There’s more than one way to keep cool as the blazing heat of Salt Lake City’s desert climate peaks during the months of July and August. Sure, you can head high into the mountains, where temperatures are a good 15 degrees cooler than in the valley, sometimes even more as the ridgetop winds cool things off substantially. A hike, mountain bike trip, or even an overnight or two of camping can keep the summertime temperatures at bay if you remain above an elevation of 10,000 feet. There’s also swimming at various reservoirs and lakes (not including the Great Salt Lake, which is essentially Continue reading ‘Keeping Cool in the Heat of Summer’
Monthly Archive for July, 2010
In a busy week around the Juy 4th holiday during which I enjoyed my final turns on the previous winter’s snow (I remind myself that if I’m lucky, more snow is less than three months away), I managed to squeeze in another adventure, this time on the mountain bike. Sadly, I hung up the skis for good (until fall) following a prime ski adventure in the Tetons. However, riding dirt trails takes some of the sting out of the loss of the snow, and the Wasatch Crest Trail is one of Continue reading ‘Wasatch Crest Trail to Desolation Lake’
Park City as viewed from the Mid-Mountain trail.
After failing to complete the Mid-Mountain Trail at Park City a few weeks earlier after encountering a ‘closed’ sign between Park City and the Canyons, I was happy to hear that the trail had opened, and headed up with Liz to cover some miles Continue reading ‘Mid-Mountain Part Deux’
Roasting through Salt Lake City’s version of summer – scorching in the valley, naturally cooler and just about bearable in the mountains, my thoughts turn without effort to better memories. One day in particular keeps reappearing in my mind. It was February 20th, 2010, the snowpack was maintaining avalanche danger at a level significant enough to keep everyone checking and re-checking that their Ortovox’s were turned on and working, and I headed out solo to work on pushing vertical on reasonably safe slopes.
The uncrowded skin track as it breaks off from the main White Pine trail.
For a lack of crowding, I chose well, heading to the ridges between the Birthday Chutes, located on the North aspect of Red Top. Having headed up to this area the day prior, I knew Continue reading ‘Summertime Evokes Blizzard Memories’
Something unusual often happens when endurance athletes mull over the hardest thing they’ve ever done. Rather than think about the sheer challenge and their lack of desire to repeat the project, their brains often head in another direction entirely.
“Could it be done faster; could I do it faster? Did I need to stop as many times along the way as I did last time? Would more sleep the night before enable Continue reading ‘Goal Setting’
Beginning to pack within half an hour of arriving home from my favorite July 4th tradition – skiing – I headed the auto to Jackson to partake of the perfect weather slated for the next day. Aiming for this to be the final ski descent of a long and decent season, I was happy that Jim LaRue could partake. For one accident, illness, or additional random event or the other, we only managed to ski together a handful of times this season. Hoping to make the skiing count, we roped in Continue reading ‘Salvaging a Ski Outing’