Joshua's Blog

Cain Early Season

2010-12-02T14:10:00.000-08:00

Just went out for some turns on Sunday up at Mt. Cain. The snowpack was a little thin down low but the snow was lovely for the Island. And to top it off, it was sunny. Ahh. I treasure those days on Vancouver Island. Enjoy this little video I shot.

France's New Blog

2010-10-08T09:25:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone. France has a new cooking blog called Beyond The Peel. You can check it out here. There's lots of great recipes, cooking techniques and tips, photos and videos are coming soon. She's also here on Facebook.

Photo Montage

2010-03-16T20:58:00.001-07:00

I've been super slacking on the blogging the last couple of months. So, instead of making a bunch of blog posts to catch up on all the adventures, I'm just putting up a bunch of highlight photos. Photos aren't necessarily in the order that they happened, and there are a lot of photos. Enjoy. Also, I should hopefully have a couple of videos to share in the near future.

Bill skiing the beautifully spaced 3 o'clock trees in the Mt. Cain Backcountry, the gem of the North Island.

Bill skis the fin. I loved the lines in this photo.

Joshua heading into the trees. 3 o'clock trees. Mt. Cain backcountry.

Bill. Sky. Powder. And then the sun came out.

Bill on another lap through 3 o'clock trees.

Joshua.

One of Bill's bindings broke on a late January attempt to ski Mt. Brooks in Strathcona Park. Bill had to ski down with one ski. Sucks.

A lonely bird and the Straight of Georgia.

Shasta and France at Kye Bay, one of our favorite beach spots in the area.

Shasta.

Colorful shell on the beach at the Comox Spit.

France and clouds.

The beautiful north face of Mt. Washington, where I work.

Steve flew out from Alberta for a week of skiing.

We had great snow and sun, a rare commodity on the Island, while he was here. Steve enjoys the sun and pow in the T1 trees in the Mt. Washington backcountry.

My turn.

And again.

I liked the light on this one that Steve snapped of me.

My sweet puppy doesn't have much hair so she likes to snuggle up in a blanket. She must be a Sprague.

I couldn't take my eye off of this peak around Mt. Cain.

I really want to ski this line, or at least take a photo of someone skiing it from this angle.

I found a driver on the ridge so decided to play some golf.

Craig in the west bowl of Mt. Cain.

And lower down in the west gully.

Who says skiing in jeans isn't hot.

Bringing back sexy.

Shasta and her cape.

The Ginseng Chute and our tracks in it when Steve was visiting.

Joshua overlooking the ocean.

Steve with a heavy pack on our two day trip to try and ski Mt. Myra in February.

Joshua a few hours later when we reached Tennant Lake where we'd make camp for the night.

The view from camp towards Myra.

Dusk at camp.

The terrain up into the alpine was uber convoluted and very time consuming. It ended up taking us a lot longer to get up to the alpine than we expected. Here I am after booting up some exposed and scary 50 degree snow. Glad that the angle is mellowing out.

Our highpoint in the alpine. By the time we made it here, we had to turn around so we could make it home on time for me to go back to work the next day. I'll be back for Myra in the spring now that I have a better idea where to go.

Mt. Myra as seen from Buttle Lake.

The beauty of an avalanche.

This is my favorite shot of the year so far. I snapped this one of Steve skiing the Ginseng Chute.

Sun and Ridgeline. Mt. Washington Backcountry.

Last week a storm roared in out of the Gulf of Alaska dropping a meter of cold, fluffy powder. The result was the best skiing of the year and fortunately it coincided with my days off. Frank, or what you can see of him, really glad to be out touring today.

Frank's son Nick enjoying the goods as the sun came out for a little bluebird action.

Frank loving the pow.

Frank in really deep.

Yeah, it was a really really good day.

Life Update

2010-01-13T10:26:00.000-08:00

Lots has been happening in the last month. Work has been in full swing and quite busy, although the season has had a general lack of snow everywhere in North America this year. We've seen lots of rain on the Island though. Sweet...not. Anyway, Christmas was wonderful and France and I now have a new member in our family. No, France is pregnant or had a baby, we got a new dog! We've also decided to no longer foster dogs as it's too emotionally difficult so our new dog, Shasta, is for keeps. She's a total sweety, that we got from the SPCA in Nanaimo (about an hour south of where we live). She's a 7 year old, American Bull Dog/Pit Bull mix and a very gentle, people loving dog. We're happy to have her!

I've also gotten out on a few tours. The snow is definitely not what I've been spoiled with in the last few years and the weather is so erratic here that it's hard to get the good snow windows to coincide with my days off. However, it always feels great to be away from the resort, put the skins on the skis and be in the stillness of the backcountry. One thing that the Island sure has going for it is that it is definitely not crowded in the backcountry.

On December 23rd I went for a quick solo skin up to the old closed down ski hill at Forbidden Plateau, about 30 minutes from my house. The resort closed in 2000 due to consistent low snow, but since it had snow at the moment I thought I'd check it out. The old runs were definitely very overgrown with nasty alders and saplings, and the low snowpack made the ski down generally bumpy and inconsistent, but there was 4 inches of light powder and the sun came out half way up. All in all it was just a nice day to get some exercise although I don't think I'll be returning to the area anytime soon.

Happy to be on the skins. Hadn't had them on since mid November.

Found some cool rime/frost formations on the trees.

The sun and blue ski emerges above the abandoned ski lift.

The view before dropping in.

On the 30th of December, I went backcountry skiing on Mt. Cokely, a 1600m peak about an hour and a half south of Courtenay. Cokely also used to have an old ski hill there that was shut down due to low snow, although unlike the one at Forbidden, the removed the lift so you can't even really tell that there was a ski hill. Our initial plan was to ski the main bowl of Mt. Cokely, but sketchy dust on crust conditions with bad fall potential over water falls made us retreat to mellower ground. Here's Bill skinning towards the main bowl before we retreat with our tails between our legs.

We then took a lap down mellower terrain and found dust on crust conditions. Here's Bill skinning back up for the second of 5 laps we made.

On our 4th lap we decided to try a different aspect where the wind had blown more of the pow in to. We found about 5 inches of nice wind blown powder on top of a crust. It was definitely the best skiing of the day. Bill skiing the nicer snow.

On the skin back up from lap 4 we crossed under some fun little cliffs and spotted a short little chute that looked fun we threw the skins back on and had to ski it.

Bill heading in to the little chute.

And in it.

The ski out to the car was also good as we found some nice pow through mellow trees.

Family Time

2009-12-15T18:29:00.000-08:00

My parents came up for a visit this past weekend and we had a fantastic time together. The sun even came out for a little bit! Here's a few photos from our couple days together. it was so great to have them around and see this part of the world. Come back soon!

Mom and Dad at the Comox Wharf. We tried to buy fish that day, but they were only selling shrimp.

My parents and lovely wife at the Wharf.

Sweet Mama on the ocean boardwalk.

Boat and partially obscured Beaufort Range.

Big Papa enjoying his first time to BC.

Mom, Dad & France in Comox.

I caught some bird poop...

And France was captain...

Dad thinking, "This beach looks a little different than California."

My Sweet Family.

Dad and France found this crazy long ocean tuber.

Mom and I at the Courtenay Riverwalk.

3 of my favorite people in the whole world.

Me and Big Papa at the Riverwalk.

France watching the birds in the estuary.

Numero Dos

2009-11-18T16:07:00.000-08:00

Ski day number 2 for the 09-10 season. After Friday's sweet and deep turns the freezing levels rose and it rained cats and dogs. In fact it was flooded it Courtenay after we got 7inches of rain or something. The snowpack essentially got knocked in half, but the bottom half is bomber now. Fortunately rain turned to snow on Monday and it's been snowing ever since. I headed up for a quick run to see how the new snow was bonding with the raincrust. It's now buried about 40cms down with ski pen's around 15-20cms. Fortunately the new snow has bonded well with the crust and it came in right side up, leaving 15-20cms of nice lighter pow on top of a supportive base to ski. I was getting rimed on one side while skinning up.

A look down at where I came from, about a quarter of the way up.

As I said about 35-40cms on top of the raincrust with ascending hardnesses to the crust. Handpits revealed stable snow all the way up.

There was some isolated minor cracking but this was only at the upper elevations where the wind had buffed the surface. The cracks weren't deep.

As I got higher up the wind effect became more apparent. Moderate winds from the S, SE and E.

The snowpit I dug at 1380m continued to confirm that the snow was stable. Total snowpack as of 11:40am today was 112cms and the next storm is already on its way in with an additional 35cms expected to fall.

And for those of you that aren't snow geeks like me...the turns were definitely sweet. Sorry about the flat light.

Only had time for one lap. I promised the snowplow guy that I'd move my car after I dug my pit. Let it snow!

Crazy Trees

2009-11-17T18:47:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, France and I went on a hike out to some waterfalls just outside of town. We got to watch the salmon spawning upstream and try and fight there way up these waterfalls and cliffs. Really an amazing, Planet Earth-esque thing to watch. On the way to the waterfalls we saw some more amazingly erie trees that this very wet climate harbors. Beautiful to see.

These trees are so amazing that they not only provide shelter, but clothing. In this case...Organic Undies.

Opening Day '09-10

2009-11-13T18:12:00.001-08:00

Hallelujah! The wait is over. Summer is exceptionally torturous for me. Today I got my first turns of the 2009-2010 season. Even though I'd gotten a little spoiled the last two seasons getting multiple ski days in October, today was by far the best opening day turns I've had. It had been snowing on and off all week and I knew that there was a good 45-60cm/18-24 inch base. There was a storm forecasted to snow about 6 inches last night with dropping freezing levels and clearing to sun, so I figured that would be a pretty good day to have a look. Well, the storm came and then the sun came and the freezing levels dropped and the wind dried out the snow brilliantly making it positively non-traditional Island snow, which is normally more akin to concrete than the Utah powder I'm used to. And...to top it all of it snowed 30-40cms/12-16 inches of blower snow instead of the 6 inches forecasted. Needless to say today was a good day. Trailbreaking was a bit of work, but that always means the turns are going to be that much better. I went on a solo mission today and skinned up some of the runs at the local hill so no real skiing or touring photos, but enjoy what I got. GOOD DAY!

Happy to be back in winter and breaking trail.

Gorgeous.

I skinned up to the saddle between Mt. Washington peak and a subpeak and then went all the way up to the subpeak on my second lap. Here's looking down at the Ocean from the saddle. Surreal place to be.

My skin track up to the saddle.

