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.

Leaving the East Coast

The snow is my compass once again and it points West come December. After taking care of some unfinished work regarding my MS degree, I took off for the south. I made it to Knoxville, TN after the 1st day of driving. Pat was able to play host to me which I was real appreciative of. It was a short, but great visit. Next day I was bound for Starkville, MS. This is where Delores lives! I took her, and our friends Natalie and Emmet climbing over in Alabama. I think for all of them it was their first time climbing outdoors. They were super pumped! Here are some pictures of them climbing.




Since the snowfall has been a bit tardy showing up in the Wasatch, my starting date of work got pushed back until the 10th. That means I didn't have to rush out of the south and head for Utah. So, I spent a week down there getting to know the area more, which was a real treat.





Before I knew it I was on the road again, Utah bound. I had my first stop in Kansas City, and then Denver. I went up to Wyoming to bypass the roads in western Colorado. Up in Wyoming, it was -10F actual temperature. A big shock compared to climbing around in T-shirts and shorts just a few days ago in Alabama.

The weather forecast for the Wasatch is looking real good for skiers. It snowed a couple inches down in the valley last night (so more up in the mtns.), with 10 inches expected tomorrow and another system moving in next weekend. Looks like I didn't miss anything this past November out here!

More pics from the road trip are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/Kyle.Walcott84/RoadTripDec09#

Inside Outside

So counterintuitive. Inside reading about the outdoors. On the 20th I graduate and go to the school of mountains. This is exciting news. Lets see and in other news, I am doing a big candy cane drive of the country. I've never been south of Maryland so this will all be new to me and I couldn't be more grateful! I think I'm exactly where I'm suppose to be in life and I couldn't be more happier.

I'm also anticipatory about a couple of things. Less than 2 weeks from now I'll be seeing Natalie, a girl who I worked with this past summer and one of her good friends, Delores! The plan is to go caving, camping and climbing! In Mississippi!! Whoohoo for a new state!
The other thing on my mind is skiing. I just love skiing. I am so excited about this season coming up! I got distracted by old footage I've had on my computer. I heard that a guy who I skied with is coming back to Utah this season. He's been living down in Bolivia, guiding some mountain biking tours on some pretty crazy shit. So this video is a tribute to him.

ok. time to be more present. Concentrate on reading about the outdoors...

Snow sliding with Jason from Kyle Walcott on Vimeo.

Summer/Fall Work

Here is a video I made from the job I had up in northern vt. It was a pretty great job and I'm glad I got to spend so much time in the woods and working. New York for a couple of weeks, then back out to Utah.

Mansfield Movie from Kyle Walcott on Vimeo.

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