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12.29.07 Cabin Creek....Stayed in town on friday and did a few errands and then headed up to Cabin Creek yesterday. Amazingly enough, the sun busted out up at the pass and the groomer had laid down some nice corduroy. Legs were a bit tired but had a great time cruising some laps and then headed for the 1k climb up towards the Amabillis mtn junction. Felt good--slow steady no stop skiing for a little over 2 hours. Heading up to Mt. Baker to finish off 2007 on the tele boards with the gang. Should be a good time. 12.27.07 Hyak Nordic Center....A nice day of skating at the pass this morning--25 degrees, about 5 inches of new overnight and some spotty grooming made for some grumblimg, but the groomer came by about 1/2 way towards windy pass (going reverse today) and it was all good after that. Soft tracks bit it didn't matter since everything was covered in a gorgeous layer of fresh snow. Maybe alpental tomorrow morning if I've got energy. New years plans look like a day or two at Mt. Baker on the tele skis with the crew. 12.26.07 End of the year....I have the week off and am ready to get some skiing in, got stymied twice by having the pass either totally backed up do to chains required or closed for avy work. Tomorrow we hope to get up and make some turns at Alpental in the morning then cabin creek for some skating on Friday. Hope everyone out there had a merry xmas and plenty of time to play in the snow. 12.17.07 3 days of clicking off k's...Got in 3 good days of skating over the weekend. Fresh snow each night and a different trails every day made for a great trip. Not to mention good meals and friends. Summer, Sus and I skiied out of town trailhead on the first day, some easy practice for Sus, who tried skating for the first time, and then I skated out for a bit and cruised back to the car just as it was getting dark. Saturday Roger and I put in almost 4 hours, skiing in Mazama for a bit and then heading down the valley. The groomer had been out early the night before,so we had about 4 inches of powder to power through for the first 9k's. After Browns farm we got good tracks and skiied into the chilly wind. A long ski, but we both were digging on the straight forward, long easy distance in a spectacular setting Sunday Summer and I got out for an hour and a half---checked out the "latte" trail behind the mazma store and were surprised how good the skiing was. Jack's loop wasn't groomed so we didn't finish with that. Easy drive home with 5 or 6 eagle sightings on our way down the valley. Some pics soon... 12.12.07 One more day...Make it through Thursday and then I'm off for 3-days with Summer and friends to ski the Methow. Hopefully the body absorbed the two days last weekend and I'll be able to get 3 solid days on the sticks. Finally riding to work everyday again (was walking for awhile). It's short, but allows me to taker a wee bit longer way home. Been cutting straight up Yesler, which is like a moonshot out of downtown (well if a moonshot happened at 3mph) Always gets you warmed up this time of year and has its charms. 12.09.07 Day II...Skiing was so good yesterday that I went back up to Cabin Creek to skate again today. Much tougher trails and my legs/arms were still tired. I got another two hours and a 1000 foot climb towards Amabillis mtn (they groomed all the way to the top, but I didn't have the climbing legs yet so I turned back) Came home, ate lunch and promptly fell asleep on the couch reading the new off-piste mag. Tonight, if I have any strength, it's off to get a xmas tree. 12.08.07 Opening day... Specatcular blue skies, no wind and good tracks greeted us at the pass. The alpine areas are still bony and no signs of opening soon. But, the state parks had groomed the sno-parks in the I-90 corridor. We spent a few hours and 25 k's of getting some balance back, lots of no poles, some double-poling and V2 to get back in the rhythm today. The weather was so nice we sat on hood of the car and ate smoked salmon, bread and cider for awhile after finishing up. I was damn tired--nordic wears you out. In some sad news, they called off the search for the three missing snowboarders from last weekends storms and avy's. Last weeks storms resulted in (now) 5 bc deaths and one rescue of 4 people. All on a weekend when NWAC had called for the danger to go through the roof. A sad way to start the season.
Summer kicks (and glides) into the 2007-08 season 12.07.07 Nor-dick opener...first day of grooming is tomorrow...scraped the skis tonight while enjoying a rogue shakespeare stout. Summer and I will be heading up tomorrow morning for a couple hours of skating. 12.05.07 Sad news...first avy death of the season last week up at the pass....two people killed and a third rescued. Also another 3 snowboarders are missing near Crystal mtn. Full story is here Be safe out there Bifrost is on tap at the Elysian so we had to celebrate some birthdays and Dougies win at the Portland round of the USGP cyclocross race. He won the masters 35+ on Sunday in fine style--braving the pouring rain. 12.03.07 Drenching rain...yikes--4+ inches of rain, almost a record breaker today. It was pouring down from the skies, and flowing down the road as I road in today. My sidi's were soaked in the first block. The good news was the pass got 30+ inches of snow on saturday and sunday night, the bad news was that the temps rose into the 40's this afternoon and the rain washed a lot of that new snow away. Still got the fingers crossed that we can ski this weekend. If not, a trip to the Methow the weekend after for 3 days of skiing. 12.02.07 Snow---and rain...Full on snowstorm in Seattle yesterday for a few hours. Not much accumulation, but it was coming down hard which is pretty rare (1x or 2x a winter). Rumor mill was saying that they were planning on grooming the iron horse trail and I was psyched to skate, but the grooming didn't happen because they got too much snow at the pass and then had to close it down for avy control today. so instead, a cold miserable hour long run through the arboretum trails in the pouring down rain. 37 and raining is pretty high on the misery index. 11.28.07 Storms-r-coming...Snow in the mountains=cold rain in Seattle. I'm not complaining though, excited to be able to get out on the skis soon. Maybe this weekend if a few more fronts pass through. Mt. Baker opens tomorrow and Crystal maybe on Sunday. No word yet on when the pass will start the nordic grooming.... 11.20.07 Dawn Patrol...I usually have a pretty tough time getting out of bed early in the morning to run or ride, but I managed to get out early this morning and go for a run as the sun came up. It sure is nice once you're up and out. With things getting busy, got to start sneaking in some more morning workouts. In other news, I got the week after xmas off, so should have plenty of time to finish off the year on the skis. I can't wait. 11.18.07 Shoulder Season...Haven't had the ability to sit down and write on the blog lately. But am going to try and make an effort to get this thing running a little better. MTB is pretty much done and skiing hasn't started, so mostly just running on the trails in interlaken and trying to get some stair runs in down by lake wa as well. The stairs offer up the most bang for the buck, 45 minute workout can be pretty humbling if you do double sets (and a plymetric set) and then run home. Been trying to hit the gym as well to get the arms/back in shape for nordic and bc skiing. Hard to imagine thanksgiving last year saw us at crystal with 15" of new snow(pic from the archives is below). This year nobody's is open yet (except Whistler) Oh well, a couple more weeks and we should be good to go. Got a ski pass this year and we booked a trip to the yurt again. Early march will find us in the eagle cap wilderness bc skiing for four days and hanging out in a yurt. Good times.
LAST YEAR (when we had snow) Thanksgiving---(sb photo) 11.04.07 STALE!...If anyone is still looking at this thing, they are dedicated. It's been at least two weeks and I thought I would do better, but.... Great trail run yesterday at Cougar mtn, a good 1:20 of running on some fun trails, through the leaves. Saw a big 6 point buck (a lot of points at the very least) running through the woods about an hour into the run. Cool. Today, Summer and I decided to get out on the bikes for a lake loop. It was cool and cloudy, but stayed dry for the 3 1/2 hours we were out slowly spinning. Since this year was kind of a bust on the bike, I guess it's base training for next year? Or more likely the nordic season that, fingers crossed, will get started in a few more weeks. Ala People Magazine---javasport is getting into gossip. Last thing I've got (thanks to Kent) is a tip that Lance Armstrong is making moves on Ashley Olson.... no comment. 10.15.07 New Blog...Looks same as the old one, but maybe just maybe I'll upgrade to typepad in the next few months or so....Now that I'm no longer at the UW, I had to get my own address. Fabulous weekend. Perfect fall weather made for some good hiking and running. Summer and I hiked up to Ingalls Lake on Saturday to check out the larches, which were representing in full glory. An impressive amount of snow from last weeks storms is still lingering on the crest, probably about 8 inches or so in the shady north aspects. It will be ski season soon. I got the first off piste mag of the new year yesterday, so winter can't be far away. They also have a new website that has some updated content. A few photos from Ingalls lake are below and a few more are over at my flickr site
Ingalls lake reflections
Mt.Stuart and Larches 10.13.07... 10.11.07 HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUMMER!!... It's my sweeties birthday today---hope she has a great day. 10.09.07 Methow MTB...A glorious fall weekend in the Methow. We were surprised to see snow on the ground as we headed over the pass (mt. baker got 20 inches last Thursday!!) Cool temps and snow in the alpine limited ride options, so we went for a few classics that are always good. A great ride on the new singletrack at buck mtn on saturday. We also rode a new finishing section of trail that improved upon a great ride. 7 of us putting tires to the dirt. Sunday it was only 3, SB, Summer and myself riding pipestone rime and avoiding the rain. Trail was a little loose in places, Summer's bottom bracket tried to fall out, but we still had a great day. Felt good to get out and carve singletrack before the snow flies. RW also brought a top of the line espresso machine, so each morning was started with multiple shots of stumptown and Bluestar coffee. A few more shots are over on flickr
RW carving singletrack 10.06.07
Summer spinning back up pipestone... 10.02.07 Is this thing broken...The blog has been hibernating a bit these past few weeks (months). Sometimes there isn't really anything to say. We're off to the Methow this weekend for one last big mtb weekend before the snow flies, (although we've been getting snow in the passes the last few days) Time to start thinking about ski season. I bought a seasons pass on Sunday, so for the most part my nordic and lift riding needs are taken care of. Save for the hut trip and a few other random trips to crystal or the methow. 09.24.07 Running, racing, riding....Pretty damn nice fall weekend in the city.. A lazy saturday followed by a gorgeous run under ultra blue fall skies down on the interlaken trails. Then it was time to gather the crew and ride over for the 542nd annual SB & MM scavenger hunt extravaganza. Mini-bike races have traditionally been the prologue event (after a lemans start) then it's off into the neighborhood in search of clues, beers, stuffed animals and mandatory photo sessions to showcase all of your teams skills, speed, creativity and intellectual capacity. Our team seemed to be 2nd or 3rd to every clue, but in the end we charged to the finish and took the speed category. Unfortunately we couldn't bring home the creativity or bonus prizes. Oh well, you've got to have something to shoot for next year. riding back across the city at 3:15 in the morning, (orion at a crazy angle over the SE end of Lake Washington) is always great, super quiet, the streets are empty, the bike silent as you roll through the city. It's completely different than riding any other time of the day.