Do I have anything in my teeth?

Great views into Strathcona Park looking at Mt. Albert Edward at left and Mt. Reagan on the right.

The contrast on this photo wasn't the best, but some sweet turns were had.

A look at the rocky NW face of Mt. Washington. They use an avalauncher to control parts of that face and the bowl below it.

Glad I got it when I did, because in typical Island fashion it's supposed to rain 80-90mm in the mountains starting Sunday. YUCK! Fortunately more snow on the way next week.

Muchas Gracias Dios

2009-11-09T12:35:00.000-08:00

Dear Lord,

Thank you for the 45cms/18 inches of snow that fell last night upon Mt. Washington's slopes.
Thank you for the blue skies that came out after the storm.
Thank you for the snow that is forecast throughout the coming week.
Thank you for the start of ski season.

Amen.

From the Mt. Washington webcam today.

Island Life

2009-10-27T17:19:00.000-07:00

France and I just recently moved out to Vancouver Island. I got a job working on ski patrol at the local mountain and she's managing the women's fitness center in town. I love the mountains and she loves the water so it seemed like a good place for us to check out. We got out here about 2 1/2 weeks ago and have been pretty busy getting all moved in. The majority of our stuff was still in storage in Nelson, so we made a quick trip through there to rent a uhaul and visit some friends. It was great to be back where we used to live. Nelson will always have a special place in my heart.

Even though we lived there for almost a year, I never went on the classic Nelson hike up to Pulpit Rock. It's a landmark that sits across the lake and overlooks the town. So, since they'd just completed trail improvements we headed up for a quick hike.

France on the way up.

My beautiful wife.

On top of Pulpit Rock looking down on our old home.

Joshua.

After emptying our storage locker we drove to Vancouver and stayed with France's sister for a few days then hopped on the ferry from Vancouver to Vancouver Island, ready to make our new home in Courtenay, BC. Looking back at the gorgeous North Shore mountains that sit above Vancouver.

Keeping warm on the windy ferry ride across the ocean.

Gorgeous Mt. Baker in Washington State was our guardian angel on the ferry ride. I'm going to ski that beast someday soon.

The fishermen are out.

Heading towards the Island.

After a few crazy days of unpacking and getting somewhat organized in the new place, we decided to go for a little hike. There is a great park called Seal Bay park about 5 minutes away. It's a lovely mile long walk through amazing old growth forest down to the ocean. There is a lot of rain on Vancouver Island so things can grow quite large. This maple leaf makes France look like she shrunk! Also of note is that the Ewok forest in Return of the Jedi was filmed on Vancouver Island. Amazing trees everywhere.

Looking across the ocean to the gorgeous Coast Mountains.

Courtenay has a great riverfront park where the Puntledge River runs through town and into the ocean. It's a great place to walk, run, or bike. I snapped some photos of the fall colors the other day, although they were better a week before.

Big Ben

2009-09-30T15:03:00.000-07:00

Well, the first snow flakes of the season have started to fall in North America. Colorado got a dusting last week, Vancouver Island just got a few inches up high, and it's dumping snow at Alta and the rest of the Wasatch, with up to a foot and a half expected. So to honor the new season here's a trip report from a fantastic day last season in Utah.

Towering 5200' over Ogden is 9712' Ben Lomond. It's definitely the monarch of the Ogden area and was instantly on my "to ski" list when I first moved to Ogden. All of the lines off of Ben Lomond are very serious. The most mellow line and generally best snow holding line is the massive NE bowl which falls several thousand feet to Cutler Creek below. The pitch is a consistent 35-40 degrees and was the site of two tragic snowmobiler deaths a few years ago when they triggered a gigantic 1/2 mile wide avalanche. The bowl is pretty exposed and gets massive cross and top loading so I had been biding my time for the right time to ski this beast. Conditions seemed right for a go on Sunday, March 15, 2009.

Here's a view of the massive south face of Ben Lomond as seen from Ogden. This photo was taken in mid April about a month after we skied it.

I met up with Doug and his friend GR at the parking lot at 6am and we began skinning up by headlamp.

We watched the sun come up behind James Peak and the rest of Powder Mountain.

And the first few rays of light shone on our objective: The NE face of Ben Lomond.

We worked our way up to the main ridge on the left in the photo above and then switched to booting as the angle increased and the snow became more wind jacked. I liked this one better in black & white.

GR looks over the Ogden Valley after booting to the ridgeline. Mt. Ogden can be seen in the background along with the stunning Banana Chute, a 40 degree, 2500 vertical foot couloir we skied in February down to Ogden.

Me booting the rest of the way to the summit.

And delivering a Sunday morning summit sermon to the masses.

The boys on top. Doug, GR, and Joshua.

The views over to Willard Peak were fantastic. The whole bowl from Ben Lomond to Willard slid when it killed those snowmobilers.

Doug dropping into the upper 40 degree section. We had nice windbuffed powder. All in all, good snow for a line that exposed.

Two variations on the same shot. One without tilt shift...

The other with. This is GR about half way down the face.

And another of GR.

The snow got even better down low below 7500'. Here's Doug finding some nice pow.

4100' of skiing, and just over 4 hours later we were back at the car. Here's another view of Ben Lomonds NE bowl and the whole Cutler Basin as seen from James Peak at Powder Mountain on April 17, 2009. Ben Lomond on the left, Willard Peak on the right.

Indian Creek

2009-09-13T15:29:00.000-07:00

Summer is coming to a close and I didn't get much done in the way of climbing this year, but this past April I had a chance to head out to Indian Creek in southeastern Utah to sample some of the best crack climbing on the planet. Indian Creek is the mecca for crack climbing and its rock is unique. It is Windgate Sandstone which is very strong for sandstone and also splits from the rock in perfect ways. This is the only place that I've ever climbed where you can literally climb the same size crack for a whole pitch. No tapering or fluctuation like in granite or other forms of rock. There is an aesthetic and physical beauty in the rocks consistency. The climbs at Indian Creek are also very physical. They're steep, long, and require a lot of endurance.

My buddy Josh from California flew out to Utah and after picking him up at the airport we made the 5 hour drive to the Creek. A couple of other buddies, Galo & Pachu, Argentineans who live in San Diego, were already out there so we met up with them. It was a beautiful drive in. Here are a few of my first views of the Creek.

The tower on the left is called South Six Shooter and the one on the right is the North Sixth Shooter. On our last day here, Josh and I climbed the North Sixth Shooter via Lightning Bolt Cracks, a burly 5.11 3 pitch climb that we got spanked on. It's a classic desert route with one of the coolest, airiest summits I've ever been on.

Our first day out we warmed up on a gorgeous 5.10 finger crack and then Josh wanted to lead a stiff 5.11 dihedral called Blue Grandma. I almost puked at the top of this climb it was so physical. Here's Josh Pelletier getting into the crux of this sucker.

I toproped it after Josh led it and stayed up top to take photos of Galo leading it. Caught this nice little whipper he took.

But he got back on and sent it.

Josh & Galo talking about route possibilities on day 2.

We were lucky enough to find no one on the uber classic Supercrack of the Desert. THE classic desert splitter. Here's the one and only Josh P leading it in style. This has to be one of the sweetest cracks I've climbed.

After that we were able to get on The Incredible Handcrack, an amazing 5.10b handcrack that is, without a doubt, the best crack I have ever climbed in my life. It's perfect handjams for the whole climb. Here's Josh P top roping it after I led it.

Then we headed to another area of the Creek called Way Rambo wall. We toproped a burly 5.12- and I led this beautiful splitter 10a.

Looking out over the valley.

Galo tried this crazy 5.12 corner. I just took photos and watched. That guy is strong.

Another shot of the South and North Six Shooters.

On our way out of town Josh and I drove into Arches National Park since I'd never been. This place was amazingly beautiful. They shot the beginning of Indian Jones and the Last Crusade here. Spectacular country.

Balancing Rock.

The beautiful La Sal Mountains form the backdrop of this park. Although the snow is hit or miss on them, there is supposed to be some great backcountry skiing in good snow years.

Another crazy arch.

Maine

2009-09-06T12:39:00.000-07:00

Since we were in Quebec City, France and I decided to spend our honeymoon in Maine since neither one of us had been and it wasn't too far of a drive away. Maine is a gorgeous state and definitely worth a visit if you've never been. It has a beautiful rugged coast line, green mountains, delicious lobster, and some of the densest forests I've had the privilege of wandering in. Most people in the States would say it's sparsely populated, but after having lived in the bush in Northern Alberta, it seems plenty well populated to me.

From Quebec City we headed to Bar Harbor which is located on Mt. Desert Island just off the coast of Maine. It's where Maine's famous Acadia National Park is located and we decided to spend a few days exploring the area. Bar Harbor is a cute, fun little tourist town that reminded me a bit of Estes Park in Colorado but smaller. It rained pretty heavy the first night we arrived, and the next morning we went for a run along side the ocean with gorgeous mist that surrounded the nearby islands. The weather cleared around 11am or so and we decided to grab some lobster before heading into Acadia National Park for the day.

I bless this holy lobster.

We went for a quick hike up to an area called Eagle's Cap that overlooked part of Acadia and then went for another hike around Sand Beach, the only beach on Mt. Desert Island. The rest of the coast line is rock.

Looking back at the beach.

France and the beautiful Maine coastline.

Cadillac Mountain is the tallest peak in the Park. From there we could look down on to Bar Harbor where we were staying. Gorgeous!

The two of us on top of Cadillac.

The next day we headed for Sergeant Mountain which is the second highest peak on Mt. Desert Island. None of these guys are big, but you get beautiful views. Along the way we had to hike up 2 other peaks to get to Sergeant. Here we are on peak numero 1, which I can't remember the name of. I know, when have I ever forgotten the name of a mountain?!

On peak numero dos. Guardsman Peak.

On top of Sergeant Mountain...

With beautiful views out to the Atlantic.

France at sunset in Bar Harbor.

The next day we went kayaking on a gorgeous lake called Long Pond. I let France do all the work, like a good husband, while I took pictures. She looks strong enough to handle it.

That afternoon, we left Bar Harbor and headed to northern Maine to Baxter State Park so we could climb Mt. Katahdin, the tallest mountain in Maine at 5268ft/1606m on my birthday. We climbed Katahdin via the Abol trail which is a Class 4 scramble that gains about 4000' vertical feet and is around 7.5 miles round trip. It felt so good to be back on a real mountain. Here France emerges from the dense Maine forest.

About half way up it started to get pretty foggy and then started to drizzle/mist on us a little.

But that didn't stop the smiles!

Although it had been socked in for most of the climb, the clouds cleared and the sun came out for us for about 10-15 minutes while we were on the summit. France on top of Maine.

Joshua on top of Katahdin.

On the descent overlooking the Maine highlands.

Royal Slacker...

2009-09-03T13:13:00.000-07:00

My apologies. I've been slacking with the blogging big time for the last few months. Needless to say, LOTS has been going on, not least of which are that France and I got married and we are now uncle and aunt to the cutest little nephew! There's too much to blog about, but I'll start with the most important event and try not to slack so much in the future. So, first up...the Hitchin'!

France and I got married in Quebec City in eastern Canada. France was born just south of the city and she has lots of wonderful family that still live there. So, with little to no French in my vocabulary, we headed east to meet the French speaking family and tie the knot. Tres Bien!

Quebec City is an absolutely gorgeous place, and a truly bilingual city. The few photos I have hardly do it justice. If you want a taste of Europe without flying across an ocean, then this is the ticket. Even if you've been to Europe, Quebec City is a place you should visit. I'm just happy we have family there to crash at when we go back!

My beautiful lady in Quebec City a few days before the wedding.

France and her Grandma Jeanne D'Arc. Jeanne D'Arc was one of the biggest reasons we chose to have the wedding in Quebec City. She is an amazing woman.

My lovely sisters Cory and Aspen at the Wedding Rehearsal. Aspen and her husband Jyrki had their baby boy, Octavio, two weeks after the wedding!

Lovebirds at the rehearsal.

Some of the views around Quebec City, which overlooks the St. Lawrence River.

Booyah. That's my wife and her sweet guns.

France on the wedding day.

First Dance.

Newlyweds at the dinner.

The Kiss.

Woodson

2009-05-18T09:50:00.000-07:00

I headed out to Mt. Woodson to do some climbing with some old friends in San Diego this past weekend. We had a fantastic time, repeating some of the classics that we'd done before and trying a few other new ones. A few photos of Galo leading the uber-classic Robbins Crack. A few years ago when I started leading 5.10 trad this was one of the first 5.10s I lead. Always fun. Beautiful, splitter thin hands. Too bad it's not longer.

Zack and Galo goofing around at the bottom of Lie Detector, a burly 5.12b crack, that Galo was working on.

DeMoisy Peak

2009-05-12T18:14:00.000-07:00

A couple of days later, on April 21st, I met up with my friends Kevin and Chris to see if we could catch some early morning skiing in up at SnowBasin Resort which had closed for the season. I picked up Kevin at 5:45am and we met up with Chris at the parking lot at 6:15am and were skinning moments later. It had been a very warm night with temps not reaching below freezing at all. However, the snow was still very hard as we skinned up, due to the strong radiation cooling from the clear night. I didn't think we'd find corn snow, but as we got up higher, it became apparent that we'd hit it just right if we skied a SE aspect. DeMoisy Peak, at 9369', has a nice SE slope that comes off of it, and it seemed like a good spot to get the goods. Kevin and Chris near the top of DeMoisy.

An hour and a half and 3000 vertical feet of skinning later, we were on top. We had great views of Strawberry Peak to the south.

And Mt. Ogden to the north.

Chris and Kevin on top.

We had lovely 1/2" corn snow on the decent, but you had to get there early for it today. We dropped in at 7:55am! Kevin enjoying the early morning corn.

And Chris's turn.

A look back at DeMoisy Peak and the SE facing ramp that we skied off of it.

Back at the car by 8:30am, back in Ogden by 9am. And I still had the whole day left to get stuff done. Gotta love the spring!

Last couple ski adventures of the season

2009-05-12T17:21:00.000-07:00

I had a few fun backcountry ski days before I packed up the bags from Utah. On April 18th, Doug and I had a fantastic day checking out a great spot in the Ogden Mountains that he wishes I not name. It was a beautiful spring day. Tons of sun, totally bluebird. Snow ended up being better than we expected with a mix of quasi-corn, creamy wet snow, and we even found a little bit of powder. We knew it was spring because we had to do a stream crossing.

Once we were safely across the river, we worked our way up higher, enjoying a fantastic ridgewalk on a lovely spring day.

With the warm temps from the previous day and the strong spring sun, the naturals were running on the steep slopes.

While skinning up the ridge we came across some nice quasi-corn that we figured we ought to get on before it turned to mash potatoes. Not a bad choice. Doug and Saringa with Ben Lomond in the background. I haven't put up a post about it yet, but we skied that NE face of Ben Lomond, just behind Saringa, back in March. It was rad.

After that quick lap we headed back up to explore the next drainage over.

We found a fun little coulior type thing to ski that actually held some bonafied powder in it.

Then worked our way over to a fun gladed area with this nice little rollover. Doug purposefully cut a few push-a-lanches. Fortunately his dog didn't chase them.

Then things opened up nicely into a wide open bowl with somewhat heavy but still decent snow.

Doug.

Joshua.

Doug and Saringa with some cool snow runnels beyond.

A closer look at the snow.

Then we broke trail up another ridge to get a view back at what we'd just skied and look over into some of the other adjacent canyons.

Needless to say, there is a lot of great skiing to be had around this area, it just requires a little bit more effort. A fantastic spring day to be out in the mountains.

The Way to End the Season

2009-05-03T23:08:00.000-07:00

April showers may bring May flowers, but around Utah they just brought some deep snowy goodness for the last week at work. The last few days, April 15-17th, were filled with lots of powder turns and avalanche control. Who needs sun and corn snow? This is my kind of spring skiing.

Morgan doing some Avi Control.

And "stability testing."

Joshua catching some air and enjoying the late season pow.

Skinned up to the top of James Peak for Avi Control on our last work day, April 17th. The views were superb.

And the skiing wasn't bad either.

Mission accomplished.

Videos from March 30th, 2009

2009-04-22T20:35:00.000-07:00

But before we get on to the amazing last week of skiing at work, here's a few videos from an epic 15" day on March 30th.

Joshua getting some of the goods.

And playing on an awkward shaped pillow that throws you kind of sideways.

And then getting some more pow later in the day w/ fellow patroller Brandy on her snowboard.

April 6-14

2009-04-22T19:48:00.000-07:00

I know. It's been a while since I've updated the blog. So, here you go Steve. Life has been busy (isn't that always the excuse?) and the skiing has just been really good. The snow gods decided that since they held out on us for January, that they'd just give us the goodness in March and April. Well, I'm okay with that. Better late than never and less people on the hill since everyone else had spring on their minds. The nice part about this time of year too is that it's periods of nice sunny weather interspersed with good storms. Case in point. We practiced Self-Evacuation from the lifts at work on April 6th in the warmth...

Then we watched another storm approach us...

...and we're skiing 10" of coldsmoke...

...and doing avalanche control.

Then it's back to spring while France visits for a few days.

We had beautiful weather, great views and fun clouds for a couple great hikes.

But lets not get too comfortable with this nice 60 degree weather, because another 25" of snow dropped in the mountains over the next couple days...

Spring Pow

2009-04-03T19:58:00.000-07:00

More non-suckage. It's snowed everyday this week. Gotta love spring powder!

Craig getting in the white stuff today.

Epic Day at Work (Why I Love My Job)

2009-03-30T19:15:00.000-07:00

Today was one of those days where all is so right in the world. After yesterdays marginal skiing, I was pleasantly surprised to get to work and find that the skiing had transformed into nothing less than amazing. 15" of new, light density, classic Wasatch powder, and few people on the mountain. Not only that, but I was assigned to the best lift on the mountain on a day like today. Paradise lift, which services only Black and Double Black Diamond terrain.

Started the day with a bit of avalanche control, which is always a good way to start the day. After ski cutting a few wind and soft slabs with good result, it was time for the feast. The rest of the day involved pillaging endless amounts of deep Utah powder with too many powder face shots to count. Yeah, perfect, basically. On top of that, the skies parted around 10:30-11am and it was a cold, bluebird pow day. I'll let the pictures tell the story.

Here's a few of me in the pow.

And a few of Morgan, a fellow patroller who had the day off.

Morgan's Ski Pole. He's in there deep somewhere.

Good day to catch some air.

This is Morgan after a deep turn. No, he did not fall over. It was that deep and good.

Fellow patroller Charlie in good style.

Um, yeah. So, it was a good day. And another 17" is forecast for tomorrow, and then another storm on Thursday/Friday. I think it's going to be a great week. Just a guess.

Wind...

2009-03-30T19:05:00.000-07:00

Headed out for a short tour on Sunday with my friend Craig. A storm system started moving in early in the morning and the winds were positively nuking. I almost got frostbite on my nose. Fun. It wasn't one of those tours to write home about, but it was, as always, lovely to take a walk in the mountains, even if my digits were frozen and the wind was near hurricane speed. Okay, that's an exaggeration, but that's what it felt like yesterday.

No winds and excellent visibility...Not!

It snowed hard on and off throughout the day, and even a few suckerholes of blue sky made an appearance. The brunt of the storm came Sunday night/Monday morning.

Me and Craig near one of our drop in points on our 4th lap.

Craig enjoying himself in spite of the wind.

My turn.

All in all, the skiing was decent. About 6-7 inches of new snow on top of a breakable crust that took some work to push through. But it was still turnable. Whenever I go out on a day like today where it's butt ass cold and the winds are nuking, I can begin, slightly, to imagine why someone would not be interested in backcountry skiing. It can't be sunshine all the time.

A Good Week

2009-03-27T19:05:00.001-07:00

This week has been fully of excellent skiing. It's snowed everyday since Sunday with some bluebird spaced in between storms. Light coldsmoke powder w/ bursts of sun. Does it get much better? I'll let the photos do the talking.

My friend Craig's ten year old son, Jack, ripping it up.

Craig getting his share.

Yesterday and today skied like this. Only today it was bluebird.

Not a bad work week.

Search and Rescue Training

2009-03-15T17:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was spent doing some training with the Weber County Search and Rescue, which I'm part of. They wanted us to get to know an area where people sometimes get lost just outside of the PowMow boundary. What this translated to was skiing several powderlicious lines and then getting towed back up via snowmobile instead of skinning up. This was an odd experience for me as I'm quite a staunch believer in human powered transportation in the backcountry. However, I also understand the necessity of it in regards to Search and Rescue. So, the skiers got to know the terrain a bit better and ski some fun lines and the snowmobilers got to figure out the best ways to transport people in and out of the area in the event of a rescue. Not that it was the point of the day, but I found it funny that, due to some mechanical complications, I could have actually gotten more skiing in by skinning up myself than I did with the snowmobiles. Anyway, my diatribe ends. A few photos.

