Before the New Year

I've been real lucky to ski a bunch of new lines so far this year. The snow base is deep and what seems to be above average for the year. Certainly much more than last year. Mineral may be my new favorite spot. Quite a bit of solace, minus the Powder Birds, but that's a-okay. Enough room for all to play in. Here is a quick edit of the past few weeks..



There are still many days left in the snow calender year. I'm really looking forward for the next few weeks. Another storm system is brewing up mid week this week. There's no such thing as too much snow.

Cold Days

The forecast called for lots of snow. That's what happened. And what came with such a big storm, meaning... measuring the the snowfall in feet, was wind. Penetrating wind. Wind drifts everywhere. Pockets of danger everywhere. It's almost hard to keep your head together when venturing out in such conditions. Which way do I go, am I going the easiest way, when is this wind going to die down, where is the steep stuff I want to avoid!! This talk may seem like something from mid-February, but no, it's still before Thanksgiving. The Wasatch is playing a little trick and pretending to be the middle of the winter. The ski run delivered but by the end of it my bones where cold to the core. I wanted no more. I wanted inside. A hot shower and a pb&j after this outing made me feel like I was in a four star resort. I need to continue going out in these adverse conditions to help me for bigger things, but today, I just felt shot.

Me at the end of the day. Frozen.


This day will keep me hungry for more when I get back. Leaving to NY for Thanksgiving tomorrow.

Washington

About a month ago my friend Andrea has surgery on her ankle. I decided with only having a short window of opportunity, to go see her. She gave me a quick and dirty run down of the Seattle & Ferndale/Bellingham area. There is a big difference coming from Utah. Everything is green in WA. After being on sensory overload of how lush everything was I took some pictures, and realized I missed this part of the outdoors.
Here are some pictures to show you what I mean.








By spring time, I hope to be back. This time to ski & hopefully, all contingent on the recovery of the ankle, with Andrea!

And a short video edit I made about the trip:

Times are a changing..

And just like turning on a light switch, winter is here. Last week the Wasatch received over 30 inches of snow! Amazing!! Early this month, I went out on some solo ski tours. It was exciting as I checked out a couple of new areas that I've never been to before. Going solo is quite enjoyable. No indecisiveness whether or not you want to go here or there. You just go.

Early November... North Face of Patsy Marly

The next day... Skied a bowl Near Sunset Peak (Backside of Alta)

The view down LCC. Superior is looking mean!


Today, I went with Shelby, my BC Ski partner. We went back to Patsy Marly's north facing shot to ski it...this time in powder.
Video of Shelby here:


So much fun. Hope the season continues like this!

Moab-->Wasatch-->Bed

I've been really fortunate to have some great mentors in the mountains. My buddy Zach just got back to the states from guiding over in Switzerland and we met down in Moab. Out of the five days, we climbed 4 of them. Either burning up in the heat on single pitch stuff off of Wallstreet or waiting for things to cool off for some longer things. The catch with that is you better bring your head lamp!!
Ancient Art goes up that corkscrew looking thing on the left!


The view out towards Castleton Valley. Still going up at this point. Getting dark!


Me at the base of the corkscrew part of the climb. You can see it in the background


We were always trying to find the window to climb. Heat, wind, storms all played a factor. We got to climb The Owl in Arches right before a huge storm cell hit!
This is a picture of The Owl, minutes after we got off it, with the storm coming right at us.


Parting shot at Arches NP


After that little get-a-way I headed back to SLC and Zach followed suite a couple days later. We did a lot of climbing in Little Cottonwood. We got to do a lot of classics. Crack in the Woods --> Hand Jive, Becky's Wall, Pentapitch (Sasquatch Variation), Satan's Corner (getting rained on!)
Here is Zach on Hand Jive.

Fall colors looking up LCC with the final pitch of Pentapitch in view. It's a small cryptic friction traverse to the thin crack that goes up!


After a bit of climbing, my shoulder started to act up. Its sore, so I'm taking a few days off as I do not want to aggravate it too much before winter comes. And winter is knocking at our doors with whispers of La Nina talk drifting about the internet forums. During this downtime I've been building a website! Check it out @ www.glacierview-alaska.com I've also been building a bed frame! Check THAT out! I can make my own bed!

Running

Running dominated my time during high school and college. I don't think a single coach truly appreciated my dedication, as I normally took winters off to go skiing. However, when I was running competitively I gave it my all. Fractions of a second mattered to me over a race that was 5 miles long. With that kind of mentality, you can see how one can become obsessed to an extent. It wasn't healthy. College summers consisted of working on a tree farm for 50 hours a week and then running 80 miles a week. All to put your body at a new level (speed) it's never seen before. After college.. well, after Junior year, I never can say I got back in the swing of things with running. I never raced again. Whats the point? I'd never be as fast as I once was nor will I become dedicated that much.

