Monthly Archive for May, 2011

Volunteer for National Trails Day

Published on May 31, 2011 by a ok.

Love your summertime trails? Volunteer to help keep them in great shape! Saturday, June 4th is National Trails Day, the American Hiking Society’s 19th annual celebration of all things trail oriented. Especially if the concrete sidewalks have been wearing down the tread on your shoes lately, this is a perfect time to get outdoors, into nature, and give something back to the community inside a natural environment. It’s not a bad way to meet other folks with similar interests, either.

Trail maintenance keeps trails in good shape for every user, and there are plenty of projects happening on National Trails Day. Some events are even sponsored and meals, along with a deep sense of community involvement, will be served up.

Events in your area can be found at American Hiking – the link provides a map; just choose your state and trail events will be listed by area. Utah has several Trails Day events spread over various counties, including Kanab, Clearfield, Loa, Midway, New Harmony, Ogden, and Salt Lake City. Wyoming has a few of their own Trails Day events scattered around, although the Tetons do have their own work crews..  That leaves Cheyenne, Lander, Laramie, Lovell, and Worland as the areas where volunteering on National Trails Day can happen.

Click the links, and you’ll go straight to listings in your area where further details on times and directions can be found. Then get out there and get a little dirty with strangers!

As usual with trail events, sensible clothing such as pants and boots or shoes, rather than sandals, are recommended. Work gloves are often a beautiful thing on these days as well.

 

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Trip of a Lifetime

Published on May 29, 2011 by a ok.

It’s not 100% human powered, but it’s a feat of some endurance anyway.. My partner for 2 forays down the Teton Crest Trail – one immediately following a freak snowstorm – and a venture into the Grand Canyon for a one day Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim excursion has taken the distance idea to heart. John is thousands of miles into a trip via dirtbike across the South American continent.

John often makes a habit of meeting new people in new places..

It’s pretty physical, holding onto a dirt bike all day long, especially when one has the extra difficulty of crossing the driest place on the planet – the Atacama desert. It looks like John’s bike waited until he passed through this grueling section before the wheels fell off, so to speak.

While John started off on this adventure solo, he has picked up a companion sidekick along the way. This lightweight friend, a mustache, has provided solace on lonely nights spent tentside. He’s fired up a blog to document the journey, and writes in about once a week. The adventures he describes are classic travel stories – unpredictable occurrences and hints of incredible beauty, in both physical landscapes and treatment by strangers. That, and of course there is the occasional bike wreck to talk about as he winds his way through tight mountain roads.

And, in keeping with our prior joint efforts, he’s even had a day trip up to Machu Picchu, running the mountainous 28 mile trail in one effort. For those interested in stories of travel adventure, follow along with John’s remaining adventures at allimax.blogspot.com. After 70 plus days of traveling and soaking in local culture, he’s only got a dozen stories up so far, but they’re all pretty interesting. For example, the time a fistfight broke out around him as he repaired a flat tire roadside.. Or the time he stopped for two weeks to help folks build some houses. Good stuff.

 

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Garmont Masterlite Breaks Again…

Published on May 28, 2011 by a ok.

Only a handful of ski days passed between my posting a full review of the Garmont Masterlite ski boots before this next issue reared its head:

Another part bites the dust on the Garmont Masterlite.

Whoops. Broken equipment is not what you want to look down and see when you’re skiing the Hellgate Couloir! One of the reasons I gravitated towards the Masterlite in the first place was that I thought the (metal) buckles would take a bit more abuse than competitive offerings which didn’t use metal wire for the closure latch. Guess not. That makes it three strikes for this one boot. Guess this can be a late addition to the full Masterlite boot review. One more for the ‘dislike‘ category…

 

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Hellgate Couloir Solo

Published on May 27, 2011 by a ok.

Somewhere along the way I’ve seen a quote by Andrew McLean (of the famed McClean* turn), the gist of which was, ’90% of ski descents that involve a rappel aren’t worth doing twice.’ Whether I wanted to find out the validity of that statement or not, I found myself in the Hellgate Couloir again, solo, two days after my last visit with Jason. That’s because one of the things no one in the ski mountaineering world wants to occur, happened on the first visit: the ropes – 2 joined 60 meter jobbies – got stuck on the final rappel and wouldn’t pull down. Neither end would budge a centimeter, with plenty of joint effort from several angles. Had this happened in a place where I was using a smaller rope, I might have let the situation end with the loss of a rope and called it a day.

A longer, possibly easier route in red, with a more direct route in blue. Green is where ya ski. Letters indicate where there are anchors.

But with two full length ropes stuck up there in one shot, leaving them to rot wasn’t a happy thought. Worse, one wasn’t mine – it was borrowed. Worse still as I later learned Continue reading ‘Hellgate Couloir Solo’

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Hellgate Couloir

Published on May 26, 2011 by a ok.

The Hellgate Couloir, in all its ski-base-jumping-potential glory. We laid first tracks on the day. Almost as exciting as catching first tracks out of the Snowbird tram across the street. Almost. 

‘Remembering is so much more a psychotic activity than forgetting.’ This quote, which caught my ear during a recent viewing of the movie, Waking Life, rang truer after a ski descent of the Hellgate Couloir with Jason Borro. I won’t linger too long on the concepts of remembering versus forgetting – perhaps the psychologists can hash out a fuller explanation. But I like the pithiness of this offbeat movie’s summation – in light of what Hellgate offers, it seems apt.

I wouldn’t say that I’ve been ‘staring’ at this line, but after an attempt that led to a booting exit up and out a few months ago, it seems plain that I’ve been ‘remembering’ the line. It’s hard not to, for as anyone who skis at Snowbird or Alta could tell you, the Hellgate Couloir kind of stares right at both resorts. Assessed during a good view from a quick ski outing a few days prior, snow coverage looked decent. With an actual sunny day predicted during the Winter That Will Not End, as well as Continue reading ‘Hellgate Couloir’

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Ski Mountaineering Versus Backcountry Skiing

Published on May 25, 2011 by a ok.

I think one of the main differences between ski mountaineering and backcountry skiing is that ski mountaineering often involves a bit less snow. Both offer plenty of sunshine, thrills, and seclusion, but ultimately, there’s just less snow – and possibly a few less turns – in one discipline than the other. Maybe less crowding, too, but that probably just depends on the day…

No time for a full report on today’s adventure, but here are a few pics as a prelude.

 

Less snow? Check. Jason Borro linking 'patches of snow.'

Make that way less snow. But there's plenty of sunshine to compensate.

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