Back at it

"You can not cross a chasm with two small steps... at some point you must make a leap." Author Unknown

I love to document things and make records. Sometimes its useless information like how many glasses of water I drink in a week, but it at least keeps me moving forward. This year I am going to track the number of ski days I can get with my kids. We have already gone water skiing 16 times, now that the snow ski season is coming up I am looking to hit the 16 mark as well.

So that I stay young and continue to add gray hairs, this winter I am going to get as many kids ages 4-8 to Solitude every Saturday and most friday afternoons. My theory is that if I can grow a little batch of ski buddies for my kids they will get it deep in their bones so that when I am really old I will still have some little ski buddies coming through the ranks.

So if you have or know of any 4-8 year olds that can reasonably get around by themselves on the mountain let me know. I will take them and moderatelty supervise them. All I require is parents permission to use my unorthodox, yet high effective techniques. If you need references regarding my techniques, you best not inquire. Otherwise, lets have a go. See you on the slopessss!

I know, I am worthless

Well, one of the signs of a good blogger has surely has to be consistency. I this regard, I have failed. My little digi-cam is no longer operational so I have been reluctant to post without photos. But the sun is bright an a new day is shining, so... here we go. Last thursday morning Dalt and I headed up Alexander Basin in Millcreek. The climb to Gobblers knob was very direct, yet quite pleasant. Dalt was good enough to get a few shots of some flowers. We were up and back in 3 hrs. 3,200 ft and 2.2 miles one way. The shock absorbers are a little sore still after the decent. We ran into a trio of golden girls on our way down.

As for the rest of the summer we have been really busy. I'll give a run down and try to post some photos later.

• May. Memorial weekend: Anderson Cove at Pineview. Mangrums (including Alli's boyfriend-in-law and nephews) and Flandros. We took Gary and Sue's boat, bikes and tents. The highlight of the weekend was the drunken red-neck family riot next to our camp at 1:00 am. Goodthing Flandro didn't have it loaded.

• June. Mindy's B-day weekend: Westgate Resort at the Canyons. Just our little family and a fun weekend of hangin out at the pool and playing a bit of tennis.

• June. Dunyon Family camp-out: Dunyon Property in Big Cottonwood. Well no other Dunyons but Janis and my family came (shame shame) but it was great fun nonetheless. We hiked around, cooked dinner and enjoyed our surroundings. Mindy, mom, and Ava went home around 9:30 pm. Talin and Elle fell asleep out in front of the fire. We were up early and down to play 7s by 9:00 am.

• June. Troop 1068 back-pack trip: Big Cotonwood Canyon-Millcreek divide. Desolation Lake via Bear Trap Fork, Dog Lake, Circle-All peak and out via Butlers Fork. We then went up canyon to the Dunyon property and scoured the plat for signs of natural springs. It was a fun trip for the boys. We hiked over 15 miles and endured sporatic rain throughout the trip. I joined the party late Thursday night. Dispite intermitten showers throughout the day I just put my tarp beneath me and went to sleep without a tent. When the rain started I thought it would be short, so I just wrapped up in my tarp taco style. Big mistake. The rain didn't stop and after about 2 hours my feet were wet. I endured, after a few more hours I was completely wet. It turned out to be a real tough night. As hypothermia set in I tried to monitor my physio. Soon the shaking become uncontrollable and I flet my self getting stupid. So in the dark of night, soaking wet, I crawled out of my bag, emptied the water out of my shoes and started to move. For awhile I was in a real bad place. Then after I was able to get moving a bit faster and get my wits about me. A few minutes later I heard a birds song, which meant two things (1) the rain was stopping and (2) morning was on the way. With renewed mental ability, I was finally able to find some tinder and get a fire going. I hadn't felt such joy in awhile. It took me the whole day to dry out my gear. However, we still had one night to go and the skys threatened all day. We hiked most of the day and got to our next camp spot around 4:00 pm. I spent the next 6 hours constructing a tarp shelter and sleeping area, complete with a water drainage system and pine bow sleeping pad, in preparation for another rainy night. Around 9:00 pm we got a call from the valley that the storm was raging in. For about 30 minutes it rained hard and blew 20-30 mph. The shelter stood, the clouds cleared and I enjoyed an undisturbed 10 hour slumber. A great experience.

• July. 4th weekend: Ryan Morgan's Cabin at Flaming Gorge. Morgan's family (including Judy, Rich, Diane, Chandler, Rachael, Ryan and Shanna). Great weekend. Boating on the lake, cruising around on the four-wheeler, and hangin out at the cabin. Tons of wild-life and great scenery. The highlight of the trip was either the fun night of fire-works in Dutch John or the fun family time on the boat. I think the kids are FINALLY getting over me dumping them off the SUPER-MABLE last year.

