5/7 Tour

I really wanted to go with my friend Greg to King's Peak, but I needed to till the garden and do a bunch of chores that I've been neglecting the past couple of months from skiing, work, and studying for that one test. I had one chore that I was especially looking forward to doing.

Last winter I never did make it up to do the traverse from Chinscraper to Francis Peak, so I decided to do it Saturday. I set my alarm for 4a and woke up at 2:50. I couldn't go back to sleep, so I finally rolled out of bed at 10 after 3 and decided to go get it done.

I was back home before noon and had plenty of time to do the other chores I needed to do.

The old Red Rocks guide used movie ratings for scary/bad pro (PG, R or X) and a thumbs up by the route name if it was a good route. I think the Northern Davis travers is definitely PG with a thumbs up. There was nothing technical to speak of, although skiing the south face of Thurston was a little thrilling with that "don't blow it!" feeling because of the firm snow/ice.

The worst part of the tour was Bair Canyon for sure. the snow was now breakable thanks to the sun and I had to do a bushwack that only a moose or an elk can appreciate to find the summer trail. It made me think (temporarily) that I might be done for the year.

Totals were approximately 13 miles and about 9k total vert.


4 a.m. from the fernwood parking lot.



5 a.m. from the great western trail.



6a. I switched to ski boots and skis somewhere just after 5a.


Just before sunrise now.


I saw the sun on the ridge for a minute before it dissapeared behind the clouds. It was a cool sunrise that I had to enjoy alone.



Sun just touching the tops to the central Wasatch and Uintas.



Thurston Peak marker for the highest point in Davis/Morgan counties.


Some of the bowls I went across had some pretty fun skiing along the way but nothing is close to 10,000 so the snow was pretty much garbage.

April 13th 2011

James was visiting from Cali and really wanted to get out on a tour. I'm slammed at work right now, so we I offered a 5a start time. He was still interested. I was apprehensive because I was expecting terrible skiing. Instead we found smooth supportable crust that corned up nicely by the time we were done.

Supportable crust...AND you could see the sunrise. It was going to be a fun day.


Nice morning to be out.





The rain & warm weather have made these really cool runnels on anything south facing. It looked like someone ran a huge paintbrush down the slopes.


Cornice trundling anyone? We didn't have the right gear to try and make this beast move. It would be amazing to watch it roll though. 25 ft. tall!

My powderkeg exploded

Last Saturday was the Wasatch Powderkeg. I've been looking forward doing this race for a long time. Unfortunately for me, it also came during the week that I was sick. I did almost nothing for the week leading up to the race to try and get better. No such luck. I woke at 4:40a on Saturday, got dressed, downed some cough syrup (I REALLY hate the taste of that stuff), filled my pocket full of cough drops and headed out the door.

I had enough time to wait in line for the john, and then do a 3 minute warmup before they were calling us to the start line. They had us run across the parking lot for about 400m to the transition area to "sort" I guess. Then there was a flat section of skinning as we headed over to the great western lift. I was really trying not to burn my matches too early because I knew I wasn't feeling great. I alternated between feeling okay and feeling like I'd been doing ab ripper x from coughing all the last night. Thoughts of quitting entered my mind, but there are so few rando races I can go to, that is a hard decision to make. I kept with it. I hit the first transition just after my new friend Tim, ripped skins, and rallied down the breakable crust run to the next skin transition. I arrived before Tim and he said to me "Holy cow, you can really downhill!" It isn't often that I am complimented on my skiing chops. Thanks for stroking my ego Tim! Tim and I swapped places a couple times over the next few climbs/descents enjoying racing each other and a couple minutes behind some racers and a few minutes ahead of Greg and others.

I don't know if it is fitness or sickness, but on the second to last climb, I started going backwards through the field. My legs had no response in them. I doubled over a few times with coughing fits, and felt like I was in survival mode. Tim passed me and I wanted to say "See you at the finish" because I knew I was done. Just as confirmation, some dude with voile drifters passed me. Yup, finished. About the same time I saw my friend Greg ski past me on his way to the ski to skin transition I just passed through. Maybe 5-6 minutes in arrears of me. I struggled to the top of the climb, made the long ski to the bottom of milly and then slowly climbed up to the top of the Millicent lift, then waddled up the booter. I was surviving at this point, just trying to finish. All the while Greg was closing in. Dang it! I made it to the top of the booter and over to stupid chute just before Greg. He pulled in right as I was leaving. I said "See you in 20 seconds" and dropped in. Not long after Greg skied past me after I crashed. Now seems like a good time to mention that Greg had an appendectomy a couple weeks ago, so the race timing wasn't exactly ideal for him either but he still competed.

