name. A great place to camp a night by the lake and make turns in peace all day.

Above - me trying to chunk off a piece of the cornice. It kinda chunked off, but didn't propagate. Below me and to the left is a south facing 28 degree gully that I've wanted to ski since i saw it last year...and it was as good as i thought it'd be.

Have fun but be careful out there Pilots! More snow on the way tonight into Wednesday night and there's already a Avy Watch alert on CAIC.

Video from the day.

1st ski of the year

Up and out at a leisurely pace today thank Dog as I was kinda worked from yesterday's tour and lack of sleep from our dog Fred's nightly steroid-induced activity. As we were having our coffee, i noticed something moving out of the corner of my eye and spotted a little juvenile bobcat headed uphill not more than 50 feet from our front door. He was so tiny compared to the other bobcats I've seen cross this property. So welcome to Siberian Valley Ranch little Bobby!

Heyride picked me up at 10 and we planned a shorter tour (or so we thought) just to the Trees of the Forest. I'm on the way to the tunnel, only a half hour from our respective houses (Yay, we live here!). The parking area was already packed, snowshoer's and dogs everywhere. As we navigated around the poop's and pee and 6-year-old snowshoer's trying to drop us, we had an urge to exit stage right. So, we did. Seemed innocuous enough at the time but soon we realized there wasn't as much snow up on this south-facing slope as would be desired to properly skin up it. Not two to turn around, we pushed on. Up thru the aspen and we suddenly were above where we should be and at the base of a rock wall of sorts. Skis off, and it was "mixed ski-bouldering" (aka. scrambling) to get up to the more continuous snow above the rocks. Skis back on and we were in unknown terrain and loving the new sights and route-finding challenges. Big old growth lodgepole that were sadly mostly dead due to the mountain pine beetle mixed in with the spruce and fir as we gained elevation. The trees were widely spaced on this SW-facing slope and I pulled out the GPS to mark a waypoint for a return trip once we get more snowfall. (Note to self: remember, there's some rock walls below these sweet trees!)

As we skinned higher and topped out enough to view the terrain, we realized we had taken a pretty serious detour and although going the right way, it was going to take us about an hour longer to get to the spot we were originally headed for than if we had stayed on the trail. Oh well, this way was way more fun than staying on the trail and there was no one to be seen but us pilots.

Once we found the trees we were looking to ski down, we were nicely surprised at the increase amount of snow that has covered up many of the sharp objects waiting to ruin one's ski bases. Still some out there, but MUCH less than two weeks ago. Three hours UP, one hour down. A mini epic of sorts and some new spots spotted that neither of us had been to before even though we've been skiing here for years!

Heyride's getting his AT on...first week or so on locked heels from tele and he's kickin ass!

Post ski carbo replacement. Bobble Jesus and the bless-ed TenFidy (it's empty).