• July. Iverson Family trip: Sweetwater at Bear Lake. All Iversons. This is about the fifth straight year of this trip and it is always fun. Bike rides, beach trips, boating, and condo life. It was all very fun and great to see the kids gaining confidence. On Saturday I got the hall-pass and headed up to Jackson Hole for the Teton 10's. (shout out to Clint for letting me score his FJ for the drive). The tournament was great, Haggis downed all that came before us. 35-0, 31-7, and 35-5. Pretty consistent performance.

• The rest of the summer has been filled with swim lessons, bike and long-board rides in the neighborhood, and boating trips to the dam. Couldn't ask for much more.
  

Has anyone seen this man?

Last seen on the pitch wandering around somewhere in Rhode Island.

Future Backcountry Efficianado

The other day Morgan called and asked "now that it almost summer, when are we going to start doing our morning hikes?" Well, Morg doesn't really like the cold, so he hasn't been coming along on our morning skis. But I know he would love it if he just got a good first experience skiing in the backcountry. So I tricked him. I said "sure thing Morg, lets go to a little hike called Patsey Marley"... hehehe. We got there and it actually took him awhile to figure out that he had been had. We loaded the skis on our backs and headed up Grizzly Gulch. We put the skis and skins on once we passed the cabins and Morg got his first lesson in skinning. The snow was still rock hard from the refreeze so it wasn't the best learning conditions. We nailed the approach without too much trouble and got to the bottom of the run when Morg asked "ok we are not going to climb that are we?" I just laughed and headed up the hill. Morg was a quick learner of the art of the kick-turn. As we switched up the run I was hoping that the sun would soften the snow, to my disappointment there was only about 2 inches of corn snow on top of rock-hard. Again, not the best conditions to be re-learning to down-hill ski (Morg is a boarder and hadn't been on skis in about 20 years.) However, between my excellent coaching (uhem) and Morg's natural ability we enjoyed not only the run down, but made the transition and had a second go. I think I may have done just enough to plant the good seed into another future backcountry efficianado.

Patsy Marley

There are a couple of a stories floating around out there as to how the Patsy Marley Peak got its name. Some say Patsy was a well-known madame amongst the early Alta miners. Others say Patsy was an Irish bare-knuck brawler who owned a pub in Grizzly Gulch. Either way its fun to think about how crazy those old mining days must have been when the town of Alta's population swelled to more than 8,000 mountain hardened souls.

Dalt, Dustin and I met at the LCC p.a.r. around 5:00. We were looking for high elevation, north facing with a short approach. Enter the mistress. The climb was very nice. We had some fun steep skinning at the top near the cornices. We had enough time for two runs. Dalt on his second run.

Then follwed by me. Nice high-speed floaters. Thanks to Dustin for the shots.

Fly on My Zephyr

I once shot a man in Reno just to watch him die. This time I went to play rugby. The rugby was forgettable, with a few splashes of brilliant desperation. We took Corbie's (Lopes' wife) four runner, which included Lopez's camera. On her blog Corbie was surpisingly accurate in her description of the proceedings (and I appreciate your discreation on the post Cobie). So if you are interested there you go. http://corbiecoy.blogspot.com/2009/04/boys-will-be-boysand-so-will-men.html.

Pink Pine Pink Snow

Went up LCC, shooting for Patsey Marley. We got rejected by udot avalanche folks at the upper Alta lot so we went back down canyon to the White Pine parking lot. We (Dalt, Dustin, Jason and myself) skinned up to the ridge that divided White Pine canyon and Red Pine canyon (Pink Pine) It was a pleasant climb.

The snow was deep and surprisingly fluffy. The crazy circular pattern storminess we experienced carried red sand from So. Utah so the snow was pink (Pink Snow). You'd have to see it to believe it. Thanks to Dustin for the photos.

Hello LCC - Scotties Bowl

A huge morning. Most of the morning tours Dalt and I have made this year have been in Big Cottonwood Canyon and were in the 1,200 vertical ft range. The approach usually consists of some mellow angles up a drainage and then a steeper climb to the ridge or peak. This morning we hit Scotties Bowl in LCC. For those of you that have been there you know that you get out of the car and within 2 minutes you are on a 35 degree + slope for about 2500 vertical feet. Add to that, we were with the fast as, super-steep trail-breaking freak Dustin. Rolling into work at 8:30 I was spent.

