A New Start

Seeing as this is my first post of 2011 and it's already February, that could mean one of two things: Either I've been too lazy to post anything or too busy...

My last post of 2010 ended at Christmas and, at that point, I had already been spending a nice chunk of my weekends up high in the Teton backcountry. I had taken Friday, the last day of the year off from work which allowed for a perfect opportunity to close out the year with a day up in the mountains. This day, it was a jaunt up the West Mail Cabin drainage to get to what ended up being three incredibly fluffy 1,200ft laps on a beautiful easterly ridge. Although temps for the day were somewhere near zero lower in the valley, it warmed nicely up towards the 9,000-ish ft ridgetop we topped out on. A great day skiing powder.

The next morning, we were up at 5am and arrived at the top of Teton Pass for what most likely ended up being the first lap on Glory for 2011. There were no cars up there. No tracks. Just bitter cold darkness and a biting wind. Can't say the skiing was amazing, but it was never intended to be. The purpose was to get up there early and get it in before the rest of the day's events took over.




The following day, we were up again at an early hour and headed over to Bradley-Taggart for what we were hoping would be an attempt up the Middle Teton. The forecast looked pretty good and the morning was calm and mostly clear when we left the car at 6:30. All systems go. At the Meadows in Garnet Canyon, we stopped to refuel and got our first whiff of the icy wind blowing down off the high saddles between the peaks. Another 1,000ft up and we were enveloped in a cloud, visibility down to not much, traversing a hard, wind-packed sloped which provided a precarious perch for the edges of our skin-covered ski bases to hold purchase. That, and the wind had picked up against us substantially to a strong, steady force. A bit tense. But we kept going. Up another 500 ft and the ground had been wind-scoured and became mostly rock connected with an interlacing patchwork of snow. We walked over it all with our skis on until we finally made the agreement to turn back. Going up further in these conditions would provide us very little benefit and, although comfortable physically, it was evident this would not be our day. We turned back and arrived back at the car with a great day of time up high in the mountains, surviving the elements, and just a tad bit of frostnip on the bridge of my nose.

Later that week, I had a chance to hike Glory in late afternoon. A truly fantastic way to end a day.

A sign of things to come? What could this mis-matched array of items be doing together? What does it all mean?

Merry Christmas!

Time flies. And so does the snow. And this past month, so did Trevor. At least I felt like I had. Apparently, that's what repetitive 1,000 ft doses of powder snow does to me. I don't know, I guess I'm still getting used to it, but it's becoming more natural and I absolutely love getting up high on some new terrain in the winter. What began generally as an idea and a dream a couple months ago has quickly become a reality. And sometimes I still feel as though I'm living a surreal dream.

The weekend of the 4th/5th, I was able to get in a few runs at the Ghee with Ron after work on Saturday and then Sunday was spent skiing Oliver in the morning before attending an Arts Council meeting that afternoon. I had plans to visit Portland from Dec. 8th-14th, but heavy winter weather snuffed out those plans and I instead spent that weekend doing what else... spending alot of time on skis in the backcountry. Saturday, Dec. 11th, we took a couple laps again on Oliver. Quick and easy. Sunday, it was back into the park (GTNP) for a trip up Garnet Canyon. Rapidly warming temps put an abrupt end to that trip as we began to encounter widespread areas of unstable snow throughout the canyon at 8,500ft.

The next weekend, Jay and Lisa put on a 5k/10k run in Teton Springs on Saturday so off I went to run a 10k.


After the run, MikeE and I took a Glory lap off Teton Pass and came home feeling utterly spent. But, of course, then it was Sunday and that meant going to the park for Big Powder Park Sunday! We ended up getting three laps on Maverick and calling it another great day.

I took the end of this past week off so after doing some Christmas prep on Wednesday, I took off on skate skis in Teton Canyon for a quick dusk jaunt upcanyon and back. Thursday, taking advantage of a midweek day off, we headed back into the park for a trip up 25 Short. Yep, another three big laps of soft fluff. How could I ever go back to resort skiing after this? Friday, Christmas Eve, we made for the summit of Housetop Mountain, but after 4 hours of ascending, we called it off and turned back having another 1 1/2 hours to go before reaching the summit and a dinner party to be back for at 5:30. That peak has a deceptively long approach. Maybe some other day when we have more time.
Which brings me to today. Christmas. And another early trip up Oliver before anyone else had arrived and an absolutely beautiful Christmas morning to enjoy.

