Day 48 - Saturday Mar 29 - Man's Best Friends

Spring seems to have arrived, but I am not ready to put my skis away just yet. The problem I am facing is that those with whom I ski with are. Today is my 25th birthday. I really wanted to ski today so I called on my two friends I know will always want to go skiing with me, Bowie and Samwise. We got started a little later today, because we were in no hurry. We went up to Porter Fork and began our tour. I did not make the mistake again today of taking my Karhu Guides. Instead, I was on my Insanes and Switchbacks for the optimal skinning:skiing ratio. We skinned up the road and then beyond. I was determined today to actually see what is beyond the dense trees. I wanted to find something to actually ski. We pressed forward. The trees are so dense that every time you think you may see some sort of clearing coming up, you soon find out that it was nothing but a small meadow that would not be very conducive to making turns. Just as it seemed this skin track was going nowhere and we were destined to spend our day wandering in the woods, there appeared before us a beautiful view. We could finally see the blue sky surrounding what seemed to be endless possible ski lines. It was a beautiful sight to see. This was a good hour after we had left the cabin run and we still had a good amount of climbing to go before we could ski, but this was all we needed to keep us going. We continued to follow the skin track and by this time the dogs were even doing so as they had figured out that it was easier to walk in it rather than create a new one. I was tempted at times to cut it short and just turn around, but I figured we were in no big hurry so why not summit and see if I can figure out where I might be in comparison to other areas I ski. I had to take the occasional scraping break since the snow was sticking to my skins and then building up to where I was carrying an extra several pounds and the climbing wasn't exactly easy. The skin track did get to some tight switchbacks as we neared the top and the dogs never did quite figure out that they needed to get out of my way as I turned around at each one. I tried not to smack them around too much with my skis during these situations. We reached the summit after hours of straight climbing and it was totally worth it. It was gorgeous up there. We took a break and I took a few photos (hence the large amount of shots on this post - I even have a lot more that could have made it, but didn't). I then made my transition and it was time to ski. I thought the dogs looked a little tired at this point so I was planning on making a number of stops to let them catch their breath as we had a good distance to go to the car. I was wrong. They were on my heels the whole time. The top actually produced great powder skiing! Yeah, all of you who refused my offer to ski this morning made a bad choice. The skiing was great. It then opened up into a large bowl where the snow turned a bit more creamy, but still a lot of fun to ski. We skied all the way to the car with only a couple of stops so I could regain strength - the dogs were fine. During our descent was the first time we saw any else today. There were a few groups of backcountry skiers all with a dog or two in tow. Bowie and Sam were too focused on the down at this point to care, though, as they ran right past them all. We reached the car and the dogs didn't even give me a hard time about putting them in it. They were happy to be returning and they just wanted to lie down. I had to have a little help from a couple AT women getting my car out of the parking lot. Thank you, whoever you are. I had a fantastic birthday morning. I arrived back home around 2:30pm. I am confident the dogs had a great time. The ski season is not over, folks. On Ski.

Day 47 - Thursday Mar 27 - Dust on Crust

Yes, by the title I mean that I skied on crust this morning. Normally, this phrase is used when there is just a skiff of snow on top of a hard crust. This also was the case, but in the title I meant to reference the former. It seemed like it had been forever since I had skied. I went out last Tuesday with Jer and we had a great day. I missed Thursday. I got a couple of resort turns in over the weekend on Friday and Saturday, but I was primarily worried about learning Bro and working on my tan. I missed Tuesday due to the lack of snow, ski partners, and personal drive. It was time I got back out on the hill. CJ responded to the dawn patrol text message with a positive response and Sarah Jackson (award winning backcountry skier) also joined us. We were really hoping for new snow this morning. It turned out we were just too early. We skinned around red pine, but by the time we needed to get back to the car, there was maybe an inch in the deep spots on top of a bombproof crust. For those of you unclear on where this lies on the crust scale, let me elaborate: breakable - bad, can throw you out of every turn you try to make; supportable - you can find yourself breaking through at times, but you mostly stay on top; bulletproof - difficult to break through, but you can get your pole in a tight spot; bombproof - you can't penetrate this stuff no matter how hard you try. Yes, the crust this morning was bombproof. This is not a terrible thing as long as you know what you are getting into. You just end up sliding around like you would on a cold groomer in a resort. We skied back down and got to the car around 8:30am. On ski.

