First Craging

Yesterday Dave and I post-holed into the Secret Garden area. There is still some snow. We needed tarps to cover the large puddles forming on top of the ice/slush so our crash pads would stay dry. We saw others out bouldering, and also heard someone crack climbing up higher on what looked like mostly dry rock. I'd say in a few more weeks of good weather and conditions will be perfect.

Rocks and creative skinning techniques

With a bit of a cessation in the snowfall earlier this month and the onset of predictable and stable snow conditions, (ski) Will and I opted for some chuting to break up the powder skiing.

With cloudy conditions up high, we choose a low elevation objective for our first exploit - a memorial couloir on Mt. Olympus. We had incredible luck with the weather, as temperatures that day rose above freezing, but 10,000 foot clouds kept the snow from becoming overheated which would have led to a hasty retreat.

Unsure of the approach, we avoided what looked to be a potential terrain trap in the lower Norths fork of Neff's canyon (it isn't), and instead detoured near the Chadbourne craig and crossed over into the main North's fork drainage via a saddle. Initially we had been planning to ski the shot to the climber's left of the Olympus couloir which was reputed to be the most skiable, but our view from the saddle revealed a very long, very aesthetic couloir beginning just north of the north summit (it was also closer and had already sluffed out, two additional benefits). We traversed in to the top of the apron (a corkscrew gully), and found ideal booting conditions in the gut of the couloir.There was a sandbox of graupel lining the bed surface, but otherwise, we quickly climbed about a thousand feet to a higher section of couloir that had not sluffed. This made a notable difference in our ability to boot, as postholes were suddenly waste deep, so we stomped out a spot above a tree, donned skis, and began some creative skinning. This usually involved about five paces followed by a kick turn (I was often grabbing the tip of my uphill ski while turning to make it easier to get it around - this didn't require bending over...). A few hundred more feet of skinning and a great many switch backs latter, we were at the top of a 50 foot wide 1700 vertical fool long couloir that stayed consistenly near 40 degrees in steepness (with the yet to be discovered apron, the line was to yield about 2,200 vertical).

Will and I leap frogged through the slightly treed upper third of the chute, then skied the beautiful and continuous lower 2/3rds. In lieu of a real picture, I snapped a camera phone shot of Will skiing the main couloir. Despite the soft slide debris, the low angle of the apron was a relief for our burning legs (lack of recent practice meant that it took me a while to get into a good pedal-hop turn groove, and Will briefly paused to point the bases of his skis up the chute at me). The apron also contained a rocky ice bulge, which required 20 feet of tips and tails side stepping followed by hopping and pointing skis straight down over 10 feet of water ice (another camera phone shot). Fun.
With cooler temps and stable snow, we naturally decided to ski the largest slide path in Big Cottonwood Canyon, Stairs Gulch the next weekend (just shy of 5,000 vertical). We approached via Bonkers as we did not want to spend any extra time in the gulch.

I had heard one second hand description of the run as "rocky", and wouldn't turn out to be let down. Stairs is an amazing slide path, underlain but massive amounts of rock which never allow the snow to pile deeply upon them. It's not a consistent pitch, but rather a series of gullies, rocky break overs, and rock slabs, with a creek bed finish. There was about a foot of generally wind effected powder over a crust or rock base (but it was nice and stable). Will snapped a shot of me in the mid section of the gulch, surrounded by some photogenic snow.
Stairs was definitely a unique run - not as good as Coalpit headwall, but definitely a worthwhile endeavor.

Carpe Diem

Yesterday Will-squared paid a visit to Dry Creek. Conditions were perfect for some higher-altitude fun: For the previous five days the Wasatch received 12 inches through continuous very light snowfall. There were a few warming periods that caused the deep faceted weak layers to heal, leaving a very stable snowpack with the benefit of fresh but "packed" powder on top of it all. Over the pass at 10,000 there was some thick clouds early day completely enshrouding the Phiferhorn. We skied down Dry creek to warming temps and clearing skies. On the skin up we kept eyeing the receding clouds on the Phiferhorn. We decided to have a look into Hogum at western base of the Phif where I snapped this photo of the other Will

, showing the very imposing north headwall and couloir. After digging yet another pit, we decided to go for it. With a little rock climbing, some kick steps, and some piolet work, we were on the top.