After this ski season I felt like my lungs and legs were in pretty decent shape. So I went for a run. I've continued running all throughout and I finally feel like I am a runner once again. It's great! I love it! I'm even starting to name some runs here in Salt Lake like I use to at Oneonta. See, at college we'd name some runs to do. For example,.. "oh, lets to red barn" or "hey, lets go run east to west" Just naming runs gives it some value in my eyes rather than the boring, lets go for 60 minutes.

So today, I ran "Bypass". This is a 4 mile loop. Starting at Snowbirds tram base, running through the bypass road...all the way up to the end of the LCC road and back down running right underneath Mt. Superior. It's a big circle. After .2 though, your saliva is incredibly thick, your head is pounding and you just want to give up. The run is not only at 9,000 feet, but it has a steady uphill to start! This is the second time I've done this loop. You need enough time to forget about how much the run hurts before going back to it.

I'm excited. Tomorrow I will be flying back to New York. Very old familiar run loops will come into mind. New Paltz Rail Trail, OCP (Orange county park) loop, and some runs up in Albany. It'll be great to judge and see how fit I am from where I once was, since the altitude here hurts your times slightly.

Last week in Indian Creek after a fantastic run.

Tetons

The Grand Teton is such an iconic peak. If you caught a glimpse of it, you'd want to stand on top.
Here it is in all its glory.


When I met up with Sergio, we decided to throw in an extra dinner "just in case". Why not, I was carrying around a 110 liter bag, figure I got the room. It turned out to be a good call. On the approach we hiked to the moraine camp sites, just below the lower saddle. That night, it rained.. i yelled outloud some expletives to mother nature and then all that rain turned to ice with a few inches of snow on top. Dang!!


Next day heaps of people were coming down from the lower saddle, not even giving the mtn any effort because of the ice. Some did, and reported too much ice to even think about it. Sergio and I figured the sun has to melt things off throughout the course of the day. So we got a hold of our loved ones & told them we'd be an extra day; called up the rangers & asked for another day on the mtn (got it) and figured the 3rd day we'd climb the route. By the way, the lower saddle has cell phone service! Or else, we would of had to hiked back down 8 miles, 5k feet....

So, we packed up everything from the moraine and moved ourselves more up the mtn on the lower saddle. Mostly it was for something to do for the day and also a change of scenery.
Sergio on the lower saddle with the Grand behind.


We ate the extra dinner that evening. I had 3 snickers bars for the following day. 1 for breakfast, 1 for the summit, and one for camp before the hike out.
The sunset from the lower saddle did not disappoint.


Most of the climbing was low class 5, so we simu-climbed a lot of the route (upper exum). We ended up doing the route exactly aside from one spot!!! We went up some fantastic looking arete that went about 5.6 instead of hopping in the v-pitch.
Me thinking when is the climbing going to end!?

Sergio following me up.

Last little bit to the summit!

Me at the top!

Me back down at the lower saddle with the grand on my left. The right sky line leading to the summit was the route we did.

A Parting shot. Until next time...

Alaska

I arrived in the lower 48 last night, drove to Jackson, and tomorrow will set off on another adventure to climb the Grand Teton. More on that later. Let me recap Alaska. If there is one place any climber, hiker, skier, or plain vacationest tourist should see, it would have to be Alaska. The peaks are inspiring to see. They can be nice to you and they can also be mean.
I went up there to guide for MICA Guides. You can view the little promo-vid I did for them here:


It was great taking people out and showing them the time of their lives. I appreciated the work much more this go around. I feel as though I have matured a lot since 2007 when I worked for them last and had the opportunity to learn new rescue systems from some of the other senior guides. It's a nice confidence boost going into a job application knowing/understanding these skills.

The fellow guides were a blast to hang out with, climb with, and work with. I will really miss there presence but hopefully our paths will cross again. I have a feeling they will. It seems I always run into old familiar faces somewhere randomly.

The real cherry on top was at the end of my time there. I had 3-4 days to basically climb or do whatever I wanted. Unfortuently this summer was a wet one, and that continued for my last hurray trip. This made me change my plans, so I decided to road trip to Talkeetna. Along the way, and inbetween 2 different low pressures that were burrowing through from Anchorage, I had the chance to see the great one, Denali. Looking at it from the south I could see my future. Forget Europe, forget about South America, Denali has all that I need in my lifetime to cure my needs. Putting things on a time line is arbitrary. But I do want to work my body and increase my hard skills to accomplish clicking into my skis at the top and ski down, along with (a long-term future goal) climbing the Cassin Ridge. I have a feeling yearly pilgrimages to the Alaskan Range are in store for me.

So, sklpping ahead to today. I am at the Climber's Ranch in the Teton National Park, looking at this big hunk of rock called the Grand Teton. I am over the hype of climbing this thing. It's iconic, its looks like a fun climb, but the hole area around here has this weird vibe that I can not stand. I almost want to leave, but will do it just to do it. Maybe my tune will change when I am in the mtns. Or maybe I should just move to AK and be among hundreds of "grand tetons" w/o a single person around.

