Backdoor Spring

Hayride up high. It was almost 50 at the house today so we were skinning in shirts and no gloves...crazy for Feb 27th!

Visited the Backdoor Spring with Hayride for the first time this year, and maybe the only time unless we get some significant snowfall in March. I only went once last year too. The coverage was pretty good but as with almost every place I've been this year the snow had no base, your skis, no matter how wide would collapse the snow and you'd go over the bars. You had to be light as a feather and ski with your skis together (mono-ski?) and make subtle movements and long-arcing turns. This happened mostly in the trees and north-ish facing slopes, but it was pretty hard to ski for the most part. We did find some sweet sections in the gully (downhill from the spring) since the west winds whip the snow off the N/S ridge into the north trees and this aspect gets more sun so was consolidated much more than the rest.

Grouse tracks and scat up on the ridge near a really old limber pine

We ran into a couple with a really cute smaller red husky that followed me down the hill as i was skiing. The owners didn't call him back, just talked in their own oblivious world until I stopped halfway down the hill and let the dog realize his owners weren't right behind me. He eventually ran back up, but with a hill that was pretty wind loaded and steep enough to slide just to the north of us, all I could think of was "DUH." The dog was having a roaring time though! I hope he has a long life in the backcountry.

Looking back up at our turns makes it look really deep powder but it was all we could do to not fly flat on our faces. I (unintentionally) stopped here by sinking into the snow to the ground!

Here is me right before the above photo was taken...

Another point that Hayride brought up to me today was that even if your dog has an avalanche beacon, you can imagine a situation where you are with two people and your dog skiing in the backcountry and the slope slides and catches your dog and one of your friends. You have no way of knowing which beacon signal is your dogs' or your friends'. That's a tough situation as you do not have a choice in which signal you dig out first. Maybe it's an even trade, but for some it may NOT be when time is of the essence.

Tomorrow's the 9th Annual DoJoe uphill/dowhill ski race at Eldora so it should be a fun story to tell tomorrow night...

Stouts and Skis

Port Brewing's Older Viscosity at the Mtn Sun with Hayride, SpeedRacer, SB, and King Wednesday night. It's stout month at the Sun's and seeing how this is the last week with the bestest selection, it had to be done. With the above as well as Abyss on tap, well...it was a tasty night.

Last night we had a bit of a snow squall at around 4pm, right in time for rush hour. Not sure what happened, it was as if a bunch of Floridians replaced all the mountain folk because there were more accidents than i've ever heard of in one single hour since I've lived here. Canyon, Mag, Sugar were all closed due to accidents and no sign of opening up. So what were we to do but hit the South Sun and go for a Czar. Yum.

Up the southern railroad route up to home we made it just fine to Hayride's place and planned this morning's dawn patrol to some SideCountry at the resort thinking there'd be at least as much snow as at our houses 1,000 vertical feet downhill (4" at Hayride's house).

Not so much. Maybe 1" over a moguled out glade made for some interesting turns, but hiding from the Patrollers on snowmobiles made it fun in that middle-school manner. Any day that starts on skis or a bike is a good day.

Dawn Patrol

I sat out the biggest snow weekend we've had so far this year with a head cold so it was time to push that aside this morning and go for a dawn patrol. No takers unfortunately for the 6:30am call to meet at the trailhead so I went it alone. When one has to get to work by 9am, one must go it alone most of the time (with my friend Spot of course)...so it be.

I took out the tele skis today and although i felt cooler and the turns looked prettier...OH MY GOD they're heavy!! And they're they're pretty light for tele skis. Not to sound like a weight weenie (I kinda am) but with the added 4lbs, and my fatigue from my week long head cold, i felt like i was towing a sled with a keg of beer. And those BD Glide-lite skins? Crapola, more like Glide-like-Shite skins. Nothing can compare to Mohair skins. Now that I've gone with Mohair, i cannot go back. I had no idea...

A coyote's tracks led all the way up the trail, starting way down the road actually. A big nighttime foray for that canid. Perfect 'direct registry' placed this as a wild canid, no dog would ever walk this perfectly in the snow. Once again, I imagined the Monkey showing me the way to fresh tracks, having been reincarnated as a coyote wandering the lands she never got to explore as a dog.

This place gets pretty used up on the weekends because of its proximity. But I was the first car there this morning. I followed the skin track up from yesterday and made my way to where we went last week to the day but seeing it more or less tracked out, I kept going up. Up and left i made my way above treeline and noticed yet again a lack of wind in one of the windiest places in the county. Usually devoid of snow from winds whipping it to the east, there was a good fresh 8-10" of new so I crested to top, ripped skins and did my first tele turns of the year on a low angle wide open powder field. And for this lucky guy, that is how my day started.