SB announcing the rules for the prologue 09.22.07
not sure about staying in the saddle...
Caroline getting our team off to a fast start 09.20.07 It's coming....cool mornings, a nordic catalog arriving in the mail yesterday, apples thick on the trees as we pedaled through the orchards outside of yakima, leaves falling as I put in a few trail runs through interlaken this week. It's unmistakeable, fall is here. You can't fight it, so you might as well embrace it. 09.14.07 Colonnade sessions.... The Colonnade bike park opened last week so we rounded up a good crew of 5 and rolled over last night after work to check it out. It's a super cool project in which the local club, bbtc.org took an urban wasteland under the freeway and turned it into a super tight twisty mtb skills park with tons of slowspeed switchbacks, tricky rock steps, skinnies, rock drops and teeters sprinkled into the mix. An amazing amount of work went into the project. So we grabbed some beer (mimicking the tasting bench) and headed over to ride, catch up and enjoy an evening ride as summer wanes. Good stuff, more climbing than I expected and the slow speed ups and rock steps required a lot of power on the single. Was sweating for sure, not to mention puckering up on some of the stunts. I've always been a xc rider,so elevated bridges and skinnies make my brain freak out even when they're rideable. Took some coaxing to convince myself to stay with it, everything is fine etc. Today we had a company picnic, so got to sneak out at 2:00 and ride for an hour down lake washington for the event. Then a nice 40 minute ride up the blvd in the last rays of sunshine on a friday night. Life is good. Heading to Yakima this weekend for some road riding and ....dare I say it.... canning. A good friend is showing us the ropes, so we'll be stocking the pantry, old skool, for winter. Some Colonnade pics are below.
skinny SB riding at Colonnade 09.13.07
Me--thinking don't endo, don't endo,don't endo 09.09.07 Kachess Ridge....Another summer weekend slipping away. Decided to head over the pass after a few snafu's (lost pump being the main dealbreaker) Grabbed a shiny silver new Topeak once the bike shop opened and took off for exit 70, just over the cascade crest. Figured I'd see how the legs reacted to Kachess Ridge, my usual test piece. After a few miles of flat road contouring around keechelus lake you quickly put away about 2700 feet in a bit less than 5 miles of rough, loose road. Its just steep enough that the single really bogs down. Actually felt pretty good on the climb, it was summertime in the sun, and definately felt like fall in the shadows. A beautiful day to be in the mountains. I rolled up the climb (not seeing anyone until the top) and then buckled up the helmet and rolled onto the singletrack. The upper part sweeps through a meadow filled with blueberrys and then drops into the woods on some rooty, bumpy trail. Then a smooth center section before a loose rocky plunge to the bottom. The trail has taken a beating since last year, eroded, loose, rutty and dusty. Pretty much everything I don't look for in a trail. Took one big endo early and then managed to stay on the bike, but got bounced around pretty good. It was pretty fun and a few pics of my favorite parts show that it still is pretty good riding. 09.03.07 3-day weekend....Smashing summer weekend in N. Idaho. Drove out to Priest Lake on Friday night, watching an incredible moonrise over eastern Washington. The moon was HUGE. Pulled into priest lake around 12:30am and rolled out our bags on the beach under a billion stars and a spotlight moon. Then we pursued leisure at a brisk pace. A morning sail with BJK and RW was followed by a second course consisting of 22 miles of beautiful lakeshore singletrack. Not to techy, but fast and fun. That was followed by swimming, beers on the beach, throwing the frisbee for the dogs (got to keep the upper body in shape) and dinnner. Another night on the beach with some shooting stars thrown in for good measure. More of the same on Sunday, another mtb ride, a paddle up soldier creek in the kayaks and some swimming. Then a 2 mile ride for Huckleberry milkshakes in Coolin. Monday morning, after drinking coffee and reading on the dock for a bit, Summer and I went for a nice easy run down to Coolin on atv trails (much of Idaho seems to be an atv trail). Then we cooled off with yet another swim and lunch before entering the fray and heading back to Seattle. 08.26.07 stale....Damn, the blog is in the dog days of summmer.... been super busy with work, sneaking in some runs and some play time. Spent 3-days in the San Juan Islands last week attending a wedding. We got some good campfire action, some hiking and lounging around. I had forgottenn how sweet the Mt. Constitution trails are, might have to head back out there after September 15th, when they reopen. Off to Priest Lake Idaho on Friday evening. A long drive, but it should be great cycling and lounging with friends at their family cabin. 08.19.07 30-hour vacation.... With our mtb trip to Priest Lake postponed til' Labor day, I started to get a little freaked out, needing to get out of town for a couple of days. It's been a summer that has a lot of things going well, finished my masters program, got a great new job, but I haven't been getting out enough. The weekend weather forecast was crappy in the Methow, Summer was working... At the last minute I decided on a solo backpack trip up to Tuck & Robin Lakes in the Alpine Lakes wilderness. Short story is--beautiful, cold, 15 hours of rain and just what I needed. Got up to the lakes around 5:15 on Saturday night, brewed up some coffee and just sat on the rocks admiring the deep blue of the water, granite peak and looking at maps. A little dinner and more solo quiet time soaking up the stillness. Temp was dropping pretty quickly, down to 41 degrees at 7:30pm. It went back up a bit after dark when the rains came. Rained all night long, and today as well. My plan to scramble to Granite peak for some early morning sunrise pics was scuttled so I fetched the stove and put it right outside the tentdoor, brewed up some coffee and read a book for a couple of hours. Finally got got tired of waiting around at about 10:00am, so I wandered for a bit and then packed up wet gear and dropped the 3000 vertical feet back to reality. A mental health weekend.
Robin Lake-Alpine Lakes Wilderness (Granite Peak in the background) 08.19.07
The fog and rain have arrived
Coffee, Books, Maps 08.14.07 Summer nights....perfect evening for a run on the trails down through the arboretum and up through interlaken. Nice temps, good light....ahhh August. But the sun is going down noticably earlier these last few days and the August and September weekends are filling up... Even though it's 83 degrees in Seattle today, we're trying to hammer out a date for our backcountry ski trip to Wallowa Alpine Huts in the Eagle Cap Wilderness of Oregon. Twas' fabuolous last year and we'll be back, in early March it looks like. 08.11.07 Wily Coyote....Forgot to mention, a nice coyote sighting yesterday, about 15 minutes outside of granite falls. We were riding down a quiet road and I glanced over to the left to see some big ears in the tall grass...and a little coyote staring back at me. He stood his ground for about 20 seconds before cutting across the field and into the forest. Today a hilly run down by Lake Washington and up the madrona stairs...legs were tired, but it was a nice day to be out running. And a good day to avoid going anywhere in the car. 08.11.07 Rural roads and flat tires....Summer and I snuck out of town for a long road ride north of town. Rolled through Snohomish, Granite Falls out towards Arlington, across Jordan bridge and back. Was a nice cool summer day, 64 degrees on mostly quiet roads. Felt good to be out of town putting in some miles. Oh yeah, the flat tire was unfortunately a car tire. Had to wrestle with that after the ride and realized that the spare was woefully under-inflated as well. But we were changing the tire at the gas station, so no harm. Just got my Colorado Trail books in the mail yesterday--have wanted to do this for awhile, but couldn't figure out how I would deal with support. Not really into asking someone to support me so I can ride my bike. Seems a little extravagant--but the recent CTR race made it seem somewhat possible to combine traveling light, and grabbing a few nights in motels/grabbing food in town etc. Was thinking maybe 10 days (10 days at 50 miles a day =500 miles?) I have no idea if this makes sense, but will start to do a little research and see what I can line up for next summer. 08.06.07 Soil Science & Singlespeeds...Had big plans on saturday for an epic ride out in the Teanaway. We were camping with friends and it was an easy spin to the trailhead on Saturday morning. But it didn't come to pass. Loose, powdery moon dust combined with steep climbs and eroded rocks and roots don't favor the single-speed at all. I was pushing within site of the iron peak trailhead sign on what promised to be one of the better climbs of the day. After an hour of hike-a-bike, I decided discretion was the better part of valor and bailed back down the trail. Then spun the road back to camp to get my running shoes, before riding up to a different trailhead to catch the gang who were out hiking.