And if anyone is wondering where the photos are, well, some of them are still in my camera somewhere up on Maverick where my camera departed my possession and became one with the frozen Teton Mountains. And that explains why the photos from the later trips are missing as well. So until I get a new camera, this will have to do.

Merry Christmas to all of you.


Also, a friend of mine sent this video link to me. Another brilliantly done short film.

DARK SIDE OF THE LENS from Astray Films on Vimeo.

Donating Shoes to Africa

I've been meaning to put up this post for quite a while.



Last February or March, a dozen or so pairs of my old trail running shoes were stuffed into an oversize, overweight suitcase and flown off to Africa. This is where they ended up.









There are many organizations out there that take in used (but still in wearable condition) running shoes and send them over to Africa. Woontanara Aid just happens to be my local connection. From the sounds of it, collecting shoes and getting them to Guinea is logistically difficult for this particular organization and, at this point, it's not something that they are really focused on. Woontanara Aid recognizes the need for shoes over there, and they were happy to make room for mine, but their focus happens to be in other areas like education and health care.

My biggest request is to never throw away your old shoes unless they are completely, utterly unwearable. There are plenty of people in this country that would love to have a still decent looking pair of top-tier footwear. And there are countless other people in other countries much worse off than ours that may have never worn shoes in their entire life. So donate them. Either to your local second-hand store or maybe to an international shoe-specific charitable organization. Give the gift. Share the love. You may never know just where your old shoes will end up. But won't you feel good knowing they may cause a reaction like this?



For more information, please visit


http://www.woontanaraaid.org/

Here are a couple more websites for non-profit organizations that are shoe specific:

http://www.shoe4africa.org/

http://www.theashefoundation.org/

Wimpy's

The morning started innocently enough. A 6:30 alarm. A 7:00 ride. A drive over to the Death Canyon TH in Jackson.


Unfortunately, we got caught in Jackson's morning rush hour traffic...

We left the car at 8:45 and set off under a light snow to begin the long 4,000ft ascent up to Wimpy's. Everyone around here agrees, this has been one of the most memorable snowpacks for late November the Tetons has seen in a while. Which is fine with me, really, because as a result of a number of logistics falling into place nicely, I have a wide open door to fully experience everything the Teton Backcountry has to offer this winter. And today, things were looking good if not great.

The skin track from the prior visitors was still clear for the most part up the majority of the lower portion of the ascent, but began to fade up higher as the wind and steadily falling snow filled it in. We made the top in a steady, but comfortable 3 1/2 hours, took in the magnitude of our foggy perch, and proceeded on to a three lap, 900ft circuit in some of the best November fluff the Tetons can produce.

After the first lap, we stood on top of Wimpy's pondering the plausibility of getting up Albright Peak and just as we had settled on at least traversing over to check out the snow stability over there, I saw the cloud...

The large cornice on the NE facing ridgetop had released sending a massive volume of snow and ice down the face directly in front of us. The cloud of snow was followed by a thunderous crash as the debris cascaded down the NE face onto the lower snowfield. That was enough for us. Negative on Albright. So we took two more laps on Wimpy's.

What a day. I'm quickly finding my ski legs both climbing and descending and feeling better each time I go out even with my heinously monsterous skis. I could use a pair half the weight, but at this point it's only making me stronger. And it's what I got. So that's that.

The final descent down was what one would expect of a continuous 4,000 powder run. Not much else to say about that. Keep it snowing.

Table Mountain - almost

Tried to go up Table today but was twarted by a couple of factors: Late start, friend's frozen pipes at home (cause of the late start), ungroomed ski from the winter trailhead to the base of the climb that took longer than expected, and LOTS of deep, untracked snow to climb through. I am exhausted. But in a good way. And I doubt there is a more complete workout than what we did today. After the past few weeks, I needed it.

Skiing off into the sunset

Bliss

Down lower, the snow started to get heavier and thinner. So did the trees and willows. We had to pick our line down very carefully and never really felt completely safe until we were back at the summer trailhead. I happened to be on the receiving end of the two most noteworthy incidents. Finding the slope's biggest hidden rock garden and taking a scrubby aspen square between the legs. Luckily, I was able to push it mostly down and out of harm's way. Sheesh. The risks involved with trying to take a few early season turns...

We didn't make it to the top, but we were able to partake of the slope's best snowfields which, other than being a bit thin in spots, actually held pretty decent snow. Don't know if I'm gonna make it up Table this month. I haven't yet and I only have two more available days to do it.