Before...

...and after (with some cool color correction to see the tracks).

Looking south...

...and looking back in black and white.

My track goes from the top left of that ridge down the center of the picture.

Two Moose

It's been a wildlife-full week at DVR. We awoke to two moose in the back meadow chowing down on the new willow shoots. They seemed more or less unperturbed by my presence when I went to go feed the horses, as well as the dogs barking in their general direction. However, they still slowly made their way up valley. It's good they have such long legs - you can see the moose on the right is belly deep in a snowdrift eating willow.

Our horse Daisy seemed a bit upset by their presence, and this one (the younger one I think) approached the back fence and stared at Daisy who was cussing out the moose (a funny snorting/huffing sound) to go away. Later, when I tried to get Daisy in the arena (in the general direction of the two moose), she did NOT want to go out there. I really would love to set up a pony camera so i can see what they see all day and night long.

The moose are making their high pitched calls from the north-facing woods all day, and the snow is really coming down now at almost an inch an hour. I reckon we'll see them tomorrow morning too.

New Dawn Patrol Spot

Got an email early AM last Monday that BadCop and theBird were headed up to a local ski spot for some turns. I was feeling a bit tired from the hut trip still but I decided to head up as theBird knew some turns i didn't know about. This will now be my new spot for Dawn Patrol before work. Here's a short video of the tour.

It started out chilly, but warmed up to appear like a nice spring day with several inches of powder and windblown. It truly felt like April. Lots of people and dogs at this particular place, but man, some great turns were had and it finally feels like the Front Range is getting some snow from this El Nino thing.

We were all on our Dynafit Manaslu's but theBird had his setup Tele with Voile' Switchbacks. Pretty freakin perfect tele setup - the lightest I've seen and probably skis the best with the early rise tip so to reduce tip dive in breakable crust and deep pow. I'm still waiting for the perfect tele setup (light boots & releasable, light, efficient, & powerful bindings) but his was the closest I've seen although it's still at least 2 pounds heavier than what I'm on right now. "But it's TELE!" he says...yep, that's true. It's all skiing!, I say (although I was yearning to tele that day).

One of the highlights for me was seeing an 18 year old Aussie mix going for a ski tour with her mom and younger brother. Amazing that this dog was out there at all, at least 2 miles from the trailhead on snow. Very cool to see but I can't help but think about how The Monkey was taken too early and couldn't be there with me to do such adventures.

Bobcat hunting

(Updated, video link at bottom)

Yesterday, I was home sick and it's a rare occasion that I'm hanging out at home all day long. So about on my 3rd double espresso of the day at 3pm, I spotted some movement in the back meadow from the kitchen window. Usually it's the coyote/s I see back there, but today there was a noticeable difference, this one had no tail! I got the binocs out and saw the lil bobcat hunting around for rabbits.

What alerted me to the presence of something back there was our horse Butter (in picture below). All the horses are very attuned to their surroundings and "point out" each thing they see or hear by their affixed stare in the direction of the object. Butter was watching something move behind the horse trailer so I broke out the camera and shot some pictures of a lil bobcat hunting for wabbits around our barn:

The bobcat had to scale a 5 foot welded wire fence to get inside the yard from the back meadow. Buttercup watched intensely as he went looking in the rabbit hole in the corner of the barn. This bobcat knew exactly where he/she was going.

Butter and I watched as the bobcat crouched by the front door to Peter Rabbit's house for about 5 minutes. Sadly for the bobcat, nobody emerged.

Afterwards, the bobcat continued to scour all the local hangouts of Peter and Co. but didn't find any lunch.

The lil bobcat left after about 15 minutes in the area. Right after the above photo was taken, Butter walked somewhat aggressively (or curiously?) towards the bobcat and made him trot off a bit faster than usual, but then he proceeded to walk within 20 feet behind Butter to check out another potential rabbit hiding place. Having found nothing once again, the bobcat jumped back over the fence and checked out the old outhouse at the edge of the dog yard. Stiffed once again, he proceeded to slowly saunter up the steep hillside between the rock outcrops on the back hill in search of more food before the oncoming snow storm fully set in.

Video Link HERE.

Margy's Hut Trip. It just works.