Hike-a-bike 08.04.07 I've got no problem with hike-a-bike, but given the conditions it didn't seem to penciil out. 4 hours of walking for an hour of decent but not spectacular descending wasn't computing for me... I'll save this one for either early summer or late fall in the riding surface is in better shape. We did have a good hike and plenty of dunks in the chilly river next to camp. 07.31.07 Ironic...Was at the gym last night, putting in a quick little workout so when we start nordic skiing in a few months I'll be able to push on the poles. Anyhow...had to laugh when I saw a perfectly healthy guy spend awhile running and lifting weights, only to ride the elevator down 2 floors??? I have no doubts that he then walked out to a close-in parking spot and drove home. 07.30.07 Changes...Got a new job working for a local land trust. I'll be working with cities to implement land use/and growth management solutions that protect open space/green space both within cities and in the rural areas and foothills of the Cascades. Given the way the Puget Sound is sprawling, there is plenty of work. I'm pretty excited to move on from my current job (now that I'm done with school)and plunge headlong into this...Realized that even with school over, still plenty of book learning to get up to speed on some key issues in low impact development, conservation planning etc. 07.27.07 Dopers suck!, and misc Busy week, friday arrives and my legs are beat down after a few runs, some riding including a nice MI loop with RW on a beautiful summer's eve. Hasn't been much to blog about, just getting by...
David Horsey, Seattle PI 07.27.07 07.23.07 Rain and Bears???....Rainy, muggy weekend. Which is actually pretty unusual for Seattle in July. It's usually pretty dry. Got out for a nice long run in the rain. Trees were dripping and the trails were damp. A nice day to be out. Just saw an article about a cyclist being killed by a bear near Alberta...not to many predators in the Cascades anymore, but it looks like Canada is still pretty wild. Article is here: Bear attack blamed for woman's death in British Columbia 07.18.07 How do you say, "leash" in French???.... 07.12.07 Muy Caliente....Whoa---usually I think I do pretty good in the heat, but was struggling through a 3 hour ride last night. Official high for Seattle was 98 and reports of 101 on the UW campus according to the Seattle Times. Headed north up the lake, feeling pretty good on the bgt. Turned up big juan and my internal temp was rising, no real power and my calves were twitching with a little crampage. Felt pretty good after that, but in the last 10 miles I completely cracked... bonky, slow etc. Ended up riding most of that in the 39x19 (and it wasn't hilly) Sad. It didn't help that I had a slow leak in my front tire that I had to stop and pump up three times in the finale. Was too lazy and hot to patch it at the time. Starving when I got home, racked the bike and rummaged in the fridge before watching the TdF. It was nice to get in some good miles and soak up the record breaking heat. It will be the usual 75 degrees soon, so you have to enjoy it while you can. 07.11.07 Heat Wave....Went for a run on the trails down in interlaken last night around 8:00 and it was 87 degrees when I got home at 8:45. Today it's supposed to top out at 97, which is unreal for Seattle. If I can stay awake this afternoon, I'll see if I can get out on the bike for a spin. Nobody really has AC in Seattle, so might as well be outside where I can catch a breeze down by the lake. 07.10.07 Prairie Lights....Just back from NoDak, a quick 4-day trip for a funeral in the rural farmlands in the north central part of the state. A lot different than Seattle, but beautiful country nonetheless. Farms, fields and birds, with the breeze rippling the grasses. It was as good as a funeral can be, a celebration of my grandmother's 98 years of life. Many good memories were shared and it was a chance to soak up some family history.
Norwich, ND 07.08.07 07.05.07 Backpacking....We ended up going south to Portland and the Columbia Gorge for a 3 day backpacking trip (done in two days) and a little downtime in Portland, land of coffee and cyclists...Hiked up Eagle Creek to Wahtum Lake and then down the PCT to Ruckle Creek. Beautiful waterfalls and forests in the gorge. Not many views the first day, but a nice 5 volcano view from Chinidere mountain on the 2nd day. You could see Mt. Hood, Mt. Adams, Mt. Jefferson, Mt. Rainier and Mt. St. Helens. Not a bad view... Claimed (somewhat dubiously) to be "the best view in the Hatfield Wilderness". After that the a hellish descent of Ruckle creek, steep, steep, steep. Since we got done with the three day trip in two days we cruised 20 miles up the road to Hood River for dinner... good stuff. Photos of the Eagle Creek/Ruckle Creek Loop are up on Flickr.
Punchbowl Falls 07.01.07 06.29.07 Not much to report in the PNW....pretty quiet week, with little motivation to blog...looking forward to getting out of town for the next few days, going somewhere... to play. Either backpack or mtb, we'll see what looks good when we leave tomorrow. It looks like a 3 1/2 day backpack in the Glacier Peak Wilderness is the call. Head up Cady Pass, Dishpan Gap, Sauk Pass etc. Including about 15 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail, rambling through sub-alpine meadows...Should be good, back on Tuesday. 06.25.07 mtb action....TJ, RW and I headed east over the mountains to ride the dg/mr figure 8. A fantastic 25 mile loop that is 23 miles of buttery singletrack and a steep 2 miles of road at the top end. Climbed up dg and then came down mission ridge. Weather was cool, we got hailed on for a few minutes, but otherwise perfect for riding. I forget how good these trails are. Damn near perfect mtb'ing. Not a ton of action shots since the flow was too good to stop much. The single felt good and the legs were better than expected. Hit the brick in Roslyn for burger and beer to top off the weekend... A gallery is here: figure 8 pics along with a couple below.
RW at the saddle with the big pines
dreamy II
dreamy III
soon I will be pummeled by hail 06.21.07 Lake loop and GDR.... Perfect evening for riding last night, spun north and then up and over big juan and down through to the bridge and back over. After a tough month of May, legs were suspect but it was a great ride. Unlike Tim, I don't have keys to the locks yet, but maybe someday I'll find them. Along with everybody else, (in the small niche of blogs I read) I've been following the Great Divide Race pretty close this year with the "live" updates via the web. Sounds pretty epic out there. 150+ miles a day for a 2+ weeks for the fastest... Found a nice collection of photos here that showcase bike/gear/rider plus some scenics from the route. I was pretty interested to see the different setups. The top dawgs have some incredibly minimalist packs. Cool stuff. 06.20.07 Long way home.... Shaping up to be a gorgeous evening, thinking I'll turn left and ride around lake washington. The legs need the work, that is for sure. 06.18.07 Baja?....Met up with Corey and Ye, AKA Soulsurfa for drinks and talk of Hawaii, past adventures and such. Was good to catch up with them and we still need to get out and visit them on their own turf. And in addition a chiwawa-palooza road show was discussed... Baja? 06.18.07 Catching up....Posted a few pics here and a bunch over on my javasport flickr link of happenings the last couple of weekends. Graduation parties/King County Choppers, a trip to the Bellingham, Seattle's sculpture garden and a few days in the Methow. Check'em out if you want..Below a few larch shots in the North Cascades, need one next month to track the emergence. And Summer rolling the rattler addition near Pipestone...
