Saturday, November 12, 2011

White Rim in a Day Solo

Some of the amazing sights along a eight mile stretch of the white rim.



I dropped my water bottle in this crack and had to go after it.
It's hard see the trail conditions in this pic, but is was great riding with very little sand due to recent rain.

Better look at that 8 mile stretch....
Panoramic of a section of the white rim.
My faithful steed gave the white rim hell not a single break down.Green River
The Candle Stick Tower


This was taken on top of murphy's hogback at 53 miles in the piont of no return both my quadracieps cramped and locked up on me. I honestly thought I was a sitting duck at this point because I was 25 miles from my car support, I had not crossed the hard scrable yet, and my legs where locking straight every time I stood up straight at this point. I changed my attack plan for the ride...Before mile 53, I was pedaling almost all the time and after hitting the mile 53 wall, I would pedal at an average speed of under 11 mph. It worked!!! My legs never broke down like that for the rest of the ride.



I have to give mad respect to Barstow on this one, he gave me beta on the trail from when he road it. He told me of things to look for and signs of my progress. I should be known that all Skier Boyz,' The Creep'n Catipillar, and a snowmaker talked a big game about going on this ride But when it came down to it there was only a lone old wasatch guy on the trail that day.
~El Borracho Loco

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Kenai Ski Weekend - November 5 and 6

Well, I ditched day 2 on the Alaska Snow Safety Conference to go backcountry skiing by myself. It was just too blue and there was plenty of low density fresh. I tore out of Rage City in cloud. I didn't bother to get the snow off my car; that's what highways are for. I had a Plan A, B, and C. Plan A was a long shot, but even with steeps odds, that horse came in.

I espied a skinner heading up Sunny Side at Turnagain Pass. It was an aggressive skinner but it was efficient. I ran into the group that set the skinner, and they were more than happy to share what conditions to expect up higher. They had kicked off a small wind slab off the SW aspect of Pt. 3340. I promised to keep my angles low.

Pt. 3340

About the time that I gained the ridge, the light went to shit. Oh well. I dropped into the low angle Triangle Bowl at the head of Seattle Creek. Even though the angle was low, the exposure from above was high. Avalanches had released in the prior 24 hours from either side leaving a mess of debris in the gut. I didn't linger.

While I was doing the mess around in Seattle Creek there was some action on the front side. A glide crack had fully released above the skinner taking out about 150' off switchbacks. Other than the nervous bile creeping up into to my mouth leaving an awful acrid taste, the skiing was excellent.

Dang ole' glide!

On Sunday morn, I responded to a flash mob request to Occupy Tenderfoot. Our caravan of 99%ers arrived well caffeinated and anxious to participate in a well thought out movement that is sure to bring about real change.

H★ Claiming Her Spot

KAZ and H★ formed our own mini group and sussed out some alternative areas to occupy. This led us to the north side of Tenderfoot Ridge. A+ snow accompanied our descent towards Butcher Creek. We returned back to Tenderfoot Ridge to reclaim our area, but by this point other protesters were congregating in our zone, but there was plenty of room for all.

The ground still hasn't frozen (3,500') and there was evidence off recent glide fractures in the area. A small wind slab had released on a micro feature (NW facing, 8", 10' wide, ran about 20').

H★ Occupyin'

- U.K.