After a long-ass ski decent from Phif into dry creek. We skined up and back over the pass in the aplpenglow to a dim ski descent into the red pine drainage. Then we had some tree-dodging-by-headlamp fun down to the car.

Packed Powder

Here's another one. Future web-star Dave demonstrates his snowboarding prowess, and gives a detailed post-mortem on what happened.

EastCoast SnowFun

Rather than just being jealous of y'all's snowfall out there, we decided to have fun in the snow here, too. Here's an outstanding demonstration of the ski somersault by Justin, Mariah, Brian, and Brendan, with help from Crowder (video by Stacey):

Enjoy that one for now. More to come.

After a few hundred inches the sun came out

Two dufuses, both named Will.

After a run in Soldier fork, we hopped over to Wilson fork. We completely farmed out the Wilson chutes, shown in upper right, of which I got first tracks...

Someone Broke The Switch On The Wasatch Snow Machine

The Christmas Bacon Bar

Delicious. Salty, sweet, chocolatey. Lis got it for me for ludichristmas. The bacon taste is faint but discernible. More of an accent to the chocolate than an outright flavor...

The war has ended

Yes you all know the war I'm talking about. There are no hot deserts involved (although possibly hot desserts!) that endless ephemeral debate of what to add to your meal. Yes the condiment war to end all wars

BACON VS CHOCOLATE

Well the problem is no more thanks to this amazing substance BACON CHOCOLATE bless their souls for solving all our problems and creating a chocolate bar with the bacon cooked right in.

chocobacon

Bouldering in Zion

Wall climbing is good in Zion, but hey, the bouldering is nice to. This is like going to Wimbledon to play table tennis...

Turbulence and Coffee

So am flying to Chicago today amid the big snowy system covering all USA. The flight is so early that I don't have time for my morning coffee. United's computer system is down so the ticketing line is fucking long, and I barely make my flight. So I'm on the plane without coffee or breakfast. After waiting forever to take off we are aloft with too much turbulence to get any coffee in economy class. All the while the bourgeoisie class is getting showered with what looks like lattes and mochas. Finally, the turbulence subsides and the guy comes around and I ask for not one but two cups of coffee for good measure. He obliges and goes on to the next row and BAM, more turbulence and the drink guys pack it up.

So there I am with two cups of coffee, one in each hand, hovering over my laptop. I am trapped in a prison of my own making. I can't put down either cup anywhere and I don't want to spill anything on the computer. And so begins the dance. Bobbing and weaving, putting the cups on a linear trajectory through space while the plane (and me) bounces around them...

Two Seats, Twenty One Gears

We just got this kick-ass ride off of craigslist as our mutual birthday present. We paid 400 for it, which is a good deal for a tandem, I think. It should be nice for dirt roads and touring. Ever since we rode one on Friday Harbor we wanted to get one but most are really expensive. We are going to get some racks and sew our own panniers for it. I have no idea where we are going to store it in our house. I'll probably have to reconfigure my office to make it fit.

I will also entertain myself on it by riding it solo on the shoreline, which will make that old trail interesting again. I'll also see if I can ride it solo from the back seat using strings to control the brakes and steering. I bet two coordinated people could pull off a rolling chinese fire drill on it: switch seats while rolling without touching the ground. I wonder how many people we could have riding on it at the same time? I am open to any suggestions on entertaining things to (try) to do on it.

lcc and diverse media

thanks for the invitation, will.

remember that day we went climbing in little cottonwood canyon this summer?

here is a picture of you.

here are some more:

LCC

i had just been in the wind rivers. i also posted some pictures of that trip:

Wind Rivers

here is a movie:

Wind Rivers movie 1
Wind Rivers movie 2

while we're on the subject of pictures of things i did that these are links to, here are links to pictures of my trip to china, in 2005:

Beijing
Shangha
Yangshuo
yunnan
szechuan

here is a movie of my bike ride in yunnan and szechuan:

ride video

thats all for now.

peace and sunshine upon you.

--bobby in nh

Rock Hounding in Triassic

I went bouldering with a whole crew of folks down in Triassic this weekend. I went with John, Christine, Scott, and the Benster.



From these unnamed friends I learned some new words to enhance my climbing vocabulary

Crank and spank ---- lock off and slap indiscriminately for unknown holds.