dreamy
Alpine Larch-Silverstar Mtn 05.05.07
Alpine Larch-Goat Peak 06.12.07
Summer rolling the single...06.11.07 06.14.07 Wildlife....Some good sightings last week, but no pics... A great horned owl flew into camp around 9:30 in the evening, silently gliding in a nearby tree. I think gulped out loud when his head swiveled towards me and he stared into my eyes. Also a nice coyote sighting, moving quickly across the road and through a field. Good stuff along with the usual birds, fawns etc. 06.14.07 4-days on the SS....Finally some bike time, and campfire, and books, and beer and frisbee. A nice relaxing 4 days in the north cascades. Sunday afternoon we drove over and rode up at Rendezvous, which didn't really pan out since the singletrack was non-existent after the 2000 foot climb up to the pass...some seeking without finding. A great loop at pipestone on monday, flowers were out, temps were cool and the trails were in great shape. Added a new loop that I didn't know existed, right above the other one, that made for some extra miles and nice views to the west. Summer rode back via death valley and I took a trip across the rim, almost stacking a few times where the sage hides the rocks and roots, but managed to find the flow and totally forget about the world and just follow the winding trail. A trip to Twisp river brewery for dinner and then back to camp for a lazy evening around the campfire. Perfection. Tuesday we doubled up. Rode the upper and lower buck mountain trails and then had lunch down by the river before climbing goat peak in the early evening. The trail was still snow covered,so we took a direct version straight up to the ridge and then crossing over to the summit. The view of silverstar was amazing. After being so close last month on skis, I now know we'll be back with a vengeance next year. Some sweet, steep boot skiing had us back at the car in no time. Yesterday we got Summer's new marzocchi shock installed on the on-one and then headed up for a few hours of easy rolling at Sun mountain. Plenty time to rail the trails, which were in top shape, and think about how BJK showed me the mtb ropes 15 years ago on these same trails. Twas' the summer of 92' and we spent 4 or 5 days putting in mile after mile.... Haven't ever really lost the buzz that comes from riding through the mountains since then. Black bear was great, patterson lake was fast everything else in between was nice. Early june is so good over there...Pics at some point Then homeward bound, a stop for ice cream in Rockport and then back to reality.... 06.09.07 Shindig and the Methow....A little celebration last night for graduation. Of course at any good party, you've got to have some bike talk, and at Joseph's place that means one thing. Franken-bikes. Many laps were done by the crew on the choppers late into the night.. Fun times for sure. Delayed are rush out of town by to catch up on a few things since it was raining pretty hard today, leave first thing in the morning for the North Cascades and should be riding for four days...(maybe a little hiking, birdwatching and running as well) Back on Thursday.
Skip-ready to ride 06.08.07 06.08.07 Done....SCHOOLS OUT FOR SUMMER---SCHOOLS OUT FOREVER.... 3-years of pursuing a Master's degree and working, lots of papers, early mornings, etc. But yesterday final signatures were gathered and I'm done. Today is graduation day. Been a tough month for skiing, riding etc because of the rush to finish school, so am looking forward to five days in the methow starting tomorrow. 06.03.07 Back in the saddle....Got the single out for a much needed 3+ hour mtb ride yesterday. After catching Marlin & Christine's Ethiopia 3D slideshow on friday, we crashed out in the backyard and then rode Galbraith for the day... The sun was out, trails were in great shape and the crew was ready to ride. A lot more stunts up there than the last time I was there. Not quite ready for the big tall bridges yesterday, but we rode some of the shorter ones.... We rode until the water was gone and the legs were tired and then coasted back into Bellingham where we split a whole watermelon in the backyard. A pretty nice way to start June... 06.01.07 Henry Holyoak Lightcap....I had my "oral exam" portion of my Master degree yesterday, which entailed meeting with my committee and defending both my paper and answering whatever questions they had about my work. The meeting wasn't until' 4:00, so I had plenty of time to mull over how rough the hour of questions might be. To help me out in this time of stress, I had to channel a higher power. Ed Abbey! In this case it would the irascible Henry Lightcap from Abbey's Novel, A Fools Progress. If you have had the pleasure of reading this novel you know Henry has to sweat through an oral exam enroute to his Masters and potentially a PhD in Philosophy... a few excerpts are below. My words can't compare to Cactus Ed's, so I will let him do the honors. But these were the images I brought to my own exam... those of Henry. The committee had agreed to meet in Professor Beale's office, but in point of fact no one appeared on time but the examinee, Henry H. Lightcap. He sat in the hard chair as required, facing the window and the glare of light... ...Henry looked again out the window seeking ideas, inspiration, intellectual nourishment. The examiniation had not even begun and already he was in trouble... Later during the exam... Henry paused; he could feel the sweat beginning to trickle from his armpits. If any one of them asks me one simple question I'm dead. The three doctors of philosophy contemplated him with fascination. He continued: As for-----Lightcap: Do you really want to be a professor of philosophy? What? He looked up sharply from his clasped hands, which were resting on his lap in an attitude of thoughtful introspection. Sir? You heard me, Lightcap. Do you really want to be a professor of philosophy? I certainly want to be a philosopher, sir, and live la vie philosophique, goddamnit. Answer my question. Henry reflected. A fork in his road of life had most suddenly appeared dead ahead. To the right, the right way, a broad and shining highway led upward beyond the master of arts toward the Ph.D.----the tenured leisurely life of overpaid and underworked professorhood. A respectable life. Anyone who is paid much for doing little is regarded with obligatory admiration. To the left a dingy path littered with beer cans and used toilet paper led downward in darkness to a life of shame, of part-time and seasonal work and unemployment compensation, of domestic strife, jug wine, uncertainty, shady deals naive realism, stud poker, furtive philanderings, skeptical nominalism, pickup trucks, a gross and unalembicated nineteenth-century eight-ball materialism. He called his shot. I will not tell a lie. Looking at his three Inquisitors looking at him, he answered them collectively. Not really he said. PS: I did pass and just need to make some edits and will graduate with a Masters degree in Planning next week--I focused on open space conservation and development rights transfer)And unlike Henry Lightcap, a PhD was NEVER something I considered. 05.29.07 Nor-dick....As KS (a non-believer) would call it. This is for him: Nordic Skiing Music Video As stupid as that sounds I did enjoy the short video, it did a good job of capturing the freedom and fun of skiing through the woods. Supposed to be in the upper 80's today in Seattle, which is hot! (keeping with the global warming theme in the vid) 05.29.07 Nada....Nothing really happened this weekend... lazy days. Avoided the crowds and laid low in town all weekend... 05.25.07 Dopers Suck!....Been a busy week, pushing hard to finish up some projects meant a lot of time in front of the computer, sketchy dietary habits and not much exercise. Makes me cranky. Every day another revelation of dopers in the pro peleton. I'm not surprised at all anymore, a bit cynical as anyone who got into cycling in the early 90's. These are names we know, guys we thought were tough mentally and physically. Not pharamceutically. Oh well, Riis today, Bartoli's dog is named Sansone' or some shite that means he doped with Fuentes.... Bolts, Henn, Zabel etc. As the peleton turns. I think we're all sick of the lies, so at least some people are admitting what we all have to suspect was systemic at this point. 05.18.07 Misc....Bike to Work Day. Good to see the commute buzzing with a bunch more riders today, hopefully a few will realize you don't have to be cooped up in that metal cocoon, stuck in traffic every morning. It was a beautiful morning for a ride, the only problem with the concept was the "work" part. Oh well. I was shocked to see cycling knickers in the Thursday Styles section of the New York Times last night. See the article, Pants in a twist? Try Knickers. Tragically, Hypnotic Designs wasn't included. I've been commuting daily in mine for at least 3 years and they're as good as new. Sad that they weren't listed with the others, especially since I thought they were one of the original, if not THE original, knicker made specifically for cycling. Matter of fact, it's 5:00 and I'm getting ready to slide into my knickers for the ride home. Mellow weekend on tap, some riding, some running, but no spring turns as a project is keeping me in town.... try to get the base built for summer singltrack excursions. Maybe read up on the soap opera that is the Landis trial. Pro racing seems to be headed down the toilet. 05.15.07 Who wouldn't want to ski with this guy???.... I bring enough beer to share, I crash enough to make you look good and I don't complain (too much) Stephen put up a few galleries of pictures including this one of yours truly--See the rest of the photos here: Spring ski photos from fixiewrek
ja atop iron peak-05.13.07 05.13.07 BC ski season lingers....Can't ride in the high country yet, so might as well ski. 5 of us headed up to the Teanaway on saturday evening. Time enough to make sure we could drive to the trailhead and then camped out next to Beverly creek, which was roaring down the valley. Sunday we headed up, had to walk almost 2 miles up Beverly creek before getting to enough continous snow to skin. We had our eyes on skiing off the top of Iron Peak, and its NE Bowl which was about 1500 feet above us at this point. A warm skin up through some sticky snow and then a steep, firm pitch up to the ridge that brought us to the summit. Then off with the skins and nice drop on consistently softening corn down into the valley. Turns to walking ratio was a bit low, but a great day in the mountains... More photos are over on the under utilized javasport flickr page. Photo quality here (below) kind of sucks with the converter/resizer I have at work.
Saturday night campfire
The gang ready to earn-some-turns
Looking past Teanaway Peak (a goal for the next ski trip here) towards Mt. Stuart--king of the central cascades...
