Ptarmigan Cirque in RMNP

Saturday in the Park. We don't frequent the Park, but it's needing more attention as it is just so damn cool up there. More people than the IP and JP Wilderness Areas combined, but once you get 1 mile from the trailhead, there are but few people.

Notchtop Couloir on the other side of the cirque.
We didn't end up heading over that way because it was likely too mushy with rockfall potential. Instead we stayed safe, denied our egos (they wanted to go for the steepest of the Ptarmigan couloirs with a cornice on top), and skied the wide open headwall. Lucky for us. As soon as we all got to the bottom of the headwall, a part of the cornice broke off the middle couloir and flew down with thousands of pounds of wet snow. The noise it made was intense, and it was the quickest moving spring avi that I've ever witnessed. Usually, it's like watching a slow motion video, but not this time!

DV8 starting the run down the headwall.

BadCop carving up some sweet corn mush for dinner. The conditions were perfect - hero snow. After a boot pack back up to the top, we headed for home.

Notchtop Mtn. We spotted a rock climber 3/4 the way up that spire.

The headwall is the big snowfield up and to the left of DV8 in this picture and to the left of Notchtop Mtn. The corniced couloirs are to the left.

No matter what, it's always a slog out. Feeling the mountain high but with that tired body and hurting back and feet as you walk with skis and boots on your back over drift-covered trails of mud - it's what defines the spring skiing exodus. And the later in the spring, the longer the slogs. But the beauty and remoteness of the area, make it all SO worth it.

On the way out, it's so funny how many people comment on seeing skiers. "That season's passed!" (NOT). "There's SNOW up there??" ...about a million times (duh, no, we just like to hike with our skis and boots JUST IN CASE).

Such a diverse crowd on the way out. Married couples getting their pictures at Bear Lake and elsewhere, marmots courting with funny noises, a coyote's tracks doing the same ski run we did! And he pooped on the way down! At times, this place feels more like a PARK than a preserve.

Spring

It feels like I'm missing spring this year. Lots of issues to deal with this spring that will hopefully work themselves out soon. I've not been able to commute into work a lot this year, yet. So when I got a morning free last week i took the ridge to the flower meadow to Melvin's to see what was blooming. It's going off right now with everything seeming to bloom at once. The contrast of the white snow-capped peaks, the green grass and aspen leaves, and the full color spectrum of wildflowers is hard to capture in pictures. The pace of the bike is just perfect. Even though I drive by the flowers, that's just it...i quickly DRIVE by and don't connect with the land at all. You can't breathe in the air, slow to take in the views, stop to take pictures, move through the landscape like you can on foot or bike.

Sweet Black Sheep Mtn Mustache bars. I dig 'em. Setting them up is a bit more difficult if you're using gears (not many types will fit). Bar-end shifters are the best for these and H-bars in my opinion. I could've put them IN the bar ends, but they'd make the bars pretty damned wide (27" already) and likely catch on more stuff than I already do. I also like being able to shift without moving my hands back and forth over rough terrain.

A sea of purple iris with James Peak in the background.

Nature without Man

Yeah, a Minuteman quote that I think I've used before. Deal.

Humans are and have been part of nature for many hundred thousands of years (if you don't believe the bible), but when you think about the short time its been since Lewis and Clark journeyed across to the Pacific Coast from St. Louis just 200 years ago it is difficult to digest how much has changed in that short time period. Two hundred years ago, my great grandfathers weren't even on this continent, but in northern Europe somewhere. Not until 1847 did one come across and move to Colorado to look for gold. Even at that time, there was little to no loss of what was here before they arrived (nature), for our cities, food, and other consumables.

Nature without Man. Those three words make me think of the earth before buildings, before mass resurfacing of the world with development, sprawl, strip mines, clear cuts. I can appreciate many of the buildings individually for their inherent beauty, uniqueness, and stated purpose, but en mass it makes me ill to think about what was paved over, and what will never be again.
(Similar to people for me.) It's possible that another asteroid could clear the palette again, like with the dinosaurs, but such a world view definitely doesn't make the way of today, OK. It doesn't account for the fact that when something gets paved over, the land itself and any inhabitants there and nearby will never be the same, if not dead.

Think about the entrance to the San Francisco Bay Area before San Francisco or the Golden Gate bridge; Manhattan Island and the Hudson River before NYC; the Mississippi before New Orleans. What did they look like before "us?" What did they look like before Europeans settled on this continent? What do they look like now? Are you seeing it? The difference is amazing...and the sad thing is that we can't get it back.

Man without Nature.

I don't know about you, but even though I like some of the amenities we have these days, I'd much rather be living here in 1800.

100 degrees

I don't do well in heat. It's been hovering over 100 degrees since I got here. YUCK.
A nice place to visit, but this place has changed. It's lost the younger life'd crowd in the last 10 years...ousted by high home prices and the gawdy gentrification that comes with the all-too-familiar Californication. (I don't say younger "aged" since age is not very related to how "young" you are in my opinion. But alas, that's another rant.)

