Can I make a suggestion?

Today's view.


I went running with the father/son combo of John & Greg yesterday. It wasn't light enough to run in the pines until 5:45 or so, so we started with some power walking out of the Upper Big Water Trailhead. Our plan was to head to Brighton where I would turn around & head home (17 miles) and Greg & John would continue on without me(43 miles).

As we picked our way up to the ridge in upper millcreek, Father offered, "Can I make a suggestion?" Son knew immediately that his Dad's suggestion was an alternative to the nice, clear trail that were were on. Without hesitation or even hearing what the suggestion was, son responded, "NO! We are not taking that goat trail!" Until that point I didn't realize that there must be a lot of history between those two and the nearby mountains they frequent. I could feel that Father loved being out there with Son. I need to have similar experiences with T as he gets older. The goat trail is exactly what father was suggesting by the way.

The Wasatch Front has been sweltering hot, with triple digits in the forecast for the first time of the year. However, at 9,800 feet it was a beautiful morning with temps in the 60-70 range. Ahhh. I'm afraid mid-day 70 won't be seen in the Valley until October.

6:00a sunrise at near the Canyons resort.


It is wildflower season in the high country.


Me with Father on my heels.


Stats: 17.5 miles
Elevation: 6,500 gain, 6,500 loss
Blisters: 2-One on each big toe.

Favorites

Coolest area?


High E. Pretty memorable exposure.

When I was younger, I climbed way more than I do/can today, but I don't have a very good record of anything that I've done because I never toted a camera and never wrote anything down. Enter this blog. I've tried to record a few things here and there that I'd like to remember or be able to look back on someday.

Anyways, the author of a blog I read recently posted his top 10 climbs. Many were impressive. It got me thinking if I have a top 10. I'm not sure. I've done a lot of rad climbs, and hope to do many more rad ones. I don't know if I could rank them, so I've just compiled a few of my favorites by grade. As the grades get harder, they have more bolts. :) Some are long, some are short. Some are recent ascents, some are from long ago. Also, easy trad routes are still quite memorable for me for several reasons, while easy sport fade quickly. Routes that were hard for me, or that had multiple attempts I remember well and have included some of them on my list. Anyways, here are a few:

5.6

Cat in the Hat (Red Rocks)
High Exposure (Gunks)

5.7

Snake Dike (Yosemite)
Jubilant Song (Red Rocks)
Celebration Wall (Red Rocks)
Bear's Reach (Lover's Leap)

5.8

Lowe Route (Lone Peak)
Pentapitch (LCC)

5.9

The Line (Lover's Leap)
The Coffin (LCC)
Gold Wall (Lone Peak)

5.10

East Buttress, El Cap (Yosemite)
Sons of Yesterday (Yosemite)
Serenity Cracks (Yosemite)
Mexican Crack (LCC)

5.11

Ananda (Ceuse)
Right Pile (BCC) (I know, super broken/chossy, but my first hard 5.11 made me feel proud)
License to Thrill (AF)

5.12

Don't tread on me (causey)
The abyss (AF)
Margarita (AF)
Oxygen? (AF)
Hierarchy (Causey)
Football (Maple Canyon)

5.13
Social Values (Causey) This took me many attempts.

There are many other cool routes that I haven't sent, so I didn't include those, but I hope to someday. The end.

Skimo

There are two types of people in life: 1) People who are gear junkies and 2) people who aren't. I am a #1. But I don't have enough money to have the nice stuff, so I make do with used stuff to fill out my quiver of stuff. Which brings me to skiing.

When we moved back to Utah from San Jose, I knew I wanted to start backcountry skiing. I was a latecomer to skiing. I didn't start until I was 23. And I only went 2x during the almost 3 years we lived in CA. In short, I didn't really know what I was doing or what type of touring gear to get. I settled on a cheap pair of 1st generation Bluehouse Districts and used Naxo bindings. Throw in some skins and some avy gear and I was off.

The snowbasin winter xterra had a ski mountaineering race for $30, so I decided to enter and see what it was about what with me being a skier who now travels uphill under his own power. I showed up and it was very apparent that I was toast before the race started. My gear: 187cm 105mm waisted skis, heavy bindings, nordica beast boots and wall to wall nylon skins. Each foot must have had 10+ pounds of ski gear attached. Needless to say, I wasn't fast. I started out at the back of the pack and stayed there the whole race. Skinny greyhounds in spandex race suits, these telemark looking tiny green boots, and skis that were as thick and as heavy as a pringle or so it seemed. "One of these things...."



I was quickly hypoxic after the gun went off and tried to just keep a pace that I could sustain for a while. At the top of the first lung-bursting hill, and I remember not knowing how to fold them very fast (I'd been out maybe 10 times when I never felt rushed.) and laid them out in the snow stick side up while I tightened my boots. The volunteers must have been wondering what the heck I was doing.

On the second descent, I guess I was so tired that I forgot to buckle my boots. By then, the fastest guys were on my tail after finishing their 3rd climb on the longer course. I didn't make them crash, but I was definitely in their way as I chattered down the hill in unbuckled boots. Man was I slow!

