Autumn is back again. But it doesn't feel like it.

Saturday felt abnormally warm for the last weekend of September. I think it hit in the upper 80's down in the Salt Lake valley. So we decided it'd be a perfect day to play a round of frisbee golf at Solitude. We rounded up the crew, including Brad, Robb, Trent, Debi and Petra.

IT was gorgeous up there with the Fall colors in full swing. The aspens were a vibrant glow of golds and yellows.

Winter is coming soon! Play as much as you can while its still warm!

Garden Acres

Here is the middle of June and we finally got our garden in. In my defense we had to cut the grass out with a shovel by hand, which took a good long while. Although, I think it took 4 times as long to just decide what materials we wanted it made of. I feel so domesticated. 

We're going to try our luck with some cantaloupe, tomatoes, carrots, etc. 

There are a ton of quail in our neighborhood. One family of them live in the pine tree in our front yard and lately we've been seeing about 9 little babies wandering around our yard. They seem to overestimate their jumping abilities though because twice now they have jumped into our basement window wells. It's only about  a foot deep but it seems to be a little much for them. They're pretty cute but I hate that they keep jumping in there. I'd hate to see a cat get them if they get stuck while we're not around. 

Memorial Day 2010

So this beautiful memorial day I'm stuck working from home while Debi is slaving away at the hospital. But not to worry. In light of the first 80º day of the year, I went up for a short hike at Brighton. I just had to sweat out all those calories from my birthday feast last night. Too much scrumptious Lasagna can be a bad thing. There is still quite a bit of snow up in them hills.

Dippin' Dots from the Heavens?

Spring is an intriguing time of year. It seems that the rocky mountain region is the battle ground for a never-ending war between winter and summer. In the morning we are wearing shorts and mowing the lawn, and in the afternoon its snowing. I guess that's why May is my favorite month of the year (And not just because my birthday suit was first worn many years ago in this lovely month). I just love the diversity of available activities, the blooming of the plants and flowers, the start of the outdoor concert season and the general drastic weather changes. For example, Saturday Debi, Steve and I were mountain biking in 70° weather, and by Tuesday enough new snow had fallen to head up and make a few turns.

So that's exactly what I did. As soon as the bell chimed 5pm I clocked out and sped up to Alta to sample the fresh. By 6 o'clock I had assembled my gear and had arrived at the parking lot. I wasn't sure exactly where I wanted to go so I just followed and existing skin track. Lucky somebody else did all the hard work for me. I followed this other lone wolf for a little while. It's good to have somebody else set the pace for me otherwise I burn all my energy to quick.

7" had fallen and most of it appeared to look like Dippin' Dots. Good ole graupel snow. And fairly dry considering the warm temperature we've had. Below the new snow it was a little mushy so I thought I'd play it safe since I was by myself. Below is a picture of my up and down line. I discovered a fancy new app on my iphone that tracks my route and exports it to Google Earth. I headed toward the top of the Wildcat lift at Alta on the ridge bordering Snowbird. Since the resort was closed for the season it was nothing but wide open fresh tracks. It felt super smooth and bottomless. 

My line started on what was called the Baldy Shoulder. Mt Baldy was just up the ridge from that point. A few guys just ahead of me summited the peak and dropped into the long chute you can see coming off the top of it. They said it was phenomenal. I'll admit I was a little jealous but considering the conditions my line was the perfect end to the workday.

White Pine Canyon, April 24th 2010

While I was gone in Belize, temperatures were super warm. We returned just in time for a storm to blow through the latter part of the week. You may say, what bad luck I have, but I say nay. The warm temperature softened the snowpack and then storm caused it all to refreeze. Meaning...Extremely low avalanche danger.

So when I was told that my touring buddies had to work that Saturday, I decided the bluebird skies were beckoning me to mountains for a solo tour. With about 5 inches of fresh on top of a firm snowpack, pretty much all the options were open. Even the gnarliest of lines. So I decided to explore a new drainage. I read in my tour book about some of the lines in the White Pine/Red Pine area of Little Cottonwood Canyon and thought I'd do some exploring. I grabbed the splitboard and headed to the trailhead.

Start of the trailhead. Click on any of the pictures for a larger view.

It was so warm that at 7,600 ft I decided to start off the tour in just a t-shirt and lots of sunblock. I was getting excited. The north facing aspects were still pretty frozen at 9:30am so I decided my goal would be something more westerly facing that would soften in the early afternoon sun. I followed an existing skin track which kept me hugging the eastern wall of the canyon. I chose it by chance but it ended up taking me exactly to the aspect I wanted to ride for my descent.