Days 45 & 46? - Friday & Saturday Mar 21 & 22 - Bro For the Weekend

I am currently looking for something new by way of employment. I am graduating from the U in marketing in May, and I am ready for the next step. One of the places I am looking at is a local sports marketing firm that puts on large scale events all over the world. This Friday and Saturday I volunteered some help at the US Freeskiing Nationals at Snowbird to try to get an idea of how things go down and to see if I am into it - as well as to see if they are into me. I got up there at noon after some work at Voile on Friday and met up with some of the guys. We then took the lunches up to everyone and then sat around and watched the competition happening in Silverfox that day. It was pretty cool to watch. The culture is totally different, however, to what I am used to. It is the whole mainstream bro culture that was a bit of a shock - the matching ski outfits, the language, the sponsors, the shout-outs, etc.



I would go back and forth as to whether I was into or not. I did get to ski a couple runs while running errands and moving gear around the mountain. The end of the day actually included skiing down a couple runs to the site for Saturday (North Baldy) while holding a large satellite dish with two other skiers. We prepped the venue that night and I left around 7pm. I met others for carpooling at 6am Saturday morning. We made it up to Snowbird in time for breakfast and then out onto the mountain. On the tram one of the dudes from MSI called another something of a choice phrase that seems to be a term of endearment amongst the bro community (let me give you a hint by saying it is two words and starts with mother f...). Bob Bonar, the president of Snowbird, happened to be standing right there and there was some confrontation. I found this to be humorous since I was the only one who recognized Bonar. We set up the event and people began skiing around 10am. It was really exciting to watch. The skiing was great even though there wasn't a single tele guy in the crew - there were a few the day before, but none of them had made the cut to the finals. There was a chick who totally tore it up and was sending lines that the bros weren't even skiing. I really mostly just sat around all day trying not to get sunburned with the beautiful weather. When the event was over we tore it all down and then had to get it all into the trailers since this was the last day of the competition. This took a long time. I did not get back to my car until 10pm. I just gave a 16 hour day of work for free. What am I thinking? I did have a good time, and the bros were rather nice after I figured out what they were saying. I will see what happens regarding employment in the next little while and keep you all posted. I am looking forward to getting back out in the backcountry next week. I was feeling a little down this weekend while staring at Superior while I was stuck at the resort. On Ski.

Day 44 - Tuesday Mar 18 - Spring Break Powder

The Powderkeg may have come and gone, but the powder still remains. This week is Spring Break. I thought it would be easy to find ski partners for a tour this morning from 6 (I was even going to let them sleep in!) to noon before I had to be to work. It turns out that it was not that easy. CJ and Jer showed interest. Jer came through, as usual, but CJ bailed on us once again. I am not sure what his story was, but he missed one helluva day. Jer and I left my house at 6 am. We drove up to the upper Solitude parking lot then crossed the street and began skinning toward the Park City Ridgeline. The idea was to ski West Monitor and possibly South Monitor or McDonald's. We figured this would still be good with the lack of traffic back to this area and the amazing skiing to be had back there. The approach is a bit longer than our standard tours which is why we don't ski this more often. We arrived at the summit above West Monitor and gazed down into a beautiful open bowl. We took our first line straight down the middle with good results. The snow was great. We did hit a crust underneath every once in a while, but that just kept us on our toes. We skinned up and found that more west facing slopes had the best snow. We debated between McDonald's or the more west facing side of West Monitor. We decided against McDonald's since it is a much shorter line and there were many turns in it already from the past couple of days. Our second line down West Monitor was epic. The snow was deep. We did not hit the crust. Our turns were dialed. I was so stoked. We skinned back up to the top and then decided to ski Will's Hill back out. I was a little mistaken on the entrance to Will's Hill, but it worked to our benefit today. We skied though perfectly spaced trees in perfectly deep snow. I was expecting our south facing line to be a bit of punishment after getting such good lines on the north stuff, but it was just as good as the others! We skied all the way down because it was just too good to give up. Finally, we found a track that was headed back up canyon and we followed it. It took some traversing skills, but we eventually made it back to our original skintrack and thus back to the car. Both Jer and I were out on Asylums today and we were very happy about that. It is always fun to be out on new gear, and today we found the right conditions for it. I hope all of you had an equally great Tuesday morning. On Ski.

Day 43 - Saturday Mar 15 - P-Keg 2008

Do you remember when you were a kid and the night before Christmas was filled with excitement to the extent that even when you finally fell asleep it wasn't for long? Yeah, that is how it was for me last night before the Powderkeg. The time finally came to awake and I was ready. I met Codeman, Jer, and Sarah at Foothill Village at 5:15 to carpool up. During the car ride up we continued our discussion from the previous night on strategy for the race. This was Sarah's first race so she needed some pointers; and since I was doing the race division tele, Cody was doing rec division AT, Jer was doing rec division tele, and Sarah was doing rec division women's tele we could all share our secrets with one another. We got up to Alta with plenty of time. This was required this year since they were closing the canyon at 6:15 for avy control work and they locked us in the Goldminer's Daughter at 7 for interlodge. Jer, Codeman, and I did have some time before the interlodge to get out on the snow and do a couple of really short laps in the dark. This allowed us to get our heart rate up and then give our bodies time to recover before the race. The idea is that if you just go from nothing to everything in the race your body wants to recover but you don't give it the chance to resulting in the inability to perform at the top of your game. We made our way back inside, checked in for the race, then chilled out until they let us out of the building. This was my first time doing the race division. It adds one more huge climb directly up Alta to the top of Collins, then across the high traverse, down gunsight, and then it continues up to Patsy Marley with the rest of the racers. The rec division does a la mans start where they start with no skis on and then run up, put them on, and go. The race division, however, starts with skis on and it is a sprint off the starting line. I was a little nervous about this since this would be my first time really sprinting on my skis. I knew I wanted to get a good position early since there was a single skin track shortly after the start that can be trouble if you are stuck behind a slow group. I started behind Mark from Voile and just tried to keep up. I found out quickly that this was going to be a difficult goal. I went out hard at the sound of the starting gun. I could have and should have gone out harder since I did get behind a few people that were not moving as fast as I wanted to at this point. I was feeling pretty good. My heart was beating, but I was able to keep moving forward. I finally reached the top and quickly transitioned and I was on my way. The high traverse was interesting. You have to sidestep up about 15 feet before you reach the top of Gunsight. Then the skiing was an adventure. The snow was super deep from the big storms we recently received. My race skis are not exactly powder skis. I was able to make turns just fine, but then there came an area where I began straightlining it and I was hauling. I felt my weight go forward just a little bit and I knew I was screwed since I did not have enough ski underneath me to regain control. I took a massive tumbler consisting of at least two big high speed rolls (I couldn't tell how many for sure since I was the one tumbling). I got back up as quickly as I could and continued on my way down. This did however, make my sunglasses useless for the remainer of the race since they were now covered in snow and ice. I was lucky enough to have put them on some Chums before the race so I did lose them in the fall. The volunteers at the second transition station knew what the story was when I arrived totally covered in snow. I was happy with my transition time here. I have been working on being faster at putting my skins on my skis without taking my skis off. This is where it began to pay off. I was rejuvinated just enough from the downhill that I could go hard again as I started to ascend. The bootpack section was cut from this year's p-keg because of all the new snow. So we took the track around in to Michigan City and then up to the Patsy Marley ridge. I was feeling pretty good at this point with some fatigue issues and the occasional side ache, but nothing serious. I eventually reached T3 and then made the transition and headed downhill. I had one little fall during this descent but it didn't slow me down too much. I began transitioning at T4 when I heard someone say, "Brother Butcher!" I knew this was Mike from my ward that works at BD. We chatted for a short time while I made my transition, but no longer. I was then on my way. This climb goes up Black Bess. This is where I really started to get tired. I kept pushing it though and was able to pass the occasional person (while the occasional person also passed me). I had some Gu and tried to continue to drink water while I climbed. This climb seemed to be much longer than it has been in the past. I did finally reach T5 and from there you can see the remainer of the race. You can see T6 back in Michigan City, T7 at the top of Davenport, and the finish line back at Alta. That Davenport climb did not look particularly pleasing. I had a bit of difficulty talking myself out of just skiing off the North side of Black Bess into Honeycomb Canyon for some killer turns since I had no chance at getting on the podium at this point. But I stayed in the race. I skied down the totally chopped up snow (barely) and had another good transition at T6. I started up to Davenport and really began to hit my wall. I don't know if it was because I knew it was the final climb or what, but it took everything I had just to keep going. Every time I thought I was close to reaching the summit I would come around a corner and realize I wasn't even close. T7 did finally come, however, and I felt good about things. All that stood between me and the finish line was one more descent followed by some skate skiing across the base of Alta. I pushed it as hard as I could. I tried to pass some people on the downhill so as to gain the edge. The descent required some navigation through the approaching storm which was more difficult than the earlier descents since I had no glasses to wear and it was now snowing in my eyes. I came out of Grizzly Gulch and began to make my way over to Alta. I did not see a drop onto a cat track at one point and took a bit of a fall in front of some spectators. I quickly got back up and continued on my way down. I passed one final person on the skate across the base of Alta and crossed the finish line 2 hours 58 minutes and 59 seconds after I had started - with a snowy beard and all. Mitch from telemarktips.com stopped me and asked me a couple questions about the race, but I really don't know what I said. I was greeted by all those who had done the race with me and those who were there to support us. Codeman had been the first to cross the finish line out of our group at 1:57:02. He took seventh in the Rec AT division. Sarah was not far behind at 2:03:07 and she was the first girl to cross the finish line making her the winner of the Women's rec tele division. Jer came in next after some difficulty with his skins halfway through the race. I guess he was winning and then during the second climb his skins decided to start falling off his skis which added a great deal of time and headache to his race. He finished in 2:19:04 coming in 7th in the Men's rec tele. Dan followed shortly thereafter at 2:22:23 giving him 11th place in rec tele. Soon after that, Mark came in from the race division at 2:27:11 making him the third man to cross in the race tele division - thus earning him a spot on the podium. He was stoked because last year he came in fourth and just missed the podium. They hung out for a while before I came in at 2:58:59 in 10th place in the race tele. I was happy with my performance. I learned a few things that will help in next year's race. Even though these races are simply a way for us to torture ourselves for 3 hours straight, it still ends up being a lot of fun. I am now really looking forward to tri season. With all this new snow, however, I am in no hurry for spring or summer to arrive. I still have time for some epic days out in the backcountry this year. On ski.