Anyways, long story short it was a horrorfest for me. But I loved it. I knew that I had found something unique and awesome in the sport of ski mountaineering. I think I was crosseyed for 4 hours after that race. I did some serious research and learned that I wished I had a mentor when I got into BC skiing--my stuff was just too heavy for what I really wanted to do. But I couldn't just scrap all of this stuff so what to do?

Fast forward 18 months and I am now the proud owner of some racing gear.

The gear for 2010-2011:

Ski Trab Duo Sint Aero skis (used) 965g per ski (borrowed pic)


Ski Trab race bindings (discounted) 140g per binding

Dynafit TLT 5 Mountain (still need to buy) 1120g per boot (borrowed pic)

100% mohair trab skins (discounted & no pic)

Not the lightest stuff out there, but this is what I could get in my price range. Now I have to see what I can really do now that I've cut my gear weight by about 60%.

Wish me luck!

Wasatch 17

Jami is a runner. She is motivated by running fast. Me? I'm a sorta runner. I am motivated by--well, I'm not sure yet. Maybe endorphins or maybe suffering? But I like it.

For some unknown reason, I've wanted to do the Wasatch 100. It is really impressive that people can run that far over such difficult terrain. It is all very inspiring to me. Maybe sometime I'll try it. MAYBE. I've had a lot of fun trail running the last couple of years and this year I decided it would be fun to run the race course in manageable 20-25 mile chunks just as a litmus test to see how tough I am and whether or not I could pull something like that off if I wanted to.

I have always been a very recreational runner, but with my new renewed interest in ski touring, I thought running would be a good way to get stronger for my winter activities. Also, it provides a good opportunity to do some recon and see if there are good ski lines to be had.

At any rate, I started at East Mountain Wilderness Park at 5a after stashing my bike at the bottom of Bair Canyon and headed off. The Great Western Trail is awesome. It climbs and climbs and climbs with views of the valley the whole way. Everyone once in a while I'd look down and notice that I was gaining altitude. It was awesome seeing the sunrise and mountain shadows stretch across the valley as the sun did it morning yawns before doing its business in scorching the desert earth.

Up at 9k feet, spring is just starting it seems. Buds were starting to appear and grasses peeking up out of the thawing dirt. I picked my way over the trail below Thurston Peak. I detoured up to the top of Thurston Peak(highest point in Davis County) to check out the view. I took a minute to stuff some snow into my camelbak as I was already running low on water and headed back down to catch the trail again.

Proof that I made it to the top.


View looking South from Thurston.



Eventually I ended up at the top of Bair Canyon and it was time to tenderize my quads and blow out my knees by dropping approximately 5,000 feet in 4 miles. Ouch! Picked up the bike at the bottom and rode back to the trail head to get the car. All in all a fun day.

Stats according to Garmin:

Ascent: 7,316
Descent: 7,427
Miles covered: 17 running, 5 on a bike.
Time: 4:30. Someone else go run it and tell me if I'm fast or slow.

Red Baldy

At 8p last night Snowbird had registered 4" of new snow. I tried to call Greg to see if there was a way out of the 4:30 wake-up call as it didn't look like the conditions would be worth it. Ring-ring then busy signal. I exhaled as only a defeated man can and went to bed with my alarm set to 4:25a. I'm so glad I couldn't get a hold of Greg.

Sleep does wierd things to a man. Or rather, lack of sleep. I've woken up at 4:30 too many times this winter to count all with the objective of having a little fun before responsibility sets in for the day. Many excellent midweek powder runs have been scored this way. As an avid skier with a full-time job, what choice do I have? Luckily for me, I married an awesome woman who has me on a long leash and supports such sleep-depraved morning fixes. At least it’s not drugs Honey.

As we rolled higher and higher into the bowels of upper LCC, I was expecting a letdown much like the Hallway Couloir was the week before. I only took one shoe to hit snow while piling out of the car for that to change. No crunch, No sound of rubber on pavement. In fact, I don’t think I heard my foot hit the ground what with all the beautiful white bliss that had fallen from the heavens muffling the sound. Suddenly, I was psyched. Skins on by 5:45, we headed for the top of Red Baldy at the very end of White Pine, 3.5 miles or so and many vertical feet from the trailhead . The firm surface underneath the 6” of new snow allowed for fast travel, and before long we were atop the LCC/American Fork ridgeline with ski tips pointed back down into White Pine.

It’s funny to me how sometimes skiing can be really terrible. With a little bit of new snow, skiing becomes amazing again. Last Thursday I expended a lot of energy getting to and descending one of the worst ski runs of my life—Breakable rotten crust with frozen rollerballs and avy debris mixed in for good measure. By contrast, today (7 days later) was unbelievable. Smooth buttery turns on light powder snow only LCC can produce. And it happened on April 29—several weeks after many Utah resorts closed for the summer.

After having my skin exfoliated at the summit by gusting winds and graupel snow, it was time to have some fun. There were moments of Hellen Keller skiing on the face and Greg closed his eyes for several turns to see if it made a difference. It didn’t. At the lower elevations, visibility improved, and there was still excellent snow. Many great turns were had. This morning embodied the reason I ski—great snow, exercise, and exciting terrain.

Unfortunately, Responsibility only allowed for one long, beautiful run before demanding that I head straight to work. Begrudgingly, I complied.

Red approximates our descent route.



Greg.


Skintrack.


Storm.


Booter.


More pictures here.

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.