Shug, our guide for the day, and her friend Jimmy.

Fellow patroller and SAR member Morgan dropping into a fun little steep pitch we skied.

And a little lower down.

A look back at Morgan and my tracks.

By now you should have figured out that the skiing did not suck.

Ditto.

The money shot. Morgan a nanosecond away from a faceshot.

Powderlicious

2009-03-10T19:46:00.000-07:00

The last two days at work have not sucked. 14 inches of new snow on Monday cleared to bluebird today. Enjoy.

Fellow patroller Craig up skiing for fun and gettin' some.

Yeah. It was deep.

Craig dropping in.

Fellow patroller Dave skiing off of Lightning Ridge.

Dave. Clouds. Sun. Utah Powder.

Joshua skiing in Baldy Bowl.

Weekend Touring

2009-03-10T19:35:00.000-07:00

Headed out to some new terrain in the Bear River Range with my friend Cory this past Saturday. A 4-6 inches of snow fell on top of a stout crust last Wednesday/Thursday, which provided fast, dust-on-crust skiing. The sun was out and the temps were cool. It was a great day to explore some new terrain and a full day of touring. We ran 5 laps for about 7000 feet of descent. Another great day exploring Utah's mountains.

Not an ugly day.

Cory getting ready to drop in.

Cory rocking his snowboard ninja pole technique.

El Diablo Rojo.

Some Work Photos

2009-03-08T17:08:00.000-07:00

Just a few photos I snapped from work.

Cornice that's sitting on top of the lodge. Hope it doesn't break.

Pretty morning.

Coworker Ray skiing the aspens.

Coworker Ron gettin' some pow.

Winter Fun

2009-02-26T19:55:00.001-08:00

France was in town for a few days recently and we had a great time getting out and enjoying the mostly sunny, yet still snowy winter weather. Here's a few photos from her visit.

Since my sister is pregnant, we decided to make a special snowwoman in honor of her. Here's France holding the snow fetus.

Finished Product: SnowPrego

Brother and Sister.

We went cross country skiing around Ben Lomond and Willard Peak. Beautiful day to be on the skinny skis.

The one and only France Morissette. She always looks better in my beanies, I mean toques, than I do.

Joshua and France.

Joshua skiing on.

We also went sledding and it was fun!

Famous? Don't quit your day job...

2009-02-19T20:02:00.000-08:00

On Monday there was a photographer from one of the local newspapers who wanted to take pictures of me skiing while I was at work. So, I made the paper. Anyway, here's the link:

http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,705285589,00.html

and the photo that made it into the paper.

Too bad the photographer wasn't there the next day. It snowed 30 inches in just over 24 hours and I had probably the best and deepest turns of my life.

Video Fix

2009-02-14T17:26:00.001-08:00

Just a quick note that I fixed the video that I posted earlier in the week. YouTube was censoring the audio so you couldn't hear anything. Check out the newly posted video on the blog post from February 9th. Sorry you can't make it full screen. Still trying to figure out something that works better.

Work Doesn't Suck

2009-02-10T21:10:00.000-08:00

Just a few photos from life at work. Enjoy. I love getting paid to ski powder.

30% density snow in Utah?! Very rare, but I found it.

Looking over to Snowbasin/Mt. Ogden from Powder Mountain.

Snow nerd. Spending some time in the snow pit.

Rime + Snow + Trees = Pretty

Secret Spot Video

2009-02-09T19:26:00.001-08:00

Here's a little video that I edited together from a recent backcountry ski day. Doug was the camera man so no footage of him skiing (although I'm going to take some of him next time we go out). Footage consists of me skiing and Katie, Doug's wife, snowshoeing. Fantastic day.

[Edit - Looks like YouTube didn't like the fact that I used some background music on my video so they deleted the audio track all together. I didn't notice that until now. So, I've added the video again through a different player. The new video should have the audio. Apologies about that. YouTube is being silly that way.]

Amazing Day

2009-01-31T19:57:00.001-08:00

Pardon my french, but today was the shit. One of those perfect days in the mountains. Bluebird day, good partners, exploring new and awesome terrain, a bit of adventure, some bushwacking, great snow and good stability. Days like this don't happen all the time, but when they do, all feels right in the world.

The last two weekends had been spent down in the mountains around Salt Lake City. So, I wanted to stay closer to home this weekend and was looking forward to exploring some new terrain in my local mountains. I'd been looking on the topo maps a bit lately and there seemed to be good potential in an area called Mill Canyon just north of Ben Lomond. I called my friend Doug to see if he was in for some exploration and, as he hadn't been there either, he readily agreed. I met him and his wife, Katie, this morning and we began our ascent alongside a beautiful creek...

with cool trees...

and even a bit of adventure right from the start.

Mill Canyon lies just on the other side of the forested hills on the right hand side of the photo.

We skinned our way up through mandatory alders, and then on up through wonderfully spaced pines and eventually gained the ridge of the northern side of Black Canyon.

Fortunately for us, there was another party that came up a different way to the ridgetop. And as they were heading in the same direction as we were, they had kindly laid a nice skin track for us to follow up the ridge.

Looking into Black Canyon from where we gained the ridge.

Doug skinning up with James Peak in the background. James Peak is part of Powder Mountain where I work. The resort lies on the other side of James and the adjacent mountains.

We worked our way up the ridge and were all impressed by the terrain and potential that this area had. We're definitely coming back and hopefully for longer. The only downside to the fantastic day was that my camera died half way through the day. So. I don't have any photos of the awesome terrain up high and the fantastic skiing on the way down. Needless to say, the powder was excellent. Fast and super fun with our skis penetrating 6-8 inches deep. Stability was great too as we were able to ski some steeper pitches with no observable instabilities. Doug took some video and photos, so hopefully I'll be able to add some of those to the blog once I get them. Amazing day though. Seriously I will be back to this place. So much great potential so close to home. I'm definitely feeling blessed.

Some Photos

2009-01-28T16:05:00.000-08:00

Just thought I'd share a couple photos that I took about a week and a half ago when I was down skiing in Big Cottonwood Canyon.

Winter Returns

2009-01-25T18:53:00.000-08:00

The last two weeks we've been having a bit of a dry spell here in Utah. In fact, a huge high pressure system has dominated almost the whole west coast from San Diego to near Alaska. Translation: Ain't nobody gettin' snow over here. Well, that has all changed quite recently. A storm system rattled through southern California and made it's way up to us. Early in the week this storm looked like it would not be a biggy. Maybe 6 inches out of the whole thing. Well, know that it's here it's looking like its going to drop 30+ inches. Can't say no to that. As of this morning, Powder Mountain was up to 19" and it snowed all day and it's supposed to continue through the night and tomorrow. Glad winter is back. That's what I gotta say.

I headed down to Salt Lake today to do some touring in Big Cottonwood Canyon with Bruce, his wife Susie, and a few of their other friends. I didn't see a whole lot of Bruce's friends, because (1) they were really fast and (2) I was tagging along with Bruce to do field work with him. He's the director of the Utah Avalanche Center and a pretty cool guy to get to follow around. It was a beautiful winter day. Here's a few photos from it.

Drooping Aspen trees on the skin up.

Bruce looking for any new avalanche activity in Monitor Bowl, on the Park City/Big Cottonwood Canyon Ridgeline.

Sun. Snow. Trees. Winter.

Susie enjoying the pow.

Cutler Ridge Revisited

2009-01-11T15:23:00.000-08:00

This last week has been a pretty good week snowfall wise. Monday and Tuesday storm totals were 20 inches and we got another 5 inches on Thursday night. The only bummer was that Wednesday temps sky rocketed and turned all that beautiful pow into a wet base instead of delicious deep powder. Oh well. I headed back to Cutler Ridge this Saturday. It was mostly sunny with some cool patches of clouds in the area that made for some cool looking vistas.

I liked this lonely tree.

The views were lovely on the way up.

And I kicked off a couple of cornices to see how sensitive they were. They were hard, but failed withing two or three good kicks.

I ended up meeting up with two guys, Chris and Kevin, higher up on the ridge that I new were out touring in the area. So, after checking out the snowpack and deciding on a plan, we dropped in to find 3-4 inches of creamy fast powder on top of a supportable base. Chris drops in.

And makes nice turns a little lower down.

It was a great day to be out in the mountains and see what the last week's weather had done to the snowpack. It is certainly gaining strength, but there are still spots out there where if you triggered something it would be really bad. So we chose to play it safe. There's no snow in the forecast for the next week as a big high pressure system sits over Utah. This should help to continue strengthening the snowpack as it will be quite warm. We might even have a mid-January corn cycle by next weekend.

Cutler Ridge

2009-01-04T15:13:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everyone! It's been a bit since I've blogged. I was out of town for the holidays and have since started my new job and it's been pretty busy lately, but I'm loving it. I'm on skis everyday and get to watch the sunrise and set on the beautiful Wasatch. It's definitely a great way to start and end the day. We got a decent bit of snow on Friday night. Storm totals were 8-9 inches, so after being a good boy and running errands that needed to get done on Saturday (I did manange to sneak a few turns in at the end of the day), it was time to head out to the mountains on foot this lovely Sunday morning.

While lift skiing can certainly be fun on a powder day, it does leave me a bit unsatisfied at times since I've become a powder snob after living in Canada. Needless to say, it felt great to throw the skins on the skis, breathe the crisp mountain air (it was -12F/-24C at the parking lot today), step into my Dynafits and skin uphill. Today we met at 7am to ski some lines off of Cutler Ridge, a broad ridge that descends off the northeast side of Ben Lomond, the monarch of the Northern Wasatch. Chris (my roommate) and I met up with my friend Doug and a couple of his buddies, Aaron, Chad, and Dave (?). Sorry bad with names. As we skinned up...

We watched the sun come up.

The brisk morning air refroze to my face as I exhaled. Even though it was cold, I was so glad to be hiking for turns.

Doug had to leave a little earlier than us so he headed back down around 8200'. The rest of skinned up a couple hundred more vertical feet. Cutler Ridge faces northeast, but there are shots to the south and north that you can take. This latest storm brought in some potent winds from the northwest, so the best snow was actually on the SE slopes.

Here's Aaron dropping a knee in the pow.

And a great view over to mighty Willard Peak.

Since we chose a southeast facing shot we had to do a little bit of traversing to get back to Cutler Ridge proper. After regaining the ridge, we tried to hug the south side of it for the best snow. Here's Dave enjoying a nice section lower down the ridge.

