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

Kelso Mountain

With settling in at the new pad, but still NEEDING to get skiing some corn, DV8 and I thought we'd head out for some quick-ish turns. What could be quicker than a 2.5mile round trip from the car to the top of Kelso Mountain? ...or so we thought. That 1.25mile and 2400ft vertical took us well over an hour somehow and the entire trip took as long as any other trip. So much for getting home early!
I was hurting this day, but even DV8 recognized the harshness of this climb. It was a mixture of the new punchy 6 or so inches that fell the nights before and the "alternate route" we took on the east ridge scree field to get OUT of that snowfield that was so taxing. But it had one of those feels of "this-will-feel-funner-in-retrospect-when-we-get-to-the-top"...and it did. The views of Greys and Torreys was just spectacular. It felt like we were looking at K2...and dreamed of a future adventure on the northwest couloir of Torreys for that 2800ft vertical descent. But back to the now of then for the 2300ft descent of Kelso which was hard enough for my weak and tired body. We both had to stop many-a-time just to get to the bottom (having that no-so-hardcore feeling?). The snow was NOT corn, it was late April powder at the end of May - HEAVY stuff that made us jump turn and struggle on a slope that shouldn't have been so difficult. Similar to Bancroft, it was powdercorn.
We had an audience of 3 Italians which made my turns that much more important to pull off. Of course I bailed a couple of times catching an edge or two ("stupid American pinhead!"). From crust at the top to sludge rollerballs headed towards the Italians (I missed) to nice wet corn at the bottom...it was a pretty sweet day all in all. The spring ski season still hasn't really started here at the end of May...and that is sweet since we'll be skiing until next winter!

Check the new movie. Music again by the Dog Faced Hermans:
http://www.dropshots.com/meriwether#date/2008-05-27/21:14:39

1st ride on the 69er...

and first bike with suspension since...I can't even remember! 5 years? 7? Anyway, it's weird having that squishy thing on the front. I'm so far out of the new tech loop that with the Fox fork, hydraulic discs, and hollowtech cranks with the BB on the outside of the bike...I am at a loss for tools and the knowledge of how to work on this bike. The first ride out the Avid Juicy 5 rear brake lever wouldn't spring back and it'd take a ton of force to actuate the brake...great. Local shop said they've seen it before and it's a broken piece in the brake lever, not the fluid needing to be bled. Either way, I'm lost and I will have to learn to work on this thing soon cause if something breaks on the trail I have to be able to fix it then and there. Which means, i may take this stock setup and do some rather large tweaks to customize it.

It was a bro-deal from a friend, yes, but I really like the frame and philosophy of the 69er. I also feel like I had at least a small part in it and in giving feedback on previous versions several years ago. There is no other way to describe the ride of the 69er on trail than it carves. It doesn't turn, it CARVES, like a snowboard on corduroy...and getting the front end to wash out is nearly impossible. The tweaks I'll make are to make it more my style - different bars (H-bars or Mtn Mustaches), Ti seatpost for some cush to the aluminum ride, maybe some Hutchie Pythons instead of the Jones' which are dogs on pavement, maybe a different crankset, and likely new cable discs instead of the hydraulics. I don't like the idea of having brakes that can brake in the middle of nowhere and having NO brakes for the remainder of the ride - like what happened on my 1st ride on this bike. What are other people's experience with hydraulics?



If you look closely you'll see Robert our local neighborhood Bobcat sitting down watching me pass.

Mt. Bancroft

DV8 and I headed into some unknown territory Saturday - Mt. Bancroft, the first peak on the divide south of James Peak. The three peaks here looked very inviting on the way up - the one we were heading to, Parry and Eva. Very short ascents, when compared to some of the 6 plus mile approaches to some Indian Peaks skis descents! This was a 6.5 mile LOOP, and the other two mtns are 2 miles shorter...!? It served as a good warmup to the spring high peak skiing. The pictures below were snaked from DV8 (they're excellent quality as you can see!) and the pretty mediocre (at best) video is mine.

The top was shrouded in rolling fog, like Mt. Tam on a winter morning. The sun beat down on us on the east facing slope approach and without a breath of wind it felt like a virtual sauna.