We we gained the ridge, negotiated some enormous cornices, and hit the peak. The top was very steep. The new snow did not bond well with the base and caused some pretty significant sluffing. I had an equipment malfunction (I'm sticking to that story since once I got my ski back, it had released with out the binding popping. Still a rookie mistake, I admit, but I would rather be a rookie binding adjuster than a rookie skier). I took a little ride down a chute of sorts and completely lost one ski. After about 15 minutes of digging around Dalt honed in and saved the day. The mini-regrowth pines provided and bit of depth perception in the middle of the run for some the best turns of the day. A great morning. Shout out to Dustin for the top photo.

Super-Sledge 2.0

With spring popping up, I decided to get the Super-Sledge 2.0 out for one last run before it returns to its bike trailer origin. Last January we took the 2.0 to Bryce Canyon and toured that country. It also made it up Millcreek Canyon a few times this year.

Super-Sledge 1.0 - 2008 was made out of a three wheeled jogging stroller that I scored from Peme. I basically tied three ski-blades (mini trick skis) to the bottom of the tires. To make the skis-to-tires link more rigid, I connected the ski-blades with an old broom stick by bolting front of the rear two skis to the back of the front ski. I then rigged a hauling device with an old water ski rope and two 6 foot copper pipes that I found in my mom's garage. The design had some limitations. Mainly, the broom stick that connected the skis lacked enough clearance. So when there was loose snow, it would create drag.

This year, with a new vision, I started 2.0 with a bike trailer. I then built a frame and connected it to my '91 K2s. The key to its rigidity was the thread-all reinforcements (just high enough to clear any reasonable amount of snow).

I then bolted the trailer to the frame.

Limitations: Due to the large metal edge skis it took too much force to turn the unit at speed. Coming down Millcreek Canyon when I tried to turn, the copper pipe towing device failed. I ended up flipping the device so that the 2.0 was in front, and I was guiding it down the canyon from behind, like I was driving a stage coach or something.

For 3.0 I plan on using the same bike trailer and ski frame. I am going to buzz the metal edges off the skis on a table saw and find some aluminum tubes or rods for the pulling device.

"Early morning April 4 shots ring out..."

What an amazing year. Mindy, Elle, Talin, Ava, and I went to Solitude. It had snowed about 2 inches in the valley overnight, but I was surprised at how much had accumulated at 8000 ft, maybe another 10-12 inches. We started up the canyon and the flakes started to fall again. We have gotten really quite proficient at skiing with three little ones. Its all about preparation. The key is to get bibs, coats, and even ski boots on the kids at home before we leave. That way when we get to the mountain its just gloves, helmets, and goggles. Mindy jumps out (with the car still moving) to get the kiddie day passes; I go move the cones at the end of the premium parking spaces to fit just one more in; I jump out, get my boots on, finish kitting up the kids and carry the skis to the bottom of the lift; Mindy brings Ava to me and we are on the lift within 10 minutes of pulling into the parking lot... I take Elle and Ava and Mindy takes T-Dog (This photo was actually taken in 2008, but you get the idea. Talin looks so little.)

We took a couple warm up runs on link and then moved to Moonbeam. There was quite a bit of loose powder all over the mountain and Elle was eating it up. It was very satisfying to see her go off to the side of the run to get in the deep snow. The density was amazingly light. However, with all the snow falling, the kids wore out quickly. We made about three runs on Moonbeam and headed to the lodge. Mindy said "do you want to go and take a quick run while I watch the kids?" which I translate to "I want to take a run by myself!" So I said "why don't you go ahead." So when we were in the car on the way home I asked "How was your run?" She said "Honeycomb was awesome." Which meant that she had taken like three runs. I responded "Well played babe, well played." She replied "Naturally."

That night we met the Mangrums, Morgans, Jensens, and Flandros at Rodizio for wonderful b-day dinner. A very good day!

Emi GREAT ion

When a dawn patrol is in order a PING goes out either via text message or direct call. When I am the PINGer I like to chant "DAWN PATROL DAWN PATROL". For those of you who know Giles, you know that he is very much like a large bear and this particular bear dislikes waking up too early. So when I got a message that read "DUSK PATROL DUSK PATROL SCREW DAWN PATROL!" I figured fine whatever, we'll have a go, I even agreed to this crazy sounding notion to try out Emigration. Due to Giles 6 degrees of separation we scored yet another premium undisclosed parking spot. The crew for the outing included Beez, Fletch, Giles, and Dalt (not pictured).


We met at the Dog park and piled in Dalt's truck. It was fun to be in new terrain. We passed 'the Hotel' on our right and turned left up the first drainage, then climbed the ridge to the first peak. It was a fun ascent b/c you could scout your upcoming lines so well. Giles punched up the zig zags like there was a 12er on top. We got to the top, paid our taxes, and dropped in.