Hippie climbing ---- Trads

Hippie skiing ---- Telemarking

That Weird Time of the Year for Sports

Every fall is that weird time of year when all four major professional sports are in season: baseball, football, basketball, and hockey. Similarly, fall is that weird time for imbuildingarockwallers when all major unprofessional sports are in season: climbing, hiking, skiing, and cyclocross. All of the following pictures were taken in the last month. We start with Gavin Noyes' "Homespinin on the Homestead" annual event which takes place at his primitive cabin between Hanksville and the Henrys.

Gavin is a professional potter. The cabin is on the left and his giant kiln, built into the side of the hill, is on the right. On the same trip M and I went bouldering at Triassic and hiking at Goblin Valley.


From my last post many wanted to know my secret bike-bouldering pad transportation technology: You take a stick and jam it in your bike frame and tie it down with string and straps. Done.

Fall is fun: go skiing one day and climbing a few days later, both in the Wasatch.

More racing!

I got some more racing in last weekend, this time in Gloucester, MA. The course was fast and the weather was really nice, and while those things don't swing the 'cross pendulum in my favor, I had an awesome time and got good results. I was 17th/104 on day 1 and 18th of 98 on day 2. Here are some pictures of me building a rock wall on day 2. Thanks to Chris (via Tom) for the pictures!