For contrast a shot from last October-summit of Iron Peak 10.22.06
Roger with his skintrack stoke visible in the background. North Face of Iron Peak 05.14.07 05.11.07 Spring cold.... Still trying to shake the cold I picked up after two big days in the mountains last weekend. Maybe too much sun? The transition continues this weekend, hopefully a ride on saturday and spring corn in the Teanaway on Sunday. Hoping to ski iron peak depending on the snow level. 05.09.07 Photos are up....just put up a big photo gallery from last weekend's skiing trip. Click on Spring Turns in the North Cascades Nick put up a nice gallery with some movies here 05.07.07 Delicious spring corn....Fantastic skiing this weekend in the North Cascades. We hit the birthday tour on Saturday and skied silverstar on Sunday. A few pics now with more on the way...
Nick, Doug and Stephen climbing past Early Winters Spire towards blue lake col, the first pass of the day.05.05.07
Looking up the bootpack towards the "cornice of death" that guards the col. A couple of people are right below the lip for some size reference
SB crashing the party just north of Copper Peak 05.04.07 Cinco de Mayo....will be spent with the boyz, ski touring off the North Cascades Highway. Weather is a bit spring like, but there is so much good stuff up there that we're bound to get something good. Hopefully the partly cloudy, also means partly sunny. Til' Monday. The weekend begins now... 05.01.07 I have a dream....A mountain sport "surf & turf." A dream that takes place on one fine, blue sky May day in and above the Methow valley. This dream involves getting up early and leaving Washington Pass to ski up towards blue lake col and the birthday tour. After a fantastic five or six hour ski tour on buttery corn it will be around 1:00 or 2:00. We'll cruise down the pass into Mazama where it will be warm and well into the springtime bloom. Pop into the mazama store to fill up the hydration pack, grab some ginger snaps and a bite to eat before I head out to ride the roller-coaster singletrack of buck mountain, slashing through sage and balsamroots on the single. Pleasantly tired, I meet up with the rest of the crew in town and head down to the Twisp River Brew pub to have dinner on the deck before camping up on the Chewuch river. Maybe it will happen, watching the weather and hoping we get a shot in the next few weeks... The "dream" has a limited timespan in the spring. 04.29.07 Life is fleeting.... some sobering news yesterday about a friend, not someone I knew very well at all, but nonetheless a friend. I heard yesterday afternoon that she had been killed while climbing in Alaska. I hadn't talked to her in at least a year, but it was still a shock. Every few months she would stop by my office when she was working on her MS degree at the college or I'd bump into her in the building and we'd chat about skiing, cycling, balancing work/school/play or the Methow valley where she had worked on wildfire research with the Fire and Mountain Ecology lab at the UW. She always had a few moments to chat and was always smiling, super-enthusiastic and plotting her next trip to the mountains. I heard the sad news from a co-worker yesterday and it was in today's papers as well. A few good sites for more details if you're interested...Details about the trip and accident, a tribute from her friends and the PI newspaper article are all linked here. R.I.P Lara, you'll be missed.... 04.25.07 Regrouping....been kind of scattered since the 1/2 marathon last week, lacking some motivation after the effort, plus a 3-day trip to Ohio and some catching up at work has left precious little time for other activities. Trying to get things lined for finishing my project and also taking advantage of some springtime skiing/riding opportunities. Could use some more time for sure. Oh well, enough bitching since almost everyone has to deal with these things... 04.18.07 Soggy....snuck out the door this morning without the rain jacket because it looked pretty dry outside. A decision I regretted about 10 minutes later as the sky opened up and a spirited spring shower dampened the commute a bit. Felt cold outside, needed gloves and the jacket zipped up all the way as I cruised down interlaken, (sneaking in 50 yards of singletrack) before heading up the false flat of the university bridge. Pedaling feels good. 04.16.07 Finished.... Darryl, Summer and I all rallied on saturday morning and finished the Rattler with style. (Results) Arrived in the valley on Friday evening and I was "in training" until I saw the Oatmeal Stout on the beer menu--so what could one beer hurt the night before? Woke up bright and early saturday to chilly temps in the 30's. We grabbed some coffee and met up with Darryl and Laura at the barn and looked around at all these people that looked pretty damn fit and fast. I quickly ignored this, as your mind tries to convince you that everybody looks fast the morning of the event when all doubts come home to roost. A quick bus ride up to Pipestone canyon and we were ready to roll. First 4 mile loop was fast and fun, climbing over downed trees, scampering up steep hills, running through patches of snow that sent the heart rate soaring and cruising down quiet forest road and singletrack. Had some stomach issues where I thought maybe I'd throw up or have to run into the bushes for a emergency potty break, but managed to ignore that and focus on having fun. The second, 9 mile loop, was awesome. Steep climbs and descents, great views out towards the snow covered sawtooths and the cascade crest and balsamroots and bluebells just starting to bloom. The soundtrack was a cacophony of birds. Trail running seems pretty much like mountain bike racing, work towards the red line and try to keep it pegged with out going over. (like the Price Is Right) Struggled a wee bit on final climb, but was on a good time and could see Leslie Hall up the road, so I knew I must be doing well if she was still in sight. Don't think I had anything extra to give, so ya gotta be happy with that. Then it was over.... sure did feel good to stop. Switched gears and went back to cheer on Darryl, who's been on a kamikaze return to a high level of fitness after a few years of too much work and not enough play, and Summer who has never done a running race in her life. (so she opened her resume' with a hard and hilly half marathon on skinny, rough cow trails) Both looked solid cruising in the final mile. Summer shrugged off the sore knees of a few weeks ago and notched up a solid finish. I was as happy watching her finish as I was finishing my own race. It was fun to see her reach her goal. Then a lazy day, sitting in the sun, watching an Osprey fish across the river and a quick trip through town to check out Joe's new bike shop in Winnie and Summer was trying to track down a closeout deal on some skate boots at Winthrop Mountain Sports. Successful on both accounts. A few photos from Laura below...
Summer
Darryl
Me 04.12.07 Methow Bound.... This time tomorrow, the rattler1/2 marathon on the trails above pipestone will be over, and I'll be sitting at the cinnamon twisp having a little treat... followed by lunch and a beer. No real idea how it will go since I haven't run that far, and the trails are fairly technical with some snow patches still lingering. But it's all about endurance in the mountains, which I like to pretend I've got a feel for and if not, I do know that I it makes me happy. 04.11.07 Springtime... cool mornings and nice days this week--a great ride up the hill last night, nice and cool, cruising through the dark neighborhoods. A couple mile run tonight, then we're off at lunchtime tomorrow for the Methow. Looking forward to being back in the valley as spring comes to the high country. Weather is looking variable for saturdays trail run, cool and rainy with lowering freezing levels. Hard-07' conditions possibly. 04.09.07 weekend recap...A fine spring weekend. A ride down to seward park on Friday with temps near 80 degrees. That's pretty good for July in Seattle and downright crazy in early April. Was nice to ride in shortsleeves... After closing out the nordic season on the last day of Hyak last week, we rounded up a crew for (my) last day of riding the lifts. Crystal doesn't close til' next weekend, but we'll be in the methow. Was a nice/variable day. Some clouds, some blinding sunshine, a rain squall that necessitated a well-timed lunch break. Fun snow, some corn, some manky rotten slush, lots of sticky snow that kept you on your toes as terrain flattened out. A great day all in all. Not to mention we managed to play a little guitar hero with our weekend loaner of a game console. Sunday we got out for a short run and then off to easter brunch, where outlandish spring outfits are not only encouraged, they're required. Some civilized croquet and stroll down to the lake made for a fine easter morning. Now back to the grind, tapering for the 1/2 marathon on the trails of the methow this saturday.