Beez, on one of his first backcountry outings, was so ovewhelmed at the untouched 12 inches he nearly straight lined the whole thing. The rest of us however were a bit more discerning with our turns. And what turns they were...

What a Change 48 hrs Can Make

Dalt and I tried to recreate the magic of last Tuesday up USA bowl, this time with Fletcher. We were originally going to hit it for the second time on Wednesday but decided to push it back a day, this turned out to be a mistake. We met at the BCC park and ride at 4:30 am, picked up Fletch at 4:52. We would have been right on time for the Fletch pickup but-for "the twins". Apparently there is a moose that has twins every year that lives near Fletch's cabin. As we came around the bend near Butler Fork we got boxed in by the two youngsters and it took some time to navigate safe passage. We were skinning by 6:10. The ascent was once again very pleasant. The downhill was a different story. The snow got baked on wednesday and had re-frozen over-night to produce some challenging turning conditions. We made it out alright and to work by 8:15. A fun morning.

Just When I Thought I Was Out...

They sucked me back in. Can you believe all this late year dump? Crazy. Tuesday morning Dalt and I met up at 4:30 am. We were skinning up USA bowl by 5:05. About 25 degrees (f). The skinning was effortless, for some reason my heart never really got pumping for the whole ascent. (happy to be back on the dawn patrol I guess)

*sidenote* Mindy emencely dislikes the term Dawn Patrol, so now whenever I want to go I have to say something like "I'm thinking about a morning ski tomorrow". It sucks, I love the term dawn patrol. Kindof like my sister Amy emencely dislikes the words "moist" and "nugget" get over it. *sidenote over*

The first signs of day-light came around 6:50. We started our transition around 7:10. The descent was a game changer for me. The Zealots are from heaven. I love them, they love to float on powder, and we are all edified. Dalt made some perfect figure 8s of my track on the way down. Even the mildly steep tree lines were amazing with that combination of snow and float. It was cool. The sun never really came out so we didn't get any good shots so I'll include some file footage for good form.

Super-Saturday Run and Gun

Well, another super-saturday run and gun style. We slept at Gary and Sue's on Friday night so we could be at the Basin when the lifts opened. Since I have been burning hall passes at an exceptional rate, Mindy got all rights on the day. So Gary, Jed, Reilly, and Mindy set out to conquer the mountain while I had the pleasure of skiing with Talin, Aiden, Elle, and Presley. It was very fun. Elle and Talin used their ski poles for the first time. Elle took right to it. However for Talin the poles were too much of a distraction. Maybe next year. As we were approaching the lift I was sorting out Talin and before I knew it, Aiden (5 yrs) had gone right ahead and jumped on the lift. I was very surprised as I didn't know if he had ever gone alone before. Elle and Presley got on the next chair and were frantically yelling instructions. Aiden took it like a real pro. He never let on if he was alarmed in the least. As it turns out Presley and Aiden are exceptional skiers.

They took us on some bob-sled style runs that were pretty hairy. After about 8 runs on Wild Cat we broke for lunch.

I had to leave the resort around 12:30 to get to a 2:00 rugby game in Sandy. So I took the kids to Sue's (thanks Sue) and changed in the car as I drove south. As for the rugby, well if you can't say anything nice...

We all got home around 7:00 and had a nice dinner with our neighbors, Jim and Ireland. Shout-out to Ammon for all the great rugby photos.

No Friends on a Powder Day

Crazy the snow storms eh? A real beaut of a storm series dumped like 60 inches over 60 hours. Well guess who go the hall pass at the 60th hour? And guess who go a new pair of BD Zealots for his pre-b-day? That's right.

Dalt and I headed to Fletch's cabin around 10:30 pm. The storm was howling the whole way. Originally we were going to do a dawn patrol then hit the resort at 9:00am. However, with the avy danger characterized as "spiking" and "extreme", we reconsidered the DP. The Cabin provided a good night sleep and a breakfast fit for royalty (thanks Fletch). We arrived at Solitude's lower lot at 8:30. The crew included Shorty, Beez, Ben Beez, Micha, Fletch, Dalt, and myself. Unfortunately, LCC road was closed so we got all the hounds from Alta and the Bird mucking us up. Nevertheless, we joined them in gobbling up 27 inches of pow for about 6 runs on the quad. We then moved to the back side of the mountain, and not a minute too soon. As we came down Milk Run off Powderhorn we saw about 15 people waiting in the Summit lift line as the chairs began to move for the first time of the day. I think only about half our crew realized at that moment we were in for something special. The other half figured it out about 5 minutes later. We blazed untracked runs down Summit for about 5 runs until at just the right moment, what could be better...they opened Honeycomb. We hiked the north ridge and had the best run of the year.