Drifting around for a bit

June came and went real quick. It started with me rock climbing a lot and ended with a phone call which will place me in Alaska at the end of this week. In between all of that I had the chance to see good friends, family, and also turned 26 in an airport terminal.

Belaying up my roommate Eric on the West Slabs of Mt. Olympus (5.5 Grade 3) Most of the climbing I've done were in Big Cottonwood Canyon. Also, I made a trip out to American Fork & occasionally bouldered in Little Cottonwood when climbing partners were non-existent.


Mini-HaHa on Lake George. This was during my visit back east. Only there for a week.


Me and the parents on Lake George


Me getting ready before one of my best friend's wedding. So much fun, the visit back home was much to short. Perhaps life may drift me back that way. I miss them all.


My friend, Andy, getting ready to tie the knot.


The day after I returned I got a phone call from Don, seeing if I wanted to spend the next month and a half up in Alaska. Why not? I fly back to Utah August 11st, depending on if they still need me or not; or better yet if I want to climb something big while I'm up there.

May Recap

May was an interesting month. It started off snowing 7 feet in 4 days. May 3rd and 4th where some of the deepest days of the year! Who would of thought? My friend Mike swung on through from Ouray at that time and was in for some classic Wasatch Powder. Video of those days here:


Rapid warming after that caused numerous afternoon wet slide avalanches. The following days I got my things in order for a trip to southern Utah. First I did some bouldering to warm up on, and than climbed some sport routes in the Utah Hills (which is Limestone rock! pretty cool!) After that, Garrett and I headed to Zion to do some free climbing in the park. The cragging areas there can not be beat with lack of crowds, quality setting, and aesthetic lines. After that we headed to St. George to climb at Snow Canyon. Video of it all here:


Another storm came through Salt Lake upon my return. Powder day on May 24th! Unbelievable! But believe it!! My roommate Lee and I and one of his friends Aaron skinned up Alta and had one last amazing powder run for the year. Video of that day here:


May 24th!!!!
Aaron

Lee


Not a bad May to remember.

Small World

I came across a new photo editing technique called Tilt/Shift. It's pretty basic and fun to use. Essentially less depth of field (defocusing) everything other than what you want to be in focus will play a trick on your eyes, making the subject look miniature. I played around on it with some old photos. The pictures that hold the best effect are ones that are not zoomed in and hold a lot of subject matter.
Shelby on top of Timp's ridgeline.

Mike down in Ouray, Colorado.

The following two came out awesome! Jaya hiking with some guests on the Bomber Glacier, AK.

Winter Recap

This winter was an endless adventure. The skiing and the climbing made my soul dance. It'll be hard to forget the events that happened the last few months. I worked nights, 8 bucks an hour bumming chairs up at Brighton and lived the dream. I consider myself extremely fortunate to put into action exactly what I want.
This is normally what I looked like about 4 times a week after touring for the day. Pretty exhausted and usually had about 30 minutes to relax before work. Hard to feel sorry for me though. Normally the day was absolutely amazing and usually I learned something about myself or the mountains.

The control panel where I stop the lift after a beater wrecks himself getting on or off the lift.


A view from the top Silver Fork. I had lunch here!!!!!


Down and out! Just got done skiing Box Elder Peak after an unsuccessful bid earlier in the season.


Sweet sweet powder turns. My tracks. Putting the zipper down with the megawatts.


It be hard for me to put up all of the photos. Check out my videos that I made throughout the season here for more goodies..
http://www.vimeo.com/user605148

Loving Life

Working nights has enabled me to get out during the day and take advantage of the Wasatch...a lot. Depriving myself of a vertical world this summer/fall immediately got me jonesing for ice, no matter how cold it was. And let me tell you, it was cold when I first arrived in the beginning of December. With an actual temperature of near zero, I got bit and slapped around by the mountain. Wearing skimpy clothes for ice climbing doesn't help much either. Why would someone do this?! To feel more alive!


(Almost off the Great White Icicle WI3, 4 pitches)

This year I've been focusing more on leaving the safety net of ski resorts and venturing in the backcountry. It's allowed me to have a much more intimate connection with the mountain, where I spend 3 hours or so of "skinning" to ski a single line. The rewards have kept me grinning from ear to ear. So far, the outings have mostly been grabbing some low hanging fruit by meadow skipping. Hopefully the snowpack will become stable so I can knock off a few lines on my tick list.


(Jeff skiing "100 Turns", near Tom's Hill in Big Cottonwood Canyon)


(Seth making beautiful turns off of Wolverine Peak)


(Me on top of Toledo, LCC)

I'm still drawn to the resort when the days are super deep. Enjoy some point of view video the week it snowed over 7 feet of snow.