Day 42 - Thursday Mar 13 - Ice, Wind, Snow, and Training

Jer and Dan picked me up at 5:00 this morning. We then made our way up to Grizzly for one last chance to prepare for the race. The problem was that we were still leaving way too early. We had to wait about 30 minutes for enough light to ski on top of the ridge. This was not exactly the most pleasant thing since at about this time the wind really started to pick up and the snow storm followed. Jer was out on his new race setup and he was looking good. His transitions were much faster today than on Tuesday morning. The skiing was acceptable - nothing great. On the second lap you could really see the accumulating snow which will make for some great upcoming skiing. The race may even be mid-storm. We shall see. This morning served its purpose. We skinned a little easier than Tuesday but focused on fast transitions, solid climbing, and a strong ski out. Now we look forward to the race. On ski.

Day 41 - Tuesday Mar 11 - Now This is Training

Some of you may be tired of hearing about the upcoming race. Well get over it! It only happens once a year and I am excited about it. Jer, Cody, and I met at 5:30 this morning to train for the race. We went up to do Patsy Marley as hard and as fast as we could. I have to say that I was surprised how hard and fast this was. Jer got up front early and Codeman and I were doing our best just to keep up with him. The problem was that daylight savings this past weekend has significantly postponed the sunrise making it too dark to ski once we reached the top and had made our transition. We took a little break and waited for the sun then went back to race mode. We then did three more fast laps on the West half of the ridge really focusing on fast transitions and fast uptracks. I was really pleased with my transitions this morning. I was able to put my skins on my skis without taking my skis off and save a bunch of time doing so. As much as it may not sound like it to some of you, it was a pretty fun morning. The skiing was surprisingly good - you just had to navigate through some existing turns in the snow, but it did remain soft. On ski.