We sat on the top of the pretty round peak (we almost couldn't figure out if we were at the highest point or not!) and waited for the fog to clear so we could see our route down. We definitely felt NOT at home here - no wind? Where art thou? This ain't Indian Peaks!

That tiny speck is me skiing down some very WET "powder"...or very deep "corn." It's definitely early spring out there with about a foot of new snow in the last week, it'll take some time to get that good corn going. See the sluffs around me? Yeah, we cut a couple of those off on our way down but nothing too worrisome as they were very slow moving and only the new wet snow was moving anywhere.

http://www.dropshots.com/meriwether#date/2008-05-18/21:56:26

Back to work tomorrow, and already thinking about next weekend...where to now? The spring peak season is here! Notchtop Couloir? Buffalo Mtn? hmm...

Dawn patrol POWDER day...in May?!

As April is the new March in Colorado, so is May the new April. On the 10th it snowed a tiny bit but yesterday (the 13th) it snowed a good bit - about 8" up at the house! The mountains look and feel just like early April, a solid base and relatively light powder on top. You have to get there before the sun ruins it so DV8 and i headed out for a dawn patrol mission to the familiar ridge where Peanut Bowl and Benji's Trough lie. A tip from a co-worker had us going up the backside of the ridge (secret shorter skin up!). We had the fast & light setups - DV8's new Skitrab uber light rando setup and my Karhu Guides - I didn't have to put on the skins until we reached the last pitch...i love these skis.

Pretty spectacular morning. From seeing the two moose's browsing on the willow at the corner of the new road to watching the sun rise as we drove to the trailhead to cresting the ridge as the sun illuminated the divide exposing the windswept clouds blowing east down the drainages. Another storm is moving in! They're calling for another 4-8" by tomorrow afternoon...and then 60 degrees the next day...hmm.

Here begins the DV8 picture show. Start of Benjis after descending from the windy ridge top. It was one of the first times I've skied this area with SOFT yet-to-be-windslabbed snow just off the top of the ridge.

Again, this is May 14th! Look at the powder turns he's getting!

Towards the bottom of le Trough. Skiers left = powder on rock, skiers right...just right.

After the Trough turns we traversed and proceeded to search (and not really find) more turns of a northerly nature that would get us back to the truck faster. Like usual, we took what we thought to be the shorter route home, but it ended up being longer cause we've never tried the route before.

All said and done, it was 6:30am to 9:45 on skis, still got to work for my meeting after rushing down the canyon and swapping clothes in the office parking lot 45 minutes later. One can't go to work with the ski pants on! "...where've you been?"

Suspension

I will make an assumption that 90% of the mountain bikes sold in the last 5 years, and out riding today, have front suspension and greater than 60% of MTBs have rear suspension. I would bet the latter # is a bit low...but I really don't know.

It's ironic to me that singletrack continues to get wider and wider from riders with suspension (the vast majority) going around rocks, water bars, roots and other obstacles in the trail. Lack of riding skills is not an excuse, and even more of a reason to just plow over things!

SO...
Why in the world have suspension if you're just going to go around bumps like you probably did withOUT suspension?!?! I just don't understand.

Part of the technicality of a trail involves what is ON or IN the trail, so please go over the obstacles instead of around - and keep singletrack narrow.

A week of spring (psycho) weather

The pasque flowers are in full bloom, they waited until the 3rd week of April, if not a bit later to come up this year...it was a pretty snowy April in Ned, much more snow than our usually snowy March. I swear, April is the new March.

My first real singletrack of 2008..not until April 30th sadly. Still got the commuter stuff on the Hunter; not ready to change over yet to a full single MTB. Gotta pick up my 69er still! Damn, i feel sorry for my bike all the way down in D-town...it's probably really pissed off at me just sitting in the garage since last fall!

Then comes May 1 - and today's commute. Four to 6" of wet, if cold, snow yesterday...i feel sorry for those pasque's now! This shot's looking at the old mine behind the horse fencing on the new property. Lots to do every weekend...barely able to get myself out of bed on Monday mornings. We're getting closer to be ready for the horses on the 17th...but there's a LONG way to go still.