I tried to quicken my pace and catch back up to him to make it a race, but then I had DOUBLE quad cramps! I sat for a second to let it pass and knew that I was toast. Greg was a couple hundred yards in front of me the whole way across the lake and I could never close the gap. Props to Greg for hunting me down and pushing me at the end. I hated being passed, but seeing people I knew out on the course made it an awesome race. In the end I came across the line a couple minutes behind Greg (he's a much better skier than I) and was pretty relieved to be done.

Great showing by the Dorais bros. who finished 3rd and 5th overall.

I didn't feel great physically, but this race was so much more fun for me than the Jackson/Targhee races because there were many more people at my racing level. Can't wait until next year!

Lisa Falls Couloir

The purpose of the blog is a place for me to write down some things that I do so that I can remember that life is great sometimes. It's important to remember that on the days when you feel like you have to shovel poop. Today was a shoveling poop day. That is all.

Last Saturday I skied something that I've always wanted to do. I remember working in my cubicle at my job in San Jose looking at the photos of Lisa Falls in The Chuting Gallery on Andrew Mclean's website thinking "I have to do that sometime." Lisa Falls couloir is supposed to be one of the best in his book--AND one of the biggest undertakings. We had a gentleman's start (9a) and approached from Broad's in BCC. There was a nice skinner all the way to the top of the saddle between O'Sullivan and Twin Peaks so we cruised up there, then booted the rest of the way to the top. It was a fairly mild day and the views of the LCC south ridgeline as well as North BCC were inspiring.

It was an exciting day out what with a separated shoulder on the summit, 4 or 5 prereleases (my trab race heels have a DIN of about 3! and a runaway ski (mine).

The run had powder at the top, more pow on the apron with some refrozen avy debris underneath to keep things interesting, wet mashed potato snow down low, steep skiing, a couple rappels, and a heinous exit with a lot of rock hopping, down climbing, and then lots of bushwacking down to the road. Greg characterized the exit as "character building." So true. If we didn't have so much fun skiing the run, the memory of the exit would be much more painful. All in all a great day and a blast to finally ski that. The San Jose Layne would be proud of that ski day.

(Photos courtesy of Greg and Jon's facebook pages. Thanks guys!)

Navigating the ridge.


Booting to the top.


Conquistador Jon on the summit.


The line with Greg's edits. Amazing that the whole thing goes.


View from where we clicked in.


LC turning up high in the couloir with the LCC road visible 5,000 feet below.

TLT 5 Mountain liner modification for my styloid processes

I tried searching the interwebs the past few days to see if there was info on boot mods for people with styloid process pain in ski boots. Nothing is out there. So, I'm throwing this out there for anyone that may find it useful.

One morning this week I got some skiing in before work. Afterward while driving back (I drive with my boots on early morning ski days) my problem area was hurting as it usually does after a couple of hours after being in the boot. I was walking really tenderly and I knew that that was the last straw. I couldn't go out again in those boots the way they were.

I got skunked by a shop in SLC not once but twice ("no you don't need to make an appt. Just come by." I come by. "Oh we're really swamped, come try again next week.") so I went north to Alpine Sports and they hooked me up! They don't really sell any touring stuff, but Jeff is an awesome bootfitter and touring boots aren't any harder to fix than a regular boot. We talked about punching out the shell to relieve the pain from my protruding styloid process of my 5th metatarsals (Hi Keith!) on both feet. The liner is thick and he suggested we try cutting a "window" (a quick fix and cheap) to relieve some of the pressure before we punch the shell (more expensive and time consuming). I really think this worked. I haven't ski tested the modification, but wearing the boot I couldn't feel the problem area anymore. Nice!

Note: The window only cut the outer layers of material off the liner. the inner part of the liner was intact. The window just reduces the thickness of the liner in the problem area.

This is something that would be super easy to do with just an exacto knife and a few spare minutes. I would have done it myself but I was so clueless about what to do.





Unfortunately for me, no skiing time today because of the boot issues. Instead, I went snowshoeing with some friends up to Thurston Peak. I decided I hate snowshoeing. We ran into some weather up high.