And Aaron doing his tele thing.

Funny thing about today was that out of the six of us touring, five were engineers or soon to be engineers and they were all on tele skis. I was the lone none engineer and the only person on an AT setup, specifically Dynafits, the lightest and greatest binding ever made. I like to think that that makes me smarter than the engineers :)

Peak 9269

2008-12-16T19:26:00.000-08:00

Yesterday my friend Jeff and I headed down to Big Cottonwood Canyon outside of Salt Lake City for some backcountry skiing. Since we had no snow before, and we've gotten quite a bit in the last few days, avalanche danger is considerable. Our current snowpack is interesting up in Ogden and it's downright scary in Salt Lake. So, with that in mind, the plan was to play it conservative and see what we could find.

We headed to an area called Mill D which has a lot of mellower, treed terrain that is great to play in when avalanche conditions are unstable. We skinned up through beautiful Aspen trees...

...and Jeff instantly became a convert to the Dynafit clan after his first day touring on these incredibly light bindings.

Then we decided to take a quick lap once we gained a little ridge.

After a quick bite to eat we headed back up for more but this time worked our way up higher following someone's beautifully placed skin track that lead through gorgeous aspen glades...

...then on up to moderately angled alpine terrain to the summit of Peak 9269. Jeff skins the last few vertical feet to the summit.

The boys on top. It was blustery up here. The temperature was probably -10F with the wind chill. We didn't stay long.

The powder was windbuffed and some areas were crossloaded, but there wasn't enough of a pitch for anything to move. Minor cracking was observed while skiing but only on the top 1 centimeter where a slight wind crust had formed. We had great windbuffed powder turns on the descent. Here I am enjoying some of the goods on the upper portion of the peak.

And Jeff getting great early season turns lower down.

I have a couple videos from the day that I've loaded via YouTube. Hopefully everyone will like this format better as it allows you to blow up the video to full screen.

Jeff testing out how well his Dynafits handle the Pow.

And me skiing down the middle section of Peak 9269. Jeff zoomed his camera while recording so that's why it looks like the picture jumps a couple times.

Another fantastic day out in the backcountry.

Yeah for Powder

2008-12-14T16:18:00.000-08:00

Well, we're finally getting some snow. It's snowed well over a foot in the mountains around Ogden, probably close to 15 or 16" as of today and a few more inches are expected for tomorrow/Tuesday and then more snow later in the week. Praise Jesus. I did a little touring around Snowbasin yesterday and then headed up to Powder Mountain later in the afternoon. Skinned up through 10-12" of light fluffy goodness at Powder, caught the sunset over the Salt Lake...

...and then made some lovely turns in 10 inches of Utah pow.

Today I headed up to Logan, Utah, which is about 70 miles north of Ogden. Simon and I headed to Beaver Mountain, a local ski hill, that's not open yet and thought we'd poach on some of their snow. There was 12" in the parking lot and 16" higher up. It wasn't as light as I'd hoped, so that face shots weren't as plentiful as you'd expect, but it was still durn good.

A composition I liked.

Sun and fresh snow.

Simon's first turns of the year.

And a video of me enjoying the goodness.

Finally

2008-12-13T08:33:00.000-08:00

"A WINTER STORM WARNING FOR SNOW AND STRONG WINDS REMAINS IN EFFECT
UNTIL 5 PM MST SUNDAY.

THIS WARNING IS IN EFFECT FOR THE VALLEYS OF NORTHWEST UTAH
INCLUDING THE WASATCH FRONT AND ALL THE NORTHERN MOUNTAINS.

TOTAL SNOWFALL ACCUMULATIONS 3 TO 6 INCHES ARE EXPECTED IN THE
VALLEYS WITH UP TO 8 INCHES ON THE BENCH AREAS AND HIGHER
VALLEYS. TOTAL SNOWFALL ACCUMULATIONS OF 16 TO 24 INCHES ARE
EXPECTED IN THE MOUNTAINS BY LATE SUNDAY AFTERNOON."

Now lets see if it comes true.

Mt. Ogden

2008-12-11T13:58:00.001-08:00

The first dawn patrol of the season was a rewarding one. Beautiful views, finally some powder, and a beautiful summit bagged. I met up with new friend Doug at 6:30am at the Snowbasin parking lot. Fortunately, he had an extra pair of skis for me to borrow since my skis are down in Salt Lake getting remounted. Since it snowed 5 inches on Monday, the first time in a while, the plan was to get up high and check out how well the new snow was bonding with the nasty death crust from before.

Since the only place where there is enough snow is still Snowbasin, we decided to poach on their manmade snow again in order to get up into some of the higher bowls where the lifts don't go. The snowguns were on in full force and they just happened to be out route access. We were both caked with a fine snowmist for the first 1000 vertical feet or so. It's an interesting feeling. Makes you feel like your walking through a humidifier, sweating, freezing, and drooling on yourself all at the same time. We watched the sunrise as we skinned up. It did not disappoint.

Alpenglow on Mt. Ogden, where we'd be on top of in another hour and a half.

My favorite photo of the day.

As we got higher, we decided to check out the main bowl between Mt. Ogden and the Needles. We dug a few handpits and decided to proceed to the pass that's just left of the photo above. We were treated with great views of Ogden and Malan's Basin from just over 9100 feet.

Since we were only another 400 vertical feet from the summit of Mt. Ogden we decided to bag the peak. Here's Mt. Ogden's west face seen from the pass.

And a look back to the Needles. We skied the bowl in the foreground back down.

A quick skin up the backside and then about 50 vertical feet of scrambling/booting led us to the summit. The last few feet were fun and exposed, climbing along a ridge with a couple hundred foot drop off to the east. Sorry I forgot to take that photo. But we got this one of me on top.

And then it was time for our near 3200' decent. We found some crust and some hardpack, but most importantly, we found some powder! It's been over a month since I've felt this stuff under my skis.

Looking back at my line with Mt. Ogden behind.

Doug skis a different line after digging a quick snowpit.

Looking back at Mt. Ogden. We skied the main bowl to the left of the peak and then connected up with the groomers back down to the car. Definitely a beautiful day to be out. Storms are coming this weekend!

Clouds and Wind

2008-12-02T22:12:00.000-08:00

Headed out for a little afternoon tour again today. A storm was supposed to roll through so I thought I'd sneak up and do some more poking around in the snow before it fell. I wasn't moving so fast today. I felt a little tired after touring Sunday, running 6 miles of hills on Monday and then going climbing afterwards. We'll see how the legs feel tomorrow!

I was back at Snowbasin again since that's really the only place for me to go touring around Ogden right now. Here's looking over at De Moisy Peak after skinning up 2200 feet. It was very windy today. I almost got knocked over a few times.

I look like a turtle here.

A couple chutes off of De Moisy that I'd like to ski this winter.

About three weeks ago, I skinned up here and stopped for lunch. Unfortunately I left my water bottle. Fortunately for me it was still laying around. Probably didn't hurt that it was frozen in place.

I dug a snow pit up high in Middle Bowl and found a scary snowpack. Only about 45 cms deep. 4cm thick crust, then 1cm of facets, then another crust (3cms thick), and then 35 cms of facets and depth hoar. Exactly what I DON'T like to see when I dig a pit. Once we get enough snow, that sucker is probably going to avalanche to ground.

Portraits of Solitude

2008-11-30T17:05:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-27T21:00:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful day. I headed out this afternoon for a quick skin up at Snowbasin. Thankfully there was a bit of manmade snow that they'd been blowing, so I was able to get some turns in since Utah has been so warm and dry for the last couple weeks. Anyway, here's a few photos from the day.

Hooray! I can ski from the parking lot again!

Heading on up.

Clouds and someone else's tracks on the way up.

And our lovely snowpack off of the groomed trails. 35cms deep. Lots of crusts and lots of facets. Oh goody.

An Offering

2008-11-22T12:07:00.001-08:00

In an attempt to appease the snow gods and show them that, yes, I am ready for the snow to come in full force - to show them that I am ready to sweat for it - I offer this collection of trailbreaking/skinning up photos. Please let it snow soon.

East meets West

2008-11-16T21:36:00.000-08:00

Well the weather has been nothing less than interesting for the past two weeks. Almost 50" of new snow in two days down in the Cottonwood Canyons was followed by a few more inches of snow. Then the weather took a break for a few days while the temperature rose and the next storm system moved in. However, this time the freezing level hit the ceiling, rising all the way up to 9500 feet and raining on all of that delicious coldsmoke powder and turning the whole thing into an Ontario-esque ice skating rink. At least mountain weather is never boring (unless you live in Southern California).

I took a drive by Snowbasin, on the back side of Mt. Ogden, the other day and noticed that the upper bowls had good snow coverage. Also, thanks to their snowmaking, it was possible to start skinning from basically the parking lot at 6500 feet.

Well, I knew that it was going to be crusty and icy up there, but I convinced my room mate to come have a look with me. I figured if nothing else it would be good training. The past few days have had the temperature way above normal and the freezing levels have been crazy high, above 10,500 feet. I figured we'd encounter stout crusts in the morning which would soften into something soft or mushy as the day progressed. Boy was I wrong. That snow was hard as hell all day! Here's where we started skinning.

Yours truly lovin' the arm shot.

Joshua skinning on up on the only soft snow we found the whole day. Too bad it was only 3 inches deep here.

Here's Chris skinning up with the tail end of the Bear River Range in the background.

Initially the plan was to skin up to a saddle next to the summit of Mt. Ogden and ski the southeast facing bowl that drops down. However, the higher we got the more iced over everything was. In fact the snow was shimmering and glazed over. Not a good sight to see when you're about to ski. But the views were awesome!

So we changed our plans and headed towards the Needles Lodge, a sheik lodge/restaurant located at about 8700 feet. The last couple hundred feet to the lodge involved some of the diciest, scariest skinning I've ever done. It was basically pure ice. So we took a long lunch and waited around for a while to let the snow/ice soften up. Well, eventually it did, but only the top 2 millimeters. Sweet. We probably would've had to wait another two hours for that snow to really soften up. Crazy.

Here's a view from the Lodge.

The boys ready to slay or be slain by some Icy Death.

Our tracks in the "soft" snow section.

Chris in deep. Not.

Despite the icy conditions, it was a great day. We were able to skin and ski right back to the car for 2200 vertical feet of descent. Not bad considering the snowline was really 1000 feet above where we started. It was a beautiful day to be in the mountains with fantastic views and great weather. Now if we could just have another 40 + inches sans rain please?

