Surrounded by Madmen

The trip to the Eisman hut was interesting. Tiring, smile inducing, whiskey sluggin, powder sloughing and interesting. The hut was perched at 11,180ft above sea level and 9.5mi from the Redsandstone Creek trailhead. Now with snowmobiles we were able to get within 1/2mi of the hut and the hike was short but intense, hiking through powder with a loaded pack is less than fun.

The weather was amazing, bright blue skies and snow capped peaks as far as the eye can see. But with Temps hovering above the 40's the area was primed for avalanches. We could already see a few natural slides had broken off by the time we got to the hut just after 10 in the am. We decided to stick to the Northeast facing faces to avoid any slides, natural or skier triggered. Got some great turns in and built a few jumps just playing around in our winterwonderland.

When we got back to the hut we met a few other skiers and boards touring in the BC, we also met 3 guys who got caught in an avy that day, all 3 guys were buried or partially buried and one guy was 9ft deep in a tree well. I am glad they survived but man were they in the wrong area. I am not the most experienced but even I know better than to go near where they were. I understand the desire to get out and schralp the untracked pow pow but its not worth risking life and limb when there is pow in much safer areas...

http://avalanche.state.co.us/pub/accidents_co.php?accident=20090116

Week 2 Phase II

After another great weekend Hiking and skiing powder its time to get back to the grind of working in a cubicle and getting back to running. I haven't done any snowshoe training yet and since there is still some snow on the ground today will be the day, a 5k on snowshoes for time. Yesterday was shoulders and core in the gym with a 18k of biking before and after.

Eismann hut this weekend, stoked for this trip gonna be a lot of trudging around with huge packs on but the snow should be bottomless and the whiskey flowin'.

A season like no other

This year has seen a ton of snow dropped on the Rocky Mountains, especially in December, yet to the dismay of many this happens to have fallen on a fairly unstable base layer and with temps staying below freezing the snowpack has not had much chance to bind together causing large slides that have resulted in 18 fatalities already this season and numerous inbounds avalanches at many big name resorts.

This is a just a reminder for myself and anyone else out there that being prepared and having the correct safety equipment, as well as knowing how to use it, is the only way to cut down the risk of injury or death while out enjoying the sport we love so much.

I have spent the last few weekends in the BC and will be going out on Vail Pass again this weekend to search for those safe, steep stashes left from all the snow we are getting this week and staying away from the steep open faces that are prone to sliding no matter how inviting they look.

On a training note I have been biking all week and will be doing bike delivery tonight, last time I covered 50mi in 10hrs probably won't be as busy tonight but still a good training routine all the same.

Be safe!

Vail Pass and begin Phase II

9 of the past 17 days have been spent skiing or hiking but mostly both with only one day just hiking and two just skiing, I have been taking bike rides on the off days with not much running(ED. slacker...) I don't have a pair of skins yet so the hiking has been the base training that is equivalent to skinning up a mountain.


More training updates and recaps of previous adventures to come.

Cherry Cherry Pow Pow

3 of the past 4 days have been spent surfing the frozen curl as I like to call it. Thursday was 2'+ at Beaver Creek, Saturday was Copper with some EC friends, mostly in the trees searching for the goods and Sunday was spent at A-basin. With the pass being closed for Haz-Mat cleanup everyone was at Keystone and when we got to the Basin there was hardly anyone there, we spent the day mostly in the land of the giants avoiding rocks and jumping off the unavoidable ones. Registration is open and today marks the start of week 3 of the 12 week high-intensity part of the 25 week training program.

Avalanche Death Shocks the Ski Community

After the latest series of storms pounded the West, the ski community was hit with tragedy on Sunday when two people died in separate avalanches: Heather Gross, a 27-year-old grad student at the University of Utah, was buried while skiing High Baldy at Snowbird, Utah; and Cory Brettman, a 52-year-old father and former ski patrolman at Aspen, was killed in a slide just out of bounds at Aspen Mountain, Colorado. The deaths were a sobering reminder that the euphoria of skiing deep powder can quickly turn to tragedy—and that such accidents can happen to anyone at anytime. The following account was sent to Powder.com from Jake Kirshner, a friend of Heather Gross. The report was first posted on Jakecast.com.

Every time I read a story about a skier who has died doing what they love it makes me think about what I'm doing everyday and with my life. Today, like yesterday and tomorrow will be spent in a cubicle with some biking and running to look forward to at the end of the day, when all is said and done is this what I always wanted?

Heather Gross was a grad student working towards loftier goals than harvesting fresh pow lines everyday but when she got the chance to do it she went. And she died doing presumably what she loved, if you got hit by a truck on the way home did you die doing what you loved? Did you at least take the risks inherent in going for it all? They say the only people who have found the edge are those who have crossed it, well there is a reason so many go looking for it, and tomorrow when i tell my boss I am 'working from home' I will double check my avy safety equipment, take a moment to appreciate where I am and who I'm with and go searching for the ever elusive 'edge'.

Back in the saddle

Got back on the tele skis for the first time since surgery and they felt good, got 2 days in this past weekend for #4 on the season. Prett weak start to the season snow wise but we got around 2ft over the weekend with more coming this week. Training kicks into high gear next week and now with my nutrion plan in place I am set to attack.

I only got an hour of biking and about 5 miles of running over the last week and half, traveling to Charlotte for Thanksgiving can do that to ya. So far this week its been biking and weights, a nice long run will come tomorrow morning.

The final pieces to the Frankenbike will be arriving Thursday and I will have everything ready to go before then. A quick breakdown of what went into the Frankenbike:

17.5" Gary Fisher Marlin Frame
80mm Rox Shox Judy TT front fork
Race Face Evolve XC X-type crankset w/ external BB
Shimano Dual Control BRK/SHFT levers
Avid BB7 front disc brake
Avid BB5 rear disc brake
XT front deraileur
LX rear deraileur
SRAM 990 9SPD rear cassette
SRAM PC-971 chain
Rhynelite disc rims
Panaracer 2.1 tires
Oury grips
Handle bar and riser off Jamis Dakar XC sport

This project has taken a while to come to fruitition by once I get my first test ride in this weekend I will know a lot more about what goes into a sweet bike build and whether I was succesful or not.

End of the week training wrap on Friday.