BOOT UPDATE

I went out before work for a few hours today (2/24) and am happy to report that the fix worked! My feet are happy. No pain or discomfort. Woot woot.

My feet are weird.

Thanks for the pic Dr. Nelson!


My bone #12 hurts from my ski boots. I can ski all day in them, but they're pretty sore and red afterwards. Is that normal? And I'm in danger of losing a couple of toenails. For this reason I've been considering selling the TLT 5s I have. The problem is what other boot to get? I'm not buying F1's and other viable alternatives don't come out until next fall (La Sportiva Spitfire/Sideral, Scarpa Alien, etc.) I'm not sure if my foot just doesn't fit the dynafits or if my foot is really weird and need special bootfitting.

I can feel the 5th metatarsal touching the side of the boot even with my naked foot in the boot shell (no liner).

Need some motivation?

Surfing the interwebs I was looking at the Gym Jones website and reading some of the bios of people that train there. It looks like a wierd mix of mountaineers and jiu jitsu MMA fighters and movie stunt guys. There are so few hours in the day and I guess I've already got some priorities established that would be hard to change, but man, it would be really fun and fulfilling to spend some time and get in really good shape. The kind of shape where fast miles and long runs, onsighting 5.12, and doing well in rando races are all possible at the same time. Sigh.

Quote from his website: "If you weren't given the gift you can't get the gift so the best you can do - if your goal is important - is work as hard as you possibly can, pay attention every hour of every day and then maybe, maybe if you've done enough and been smart enough you'll emerge from the muck of mediocrity to shine a bit brighter than you shone before. Then, upon reflection you might decide your goal is a bit more important so you'll start paying attention every minute of every hour of every day. You'll find people who are better than you and you'll take an empty cup when you meet them. Their example will destroy or inspire you and if it's the latter you may stay and learn. You might imitate, doing as they do because you've already accepted that you do not know best - if you did you'd be leading the group they were trying to join. Perhaps being exposed to their superior ability will drive you to work harder than you thought possible, or necessary. Maybe you'll overcome your self-imposed (or worse, society-imposed) limitations and shine even more brightly. Wow, you're getting it: positive reinforcement for hard work and suffering. So maybe you give your goal even more significance and you begin cutting away the ideas and the expectations and the people who you believe prevent you from achieving it."

I love feeling inspired. I'm inspired by alot of things and lately I've read some inspiring books about some amazing people.

Anyway, reading some of the mountaineer/skier/outdoor athlete profiles they had some of their accomplishments listed. I started laughing when comparing my list to their lists.

Theirs include first ascents/descents of remote, bold lines in the Canadian Rockies, Pakistan, and other exotic locations. Hard climbing of all types. All requiring bravery and serious commitment.

Mine:

- one hang the pink tape .12- route at the gym.
- last place, race division at skimo championships
- 12 hr. Ironman finisher.


My list of mediocrity could go on and on. Something that I think I struggle with from time to time is feeling successful at what I like to do. Lemme esplain. Einstein's Theory of Relativity concerns physics and laws of physics. I have a theory of relativity for athletics. It's all relative. My fast is another man's really slow. My slow is probably someone else's lightning fast. See? Jami says I have a hard time taking compliments, and it's true. If someone tells me I'm a good runner, I immediately think, "Yeah, but (fill in the blank) REALLY IS a good runner. They ran at (fill in blank) or did (fill in blank)."


My measure of success is different and needs to be different than the podium guys. I am just glad if I make it out for some type of activity, while others are guides, bums, or have jobs with more flexible hours. Now I'm rambling a bit. I guess I'm trying to make an excuse to make myself feel better for finishing last at the 2 skimo races I've done this year so far. At least I toed the line right? I'll try again at the CROWBAR race and the powderkeg and hopefully I'll be able to shine a little brighter than I have shone before.

More from Gym Jones:

You have to be willing to bite off more than you can chew, to overdose, and to fail. If you won't risk the answer you won't ask the question. If you lack the will to ask then consciousness will not unite with muscle and bone. I criticize such a lack of will (especially in myself) and ask, "What's the worst that can happen?" The fearful part of me replies, "I may fall short of my expectations. I may not be who I pretend to others. My perception of self may be proven wrong, very wrong." The confident part of me says, "So what ... only after breaking myself apart may rebuilding begin." So go ahead, break stuff. Break yourself on the once-hard edges of yourself. And recycle the debris into the foundation of your future.