Day 40 - Saturday Mar 8 - "Training"

I wanted to get out today for some training before next week's race. I got my race skis all ready this week and I was prepared to get out. Then it snowed. Jer showed up this morning with his Insanes in tow and wanted to do some skiing. I agreed. I grabbed my Asylums and we went skiing. We told ourselves we were training with heavier gear so we would fly on the lightweight stuff when we both knew that we were just out there to make some killer turns today. We skinned our way up pole line pass and over to LSB. There were some interesting moments on the skintrack due to my skinny skins and my wide skis. Visability was next to nonexistant which required us to basically feel our turns rather than see them. I figure this is good for us, though. It is a lot like in Karate Kid when he wears the blindfold - only we are skiing down mountains rather than being beaten up by old asian men. The skiing was really good on the North side. There was at least 6 inches of fresh and it was pretty soft under that. This made for some sweet turns while the flat light made for some humorous spills toward the bottom. We skinned up to the East in Cardiff and made another run down something - I don't know what it is called, but it was a fun, steep line. We then skinned back up to the saddle at the top of pole line and skied down the most Eastern facing slopes we could find. These provided the best snow conditions. My big fat skis were not the best for the crust that was underneath. If I hit it I would begin to skip and slide around. I really should just be out on my Insanes right now, but it is so hard to leave a new pair of skis at home all alone.

Day 39 - Thursday Mar 6 - David Bowie and Samwise Gamgee

No, I didn't ski this morning with a rock icon and the most loyal character in literature. In fact, I skied this morning with my dogs of the same names (not a coincidence). It is becoming that time of year when my ski partners begin to dwindle off and desire to ski ridiculously early in the morning less and less. I, on the other hand, recognize that I have the powderkeg in a little over a week and I need the training. So I found two ski partners that are always up for some time out - my dogs. For Christmas I was very excited to get a pair of Karhu Guides. This is a scaled ski that still has metal edges and a decent side cut for the downhill, but does not require skins for the up. Today was finally the day I would get to try them out (the skiing has been too great out there before now). I took Bowie and Sam up to Porter Fork at 5:30. We began ascending around 6. I was a little bummed out to find that I kept slipping on my skis. I could only take slow, small steps if I wanted to keep gaining ground. This was a bit frustrating since I really wanted to go fast this morning and get some really good exercise. I did get exercise, but mostly in my arms after having to pull myself up the mountain in many spots where my skis would not climb on their own. I didn't let myself get flustered because it would not have accomplished anything. We ascended until about 7 and then I decided it wasn't really worth going any further. We had gone a bit beyond the end of the road and into the trees, but we would have had to have gone much further to get some real turns. So we skied down. The lack of a skin transition was nice, but not nice enough to really make up for the hassle of the skis. They did rather well on the downhill. I actually quite enjoyed them, but I still think I may be putting them up for sale. The idea of these skis turned out to be far greater than the skis themselves. Oh, well. I had an enjoyable morning spent with my dogs. They had the time of their lives. This was Sam's first time skiing in winter (he has skied once before but that was in August/September up on Timp). On Ski.

Day 38 - Tuesday Mar 4 - Butler, Butler, Butler.

