Day 2 - Saturday Nov. 3 - Jibbing

Despite the lack of snow in recent weeks, Jer and I made our way up to Alta this morning. We knew there wasn't going to be much up there, but we wanted to get out. It had just been too long. We were debating between skiing Silverfork, Cardiff, Grizzly, or Alta. Since the others were going to require a substantial hike in with out the aid of skins, only to find crappy snow conditions, we decided upon Alta where we could skin the whole way to find crappy snow conditions. We skinned to the top of Wildcat and found that once we reached the snow that was in the sun, it was soft enough to actually be pretty fun skiing. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't great, but I can honestly say that it was the softest snow I have skied since July. We were both happy with our turns. Things are looking up for this season. Skiing down the rest of the mountain was just as we had expected - frozen, hard, and choppy. It certainly was a good time, however. It was fun to be out skinning and skiing again. I know I said that last month, but I just love it. When we reached the bottom, there were several groups of kids jibbing. They were going off jumps, doing rails, and this traffic barrier that was on the mountain. Jer simply could not pass this up. The following three video clips are Jer's three attempts at rail sliding the traffic barrier (notice the Gifford boys from my ward in videos #1 and #2).

October 14 - The Pumpkinman

After a week full of training, travel preparation, and catching up at work and school; we left on Friday afternoon for The Pumpkinman Triathlon in Las Vegas, Nevada. We spent that night in St. George at Ryan's condo after eating at the Pasta Factory. We woke up Saturday morning and after grabbing breakfast, we continued the drive to Vegas. None of us are big Vegas people so we decided to get a hotel in Boulder City which is where the tri actually was. We checked in and then made our way over to the tri site to check in and get our swag (I dig the shirt). We then set up our run gear at T2 - this tri was a little different in the fact that there were two separate transition areas instead of one that you simply return to twice. We then took some time to go down to Lake Mead, get in the water with our wetsuits, and just get used to it all. That afternoon we relaxed - we went to a movie (Across the Universe - I wouldn't recommend it, but it wasn't the worst way we could have spent our time) and then had dinner at Tony's Pizza and Pasta in Boulder City. We were all excited to have some small town pasta the night before the race. Let's just say that the excitement did not last long. We were greeted by our server relatively soon after we sat down so we were not yet ready to order. We did not see her again for another 20-30 minutes. At which time she quickly took our order but neglected to ask what kind of dressings we wanted with our salads, so when they did finally come we were just given ranch. The salad and the dressing was gross. It included huge chunks of onion and even the foot of the head of lettuce. It was at this point that we knew we were really fine dining. Our pastas came out eventually - Ryan's a good 10 minutes before mine and Stacy's. It took everything we had to just get over the taste and eat this stuff simply because we had no other choice in town that was not fast food. I, for one, can't wait until next year when we get to eat at Tony's again and experience this again. Back at the hotel I tried to show Stacy how to change her tire if anything were to happen, but it was so difficult to deal with that I ended up doing all the work anyway. We just got to the point where we were just hoping nothing would go wrong (not the best position to be in). We went to bed early and woke up around 5:30 the next morning. We got our gear together and made our way down to the lake. We were there in plenty of time to get T1 taken care of with time to really prep for the race. Ryan and I were competing in our first olympic distance event (we tried to do this a few weeks ago at Kokopelli) which is 1.5k swim, 40k bike, and 10k run. Our began our swim at 7:10. My swim was the best I had ever had. I felt really strong and only came in like 2 minutes after Ryan. I passed him a lot earlier on the bike that I thought I was going to. After doing so I figured I would not see him again for the rest of the race. The first 20 miles of the bike was hard. It wasn't the hardest thing ever, but it had its share of hills. The final 5 or so miles were all just straight uphill. By this time I was having a hard time even just sitting on my bike seat any longer because my butt was so sore. I definitely could have gone a lot faster, but my mind was not in the right place at that time. Ryan passed me with about 1 mile to go on the bike and I arrived at T2 just behind him. My transition was fast and I exited before him at which time I passed Stacy also beginning her run. I was feeling good and was confident in the rest of the race. When I reached the turn around point for the Sprint course I was feeling good and was sure I could go strong for twice that, turn around, and run back. I have to be honest and say that I never once ran more than 5k in training. It may have just been my inexperience or it may not, but that did not feel like 6 miles. It felt more like 10. I wondered if they had mixed up the miles and kilometers and accidentally had us run 10m instead of 10k. Either way, I did walk a little on the run. Not a ton, but some. I crossed the finish line 3hrs 29min and 41sec into the race with my sweet wife yelling for me having finished the sprint course in 2hrs 25min and 22sec. Ryan was not far behind me coming in at 3hrs 35min and 31sec. I have to say that I was rather surprised when we figured out that we had taken second and third in our age division. Yes, that is right. We were back on the podium - where we belong (it wasn't until the day after the race that my suspicions were confirmed that there were only 3 competitors in our age division). We had a great time this weekend, and we are looking forward to doing this again next year. This marks the end of my first triathlon season and I feel good about it. I feel like I set and accomplished some good goals. It was hard and fun at the same time. I will certainly be doing this again next summer. Now it is time to get out on the skis! See you on the snow.