RW dropping down off of High Campbell. 04.07.007
celebrating the end of the lift-served season, now just some spring bc skiing on the horizon
2nd annual Easter Styles brunch 04.08.07 04.04.07 not much...new to add to this blog right now. Looks like the DOT is working on the Hwy 20, north cascades which means in a few weeks a whole world of bc skiing should open up. Can't wait to spend a few days up there enjooying the goods. Mmmm, birthday tour (pics from last May's trip) Kind of captivated by the Elk Mountain Traverse--1/2 nordic 1/2 rando rally combination that looks pretty cool between CB and Aspen. Maybe one of these years? Need to find a partner and just do it... (instead of just thinking about doing it...) Warmest day of the year so far tomorrow, sounds like a good opportunity to ride around Mercer Island. 04.01.07 April Fools...but the joke wasn't on me. Took a chance on the weather after checking the snoqualmie pass telemetry and realizing the rain stopped early last night and the temps had dropped well below freezing. With a quick call up to Hyak to make sure they were grooming on the last day of the nordic season I scraped the atomics and blasted out the door with a cup of coffee. Unfortunately Summer had some sore knees after our big day yesterday and wasn't able to make it. 29 degrees at the pass and snowing lightly when I arrived. Trails were frozen rock hard and had many grabby little ruts on cold creek. Once I started climbing we had about 1/2 inch of fresh graupel on the tracks that made for pretty good skiing. Put in a last TT of the season from the yurt to the top of windy pass, felt surprisingly good after yesterdays long run. Enjoyed some prime crust cruising up top around windy acres...two inches of new snow on top of a firm crust made for pretty sweet off-trail skating. Then down and around and back up to the frontside trails before a harrowing trip down Hidden Valley which wasn't groomed and filled with frozen ruts and debris. Got home grabbed Summer and went to Top Pot to put an exclamation point on the end of the skating season. 03.31.07 last long training run... Summer and I put in 11+ miles on the trails in discovery park this morning. I felt pretty good, a little bonky at the end, but all in all not too bad. Should easily be able to do the 13.1 on the trails above pipestone canyon in two weeks. Question will be how fast??? Followed the long run with a well deserved trip to gorditos for some soft tacos. A perfect after run meal. Followed up with a 1/2 hour nap for a pretty damn fine saturday. Tomorrow might try to catch the closing day at the nordic center or make a few turns at alpental depending if the weather in the mountains cooperates. Also managed to get out on the bike for a bit yesterday, springtime means pedaling down the lake towards seward park....a tradition. 03.30.07 A little bit of everything... Some running, some lifting at the gym, some riding, etc.. trying to stay healthy (running wise) til this trail 1/2 marathon on April 14th. Legs are starting to want to ride more than run, but a last long run this weekend and we'll back off til' the day. Hopefully a little skiing this weekend as well. Should be typical spring weather of showers, sun, rain, wind so we'll have to see what happens. 03.24.07 Alpy... Summer and I rallied yesterday to Alpental for a morning of turns. We both wanted to go bc skiing in bullion basin, but the considerable avy danger, forecast rain and temps in the 30's to 40's made us reconsider. So we changed plans and went for a quick trip up to the pass for 3 hours of turns until the rains started to come down hard. The new boards are super fun, they turn manky sticky, slushy snow into something that is sort of fun. They didn't make me into a great skier (surprise) but helped out with some stability and flotation when the going gets tough. I'm looking forward to trying them in the bc next week when we head up to visit Alan and hit Mt. Baker. Weather sucks today, heavy rains, blustery winds and cool temps. Springtime in Seattle. I've puttered around the house so far, waxing skis, trimming skins for the new boards and such, but it looks like this afternoon I'll have to suck it up and head outside for activity in the rain. 03.21.07 A dozen more turns... watch this if you go into the bc at all, a short 3-part documentary detailing an avy incident that is available for download to itunes or can be watched at their site. Pretty powerful stuff especially after spending a few days amongst instability on our hut trip. Glad we had a guide. The first episode is linked in the title and you can navigate to the other 2 installments. 03.21.07 Phat... Perfect morning to be on the bike, riding across town with a fresh set of brake pads, a little air in the tires and a lubed chain.... felt almost easy. Time to start adding some miles, getting tired of running so it must be time to transition from run/ski to bike/ski then bike/hike etc... Dropped a little cash on some new phatty skis this weekend at the feathered friends blow-out sale. Be sporting a pair of black diamond verdicts (124/98/114)... went a touch shorter, since they're fat and I still wanted to be manueverable with my mediocre skills. Was going to get a new set of free pivot bindings (BD 01) but decided to hold off. Want to see how the NTN shakes out over the next year or two. I think at some point, given my not so mad skills, that a set of dynafit binders on some skis could be added to the quiver, the lightweight, minamalist design strikes a chord with me. Word is that the NTN system will have boots that can be used for both the new tele norm and dynafit compatible. Which means owning only 1 pair of expensive boots that I could use for both binders. The Hammerheads will do the trick for another season til' we see what sort of compatability shakes out...
new addition to the quiver 03.14.07 Portland, Daylight,Winter... Spent the weekend in Portland, visting family on saturday night(including watching my nephew do a stellar job in the school play) sipping, coffee at stumptown coffee roasters which is one of my favorite places and going for a long run in forest park. Was a nice weekend and the forecast rain never quite got going to hard in portland. Excited about the extra hour of daylight, time to start logging miles on the bike now, which is timely given that winter seems to be leaving quickly. Last weekend was the first I hadn't skied since December, but didn't miss much with high snow levels and pass temps near 50. The same is forecast this weekend, but maybe with a little sunshine our ultra stable (rain saturated) snowpack will corn up for some bc skiing. Fingers crossed. trying to put in some running miles, have plans for the rattler trail 1/2 marathon on April 14th. Up above pipestone canyon in the methow. Just need to sharpen those trail skills. 03.09.07 Misc...Busy week and the blog grows stale.... A few last thoughts and pics on the hut trip. Finally learned how to rip the skins off without taking my skis off. Ahhh, what a revelation of rippin' and stuffing in the jacket compared to getting in and out of bindings... Stephen finally was home long enough to get his pics up. Stephen's photos And why not look at these too: Nick's photosite and Summer's got a few of ours up as well but without our normal camera we didn't do so well on the photo documentation. But you know you want to look Last but not least RW has a nice slideshow over on nosephone Got up skating last sunday, slow, sticky and warm....a day where the hat is in your pocket and the sweat flows from every pore on the way up catherine. This week, just some running/lifting time, but with the coming of daylight savings time I can finally do something more than commute on the bike. A few more pics to grace the blog from last weeks trip to the Wallowa's.
Me! living the dream--NW bowl hidden peak 02.25.07 photo credit stephen b.
plenty of lines for next years trip.... photo credit stephen b. 02.28.07 Wallowa Trip Report...We converged on Joseph, Oregon from all over the PNW. 7 of us from Seattle and surrounding areas, One from Oregon, one from Missoula and another from CO. Got to Joseph in time to get settled in and grab some pizza. Up at 7:00 for breakfast, coffee and meeting with the yurtmeisters for details on the skin up to the yurts, along with avy conditions, forecasts and such for the next 4 days. Finished loading up the bags and headed up to the trailhead for a 2000 foot ~4 mile skin into our yurt. Sweet set up with a cook yurt, a sauna yurt and two sleeping yurts. We had time for lunch, avy beacon practice and a short skin through the knee deep power for a couple turns as the light faded arounded 5:30 at night. No fears that our hosts would keep us from getting a full-day. 3k of verts. Avy report was showing high instability and the snow was deep, so we headed up towards Hidden Peak, where we hoped some wind transport would leave us with some boot-top freshies and the ability to ski (as opposed to wallow) on lower angle slopes. We also wanted to take advantage of recent clearing and get some views. So we stripped off jackets and started skinning up towards Hidden Peak, climbing about 1800 verts where we did a 13 man, Delta Force formation for our first run. Wide open powder field with 12 others cranking turns was a damn good time. Back up the skin track for another shot, then lunch and moving over to the NW bowl that we completely tracked out before we were done. Lapped the bowl til quitting time and then skinned over to "monkeypants" for a shot down one of the best runs of the 4-days. 6k of verts for the day
Summer skinning towards Hidden Peak-Redmont in the background 02.23.07 Photo-Nick Spang Saturday it stormed, high winds, questionable stability, shitty visibility. We stayed to the trees and off any exposed slopes. Did many, many laps of sweet powdery slopes that filled in as fast as we could skin back up to them. 6+k of verts.