Hooray for Snow!

2008-11-09T21:03:00.000-08:00

Well, this past week has been pretty awesome. Obama won the election, I passed my OEC course, and it snowed 45" in two days in the Cottonwood Canyons down by Salt Lake! What more could a boy ask for? I would've liked to have been able to get down out to ski on Wednesday or Thursday, but I had to stay focused on my exams for those days. So, I headed out yesterday, Saturday, to go get some turns in around Brighton in Big Cottonwood Canyon.

I went with my roommate Chris, who, unbeknowst to me, invited quite a few of his friends along as well. There ended up being eleven of us total going backcountry skiing. Too many people for my taste, but we still had a good time. After the storm finished on Wednesday things stayed fairly cold through Thursday and then got really warm on Friday which created a thick sun crust on anything south facing. So we headed for some north facing openings where we could hopefully find some preserved powder. Here's a view from skinning about half way up where we first dropped in.

We found a great opening with lovely powder. Although it wasn't as deep as I would've hoped, it was still great to be skiing powder again with a base below it. That 45" had settled fast with the high temps. Here's some of the crew climbing up behind me as I break trail.

Here's a look at a fun little opening that we skied. Great to be in winter again. Absolutely my favorite time of year.

Unfortunately after this photo my camera batteries died so I didn't get anymore photos of the incredible views higher up or of anyone skiing the pow. But take my word for it, it was silky smooth! After playing around in this area for a bit, half the people headed down while half of us skinned up to the top of a Preston Peak, a 10, 315 foot tree covered peak with some rad skiing off of it once it gets a little more snow coverage. Anyway, it was great to be on top of my first Wasatch summit on skis! We skied out through glades and some of the trail cuts at Brighton finding heavy and wet snow with the rising temps. However, the snow was soft and the turns were still great. So nice to be back on skis and not hit any rocks. More snow is in the forecast for the week!

We're Engaged!

2008-10-28T19:39:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a little hectic lately, but just wanted to let everyone know that France and I are engaged!!! It actually happened on October 15th, but things have been really busy, as you can imagine, so I haven't gotten around to updating the blog until now. France came down to visit for about 12 days or so and we had a great time. She arrived on the night of the 14th. Here she is feeling sleepy after flying all day from Quebec, but I'm super glad that she made it!

October 15th I took France for a fun hike up Malan's peak. The 15th was also our two year anniversary so it was just fantastic to spend that together. Here she is ready to go, but doesn't know what's going to happen once we get up top!

The two of us on the way up.

France in Taylor Canyon with some snow on the trail.

A nice view up the canyon.

A nice look out point we stopped at.

Getting snowier the higher we go!

Up on top of Malan's Peak with Mt. Ogden in the background.

Some cool rocks in Strong's Canyon.

France on of Malan's with Ben Lomond beyond. She doesn't know that she's about to get asked a big question.

Well, fortunately for me she said yes! Here's us happily together after I asked her. So there you have it. We're engaged!

Day Two '08-09

2008-10-12T16:40:00.000-07:00

Crazy weather being had around these parts this weekend. It's not abnormal to get snow up in the mountains in October, but it is definitely unique to get snow down in Ogden in October, down in the valley. I woke up this morning to 4 inches of snow outside and it was still coming down steady. In fact, it didn't let up all day until about 3:30 in the afternoon. Little Marjorie with her first coat of snow for the season.

So, I headed up to Snowbasin to take a look and hopefully get a quick morning ski before some afternoon engagements. Skinning up.

Looking down on the upper portion of my ski line. Another 800 vertical feet to go after this pitch.

Me about to drop in.

My tracks.

All in all a nice little adventure. The pow was blower, which would've been more enjoyable with a base, but instead I just hit a lot of rocks and got snagged on a lot of grass. Oh well, I was still skiing velvety smooth pow.

A view out my backyard when the clouds cleared a little bit this afternoon.

And a little on mountain video.

Opening Day '08-09

2008-10-05T14:17:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not, the wait is over. As of October 5th the ski season has officially begun. No, there won't be constant skiing until about the end of November/early December, but the sporadic storms have begun their march.

Yesterdays forecast was a little, um, optimistic. 18-24 inches? No, not so much. At the parking lot at Alta at 9300 feet it looked like this.

Still gorgeous though. But boy was I happy to get snowed on. My roommate and I headed up to Alta because we knew it would be the best bet for getting some turns in because it's at a higher elevation than most other Utah resorts. We met this nice guy in the parking lot named Porter who toured with us for a little bit as we headed uphill in search of grassy slopes and the hope that the snow would be enough for some turns. I figured if nothing else, it would be a great little training hike. Who doesn't love hiking in the snow? Well, a lot of people, but I'm not one of them.

We weaved our way through quite a few treed and rocky areas with just barely enough snow to skin up, but certainly not enough to ski down. Here's Chris, my roommate, skinning up.

Chris and I.

After seeing nothing too promising we decided we'd head back down. We saw what looked to be a road that might just have enough snow to eak out a few turns on the way down. Yet, to our great surprise, on our way over to the road we came across a wonderfully open, grassy slope with about 8-10 inches of snow on it. As we'd already begun descending we decided to just boot up the hill for a bit instead of skinning. The higher we got the more promising it looked. I knew at this point, that we were going to get some bonafide turns. October 5th baby! That's one day earlier than last years opening day of October 6th. Here's Chris booting up the last little bit before we strap skis on for some turns.

My trusty rock skis.

Chris starting to head on down.

Me part way down.

Looking back at our tracks. Mine are the ones at center taking the fall line. I had my rock skis, so I didn't mind banging them up a bit. Chris chose to zigzag to save his skis a bit. I definitely hit a lot of rocks. But hey, that's why they're called rock skis!

Me with beautiful Devil's Castle behind.

A look at upper Little Cottonwood Canyon from Alta.

One of my favorite things about this time of year is the contrast between fall colors and winter snows. It was highlighted today by blue skies that came out as we were descending. All in all, a fantastic day. I'm officially stoked for winter.

My favorite things...

2008-10-04T11:58:00.000-07:00

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens,
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens,
Snowflakes in October and weather forecasts like this,
Oh, these are a few of my favorite things...

From the NOAA website, today, October 4th.

"A WINTER STORM WARNING FOR HEAVY SNOW REMAINS IN EFFECT ACROSS
THE HIGHER TERRAIN OF UTAH ABOVE 8500 FEET FROM 10 AM THIS
MORNING TO 6 PM MDT SUNDAY.

NEW SNOW AMOUNTS OF UP TO 12 INCHES ARE EXPECTED BY LATE SUNDAY
ABOVE THE 8500 FOOT LEVEL WITH LOCALIZED AMOUNTS OF 18 TO 24
INCHES POSSIBLE ABOVE ABOUT 9500 FEET. SEVERAL INCHES OF NEW SNOW
ARE POSSIBLE DOWN TO 7000 FEET ON SUNDAY."

Bring it on. Here's Timmy in deep last winter.

Little Cottonwood Canyon

2008-09-30T21:50:00.001-07:00

This last Saturday I decided to get out of dodge and head for the high country. When most people think of skiing in Utah they think of one place. Alta. Well, I've yet to ski in Utah, and I'd never been up to Alta, or famous Little Cottonwood Canyon, where the resort resides. So, I figured I'd take the drive south and head for some good quality solo time in the mountains. Googlemaps said that it should be about an hour and 35 minutes from my house to Alta, but it only took 65 minutes, which was a nice surprise. I wasn't really sure where I was going to go, since I didn't know the area, but after running into a friendly guy in the parking lot, he suggested I head towards Twin Lakes Pass to start. My route ended up taking me through beautiful fall foliage on my way up to the pass. I then headed up climbing up to the top of Mt. Wolverine. Mt. Wolverine is an uber classic peak in the Wasatch with a gorgeous alpine cirque that has lots of famous couliors, or chutes, that have been in a lot of ski movies. Mt. Wolverine is 10, 795 feet tall and gives a great view of both Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons, as well as Alta ski resort. All in all a lovely day, with nice cool temps and beautiful views. I can see why this place is so popular. Everywhere you look there is a line I'd like to ski. I'm glad that fall has arrived up in the high country.

A map of my route.

Ah the fall.

Alta.

Looking down Little Cottonwood Canyon.

Mt. Wolverine and part of the Wolverine Cirque.

Big Mt. Superior. You bet your biscuits they do avalanche control on that sucker to keep the road clear. When conditions are stable, it's one of the proudest lines to ski in the Wasatch. Big, steep, and committing.

A fun looking chute in Wolverine Cirque.

Snow! Some still hanging around.

A gnarly coulior. Would love to watch someone ski this guy. That top bit is steeep!

Yours truly on top of Mt. Wolverine.

More fall colors.

And a little video.

Waterfall Canyon

2008-09-25T21:24:00.001-07:00

I went for a quick run/hike up to another one of the canyons nearby my house on Monday, after all the snow up high melted away and the clouds blew through. Waterfall Canyon is beautifully lined with quartzite cliffs on both sides and it caps off with, surprise, a big waterfall. Because of the lateness of the season, it wasn't running crazy, but it was definitely still going. The waterfall is probably about 70 feet long and cascades down to the rocks at your feet. From my house to the top of Waterfall Canyon is about 2.5 miles and around 1100-1200 feet of elevation gain. Definitely a beautiful canyon with a great view of downtown Ogden. Just another cool thing outside my door in Utah.

Here's a few photos from the adventure.

Looking back at Malan's Peak, on the left, and Waterfall Canyon, on the right, from town.

A little video of the area.

Winter is Coming

2008-09-22T22:27:00.000-07:00

Hooray! Winter is getting closer and closer! We got a little bit of snow up in the mountains above Ogden this morning. It melted off by the afternoon, but it was great to see some of the white stuff again. Here's the webcam photo I snaked off of Snowbasin's site. Snowbasin is the resort that lies on the east side of Mt. Ogden, which stands right above my house. Can't wait for the powder!

Bienvenidos a Utah

2008-09-15T09:58:00.000-07:00

Wow. These last couple weeks have been a little crazy. Since then, I've left California, quit my job of 2 1/2 years, moved to a new state, and become a peach farmer. Huh? Let me elaborate.