Leaving the hut, morning of the second day

For the second hut trip of this year, I thought I'd write about another aspect of hut trips than the skiing. A hut trip is a lot about the skiing, but it's also a lot about moving into a hut for a few days in the middle of the woods with a group of your friends. People you may see on a daily, weekly, or only a yearly basis because of different jobs, locations, or schedules. But for the hut trip, you're all living in the same space in close quarters. This can be a good or bad thing but in my experience it's always been a positive thing for friendships.

The Pilot, Webster, the Flemish Wonder, so many names, so much style

There is a lot to do when you skin up to the hut. First, at the trailhead, you need to separate all the food for the group into equally weighted parts so it can all get the hut fairly - one person cannot carry it all along with his/her own stuff, but in pieces it's easy. When you arrive at the hut, you need to start a roaring fire to make snow melt for water in order to drink, cook your food, and clean your dishes. One or two start the fires while another one or two go outside get clean snow to melt. A constant job that continues throughout the day as we all know how much snow it takes to make even the smallest amount of water.

When it's dinner time, more or less organically someone chooses it's time to start making the fixings and others follow. First, the chopping of the veggies and meat or meat-like substitutes, the boiling of the water for pasta or rice or beans, and finally the cooking of the food and making sure it's all done and done well. Depending on who is cooking that night, unique twists to the meals will take place, whether it be some red pepper, garlic, and onion mixed in with the pasta sauce or something new for desert. It's always Pasta one night and Mexican the next, but the meals never taste exactly the same.

Greg some turns into the falling light

It's the community that makes the hut trip work. All busy bees, ants with a mission, elves in Santa's workshop, working and chatting just knowing what has to be done and doing it to get those bellies full and thirsts quenched. This trip, I had one of those realizations and stopped to just observe. I imagined myself staring through the window of the hut seeing what all the elves were doing to get stuff done. Not many words spoken on what had to be done, but it was all just as easily gettin done seamlessly. Dishes washed by those that didn't cook, reverse the next night or not. Everyone picks their favorite things to do, or their specialties, and just get er done!

For more pics and narration check out The slideshow of the trip.

Two days after we left, the next group at the hut triggered an avy on the slope we skied back in 2006 in late March. Glad we didn't drop into that this year...

http://www.aspentimes.com/article/2010100219869

Margy's Hut Teaser...

The Pilot carving the first turns of the trip...

Got back Friday night from the Aspen area from a two night, three day Margy's Hut trip with a great crew. Full pictures and report later on today, but for now three of my favorite shots from the trip.

Looking out the outhouse door....

the drying rack, getting ready for another day.

More to come, now gotta go ski some more!

Top 5 day at the tunnel

It didn't start snowing at the ranch until 7am but it apparently had been snowing more up higher over the last day or two. The big-snowflake type of snow finally - an upslope! The rock stars picked me up after a crazy drive up the canyon and we headed to old faithful. It seems I get stuck going here every weekend but it's just so close and contains the best snow in the area per mile of skinning. And so far, I haven't been to the same run more than twice so it keeps it fun.

We go there...?

Pilot JHK has become quite the BC navigator. He has surpassed my sense of direction up here and walks and talks like he's skied BC up there for years. His GPS and route-finding skills made me so at home today that I was happy to take the caboose in the back and follow (it was also nice cause he broke lots of trail and is 10x's as fit as me!).

JHK heads first down Splitrock alley

We chose a route in the car that would entail making our way up and down "the Thumb", from one alpine cirque to another - north to south. This way we get all the aspects and see where ths snow is the best and also get lots of runs in! The various alley's, trees, and historical avalanche chutes of the Thumb proved immensely fun today and we just cruised effortlessly from one alley to the next without even a hint of getting lost (I know, incredible!). Just amazing light Colorado powder made our skis flow and carve like not many days I've had up here. We did 4 runs total in the 5 hour tour, and that's also a record for me. It was great to have a crew always up for grabbing those extra 20 turns and happy to do the skin back up (thank you Sir, may I have another?). I have to admit, I felt a little old today trying to keep up with these two.

Pilot Irmiger on upper 'secret trees.' This slope once again flows the best turns of the day.