The crew at WallowaAlpineHuts-photo courtesy of SB Sunday we were all pretty sad to be leaving, we did have time to tour back up to Hidden Peak for some sweet, sweet turns though. Before the crazy slide out down the slot car track to the cars....About 3k of vert. 02.26.07 fatty pow-pow...No time for a full-recap, but soon. First afternoon saw some knee/thigh deep powder in the trees with some questionable stability. But they sniffed out great runs on all 4-days with variable stability. So we couldn't go steep, but we found some deep (and some trees, some alpine views etc.)Fantastic trip, already looking at dates for a return trip next year.... some pics tonight or tomorrow. 02.20.07 simple pleasures...Waxing Summer's randonee boards and my tele skis while sipping a beer, listening to bjork. Just finished some laundry and tracking down beacons, avy gear, skins and all the other shite needed for four days in the Eagle Cap Wilderness with Wallowa Alpine Huts. Drive down tomorrow and thursday we'll be living large in a yurt and skiing til' we can ski no more. Nothing but rave reviews about CB and his gang out in Joseph, Oregon. A little teaser photo of the terrain from their website is below. A few storms have rolled through in the last 48 hours so we should have some february freshies.... 02.19.07 trample...Kongsberger Stampede was a more like the kongsberger trample. Snow was horrible, 6-8" of rotten mush in temps around 35 degrees. When I first got out to cabin creek I assumed the groomer hadn't been there yet, but I was wrong. A slow, slow course that demanded huge lungs, quick feet and the ability to suffer. No regrets about having raced, but it does deflate the ego a bit when you can't hang with some of these guys. I guess expectations should be low when you haven't raced in a year. (and then only once a year or so) The line between going too hard and blowing up and keeping a solid pace was very fine. Not the kind of day you dream about when you sign up to race. Gots to up my game if I'm going to race the 50k in two weeks. diversity was good this last week, two runs, two days on the tele skis, a 15k freestyle skate race and a trip to the gym. Jack of all trades, master of nothing. 02.17.07 double poling with anger...Been a year since I've actually raced on the nordic boards, the loss of our wednesday night nordic TT series has hampered my speedwork. I threw down the $$ to race the kongsbergers stampede on Sunday. 15k's of pain. Nothing (I do) ever hurts quite like a ski race. Should be fun. Hoping to do the Ozabaldy 50k on March 4th, so this will be a nice "warm up" Unfortunately my "taper" for the race tomorrow was distracted by a beautiful spring day of tele-skiing at stevens pass. Creamy soft snow in warm sunshine was an irrestible and we made turns for about 4 hours this afternoon. I love spring skiing and couldn't get enough of those sweet turns. Be interesting to see how my legs recover tonight. Just waxed up the skis, expecting 32 degrees and a an inch or two of fresh. Managed to find some decent fluoro in the box that fit that range, so lets hope the skis run fast.... Just saw my beloved Methow Valley is in the NYT Sunday travel section. The article is An unlikely hub for nordic skiing The valley is truly paradise and we head over as often as possible throughout the year. Gorgeous mtb riding, bc skiing, running, swimming holes and nordic skiing. 02.15.07 Tailwind bliss... couldn't even feel the chain as I pedaled into work this morning, could've been that 25 mph tailwind blowing directly out of the south. Felt good to glide in on tired legs. Made it to the bagel shop with plenty of time to grab coffee and bagel and coast into work. 02.12.07 Monday turns... snuck in some turns on Monday night under the lights. 31 degrees, clear until 9:00 and then some fog rolled in. Snow was either icy or sugary, never anything in between. We put in 2:30 hours of turns until they kicked us out at 10:00pm. Back home and in bed by 11:20. Not a bad Monday night. 02.10.07 Good to be in the bc... What this actually means is that the turns sucked, but we were all glad to be out in the backcountry. Definately not touring for turns. RW,SB and I (and the two pups) went for relatively uncommitting tour up Kendall Knob and around through Kendall Lake Peaks and back down coal creek to exit 53. I'd been up here once before but we hadn't poked around. Easy access and a nice 2500 foot climb made for an enjoyable day and a good chance to scope out future places to ski. Up top you get to tour a short distance through some nice well-spaced trees that would make for great skiing with some fresh snow, down towards the lakes. Also turns in the basin above commonwealth and below Kendall Peak looked promising as well. Given the conditions we weren't too excited about the descent, so it was a great tour to brush up on the snow safety skills. We had time to dig two snow pits and go through the shovel shear, compression test and rutschblock as well. On the descent the breakable crust, clearcuts, refrozen death ruts and 5 inches of slush turns down low was a far cry from the snow you see when you're flipping through Couloir or the patigucci catalog. In order to rest Potter, who kept breaking through the crust and struggling a bit on the descent, we spent 45 minutes working on beacon practice as well. A good survival skiing/skills day. A nice tour...
SB putting those longs legs to good use on the uptrack, chair peak poking out of the clouds in the background 02.10.07
RW performing the shovel shear test as Marina observes 02.09.07 Snow??... After a huge December and pretty damn good first 1/2 of January, the snow has stopped in the Cascades. We haven't got a good dump of snow in 2 1/2 weeks. The skating has been pretty good, but the bc is crusty and the resorts could use a refresh. We've got the hut trip in NE Oregon, coming up and we're all hoping for some fresh boot-top powder instead of death crust and bulletproof ice. Fingers crossed the weather reverts to normal and some big wet storms roll through. I'd rather be riding to work in the rain and skiing fresh snow at this point in the season.... Gearing up for a bc tour tomorrow. Need to get some skinning in to get ready for 4 days of earning my turns...Judging by the forecast and recent reports it looks like potentially crappy turns, but good touring tomorrow. As they say, you don't know unless you go, so we'll be hitting it and seeing what we can find. Hopefully a little nordic skiing on sunday to tune-up a bit for the Kongsberger Stampede next weekend. 02.07.07 Versatility... Was reading a few cycling/endurance blogs the other day and some of these guys put up some crazy winter miles. The first few years I raced (a long time ago) I rode a bunch over the winter, but as I've gotten older (and raced less and less) I find myself doing only bike commuting during the winter. Looking at the last week I some skate skiing, some tele-skiing, a trail-run, a stair workout and some time in the gym. x-training keeps me in shape and as the days start getting longer, the desire to spend more and more time on bike increases. Plenty of time to ride the lake loops and mercer. Much happier with the seasonal progression of skating in the winter, bc skiing in the spring along with plenty of riding and running in the summer and fall. Keeps the boredom and the injuries away. 02.04.07 ASS...Friday's crust cruising reminded me that I've got to meet up with dougie on a nice weekday and get some ASS. Adventure Skate Skiing that is. The location, obviously, can be anywhere, but this site is based out of the chiwawa, just minutes from Doug's place. Looks like a good time as long as you can avoid the sno-mo's... 02.03.07 Timed to perfection...fabulous full-moon ski with SB, Summer and White Boots Reid. One of the most memorable nordic sessions of what is becoming a great season. The moon was full, casting shadows, constellations were out in force and the tracks were super fast and firm. Got up to the pass around 8:00 where we skied and reveled in our good fortune for a 2:30 hours. Skated through the dark shadows of cold creek up into the upper trail system via the despicable hidden valley climb. Headlamps were only needed for photo-ops. After touring around we managed to put the "cross country" back in skiing by doing a little crust cruising on the way back. So much fun, froglegs was like being on a roller-coaster, in and out of shadows, dodging old-growth trees and popping though moonlit meadows and crust cruising back down to the lower trail. Finally wrapped up and dropped the crazy descent down the hidden valley connnector to cold creek. Too much fun. Didn't spend much time taking pics, but had to have some proof...Couldn't quite squeeze the moon into the photos unfortunately. The tree shadows give an idea of how bright the moon was though
Two mystery skiers on the Powersurge loops with Mt. Catherine in the background 02.02.07 02.02.07 Full-Moon Skate... Moonrise is scheduled for 5:36 in Seattle and we're heading up to the pass for some friday night moonlight skating. Good crew lined up so far and uncle dugabuti just expressed interest as well. Should be fun and hopefully we won't even need the headlamps. skiing in the dark is so nice because you just have to relax, absorb the terrain and be in balance. You can't try to avoid every rut and ripple in the track. 01.30.07 Moonlight madness...I think Thursday or Friday might be the return of the semi-sort-of-annual-full-moon Mt. Catherine loop. Weather is supposed to be fairly clear, no new snow is forecast (key since they don't groom during the week) and it doesn't look like my trip to race the rendezvous is coming together.... This is usually only semi-annual because it's hard to get clear weather, a full-moon and skateable tracks in the Cascades some winters... So, details to come, but tentatively a thursday night full-moon ski. It's beautiful skiing with moon shadow and all the peaks basking in the glow... no crowds and a serene stillness. 01.27.07 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyak...The crust in the backcountry was the skaters gain...The finest nordic day of the year today. Summer, RW and I rolled to the pass with temps in the 20's and climbing under bright sunshine. Beautiful weather and fast tracks on the loop around Mt. Catherine... Another tempo TT from the yurt to Windy Pass. A little faster than last week, but the nice tracks made up some of that differential. After regrouping we headed up again on a very windy, windy acres loop. Sweet when it was at your back blowing you up the climbs, but tough when it came across the track and played havoc with your poles. Then a rapid descent down the backside of windy acres under Silver Peak and onto ripsaw for a dizzying high speed descent towards the "little kicker" up to the frontside trails where we found Summer courting gray jays. A mediocre lap on Dawns run before some fantastic skating on the upper loops. After about 3 hours we dropped down and called it a day. Changed and did a nice 1/2 hour of avy beacon practice at the Gold Creek sno-park (testing RW's new Ortovox M2) and then home to a well deserved grilled cheese sandwich followed by a nap.