I moved out to Utah to continue persuing my goal towards becoming an avalanche forecaster. In order to do so, I'm trying to work with the Ski Patrol/Avalanche Control guys up at Powder Mountain just outside of Ogden, Utah where I'm now living. I have to take this first aid course, which I'm now taking, in order to work these guys. So, that meant moving out to Utah a little earlier than I was hoping. Anyway, moving out here I didn't have a job, so I've just been trying to piecemeal stuff together as I'm getting settled. One of the guys from my class helps out on a peach farm and offered me work over there. How could I say no to work that had been offered to me withing 36 hours of moving to Utah? Anyway, so I'm not spending a good chunk of the week either going to school and studying or picking, sorting, and selling peaches. Random? You bet. Anyway, it should only last for a couple more weeks, then the peach season is over. I won't lie though. It's been a blessing.

With all the business of the last week and a half, I've finally had some time to update this blog. Yesterday I got a chance to get out and go for a hike/run up to nearby Malan's Peak. The sweetest thing about living where I live is the proximity to the mountains. There is literally a trailhead 5 blocks away from my house and it just starts heading up into the mountains that rise almost 5000 feet above. So I've been enjoying doing a bit of trail running lately. Anyway, here's a few photos from yesterday's adventure.

Heading up Taylor Canyon, the access point to Malan's Peak.

Looking up Taylor Canyon.

Looking out from Taylor Canyon onto the Ogden Valley.

Fall is here at 6000 feet!

Looking north towards big Ben Lomond. Can't wait to see that beast covered in snow.

Looking down on Ogden from the top of Malan's Peak. My house is in the bottom center of the photo, just a few blocks from the golf course.

Looking up towards Mt. Ogden from the top of Malan's. You can ski from the top of that all the way down to town in Ogden - a near 5000 foot descent.

Yours truly on the top of Malan's Peak.

Malan's Peak from back in town.

A video panorama from the summit of Malan's Peak.

Wisconsin

2008-08-18T22:08:00.000-07:00

I spent most of last week in the Midwest, because my cousin was getting married in Chicago. I grew up going to Chicago twice a year, but it had been four years since I'd last been back. In the summers we'd always head up from the Windy City to my grandparent's lake house just across the border in Wisconsin. It had been a while since I'd been so we spent two days up there before heading to the wedding in Chicago. Here's a few photos. It was lovely to be back at Power's Lake, where I've spent many summers.

Picture got messed up, but it's a good view of the pier I grew up playing on.

Cory and I canoed over to this fun little swampy area of the lake.

My paddle and algae.

Getting ready to go through the tunnel.

Back on the open waters of the lake.

A view down to the lake and community tennis court from my grandma's cabin.

The cabin.

Post-Work Bouldering

2008-08-07T21:37:00.000-07:00

I headed out for a little after work climbing this past Tuesday with Josh and Melissa. We met up at Santee, the local bouldering spot, and got on some great climbs. It's just so nice to get on the rock for a few hours after a long day at work. Makes my soul feel refreshed.

One of the problems we did was this fun slabby arete. It was Melissa's project for the day and after a few frustrating tries she hopped back on it and nailed it. It was great to watch her send it. Here she is in the middle of the business.

Josh topping out on it.

My turn.

We saw this crazy huge bug (like 3 inches long!) dragging this desert tarantula around. It was awesome!

My long standing nemesis at Santee is a problem called the 20 Point Boulder Problem. I was stoked to give it a go, but when we got over there, there was 6 or 7 people working on it. So we headed for this problem Josh had been telling me about called the No Hands Traverse. It's this great little ledge with a blank slab above it. As the name implies, it's a feet only climb with nothing to grab onto with your hands. It was super delicate and technical. I tried it probably a dozen tries and then, on the last try of the night, just before it got too dark to climb anymore, I sent it! Super happy to have nabbed this gem! Definitely a new favorite at Santee. Leave the muscles at home for this one. It's all about good footwork.

Woodson

2008-08-06T20:45:00.000-07:00

Josh and I headed out to Mt. Woodson this last Saturday. I hadn't done much crack climbing of late and was itching to get back onto some splitters. The initial plan was to meet at 6am and then drive out to the rocks. However, a brief look at the forecast showed that it wasn't supposed to be as hot as it normally is and we decided to meet at 7am instead. The hour sleep in was nice for sure, but it was still pretty hot out there. Oh well, at least the climbing was fantastic. We warmed up on a really fun 5.9 finger crack. It felt super good to sink the digits into the rock again, as I hadn't really been crack climbing since May. Here's a view of the warmup.

Since Josh lead the warmup it was my turn to hop on the sharp end. Next up we headed to a gorgeous dihedral called Rockwork Orange. It's a steep, slightly overhanging hand to wide hand crack that goes at somewhere around 5.10b. The last time I had lead trad was in May, so hopping on a stiff 10 right off the bat gave me my moneys worth and I had to take one time on it. Josh cruised it super smoothly, and then I ran a second lap on it, this time on top rope and got it clean. I'll be back to nail the clean lead on this guy again. Stellar!

Next up was a beautiful, right leaning, technical 10a finger crack, called Alpine Crack. Here's me after leading it.

We threw a top rope on this gorgeous 12a finger crack. It's got pretty good fingers for the first half, but bad feet the whole way and then the crack tappers out. Neither one of us finished it, but this one was good. Made the blood run! Aaaargh!

One of the climbs we did was called Bat Flake, a stout 11b that goes from fingers to hands to fists and then to offwidth. Here's Josh demonstrating the proper technique to use on the offwidth section.

Holcomb Valley

2008-08-04T19:42:00.000-07:00

Satisfied after enjoying a taste of winter in July, Margie and I continued our journey south along the eastern side of the Oregon volcanoes and crossed the border into a hazy and fire ravaged California. I spent the night in Redding, where forest fires burned all around the city. Saturday morning, July 26th, I was on the road early and heading for Big Bear Lake, to meet my buddies Josh and Melissa for a day of sport climbing. After ten hours of driving I made it to the lake and met up with the dudesters for a bite of Mexican and then to the campground. We clipped bolts all day long the next day. It was fantastic to be back on the rock and to hang out with my old buddies.

Here I am warming up on a fun 5.8.

Josh getting ready for the roof on a tricky 10a.

The happily married couple: Mel and Josh.

Me leading a really fun, technical 10a.

Melissa on lead.

Josh stylin' on a crazy good 10c.

Mount Hood

2008-08-02T21:33:00.001-07:00

After getting the workin' on Mount Stuart, I recuperated in Seattle for a few days then made my way down to lovely Mount Hood in Oregon. Mount Hood has the only year round ski resort in North America, so I new I had to go and get some July turns in since I was going to be driving right by it. I camped at a nice little campground at the base of the mountain and was up and heading towards the ski resort by 6:45am on Friday, July 25th. After paying my $50 for a lift ticket, I hopped on the lift and made my way up onto the Palmer Glacier, where the resort operates in the summer.

Because it's the only year round ski resort, Hood is the hot spot for all the ski racing teams around the country. I have to admit, I felt a little odd seeing all these ski racers show up in their spandex, spider web suits and head up the hill. Somehow my backcountry touring apparel and fat powder skis didn't quite seem to mix in with them. You don't run into too many ski racers in the backcountry. Anyway, I was stoked to be out in the mountains and on the snow again, especially because I was able to try out my new boots which I had bought in May and had not been able to ski yet. Here's me heading up the chair with my new boots on.

The snow in the morning was pretty hard and icy, as expected for this time of year, but I new it would get slushy later in the day. Because I hadn't had time to adjust my new boots to my skinnier skis, I was on my fatties for today. Certainly takes a little more work to get them over on edge, but it let me know how much more power these new boots had, and after the first day on them, I am very happy. These bright green babies are going to be a blast next season.

As I said before, Mt. Hood is literally covered in ski racers. This makes it unclear as to where the runs are as all of these teams have their little race flags and mini courses set up everywhere. Well, after skiing through a few of these courses, one of the coaches stopped me and said, "Hey you can't ski here. There is a public lane over there. These lanes are for racers only. We pay for these lanes."

My reply was, "Seriously? I just paid $50 for one run?" Truthfully, I'm not that impressed. Yeah, it's July, but $50 for one run? That's lame. If I would have known that I probably would've hiked up to the snow. Oh well, regardless, I had a great time running laps on the mellow, blue public lane.

A view of the upper Palmer Glacier and the standard route to climb and ski Mt. Hood.

Looking over the ski area with big Mt. Jefferson in the distance.

Back at the car. Mission accomplished.

Stuart Videos

2008-08-02T18:45:00.001-07:00

Here's a few videos tracking the progress of our long day on Stuart. Enjoy.

Bring on the Suffering

2008-07-30T21:23:00.000-07:00

After a couple of lovely days in Nelson, I loaded up my car with as much as I could and crossed the border back into the US of A. The first thing I noticed after crossing the border was the much cheaper gas prices in the states. $4.30 a gallon seems like a bargain when you've been paying $5.65/gallon. The second thing I noticed was just how many people with have in this country - A LOT. It's a little crazy really. I guess its mild compared to Europe though.

Anywho, I drove on down to Leavenworth and met my friend Jen and her boyfriend, Ryan, for some dinner and then we drove to Seattle together. The initial plan was for the three of us to climb Mt. Stuart, but then Ryan had to back out because of work. So, Jen and I headed up to the trail head on Monday night, and camped there to get an early start.

A view of mighty Mt. Rainier on the drive to the trail head from Seattle.

Stuart is a big mountain. It is the second highest non-volcanic peak in Washington. It is a behemoth of a peak, comprised of black and gray granite dramatically cut into soaring rock pinnacles and gorged by long deep gullies. Our plan was to climb the classic West Ridge. A moderate alpine climb that goes at 5.6. However, it's a 7 mile approach to the base followed by 2400 feet of climbing. The plan was to do it in two days. Get as far as we could on the first day, probably bivy somewhere up high on the rock and then get down and back to the car the next day. The plan didn't quite meet reality.

The wind howled all night and I slept poorly. It was somewhat of a relief when the alarm went off at 4am. Packs loaded up, we were hiking by 5am. The first three miles went smoothly enough. Neither one of us were in particularly great shape, but our legs soon found their rhythm as we made our way towards Ingalls Pass and quickly dispatched the first 2000 feet of elevation gain.

The sky at 5am.

Gaining elevation early in the morning.

The view from Ingalls Pass smacks you like a bucket of glacial water. Rocky Ingalls Peak rises to the northwest, but you barely register its existence because the king of the Central Cascades stares down at you like a gigantic haunted castle. I won't lie. I got a little scared when I first saw Mt. Stuart with my own eyes. Its size and color were overwhelming. It is certainly one of the most impressive peaks I've gazed upon.