After some flat-land navigation to find the last turns of the day, we were back at the automobile. But wait, JHK realized his GPS had literally jumped out of his jacket on a slight fall not a half-hour back (ok, it was a pretty good rollover). He was consulting the GPS so much in the last leg of the tour that he kept his pocket open for quicker access to the GPS and then when he fell it must've fall out. (Of course, I did this same thing with my clinometer last weekend and it found it's way out on some slope between the parking lot and the Divide sadly. I never found it, but nor did I try). But JHK's another story. Like a good Pilot, he wasn't about to lose this awesome piece of equipment in the woods to get buried in snow and never be found again, so he grabbed his pack, re-skinned up, and turned around to go find it. I gave him my Spot tracker so we could track him back at the Ranch in case something went askew (it was after 3pm already and darkness was only a couple of hours away). But amazingly, an hour later and an additional 1,000ft ascent to the crater site, he found it lying right on top of the snow. Might as well buy some new skis cause you just saved yourself $500!

Some more pics and a couple of vids can he seen here in the Local Turns photo album.

Tomorrow night we head to Aspen for a hut trip at Margy's. I may post from the road, but more than likely I'll be talking to you next week. Cheers!

Singletrack in February at 8,500ft...?!

After a lunchtime ride with the Pilot (aka the NEW Flemish Wonder) on Wednesday and feeling like i want to keep some biking in my legs throughout the winter, I headed out for a late ride today. I was waiting for it to snow and get colder (to freeze the ground), in truth, before heading out as there was a 50% chance today and an 80% chance of snow tonight...but no such luck so far. At 4pm I headed out and up the hill a bit to the local zoolander spot. (Um, yeah...KB, best turn your eyes.)

On the upside of getting no snow and lots of wind (along with lots of snowshoers) I was able to get out on a pretty fun ride following a few of the local summer trails. The Hunter seemed overkill with it's studded tires when i first hit the road and took a left on a dirt road which was all clear of snow and almost totally dry. It was then that I noticed the trails seemed to be somewhat packed down! Usually, trying to ride trails in the winter here is an exercise in frustration involving postholing and stopping dead in the hollow sun and wind-crusted snow. Without a big-tire snowbike (which is sounding more enticing every day), the snow only holds your weight for a pedal or two, if that, and then drops you to the ground. But today, I was glad i tried the trails. It was kinda one of those out and back rides on the trails, but it was well worth the effort and I even found some drt, yes DRY singletrack, on the southwest exposed open areas. Snowshoers had packed a 1-2 foot wide trail so well that my tires (2.1's) were not sinking whatsoever and I was able to rail the corners with surprising speed because of the studs which was a totally new experience for me. Yes, it was a good ride.

Chill Pill

At the bike rack having arrived at work on a chilly day, Tank chills. The newest addition of an old yet very simple and effective adaptation to the straddle cable for cantilever brakes.

They're rad.

It took awhile to put these things on but they add just the right touch to the bike.

Thanks, Brother Wolfe.

January observations, YOTB, & JGuppie

Basin plot for the South Platte, Feb 2nd, 2010

January 2010 is now over and the stats are in. El Nino sucks for snowfall in NorCO. The Basin plot shows us well below average for precipitation (80%); I truthfully can't remember the last time it snowed over an inch at the ranch! The wind has been much less intense and frequent than most other years that I can remember which is really nice, but I have to admit, i'd rather have the snow.

On January 5th, we had a week of really sunny and warm weather - over 50 degress at 8,400ft. It was so warm that the mountain chickadees were singing their mating calls up and down the valley thinking spring was here...! The willow up-valley have started the greening of their shoots while the elk take samples. So while the overnight lows have been pretty low (less than 10 degrees each night for most the month), the daytime highs have been above 30. It's a warm winter for sure. I hope the southwest flow that El Nino intensifies will produce some big upslopes in the coming months when the Front Range usually gets the biggest dumps. But it's not looking safe or good for the Aspen area where my Margy's hut trip is a mere 8 days away. With nearly 50 human-triggered or natural avalanches in the last couple of weeks, we will do well to stay on the lower-angled slopes and not even toy with steeper slopes because that faceted base-layer that has persisted this entire winter looks like it will stay for the rest of it.

On another note, while hiking the gups out back found a well preserved (suncrusted) set of bobcat tracks walking downhill towards the back meadow. The year of the bobcat (YOTB) it certainly is!

And here's Jessica Guppie showing off all her toys - an orangutan and tie-dyed bear in the above picture. Jessica is hilarious, she must have 'bird-dog' genes because we definitely did not teach her this. Each night before bedtime especially but also after breakfast, dinner, and at random other times throughout the day, she goes and grabs as many stuffed animals that she can fit into her mouth and does her best impression as a runway model showing off all her prizes to the other dogs and humans. It is so freaking cute, it never gets old.