Highlights of the day include a couple of bomb-crater style wipe-outs, Shorty always one run ahead or behind, and blasting through white-out rooster tails behind Dalt at super speeds on the new skis. It was great. To my crew, if I ever left you behind or didn't include you in the pictures, I dont have much to say, because as the saying goes...there are no friends on a powder day.

The Hybrid Season

Due to the crazy early day light savings switch the dawn patrols have been a off for a wee while, maybe in a few weeks.

For the last ten years or so I always hoped for an early winter and an early spring. Early winter for skiing and an early spring for rugby. This year I just want winter to hang around a little longer. I guess that's where the ski in the morning, rugby in the afternoon hybrid day enters.

We got everything ready friday night: boots (x5), skis (x4), edgy-wedgy, harness, baby bjorn, helmets (x3), parkas (x5), bibs (x5), gloves (x8), goggles (x5), base layers (x5), breakfast, snacks... check. Its never easy is it? Mind, Elle, Talin, Ava and I loaded into the car and miraculously made it to Solitude before the lifts opened. We made a 8 runs from 9:00 to 11:00, a good pace considering the party. Ava strapped to my front, Talin dragging Mindy down the hill like he is a Husky in the Iditarod, and Elle making perfect little turns and looking for steep chop. I love my crew.

It was a windy day so T and Elle made a fortress out of the Haggis's kit bags and took a little nap, very resourceful. The game didn't go so well as we gave up a try in the final minutes to lose 15-12. We all came home and enjoyed the warm weather in the neighborhood.

Oh Well

Tough to not go skiing on Saturdays. I had a rugby game in Provo so Mindy took the kids to Snowbasin to have a go. She is very capable. Apparently Ava never really made it out of her jammies. As for the rugby... not so good. A tough loss 31-10. Never fun to play, let alone lose to Provo.

Rugby in St. George

Fletch and Flandro were at my house by 8:00 pm on Friday night. We had the distinct pleasure of traveling in the VANTASTIC. Near Nephi the VAN started to feel as if it was not getting gas. Much to Fletch's annoyance, the surge didn't bother me too much as I slept from Fillmore to St George. (apparently we barely made it)
We pulled into the Crystal Inn parking lot around 2:00 am, rolled out the sleeping bags and crashed. The Crystal had a beautiful swimming pool and continental breakfast to boot. We dropped the VAN at the mechanic and made it to the rugby field by 10:00 am. We watched a few rugby games, greeted the Haggis as they rolled into town and played a pretty physical match v. St George. It was a very fun game, a lot of running and broken play. In the end we won out 45-5. While we waited for the VAN to get ready we enjoyed a well cooked meal by Hoke at Morgan's brothers house. Fun little George trip.

Daylight Savings Came Too Early

Day light savings came very early this year. This morning it caught me off guard. Our tour started in the dark and ended in the dark. Weird, I might as well have just done the trip from midnight to 3Am. It was cold, around 9 degrees (f) when we got to our premium parking location. We exited Dalt's truck in full stealth and were skinning by 5:20. By most measurements the storm dumped about 24 inches. We took turns breaking trail straight up the guts of USA. Once we were out of the trees the wind was about 30-50 constant pound. It turned the snow into real heavy type powder. It had to be sub-zero at that point. About 300 ft from the summit, I started having trouble with one of my skins so we transitioned in behind a lone little pine. There was no light of day yet. Skiing with head-lights, in a head-wind, on thick deep snow, down an open face with no trees makes depth perception tricky. It was hard to gauge my speed. With the first signs of dawn setting in, we reached the car and cranked the heat.

(Since we didn't get any light, I didn't take any pictures. So I will include shots from the week earlier. btw we met the strangest two South Africans who had been lost for like 28 hours straight)

The Adventures of Cobus and Jaq-Lui

Hello, we are stuuudents traveling through the states. We are fruoom New Doornfontein, Gauteng, SA. As we were touring thru Moawb we ran across nice fellows that told us abouuut The Wasatch. So we drove up and have been touring around The Wasatch for days. We were told that wearing helmets at dawn was a good sign in the Wasatch. We love German food, so where ever we tour we must have Schnitzel. (Cobus is so opinionated about certain things). We are huge Lions fans are are hooping to meet Todd Clever's mother. The snow surface today was quite like the windward side of Kilimanjaro. However our tour was fruitful as we meet two fine blokes from the valley that showed us the way in the deep wiles of The Wasatch.