RW above Windy Pass 01.27.06
We's flying around your head, stealing yer lara bar 01.26.07 crust...After our few weeks of stormy weather, we're in the clear these days and have had some incredible sunrises and sunsets the last few days. Actually snuck in a long(er) ride on the way home Wednesday since it was so nice. Would've liked to play hooky as the temps crept into the 50's and gone for a lake loop, but "the man" didn't permit it. The sunshine is making it look like a nordic weekend though, as the discussion of rain crusts, sun crusts and breakable crust seems to be what you get in the bc right now. Got to be flexible in your snow play. Good article in the NYT on Jim Harrison yesterday, one of my favorite authors... check it out. 01.22.07 Monday Nights under the Lights... Snuck up to the pass for a few hours of tele-turns last night. A wee bit of traffic over the bridge, but then smooth sailing up to the pass. Was a little drizzly (not quite rain) but we had a good time making some turns and working on a few of my issues (balance, technique, mad skillz) that I don't possess. Plenty of runs on mellow terrain, trying to tweak the turns a bit. Only 5 weeks til' our hut trip in the Wallowa's, gots to be ready for the steep and deep. Even though it was a late night, it's always worth it to be in the mountains for a few hours. 01.21.07 Sunday...Was hoping to maybe go bc skiing today, but couldn't get psyched last night for rounding up a crew and driving up to the pass again with all the crowds. Plus a lot of reports on www.turns-all-year.com talked of much slabby instability, especially at the elevations around the pass. So, elected to read the paper and go for a stair workout in the hood'. No driving, maximum time to enjoy the day. 01.20.07 Hyak...Lazy start this morning, pumpkin pancakes, a second and third cup of coffee, before I rallied at the last minute up to the nordic center. For some reason the first few saturdays in January are always chaotic up at the pass, so after getting there late I couldn't find a place to park at Hyak. So drove up summit central and parked over by silver fir. Found the crossover trail and skated back to Hyak, dropped down the lower third of the alpine run and onto cold creek. A nice diversion from the usual, haven't skied the crossover in at least 5 years. Had a good hard ski, after a mellow warm up I did a tempo interval from the yurt (that's not put up yet to the dismay of many families.) to windy pass, only 4k's, but 1100 feet of uphill (the mount in the mt. catherine loop). Felt pretty solid, but it's a pretty fine line betweeen too fast and not making upward progress. Was worked at aptly named windy pass, all sweaty as the cold west winds blew freezing rain and snow. Temps were right at 31 or 32 degrees. Put in another hour out to hidden valley and up to the rockdale viewpoint until I realized that my legs were shot. climbed back up to the junction and skiied back down and around to silver fir. Was glad I wasn't in the gigantic lift lines at the alpine area. Busted home and took a nap. A fine saturday. 01.19.07 Back to normal...41 degrees, raining lightly on the ride into work this morning. A return to normal after a some good snow/ice commutes. Tuesday was full-on excitement with fun snow up top and super-icy streets in the u-district. Not sure if I could've gone around a few corners any slower, but I was upright. A good week, with a few trips to the gym and a nice chilly run last night with Summer, working the hills and cruising the flats. Weather is variable this weekend, so the usual choice of skate or tele is still up in the air. 01.15.07 3-days, 3-ways...Recovering from a nice weekend of play. A long nordic ski at Hyak on Saturday with Summer & RW. We made a lap of Mt. Catherine and then skiied the inner loops until legs gave out, notching up 3 hours and 3500 feet of climbin' for the day. Legs were worked as I dropped back through the downhill trails to the lodge. Trails were in great shape and crisp temps (20 degrees with plenty of breeze at windy pass (go figure)) made for fun skiing. Yesterday we stayed in town and went for a long run on snow covered trails down in the Arboretum and beautiful sunny skies made it seem like someplace other than Seattle. Today we went for a bc ski behind Alpental. Temps were around 12 degrees as we skinned up toward snow lake divide. The snow was great on the divide and we made a couple of mini-laps below the chair peak bowl. When we dropped towards source lake we hit nasty, crusty tracked out shite that made for tough turns. But it was great to be out in the mountains. Only surreal pics, as the camera seemed to give up today and stop focusing on any particular subjects.... Tomorrow a rest day, unless the snow that is forecast shows up.
Summer skinning towards Chair Peak, Snow Lake Divide 01.15.07
fog blowing over the snow lake divide, mt. snoqualmie in background 01.12.07 TGIF...Got in some sketchy snow/ice riding the last few days. Fun to be totally in the zone on what's normally a pretty uneventful ride to work. Gorgerous sunrise over the Cascades this morning, temps in the mid-20's, waning crescent moon hanging above the city. Should be good nordic skiing this weekend, with cold temps and clear skies. Rumors of a rain crust under about 10" of new snow will make for an exciting bc day. 3-day weekend begins now. 01.10.07 4:58 update... it's dumping hard and I'm headed to the cx bike to ride up the hill in a full on snow storm. Probably won't last, but I'll take what I can get 01.10.07 We want snow...Threatening to snow in Seattle, but so far just a false alarm... low 30's and breezy on the ride in, but no snow to play in. Was hoping for a slip-sliding commute down the hill. Supposed to get cold (for Seattle) with temps in the teens & twenties over the next few days, should make for some good skiing this weekend. A little tele-commuting yesterday afternoon for my internship, so after I made some calls got some data I was able to sneak out during a lull in the rain and get a nice run down to lw and up the stairs, double sets with a plyometric set thrown in the middle makes for a great workout. Back home & checking messages and touching base with the office. I could get used to a setup like that. 01.08.07 Is it safe??? Was glancing at my sitemeter log and one of the google searches that led to javasport was "is two-day old coffee safe to drink?" I'm guessing I didn't answer the question to their satisfaction. And why would anyone want to drink two-day old coffee? 01.08.07 Worked...After skiing all day saturday I cracked a beer and watched the last 5 minutes of the Seahawks, trying to blow their playoff game, but managed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. 5 minutes is just about my maximum attention span in terms of football, so it worked out perfectly. Questionable forecast, missing seasons pass and tired legs had me sleeping in on Sunday, which was the right choice since SB got stuck in traffic when they closed the pass on his way up. Some coffee, Sunday paper and a nice long run through the arboretum and interlaken finished off my tired legs. Take a rest day today and hit the gym tomorrow... 01.06.07 Steep and Deep Well it wasn't anywhere close to the 2-3 feet they were talking about, but Crystal was deep. Plenty of powder to go around, getting a little heavy down low but no complaints. Legs are worked after muscling them boards around in the deep all day.
-SB hiking towards the Throne, South Backcountry Crystal Mtn 01.06.0701.05.07 5-feet! Crystal Mountain says they expect to receive up to 5 feet of snow by Monday evening. Waxing up the tele-stix tonight and heading down with a hot cup of coffee early tomorrow morning. Should be a good time. After a few nordic days last weekend, will be nice to get out on the hill with the tele gear. Only 7 or 8 weeks til' our hut trip, need to be ready to reel off the vertical (both climbing and descending) by then. Shook off the rough start to the NY, fully embracing the Chiwawa motto of "a lifetime of memories forgotten" and have been getting in a few trips to the gym, some runs, some rides (commuting) and a couple of ski days early in 07'. Getting ready to ride home, the weather cam says it all, Rain & Sleet, Temperature: 41F, 5C (22F, -6C wind chill). Winds: 17 mph from the S (22 mph gusts). Will be a wet slog up the hill on the single, but at the top the weekend begins... How I skate when I'm asleep & dreaming. A little nordic action from the Norwegian wunderkind, Peter Northug. The tempo and power these guys generate is unreal, a different world than all the rest of us...I couldn't crank a tempo like that for 2 feet. 01.02.07 Finished 2006 right with a long nordic session in Leavenworth. Got a chance to roll off 40k's with Geestik, (who had to reach 50 for the day so he stayed out til dusk). Then hooked up with the rest of the crew and headed out to Chiwawa for dinner and a big bonfire to start the year off. A little (way) too much "cheer" made for a rough first day of 07' but we put in a short session on the skis before a long, slow drive home over two passes through freezing rain. 12.31.06 Oh-six... Wrapping up the year and starting the next one with a trip over the mountains to the Chiwawa, meeting the other gangsters for a few days of skiing on the skate skis and if the conditions are good we'll make some tele-turns as well. Ready for the new year for sure, new goals,opportunities and all that jazz. 2006 was a pretty low year cycling wise, no creampuff, no trip to sun valley, no moab spring break ride fest. I'm in the sport for life, so not a huge deal, but looking forward to getting some more big days and road-trips on the bike in the New Year. Sun Valley in early August? Less cycling trips did free up weekends for other activities that have been on the "to-do" list for quite some time. Finally managed to get some BC skiing in last spring. Skied the Birthday Tour at Washington Pass which was fantastic, good skiing and gorgeous scenery in one of my favorite places. The other big highlight was the SW chutes of Mt. Adams in June with S & A, on the hottest day of the year, only a week from the 4th of july we skied 6000 vertical feet of pure corny goodness. Plus we ticked off a long backpack trip through Yosemite NP, including a trip over clouds rest and 1/2 dome. No complaints about 06' and looking forward to a bunch of big adventures in 2007, with a 4 day hut trip in the Wallowa's and a few XC ski races coming up in the next two months |
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