About 2 miles up the canyon started to open up

 After about 3 miles I was starting to get exhausted. I couldn't figure out why my lungs wanted to be on the outside of my body. I later found out it was because I was getting a cold (which explains why I woke up with a stuffy nose). I was determined to summit Red Baldy Peak so I inched along. At last tree before treeline gave way to wide open snowfields, I decided to stop, have lunch and rest a bit. I was feeling good again once some energy was in me. I strapped back in and started the march. Not 30 ft from my lunch spot I was already dying again. I kept going and eventually, when I was approx. a 1/4 mile from the summit, I had to stop. I picked a spot at approx 10,500 ft and began the changeover to ride mode. 4 miles and just under 4000 ft of vertical I was ready to drop in. Of course not before taking pictures of the view.

 Mandatory Pfiefferhorn (Center) shot, White Baldy Peak (Left), Lake Peak (Right)

Me and my trusty Splitboard

The snow was a dream. Better than I had expected. Was this really late April. The east northeast aspect had just enough sun by 2pm so soften a few inches below the surface and rode super smooth. It made all the effort worth while. Especially knowing I had a long 4 mile run ahead of me. 

 My line passes underneath the rock band to the left of the main cliffs

 Looking back from White Pine Creek

 Down low around 8700 ft the snow had obviously heated up way too much. It began to get sloppy and slow. So instead of walking up a slight uphill and taking the skin track back down, I swerved left and headed toward the creek so I wouldn't have to unstrap. That was probably a mistake. This is the choke point of the canyon where the stream turns rushing water with steep cut walls. I had to navigate around a few tight spots and tricky creek crossings on snow bridges but it definitely made the tour a little more interesting.

White Pine Creek

It was really a great time to be out and about in the solitude of the canyon with only a few other backcountry enthusiasts, some good music and sunshine.

Short Swing Splitboard Tour - 3/6/2010

Took the splitboard out for a short half-day tour last Saturday with a couple of co-workers. We went up Big Cottonwood Canyon to the Mill D North trailhead and then buzzed up to the area known as Short Swing.

It was an excellent N facing aspect with ≈25° slope angle so we weren't too worried about any avalanche instabilities due to the 2' of new snow. The N facing aspect kept the snow light and fluffy and away from the late afternoon sun on Friday that left a stout crust on S through W facing slopes.

Jeff O - Putting the new Voile Mojo Split to the test.

Me - Surfing with the Swallowtail. Unfortunately this is the best picture they could get. From this picture it looks a lot more tracked out than it really was.
Bruce - Looks like he may be having too much fun.
Jon B - Drowning in the Pow.

Best Albums of 2009

This year has smiled upon the music community. Here are my top 3 albums of 2009. My #1 and 2 finalists were pretty hard to decide between but in the end I think I made the right choice.

#1

Octahedron by The Mars Volta

(2009)

This is probably the most solid album I've purchased this year. This album has spent probably the most time out of any CD in my car this year. For the Volta it's probably the closest thing they'll ever make to an acoustic album. For their mellowest album to date, they still never cease to amaze me. None of their albums sound the same, which is great because each new album is always a wild card. You never know what you are going to get but they keep delivering great progressive music time after time.

Listen to Teflon by The Mars Volta

#2

Big Whiskey and the Groogrux King by Dave Matthews Band

(2009)

This album starts off with a solo of the mellow sound of the late Leroi Moore's sax as a tribute to a very influential member of the band. This is immediately followed by the funkalicious Shake Me Like A Monkey which I've caught myself dancing to more than once without realizing it. Brings back good memories of the Vegas shows earlier this year. Although the album slows a little bit at one section of the album, it's definitely worth the buy. I even used the last song on the album You & Me as part of my wedding music last September.

Listen to Shake Me Like A Monkey by DMB

#3

The Show by Yonder Mountain String Band

(2009)

The Show is probably one of the most accessible albums by the Colorado prog bluegrass quartet. It probably has some of the catchiest collection of song that possibly even non-bluegrass listeners could enjoy. It might help as well that for the studio albums they've started infusing drums. An old live show favorite Steep Grades, Sharp Curves even makes its studio debut here. I always look forward to anything they fellow Coloradoans can dish out.

Listen to Complicated by Yonder Mountain

Some 2009 Notable Mentions:

Give Up The Ghost by Brandi Carlile

Cosmic Egg by Wolfmother

Joy by Phish