Jer picked me up at 4:45 this morning. We met Matt at the mouth of Big Cottonwood. Codeman was supposed to meet us there, but was nowhere to be seen. We waited the allotted 5 minutes and then even gave him an extra 2 before we were on our way. We got some new snow over the weekend, but it was super sunny and hot yesterday so I wanted to get somewhere that was going to be protected... Butler Fork. Yes, I know we have been there a number of times this year. In fact, I would venture to say that Butler has become this year's Patsy of yesteryear. When we got out of the car it was pitch black outside. We could not see anything until we opened the car door again to find our headlamps. That was pretty cool. We skinned around and up to Circle Awl peak. During the skin we found some variable conditions depending on what aspect you were on. We came to the conclusion that we had to ski a specific aspect in order to get some decent turns. We transitioned on the peak with light blooming from beyond the hills. I finally figured out my new video camera last night, so the first video you see below is my first person footage from this morning and the second is Jer making some turns... and a fool of himself. We were able to make two quick laps before we had to get on our way back to school. The second lap was just as good as the first. The snow was soft and the turns were fluid. I tried to follow the other two for some cool footage down the hill, but it only recorded the first couple of seconds. So I didn't get that shot. Oh, well. I will have plenty more opportunities to do so. It was a good morning. On ski.

Day 37 - Saturday Mar 1 - Selections From the Necronomicon

(I would advise against saying the following words aloud as they have the tendency of awaking the undead) "Tatra a mistro bim hazarta. Tatir mono mansizon hazanzovar. Samanta robsa darhis hikar dans de rhodsa. Kandar. Kandar! Kandar!!" I quote from this ancient "Book of the Dead" in reference to my new skis which I skied for the very first time today. These were not necessarily the ideal conditions for these skis, but I was loving them all the same. The reason the skis deserve such ritualistic chanting from the likes of the necronomicon is because if you look at the photo of the skis below, you will see a woman from The Evil Dead struggling to escape the grip of the zombie which holds her by the throat and is attempting to pull her down to hell. Yes, this is the type of image I chose to put on my skis. I designed these skis myself. I am quite proud of them. The lighter color and the black stripes you see covering the skis are simply the wood core of the ski and the carbon fiber strips which make the ski such a fine piece of equipment. It is the ski nerd inside of me that loves that and it is the movie nerd in me that loves the Evil Dead reference. After picking up the skis late last night, I didn't have the chance to mount them until early this morning. I pulled a pair of Switchbacks off my Carbon Surfs and mounted up my new Asylums. Jer picked me up at 7 and I was a little late thanks to the mounting. The Powderkeg is only 2 weeks away and we needed to train. We decided to skin across the base of Alta, boot pack up to the Patsy Marley ridge, and do a couple laps over there - while intermittently meeting up with Dan and Ray who went the normal way around. The skin across Alta wasn't bad, but I am not sure it really accomplished anything. Our bootpack, on the other hand, was certainly eventful. We weren't really sure where to go so we just made educated guesses from our experience in the race last year. The snow allowed for our boots to penetrate rather deeply which made for some difficult booting. We seemed to pick a good line until we reached the top. We then were faced with the decision of where to go from there. There was 5-star climbing ahead of us and we were in telemark ski boots. There was really only one move that had to be done, but it was scary nonetheless. We decided that even if we fell we would simply fall on snow, slide down a bit, and lose some ground and time, so we went for it. I went first so I could get a photo or two of Jer (and because Jer is a wimp). It was exciting on its own, but then the wind really began to pick up and the giant skis secured to my pack happened to work just like a couple of sails that wanted to take me for a ride. I was able to stay strong, however, and pushed through it. We made it to the top much later than we had originally expected and we were then behind Dan and Ray. We made our way to the Patsy Marley peak only to see the wind was just hammering it. So we took our skins off, went down the ridge a little, and made some turns through the trees. These were my first turns on my new skis. They are going to be a lot of fun to ski - especially next week once we get some new snow. We met up with Dan and Ray at the bottom of this run and we all skinned up again for a short lap towards the beginning of the ridge. Jer and I hucked the cornice that manages to keep getting bigger. Dan tried to get photos of us doing so, but was unsuccessful since my camera is not the easiest to time. We decided against a third lap due to the undesirable nature of the snow and the amount of exercise we had already achieved. We skied back down to the Goldminer's Daughter with speed in mind so as to recreate the feeling of the Keg. Evidently, Jer is going to go super slow in the race this year since I had to wait for him for some time at the bottom. It was a good day to go out and train for a race (not to mention to test out some new skis). I am happy with my fitness level and I hope I can step it up this year as I do the race division as opposed to the rec in years past. We shall see. Do not forget the words of the necronomicon, "Kandar. Kandar! Kandar!!"