Day 1 - Monday Oct. 8 - Hooray For Fall Break!

Today was the first possible day for skiing for the season (for me at least). I disregarded the fact that the storm was two days ago and yesterday was really warm, and I met up with Dave Whittaker, Matt Kline, and Has. We met at the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon at 6:15am. We then drove up in two separate cars in case some wanted to stay a little longer. Dave and I listened to The Arcade Fire - Funeral on the way up (I don't have Neon Bible on my iPod just yet). The skin up was nice. It was great to be back out in the snow. Yes, I may have been skiing over the summer, but it is just not the same as being able to actually skin up a mountainside in some actual snow. I felt like I was in pretty good shape, but not exactly where I would like to be for the remainder of the season - but I am sure that will come. The ascent did include one foray across a small stream where some of us decided to go across with skis on, others went without, and still one other had one ski on and one off (I am not sure what advantage this gave). While skinning up, however, we discovered that yesterday's warmth and last night's cold did not exactly present us with the most ideal skiing conditions. There was over a foot of snow just about anywhere you went, but there was a layer of breakable crust about 2 inches thick on top of it all. When we finally did get to skiing down, we found this difficult to navigate. Basically, the snow did not want you to turn, so you usually ended up falling or having to jump all the way out in order to swing your skis around. It was fun, but I am sure the skiing was much better yesterday. Oh, well. We will get ours. Don't worry. It was fun to get out and skiing again. I look forward to more and more of it. It may be a few weeks until you see another ski blog entry, but get excited because they will all start rolling in. Peace.

Saturday Sept. 22 - We Tried to Tri

Ryan, Stacy, and I have been training all summer for this weekend. This is the Kokopelli Triathlon in St. George, Utah where Ryan and I were going to do our first Olympic distance tri and Stacy was going to do her first open water Sprint. We left work early on Friday in order to get down there in time to check in, eat dinner, and get to bed at the appropriate hour (we stayed at Ryan's condo). We woke up at 5:00 am and prepared our stuff for the day. At about 5:35 we opened the garage only to find that some neighbors had parked behind us in the driveway assuming we were not there. We then had to wake up several households before we found out who it was. They moved their cars and we were on our way - a little late - but on our way nonetheless. We arrived at the lake a little behind schedule, but with plenty of time left to get our transition stations set up and to get ready to race. Due to a bit of a delay waiting for the search and rescue team to get to their positions in the water, the race started a little late. We did not care. It gave us just that much more time to get ready. Ryan and I prepared together in the water waiting for our start. When the announcer said "GO" we were on our own. I had an awful swim. A storm was approaching and the waves got bigger and bigger. I got spooked early in the swim and struggled the rest of the time to get back with it. About half of the way through it all I started to get into a rhythm and began to swim well. At this point I was determined to bike and run as hard as I could in order to make up for lost time. It didn't register to me, though, that this may not be a possibility since it was raining pretty hard on top of me by this time. As I finally got out of the water after the 1.5 km swim, I was told by some race volunteers that the race had been cancelled due to the weather and I was to pack up my gear and go home. This was possibly the worst thing I could have heard at this time. We spent a good amount of money and time on this tri and now we are not going to be able to do it? That sucks! I gathered my stuff and met up with Ryan (who said he had a good swim) and Stacy (who's swim was similar to mine) and we made our way back to the condo. While I did have a good time hanging out and watching movies, the reality is that I could have done that at home! I am a bit bummed out and I am hoping they will give us a credit to do the Pumpkinman Triathlon in three weeks in Las Vegas. I will keep you all posted.

New Name

So, the BBOB thing was cute for a while, but I am over it (no offense, Strong girls). I have come up with my own name for the blog this time so I guess I win the cookies. Let me know what you think.