east coast cyclocross, 07 season opener

So I got my 'cross season started last weekend, what fun! I may be able to post some pictures, if I can get them from my interweb friends.
I drove up to Biddeford, Maine on Friday evening with Stacey (now my wife!) and my friend Colin. We stayed at my friend and occasional MTB teammate Billy's house. Colin and I headed over to Rotary Park in Biddeford early Saturday after stopping for greasy breakfast sandwiches and coffee at the corner store. Given enough digestion time, I recommend this nutritional prerace strategy, but take a look at the weekend scoreboard and decide for yourself. We got to the venue with plenty of time to get our numbers and preride the course, which was an unusual circumstance for me. We met up with Josh and Sarah and Tom in the parking lot, who are teammates on my new team, HUP United. I won't go into a lengthy course description, but I'll summarize by saying it had fun grass twisties, a high-speed grassy descent, some technical sandy sections, and a log barrier before the final gravel climb. On our pre-ride, I hopped the log, making full use of my chainring. I heard a small "chk" from my handlebars, which I ignored (but must have filed away for some reason). I lined up for the 9am C race, and of course had some start-line repairs to effect. Colin helped me add some toe-in to my front brakes, and at the last minute I decided to tighten up the faceplate bolts on my stem. Hmmm, the bottom one felt a little funny, oh well . . . At the start, I got clipped in well but had not gone three pedal strokes when my bars gave me a subtle but unmistakable sign that all was not well. Sure enough, I had stripped one of the faceplate bolt holes and was left with a worthless stem. I watched wistfully as the field disappeared up the hill and around the bend. After fiddling and confirming that all was lost, I tried to be tranquil about not getting to suffer severely for the next thirty minutes. Of course it took very little urging from Colin and Josh to decide that I could probably get the bike fixed in time for the 12 o'clock 3/4 (B) race. I stuck around long enough to see Tom sail in to win the C race, and then off I went to find a new stem. I picked one up from the fine folks at Cape Able in Kennebunkport (where Billy used to work), and was back at the venue in time to get a number and line up behind Colin and Josh. Now you'll probably be disappointed because I can never remember the details of my races - they go by in a blur and I hardly even know what lap I'm on during the race, let alone recall correctly afterwards when anything happened. I started off in some sort of pack, and moved up and down in it for quite some time. I was hoping to keep Josh and/or Colin in my sights for a little while, but that was not to be - Colin ended up winning the race, and I saw Josh wheeling his bike off the course early in the race, victim of a broken chain (those 10speed chains seem pretty fragile for cyclocross, in my opinion). I realized I need to work on a few important technical skills, namely holding my line in a pack, laying off the brakes in fast corners, and getting my feet back in my pedals. My dismounts and remounts are fair, but it takes me forever to clip in! The sand pit gave me some trouble on a couple of laps, but mostly I was able to ride it smoothly. I made places on the gravel climb on a couple of occasions, but lost time where I had trouble clipping in. I ended up in 17th out of 39, which I was very happy with.
Sunday was a fun day too - Colin and I again arrived at the venue (New Gloucester, ME) with plenty of time, having stopped again for gut-bomb breakfast sandwiches and coffee, and were joined shortly by Josh and Sarah in the parking lot. Three of their Colby teammates showed up for their 'cross racing debuts, and judging from their post-race chatter, I think they'll be back for more. After picking up my number and warming up a bit, I lined up for the start, for once getting my choice of position on the front line. I chose the far-right side - the start section consisted of a 30-yard pavement climb to a 90degree right hand turn, whereupon we descended on pavement to join the main course at the start/finish. Owing to my one-speededness, I figured I'd have to give a pretty substantial effort on the climb in order to not get dropped on the downhill that followed. The officials gave us the race instructions - 30 minutes or 3 laps, whichever came first. So we'd be racing at most 3 laps, which seemed pretty short, but it was good to know this going into the race. At "Go", I had a good clip-in (to my surprise), and found myself rounding the corner in the front with a couple of other riders. Up front with me, I recognized Deke Andrew - he won the Saturday race last year at this venue. The first tricky section in the course was a wicked down-up sidehill with no really good line, and I knew that on the first lap it was going to be trouble. Sure enough, a rider came inside on me and promptly washed out, forcing me low so I had to dab and shuffle my way out of the corner, losing a couple of places. I made up a place or two on the fire-road section going into the woods, then employed a bit of "tactics" on the next off-camber section, coming to an abrupt halt as the path tipped upwards and I lost my momentum, causing the following riders to pile up behind me. Again I shuffled out of the trouble spot and called out my apologies to those behind, and stood up to catch #1 and #2. I caught #2 without too much trouble, and it was three of us heading into the pine-needle runup. We held our positions there through the grass twisties and over the barriers, but I got past #2 on the pavement climb to the start/finish. I began to work on closing the gap to Deke, who seemed pretty comfortable out in front. I rode the first off-camber fine, though awkwardly, though the second off-camber still gave me a little trouble. I closed the gap to Deke by the pine-needle runup, and held his wheel until a short pavement climb between sections of grass switchbacks, where I made a move that could be construed as an "attack." I got past him cleanly, and tried to concentrate on not riding stupidly. I knew my weak points were in the transitions (esp. clip-ins), so I knew I needed a buffer going into those parts. Finishing lap 2 in the lead, I felt comforted by the knowledge that I had only one more lap to go. Things seemed to come together for me technically that lap, and though I wasn't especially speedy through the tricky sections, I also didn't flub anything badly. Deke made up ground on me on the transition after the runup, but I held enough of a buffer to come across the line ten seconds up to take the win! I managed a two-arms-up finish to show the world that I dominate men's category 4 cross. The race seemed very short, as indeed it was - I finished in 21:32, which means that I could have done one more lap and still been well under 30 minutes. Who am I to complain, though. The result gains me 10 upgrade points for a total of 24, so I'll be moving up to category 3 - after Gloucester! I think the category 4 race, with a field of 125, will be plenty entertaining, thanks. Races being too short will never again be an issue for me.
After my race, it was awesome to watch my friends Colin and Josh battle in the 3/4 race at noon, and then see the elite races, the highlight of which was a wicked fast junior racer bunnyhopping the barriers on lap 1, at full speed, to rocket from 4th to 1st.
Cheers
Justin

Sticky Granite

Mr. Hardage stopped into town a few weeks ago. Bobby (AKA little Bobby) now hails from Verhampshire, but is always traveling. He dropped into SLC via a trip up to the Wind Rivers.



Without a car, going out to the boulders is an all day affair.




I hope to do more climbing in combination with bike touring this year.

Russian Free Soloing

The whole village, Mom, Pop, and the kids out for a day of free soloing...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwCyM84HCcA

September is basically ski season

September is here and that is ski season for all intensive purposes. You see, in September it starts cooling off, the caterpillars start growing that extra fur, animals start gathering nuts and such, and people start gathering the necessary supplies for ski season. Bobby has purchased some new skis, I have a new set purchased last spring, and Lis is canning everything she can find at the farmer's market in advance of the Winter.

September is a long time to December you say? Not really, if you see it with the following Seinfeldian logic: September can get a freak snow storm like last year, but more to the point, September is climbing season, and we all know that climbing time goes much faster than normal time. This makes the 30 days in September more like 2 1/2 hours. The same logic applies to October and November, adding up to about 30 minutes after you factor in sleeping and time in the bathroom.