Thanks, Mr. Scottie

"I can gather all the news I need on the weather report."

Paul Simon must have been a skier.

With whisperings of 30 inches of snow, we flocked to the backcountry this morning. The north side of LCC was closed for bombing, which made the White Pine trailhead a popular (and noisy) destination.

*Pic stolen from Rick

So was the snow any good up in Scottie's Bowl? I'll let the following pictures of Adam and Ben answer that question:

And no tour with Ben would be complete without at least one cliff drop:

The weather report is looking good for tomorrow too. I'm telling you, April is going to redeem this entire lackluster snow year. No foolin'.

Spring Moab

Despite rolling her eyes and riding off each time I stopped to pull out my camera, KC has requested that I provide the documentation from this weekend's Moab epic ride (only about 60% as epic as those who did the Moab Rim Ride/Race on the same day though (which, um, didn't really happen in case anyone from the Forest Service is reading this)).

The route was a little something like this:

Watch out, Chris is Edgy, (and yes, my Paint skillz are unparalleled):
KC loving Chris' edgyness

Surprisingly, KC offered to stop and take this picture of what may be the most ridiculously named trail on earth:

One of the many highlights of the ride had to be riding past a few $50k jeeps on steroids on the way up to the top of Gold Bar. I'm sure they felt real tough having three dudes and a chick pedal past them while dressed in spandex.

The Holleys call this ride the best of the Rim Ride, and for good reason. The trails were awesome. Too bad the scenery had to suck so bad:


And now, just as I was ready to go into full bike-mode, we're getting 30 inches of snow in the mountains by tomorrow morning. Fortunately, I'm having no trouble cheating on winter with summer, and vice-versa, this year and I'm planning on getting my severance pop from winter tomorrow morning.

More Soul Than You

A few friends who recognize how soulful I am have sent this to me within the past hour:

Now I'd better get back to listening to the Postal Service and using my Avalung as a bong.

The Pfeifferhorn

What do you do when the snow kinda sucks? You hit some of the big mountains, like the Pfeifferhorn. That's what Adam and I decided to to, anyway. The quick powder shots we are used to aren't any good, but the big peaks become a lot more accessible.

We started hiking on dirt at the base of Dry Creek Canyon at around 5:15am, and soon hit snow. And of course, no big expedition would be complete without at least one stream crossing:

P-horn, aka Little Matterhorn, came into view and seemed a long way off. Probably because it was:

The snow got deeper and softer for a while so we skinned, but soon the terrain got steeper and the snow hardened back up, so we were booting again. Here's Adam with a nice view of the often ignored Box Elder Peak in the background.
It's funny how Box Elder seems like this mellow dome from the valley, on the rare occassion that people notice it wedged between Timpanogos and Lone Peak, but you get up close and realize that the shotgun chutes to the left and the Northwest Cirque to the right can offer as much of a challenge as any of the other big mountains.

The snow conditions were perfect for making fast progress. Hard enough that you rarely post-holed, but soft enough that you could get some good grip on the steeper sections. Here is Adam, working his way up to Lighting Ridge, with Chipman Peak in the background (No-Name Peak is just out of view to the right).
The rocky top of P-horn:
Up on Lighting Ridge, the northerly wind was stronger than anything I've ever experienced before. With my snowboard acting as a sail, I just about took a flying leap into Hogum Fork, down into LCC.

Box Elder (with Timp in the background) is starting to look a bit smaller from up here:
Adam making turns on the hard-pack, with the peak in the background:
Me doing the same, but looking much better thanks to Adam's photoshop skillz:

Adam working is way back down into Dry Creek:
And this is during a "bad" year in the Wasatch. Yeah, life is hard in Happy Valley.

Zero

Zero is the stat of the winter for me. The first stat, I'm rather proud of:

Number of hours spent on my trainer this winter: Zero

It's not that I've been sitting around all winter. I've had plenty of days on skis

*You think taking a timed shot of yourself is difficult on a mountain bike? Try it on skate skis. And how awesome is the corduroy-close-up at the bottom?

...and in the backcountry:

*Not surprisingly, the only picture I could find of myself from this season is while I was dropping a cornice while testing for avalanches. It's been that kinda year.

..it's just that the winter stuff is good enough that riding in the basement has lost its appeal. There has been a downside to achieving (yes, it is an achievement) zero hours of trainer time though. About half-way through the winter, I realized that zero trainer time was a possibility. Since coming to this realization, there have been plenty of evenings where a ride on the trainer would have definitely been better than nothing... but I certainly didn't want to ruin my chances of achieving zero trainer hours, so I just sat on the couch instead.

I'm a bit disappointed about my second zero statistic:

Number of trips I've made to St. George this winter: Zero

Seriously, what is up with that? And I call myself a mountain biker? I think I planned 6 separate trips to San Jorge this winter, and they all fell through either due to work, family, or most commonly, rain. Yeah, rain. St. George, what is wrong with you? I think you've only had a couple dry weekends this entire winter. And sadly, the all-knowing weather.com is predicting that this weekend won't be one of them.

As Brandon has documented, I have been out on my bike a few times recently. You know, my typical race preparation routine of cramming all of my race-specific training into the week before the race and then being surprised when I'm cooked at the race itself?

I'm hoping that my recent rides will offset the fact that the Girl Scout cookies arrived on Monday. I'm pretty sure that Rick paid off the girl scouts so they'd deliver them to me the week of the first race. Bastard... Anyway, if there are Girl Scout cookies in my house, I must eat them immediately. Even if it means eating four boxes of them. I think there's a rule about that somewhere. In fact just found it. It's Fatty's first axiom of junk food in pantries. I knew there was a rule for it. I'm pretty sure I'll finish the rest of them this week while not riding my trainer. It's called carbo-loading.

Anyway, speaking of Saint George, I really am planning on being there this weekend, rain or shine. Lemme know if you're up for a Sunday or Monday ride. I'll be on the family schedule, which means I'll probably be riding early.

More Stupid

As a follow-up to my previous post (and topics of this magnitude deserve a lot of follow up), Adam recently posted the following groundbreaking video. Who knew that Adam's background in videography would pay off in such a huge way:

Sometimes I do Stupid Things

I was talking to a co-worker about all the number of bikes lining my garage, and he got a little hung-up when I got to my Felt Nine Solo single speed. He couldn't figure out why anyone in their right mind would chose to ride such a a silly contraption, and that doing so was stupid. The following conversation ensued:

Me: Well, by having a single speed, it forces you to push harder, so it makes you faster.

Him: Then why not just pick a gear on your Superfly that matches your single speed gear and not shift? Wouldn't that accomplish the same thing?

Me: Yeah, technically it would. But there's something nice about how simple and straightforward a single speed is. Fewer moving parts, you know.

Him: It's not like bikes are that complicated to begin with. Even a bike with gears has to be one of the simplest machines around.

Me: [trying to think up another good reason to ride a single speed...]

Him: Well, at least a single speed is lighter than a bike with gears since it doesn't have the cogs, chainrings, derailleurs, and shifters...

Me: Um, Yeah... except that it isn't. My geared bike is 3-4 pounds lighter than my single speed.

Him: [shaking his head at me...]

Me: I guess you're right. Single speeds are stupid. And sometimes I like to do stupid things.

Look how "simple" the eccentric bottom bracket on my single speed is!