The beast.

In order to get to the other side of the valley you have to traverse through an alpine cirque, weaving your way underneath the rocky buttresses of Ingalls Peak and crossing the old glacial polished slabs above Ingalls lake. The wind was really letting us know that it was alive that morning. It was blowing clouds rapidly across Stuart Pass, where we were headed, and distorting our view of Stuart.

An ominous looking Stuart from Ingalls Lake.

Jen crossing the glacial polished slabs above Ingalls Lake.

Jen heading towards Stuart Pass with the big guy beyond.

A funny deer that followed us for a little while.

After 5 hours on the approach, we made it to the base of Stuart at 10am. We began scrambling up the long first gully leading up towards the ridge. We would later discover that this was not the right gully to begin at. Once that gully ended we did some easy 5th class traversing into the next gully, progressively working our way higher and higher up the peak. Here's Jen in the first gully on Stuart.

Higher up on the behemoth.

Fantastic views of Mt. Rainier from up high.

El Senor Joshua with Ingalls Peak and Ingalls Lake below.

The West Ridge of Mt. Stuart is certainly a classic route, but it is not to be underestimated. Route finding is a serious undertaking on this giant. While the route, if followed exactly, is moderate, it is very easy to get of course and find yourself in 5.10 (or harder) terrain in no time. Many parties have experienced the frustration of route finding here, and, ta da, we weren't spared the experience either! Things didn't seem to match up exactly with the route description we had. We were looking for a specific tower, Long John's Tower, but we couldn't tell which one it might be with the dozens of other rock towers on the route. After some time spent frustratingly trying to find a way through, we decided to pull the plug and head down. This is where the epic began.

The normal descent route off of Stuart is on the other side of the mountain, after summiting. Not wanting to have to rappel and leave gear for any of the sections we had just climbed, we took a chance and tried to descend down an unknown gully near where we were. The first gully was a pile of poo. Nasty skree and loose blocks of rock brought us down a bit where we then traversed into another equally crappy gully. This one involved some snow downclimbing, water polished slabs and some waterfalls mixed in with the loose rock. Wow, this is getting fun. Oh wait, this gully cliffs out. Guess we'll have to traverse into another one. Basically the next few hours sucked. But in a hurt so good kind of way.

See, life in the boreal had really made me craving some adventure. And a bit of mountain suffering was just what I needed. So while my body was pretty tired from having been on the go for over 12 hours straight, my soul was on fire. This is the kind of self-purification you only get in the mountains. It's very hard to explain unless you've experienced it. At the time you think, "This sucks, why am I doing this?" But, once you get back to the car you start to think, "That wasn't so bad. I mean yeah it hurt, but it wasn't THAT bad. Man, I wonder what I'm going to climb next weekend?" Call it obsessed, call it crazy, call it what you will. This is what happens.

It took us over four hours to get off Stuart and back to Stuart Pass. This is looking back at the beast from the Pass.

The hurt was definitely on at this point and we just kept pushing our bodies to continue back the way they had come. We made it back to Ingalls Pass around sunset and caught this view of Stuart on our way there.

The next three miles down to the car were probably the longest in my entire life. The hurt was on in full. We stumbled back to the car at 10:45pm. We had been awake since 4am and had been on the move for almost 18 hours. Our bodies were well spent. As I sat down in the front seat to remove my boots I noticed something new about my body. My feet, after all that time on the go, literally looked like mashed potatoes. It was simultaneously fascinating and disturbing. Still, by the time I crawled into bed that night, I was thinking about another attempt on Mt. Stuart.

Adios Alberta

2008-07-28T21:21:00.001-07:00

It's been quite a bit since I've last blogged, but a bit has been going on in the last 10 days or so. I've since left Canada and am now in California for a month or two. However, I stopped and had a few adventures along the way down south and I'll be putting up a couple of blog posts to highlight some of those stops. So we begin from the start...

On July 16th I loaded up my car and planned to make it to Edmonton, a three hour drive from the tower, where I would be staying with France's sister. However, the weather, namely the rain, had other plans and I wasn't able to get out of the dirt road, which was a rather muddy and pool ridden road at that point. So, I gave it another go 24 hours later and my little Marjorie made it through the somewhat diminished mud puddles and we both breathed a sigh of relief when the tires finally hit asphalt again. The simple joys in life. Saying adios to northern Alberta.

After an enjoyable evening of eating a delicious elk roast in Edmonton, I was off to Nelson to pick up some of my stuff from storage and see some buddies. I drove through the most hellacious hail storm I've ever witnessed while driving just outside of Calgary. The road was covered in 2 inches of hail. Not fun driving. However, the clouds soon parted to reveal the unique and breathtaking majesty of the Canadian Rockies. My soul breathed deeply in the topography. The bastions of rock and ice welcomed me back from the flat land of the boreal.

The subtlety of the mountains increased as I drove west. Unlike the Canadian Rockies, the Selkirks, which surround Nelson, are a bit more secret. Granite massifs abound, but they are secretly guarded by thick forests and the long, deep glacial lakes that make this area so beautiful. The high peaks poke their heads out just enough to draw you in, but the secrets of these mountains require honest effort from the beholder. For me, these mountains feel like home.

In Nelson, I stayed with my good friends Jean-Francois and Suzie, from Quebec. They are, without a doubt, two of the greatest, happiest people that I have ever met. I also met up with my buddies Tim and Katie for some rock climbing. We had a blast sport climbing next to Slocan Lake.

Here I am getting back on the rock for the first time in over two months.

Beautiful Slocan Lake.

Katie getting ready for her first climb on real rock.

Timmy sending his nemesis.

Me approaching the crux.

Me, Katie, and Timmy.

I had a fantastic couple of days in Nelson and it made me sad to know that I was leaving it for some time. Nelson, like the Selkirk Mountains, certainly feels like home to me.

Bath, Bugs and Fruit

2008-06-30T09:32:00.000-07:00

The ol' mercury in the thermometer is a rising these days, and anyone that knows me knows that summer is my least favorite time of year. It must be that I grew up in Oklahoma where 105 degree days and 100% humidity were the norm. Needless to say I'm heated out. Well, in Northern Alberta, when the heat rises so does the bug count and I have to say I'm astounded. Want mosquitoes? We got 'em. Big Black Flies? Bucket loads. Oh and lets not forget the big one: Horseflies. Huge ones.

There's not a lot of things I hate in this world, but these three bugs together would certainly fall into the hate category. Anyway, enough of my whining. Here's a few more pics from life in the forest. Here's senor Rufus after getting a bath. He's getting big. He's 53 pounds as of today. The water seems make him look smaller though.

One cool thing about being out here is that there are wild strawberries everywhere. However, they're not exactly the same size as the kind you buy in the store so they take a little more work to pick, but they're delicious. Maybe sometime we'll pick enough to make a jar of jam.

France and I on one of our nightly walks with Rufus. We have to cover up like this and spray our face and hands with bug spray to keep from getting eaten alive. Good thing no one is out here to see how goofy we look.

France and Rufus on our walk down the airstrip. We like walking down the airstrip because we can see our surroundings better if there are any bears nearby. Fortunately we haven't seen any yet.

Summertime

2008-06-25T16:56:00.000-07:00

Well, normally it's climbing season during this time of year. But since there is nothing to climb out her in the boreal forest except trees and this fire tower, I thought I'd post a reminiscing photo from last summer's fantastic climbing season. Here's me on a fun, beautifully crimpy 5.11a at Holcomb Valley last July. Hope you're out climbing for me!

Brother/Sister Bonding

2008-06-13T09:32:00.000-07:00

I just spent the last week back in the States. My little sister, Cory, dun growed up and gradumacated college, so I had to go down and see her make the walk across the stage. It was great to spend some time with my family again as the whole gang was out there supporting Cory. I stuck around in the States for a few extra days so I could help my sister get her car back to California. Road Trip!

Cory and I had an unusual companion accompany us on our trip. Meet Snowmie the Gnomie. He was a graduation gift to Cory.

"Just the three of us" ready to start the journey.

Cory and Snowmie leaving school and moving on to brighter horizons. I think I feel a tear coming on.

Snowmie in Kansas City, Kansas.

Snowmie and some dragsters along the endless road through Kansas.

Snowmie in Topeka, Kansas.

Snowmie and I just chillin' at a historical site in Kansas. This sign probably should have read, "In some long forgotten year, Kansas was made a state and given endless borders in order to cause thousands of automobile drivers to go insane due to the never ending monotony of driving across our beloved flat state." I guess it sure beats riding across the state on horseback.

Cory, Snowmie, and Gorilla. Grrr!

On this road trip I learned that Cory always sleeps with her mouth open. This provided a lot of entertainment for me as we drove across Kansas.

A funny license plate.

This is Kansas. Oh and it looks like this for 430 miles. Sweet.

Yes Dorothy, this is Kansas. Fake Palm Trees and all.

Snowmie the Gnomie keeping up with Foreign Affairs now that we've safely arrived in Denver, Colorado.

Finally some topography! God Bless Colorado! Wish I hadn't left my skis in Canada...

Loveland Pass. Lots of good skiing still left in mid June.

Snowmie providing moral support while I take care of business inside.

Snowmie the Arborist.

Snowmie and Cory in Utah.

Snowmie in Vegas.

The green man trying his luck.

Gas prices in the California desert finally catch up to what I've been paying in Canada for the last six months.

"Snowmie, I think we need a coffee break after all this driving."

Mission Accomplished.

Life in the Boreal

2008-05-23T09:28:00.000-07:00

Here's a few photos from life in the boreal forest. A beautiful sunset from the front yard.

Rufus and me on one of our nightly walks. Oh yeah, the sun does not set here until after 10pm right now.

Little House in the Boonies

2008-05-14T13:45:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd throw up a few pics of the new place in Alberta for the summer. Also a few pics of Rufus! France and I are fostering a puppy with the potential to adopt him. He's darn cute. He's a yellow lab/golden retriever mix, with a little bit of husky too. We're having a great time with him. He sure likes to sleep a lot though!

La casita with the fire tower behind. I have to put on my harness and climb up there to work and make phone calls since that's the only place we get enough reception.

Rufus in his snow patch (it's melted now).

A view of the flat, endless forest from the tower.

Rufus snuggling with his Tiger.

Our potable water storage.

Generator on the left, storage shed on the right.

Solar Showers baby!

France's Garden.

El Bano.

Our Horseshoe and Bocce Ball Court

The shower. It can get a bit breezy!

La cocina.