Saturday Sept. 8 - Stacy Can Tri

Stacy did her first triathlon today. We decided it would be fun for her to do this one on her own so I could be there to cheer her on and take photos, etc. (not to mention the lack of desire I had to spend the money on doing another since we just signed up for the Kokkopelli Tri which was rather expensive). She did great and she had a great time! I am super excited for her and I hope she has the desire to do more of them. This tri was at Alta Canyon Rec Center and it was a pool sprint. Similar to the first one I did, the swim was 400 meters in a pool followed by a 9 mile bike and a 5k run. She was particularly nervous for the swim. Not having timed herself swimming this distance, she lined up around the 10 minute crowd. It took her a little longer than this to swim it, but the lanes were so wide that she was not a burden for others in their quest for glory. She definitely had a different attitude toward the whole thing than I do, since she came out of the water walking at first and then she didn't seem to be in any huge rush at the first transition. Not that she was being lazy, she just was making sure she didn't screw anything up so as to not be able to finish - whereas, I want to take advantage of every second I have. I am sure this really comes down to the fact that I am a super competitive person while she is not. But that is one of the great things about triathlons - all types of people can do them and have a great time! She did really well on the bike and said the run was difficult. Apparently, there was a mega hill in the middle that was actually faster to walk and conserve energy than attempt to run due to its undaunting steepness. She was strong and finished the race with a smile on her face. She finished in 1hr 33min and 43seconds. I am so proud of her and I can't wait until we do the Kokkopelli together. Now we just have two weeks left to train!

Days 58 & 59 - Friday Aug 31 & Saturday Sept 1 - Mission Accomplished

Well, it's done. I did it. I have officially skied in every month for the past year. And I had a great time doing it. CJ, Cody, and I made this goal as the winter was coming to an end so it just felt right that it was the three of us along with my two faithful dogs that made this trip together. We met early Friday afternoon and made our way down to the Aspen Grove trailhead. At this time I must explain that I have not been backpacking for some time so I am not current on all my backpacking gear. I could not find my most recent pack so I ended up using the pack I had in like seventh grade - a Wenzel pack purchased many years ago. I assumed it would be sufficient for the approximately 7 mile hike ahead. I was wrong. It wasn't a mile up the trail before my arms began to lose feeling and pain was setting more and more into my back in several different areas. This upset me because I am in good aerobic shape and should be strong enough to do this hike without any problems, but I had to continually stop to alleviate the incessant pain from my inferior gear. The dogs had no problems whatsoever on the hike. They were always in front and just loved the adventure of the whole thing. After some time I sent the others ahead and I continued to push along at my own pace. I did not fall too far behind, though, and we met back up at the crest of the hike with only about a mile or so remaining before the glacier on Mt. Timpanogos. We passed several large groups of mountain goats on our way and the dogs didn't quite know how to respond. We got to the base of the glacier around seven o'clock and we quickly shed unnecessary weight for the "snow" climb and descent. The dogs were happy to join us on this endeavor. We were surprised to find several other groups of skiers with the same idea of skiing in August and September to achieve full-year status. The glacier was simply a collection of snowfields that were frozen over and covered in dirt and rocks - the best snow on earth, right? We had to hurry because it was soon going to get dark and we needed to ski that night. We did make it up and get in some turns. This was some of the most difficult skiing of my life. I had to try to avoid the big rocks, get an edge in on this ice, and somehow be able to power through the parts that were covered in dirt thus creating a not-so-slippery surface. I may not have looked the best ever, but I did have a good time. We finished as the sky went dark and we set up camp by headlamp. I was exhausted. It didn't take long for Samwise, Bowie, and myself to fall asleep. The problem was that it didn't take long for us to wake up either. Apparently, getting to the peak of Timpanogos before sunrise was a popular thing for BYU students this morning. Our camp was not far from the trail and they did not bother shutting up for five minutes while they passed it. It was difficult to sleep from about four o'clock on because of all the people that kept walking and talking right past our camp. If I had been any less tired I would have sat up and said (in a sarcastic manner) that they should continue to talk as loudly as they pleased - I mean, dawn was only two and a half hours away - we should be awake already, anyway! Due to this little fact, it took us a little longer to get going in the morning than we had planned. We did finally get up and make our way back over to the glacier. We stashed our ski gear toward the top and then kept going in order to see the summit. After a short amount of time at the top we were ready to go, but Bowie was not. He was totally not even acknowledging me and then began scaling the wrong side of the mountain. This made me very nervous mostly because I did not want to have to go after him. He made it down about eight feet and then came back up. What could be so important so as to risk his life, you say? An old, gross sandwich. At this time he still was not ready to go because he now had to eat this old, gross sandwich. Others at the summit found this amusing while I just found it disgusting. We eventually did make it back down to the glacier and got in our twelfth consecutive month of skiing in. Yes, we did it. Again, it was not pretty, but that was not one of the requirements. We then packed up our gear and began the long hike down the mountain. This time the hike was in the sun and it took a much bigger toll on the dogs. They were troopers, though, and they made it from water hole to water hole and eventually to the car. It was a great trip. I had a good time and accomplished a goal. The dogs had the times of their lives (although for the past two days they have not even wanted to move around the house). I am bruised and bloodied all over my back thanks to my gear, but it was all worth it. ONE YEAR, BABY!