Church

Sometimes I take my phone to church so I know what time it is, etc. I teach Sunday school and need to know what time it is and I don't own a watch. Anyways, trying to prevent a meltdown at church, I gave Trenton my phone to play some games.

Well, apparently he knows how to take videos. I just discovered a half dozen videos of people seated around us at church.

This nice kid entertained T for a while


I'm just guessing here, but apparently the subject in video #1 took the phone and taped T. I don't think he liked it.


Where was I when this was going on? Wrestling a spirited two-year-old sitting right next to Trenton so I have no idea how I missed it.

Francis Peak

For many years I've looked up at the mountains and peaks above where I grew up in Kaysville. From Francis Peak to Thurston Peak, I've always wondered what it would be like to ski those open bowls. I don't need to wonder any more--They are awesome...

The plan was to ride bikes from the gates up to the towers and then ski from there out to Thurston Peak & back. Then it snowed on Friday making our bike plans impossible. Undeterred, we skinned the 5 miles from the gates to the top of Francis Peak and Paul Bunyan's golf balls.

After scouting around for an inviting line, we settled on a couloir below the south tower. 200 feet of 40+ degree ice & crust gave way to 2,000 of beautiful turns of blower pow that only Utah can produce.

The plan at the beginning of the day was to ski out to Thurston and back but the snow was so good & skiing so fun that we decided not to leave upper Bair Canyon.

Run #2 consisted of the most linked turns (65?) I've ever done for another 2,000 foot run.

After more fun we debated about following our skintrack back up to the North side of Francis Peak or cutting a new track to the south ridge of Bair, thus bypassing some ridge scrambing in poor visibility. We opted to traverse across the steep face and ended up booting about 1,500 feet back to the road.

Skiing back down the road to the parking area, we skied snowmobile-chopped snow while dodging patches of dirt and mud. It felt like springtime.

All in all, a fantastic day. 8,000 feet of vertical, and roughly 15 miles covered. (The approach is long!) There is something oddly satisfying about looking up at Francis Peak from my back porch and being able to see my tracks. Ahhh.

I've skied better snow (although yesterday was still REALLY good) but I can't say I've had a funner day of skiing.


Nate contemplating the fulfillment of an objective-Skiing Francis from the towers.


Nate scoping some lines.

Me and Axyl




Nate not riding a bike on the way to Francis Peak.

Francis Peak

Time to finally go have a look at the mountains above where I grew up. The plan is to start at Paul Bunyan's golf balls and head north skiing anything on either side of the ridge that looks good on the way to Thurston peak. Now that the road to the radar towers is dirt, the approach will be via mountain bikes so it should be much easier than to boot from the bottom. Should be fun!

Adieu Nordic

Nordic Valley (Wolf Mountain) closed for the season tonight. My ski patrolling Dad hooked me up with a bunch of free passes so we had a group go shred the mountain for closing the closing Saturday. Tigger, Pooh, some radical 80's dude, several rednecks in coveralls, and a couple of fancy ladies met us up there to shred. It was a blast! Everyone was close enough to the same skill level that we just kinda moved around the mountain together at the same speed.



Wes hooked me up with some snow fruit boots and I proceeded to rip. This guy has got nothing on me...


I took our grill up and we cooked polish dogs for dinner and we stood around in the freezing cold, eating, laughing, and having a great time. I think that this will have to be an annual event. From here on every year, for closing weekend at Nordic we'll be shredding in dress-ups. Good times!

In other news, I also did the Powderkeg Saturday morning. Since The Incident a few weeks ago I haven't felt good enough to really do much on my leg without it rebruising and making me grit my teeth, so the long-course was not possible for me. The recreation course had 3,500 feet of climbing over 6 or 7 miles of racing. I really like these races but I wish I had the $$ to get some racing skis & boots. My 187cm 105mm waisted skis are great for powder, but make me move like cold molasses on the uptracks.



Overall, I felt okay. I finished 10th in the Rec AT division, 20 minutes adrift of the winners. Samurai flexed his muscles and beat me by 5 minutes and had 2 more transitions and 1,500 more of climbing and skiing that I did while winning the race division. Impressive! Skimo racing isn't for wimps, that much is for sure. Very cool race, well attended, and great energy.

White Pine Tour

Made it out for a quick tour in LCC with Nate, Greg and Greg's friend. The friend had to be home by 9a, so it was one & done unfortunately. Alarm at 4:15, skinning by 5:30 or so. We headed up White Pine to the top of no name bowl and skied back down into White Pine. The best blower snow of the year by far. I like to call it "ego snow" because it is so easy to ski, it makes you feel like a rad skier.

A little bummed to miss the CROWBAR race in Logan as I've looked forward to it all winter, but my left leg is still pretty bruised up from the incident two weeks ago. I'm pumped for the powderkeg this weekend though.

Who says men can't wear pink?


LCC South ridgeline.


Das Pfieff. Notice the wind at the summit.


I haven't had the best luck with cameras so I had to lift these images from Nate's facebook. Thanks Nate!