Larkspur is now wholeheartedly ruled by the upper middle class (rich by most standards) well-to-do predominantly white family. As an example, the Silver Peso used to be a biker bar (read: Harleys) where bar fights used to be commonplace. Mixing of the incomes and generations occurred and now we've entered a new error. Growing up here, I was banned from going within 100feet of that bar. Now it's the place to go for a drink with all the local yuppies. I'm sure there's a nice middle-ground in there some where. Maybe around 10-15 years ago when the bikers of all types were there, as well as the long-term local stoners from Madrone Canyon, and all the others that hadn't been kicked out by the insane cost of living yet. The main drag where the old mom and pop Rainbow Market used to sit is now full of "quaint" Boutique shops that entice you to by things you don't need or feed you some tiny California cuisine that ends up leaving you hungry and pissed that you just paid $20 for it. Speaking of money, it's $4.70/gallon here for regular unleaded but some how everyone doesn't seem affected. In Boulder I notice a ton more people riding bikes to work and taking the busses, but not here. I read that the Ford F-150 has lost it's place on the top to the Honda Civic in the US. Wow! Things do seem to change quickly when it hits people in the pocket book...but why does it take such "extreme" circumstances to change, or just do what's right? I don't know, but it's freaking HOT all i can dream about is this:
http://www.telemarktips.com/CenterfoldWide.html

Wildlife corridor

Our new place is situated along a riparian corridor and there is a ton of new wildlife sightings in the last couple weeks. Beyond the 3 and 4-legged coyote and Zeke our resident fox, we've had a bear come around the last two days - a pretty small yearling that looks pretty hungry and curious. Here are a couple pics of the visitors we've had. Not the greatest pictures but the Elph ain't got a great zoom!

The moose hanging out in the willows.

Curious young bear with HUGE ears and no fear of humans.

Got some supplies for the 69er and the Hunter yesterday. Almost able to ride again (back is recovering) so i'll post some pics hopefully next week. Switched the H-bars back to the Hunter for max torque on the single and finally had to replace the front Spot chainring (lasted over 3 years?!), and putting the Black Sheep Mtn Mustache bars on the 69er with Paul's thumbies and Avid rollerball bb7 discs instead of the hydraulics. Dropped over a pound already to sub 25lbs and still going. I'd lose over 2 pretty fast if i took off the Fox fork...but not yet fellow jedi's. The 69er has some tweaked fork geometry to accommodate the tweaked frame geometry- 51mm offset to keep the trail consistent with the slack headtube angle. That means a custom fork if I want it to ride well with a rigid...and that ain't happening any time soon!

Looks like Matt Lee is leading the Continental Divide Race and is the likely favorite to win it. Lots of snow on the high passes this year (DUH!?)...not sure why they start this "race" or event so early. Late June would be a better idea for such a race, if not later, since they're now starting it up in Banff! I still want to do this ride some day...but how do these guys take so much time off work?!

I'm heading home to Marin again this weekend to help Mom get around the house as she's back on her feet after the back surgery.
cheers.

Saturday...working

Yes, i'm at work today. So much to do, so little time.
But hey, it's ok, i'm injured AGAIN.
Pulled a rather large muscle in my aging back destroying the previous horse fence at DVR.
No riding, no skiing, no fun of any sort for me this last week. WAH....where's my pacifier?!
Driving to work, throwing money down the tank.
On the way out the driveway each day, i give the finger to the post that inflicted this painful wound upon me.
As if the post cares.

Long week...

Caught up with Timmy right here on the commute in Thursday AM - fog lifting above the Rhino and a marmot sitting up on the rocks overlooking his terrain. It rained and generally felt like norcal this week, except for today (Friday) where it rose to over 80 in the flatlands.

It's been a busy week, not much time to post the latest news. We got 3/4 of our ponies (horses actually) last Saturday and it's going relatively well considering we're new to all this! I wasn't here for their arrival as I made an emergency trip to Marin last Friday night until Monday to visit my mom who got transferred to the ICU after having some negative side effects to her 2nd back surgery in 4 months. She contracted pneumonia and had some serious pain killer withdrawals. Truthfully, there were times when I wondered if she was going to live through the weekend. But she's SLOWLY recovering and finally acting more normal - 2 weeks later. Very sad to see her in such a compromised state.

But on a happier note, the dual season of spring skiing and cycling is in full roar. It's a cool place here where you can ski the high peaks in the mornings and ride singletrack in the afternoons all within a 10 mile radius! Yay! We live here! Sorry, I had to (...inside joke if you've read OC and my stuff long enough).

Friday, before flying out, i skipped work to go ski Crooked Couloir with DV8. Last time we were on this particular couloir was 2003 during our Montezuma's Revenge "training." That year, it was later in June and MUCH more melted out and we only went UP it as I thought it too steep to ski down, and too narrow for my tele-ability at the time. This day (May 30th), however, was a completely different story. A virtual snowfield instead of a narrow couloir that only got to 40 degrees at its steepest. No worries on the Guides, as long as it softened up a bit.

DV8's skis stand up on their own! They're weightless I tell you!

The classic bike approach into Brainard Lake. The few mile road ride into the trailhead is always a sweet start to the day. The road is closed at least until Memorial Day, but this year it'll be closed for a few more weeks because of the amount of snow we got late in the year. Audobon is the rounded 13'er that DV's skis are pointing to; Crooked is off the south face of it.

Mt. Toll is right above DV8's head in the above shot. Audobon is the mass on the right. Below we check out the route - Crooked is the only continuous couloir to his right.

Below, DV8 kicking and axing up the middle of the couloir.

Unlike MOST of our spring days, we got to the top EARLY! Usually we're there when it's already too warm and rollerballs are tumbling down the mountain! We had to wait well over and hour on the top for the snow to melt into corn. Each day is totally unique up high. He was just on Toll the day before, one mountain over from Audobon, and was kicking in steps shin deep on the way up at the same time of day we were heading up today.

Check the vid link (Tunes by Deep Turtle playing Fritz the Cat):
http://www.dropshots.com/meriwether#date/2008-06-06/22:36:03