Archive for the 'Going Light(er) Fast(er) Far(ther)' Category

Pinball Alley (and Friends)

Published on May 14, 2012 by a ok.

Pinball Alley. Not a very wide alley.

Landed a decent photo of Pinball Alley when I was on Cardiff Peak with J-Bo last week, and it looked continuous upon inspection. Why wait? The days aren’t getting any shorter or colder. I proferred ski options during the invite process. Jason offered his own, suggesting ‘continuous pow.’ Hmm. Presuming that he preferred to avoid using the lengthy shoelaces for a descent, we agreed easily upon Mount Superior’s Pinball. It was a good choice, even if it didn’t offer either of his chosen descriptors.

We met up at the Park n Ride at 7am, and, following a quick drive up the canyon, were quickly in position to ascend. We agreed that booting looked favorable, and left skins in the auto. Some mixed walking – snow, then talus, then snow again – found us at the base of the couloir in short order. We donned crampons, pulled out ice axes, and began to ascend. Because there are shadows cast on the looker’s left half of the line, we found that snow to be quite firm. The snow on the right half was soft corn. Sticking Continue reading ‘Pinball Alley (and Friends)’

Located in 03 Adventures, Going Light(er) Fast(er) Far(ther) and Wasatch 6 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Monte Cristo Direct (Redux)

Published on April 10, 2012 by a ok.

It’s déjà vu all over again. – Yogi Berra

The ski days of late keep requiring a PROBAR breakfast – in my case, usually one PROBAR and one or two Fruition bars tossed down the hatch while driving to the mountains. Today’s feast included the new double chocolate flavor, as well as lemon. Both are flavorful!  It’s a fast breakfast of choice when time is at a premium. And, of late, spare time has been a little spare. Not unlike the direction the snowpack is heading.

Snow is quickly becoming a premium commodity in the ole Wasatch.

But, duty called. A page out of last season’s playbook apparently got mixed in with this year’s edition. The situation was virtually identical, leading to the need for the opening quote. Just as happened with last year’s Hellgate Couloir outing and subsequent solo return visit  Continue reading ‘Monte Cristo Direct (Redux)’

Located in 03 Adventures, 06 Energy Sources, 11 Perspective, Going Light(er) Fast(er) Far(ther) and Wasatch 4 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Encore

Published on April 10, 2012 by a ok.

How does that saying go – You can take the racer out of the race, but you can’t take the race out of the racer? Err, something like that. That in mind, for anyone who hasn’t heard, there is another of the low key, informal, and free rando races coming up this Friday, April 20th. Still at Brighton, however, a slight change as the starting time will be earlier than the Thursday night fiestas; plan to be racing at 5:30 p.m. Friday instead of the usual 7 p.m.

Not sure if it’s purely racing (with this crowd, it might be silly to expect otherwise) or a group ski, but the plan appears to also include a BBQ, so bring some edibles and something to sit on afterwards if that’s your style.

If you’ve been sitting in the wings all season long, wishing that the races were on a different night than Thursday so you could attend, now is your chance. Come on up to Brighton for what may be the last Wasatch rando race of the season. Yes, the last race already happened a while ago; but please refer to the first sentence of this post…

 

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Monte Cristo Directissimo

Published on April 9, 2012 by a ok.

Pondsy came to town – all the way from Boston – so like any conscientious ski mountaineer, I did not suggest that we ski the foot or so of untracked, buttery soft, light as a feather powder still to be found on certain aspects here in the Wasatch range. No snorkel meter measurements for us. No. Instead, I agreed that it was a fine idea when he suggested the south facing Directissimo. That seemed likely to provide a fine outing on a variable snow surface.

The moon, sunrise, Superior, Pondsy out for a stroll in the Wasatch..

Indeed, the line included all of: bulletproof, flowing water, breakable crust, frozen avy debris, corn, chicken heads, and death cookies. No powder in sight. It was sweet. Some people search high and low for a ski descent that provides smooth consistency in the snow surface from top to bottom. That’s no way to Continue reading ‘Monte Cristo Directissimo’

Located in 03 Adventures, Going Light(er) Fast(er) Far(ther) and Wasatch 4 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

The Flanks of Red Baldy

Published on April 7, 2012 by a ok.

With an afternoon trailhead departure time, Travis and I headed to some north facing options to avoid solar heat inspired headlines, and ended up banging around on Red Baldy. Plenty of other tracks there (15-20?), but plenty of untouched as well. Curious about the stability of the icy sandwich beneath the feet, a pit was dug. Dang, that’s some sandwich down there, still. Three, maybe four, separate, distinct ice layers in 2.5 feet of depth, with 6-10 inches rounding out the top. Reasonably stable, though. It’s a slice of good news, I’ll take it.

With a new lightweight bc rig, Travis nearly floats up the hills.

Snowpits aside, we got in some good conditions despite the heat, and managed two quick laps before Travis’ must-attend-to-girlfriend meter started sounding. Fortunately Continue reading ‘The Flanks of Red Baldy’

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Against the Clock

Published on March 30, 2012 by a ok.

Some days the outing goes flawlessly and surpasses expectations. That was the case on Wednesday. Thursday was one of those days where everything wasn’t flawless. J-Bo had informed me during my recruitment efforts the previous day that he had to pick his parents up at the airport at such and such time.

Extracting promises that we could pull off a bit of fun and he would not be late to pick up the ‘rents, he agreed to join in. Know that this poor fella has completely missed an important business meeting and I-forget-what-else-but-probably-something-important (it wouldn’t be worth mentioning otherwise) in the past due to my overly-optimistic assessments of how fast we could get those days’ missions done. Once again I was completely confident that we could be out in plenty of time for him to shower, take the gear out of the car, and not arrive at the airport still dripping sweat, clad head to toe in highly breathable softshell garments.

Where did it all go wrong? Pretty much from the moment Continue reading ‘Against the Clock’

Located in 03 Adventures, Going Light(er) Fast(er) Far(ther) and Wasatch 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , .